United Upends Loyalty Program to Prioritize Dollars Over Miles

Grant Martin

October 11th, 2019 at 8:45 PM EDT

Photo Credit: A United Airlines jet. United Airlines

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United's MileagePlus program is changing dramatically in 2020 to focus more on high-spend rather than high-mileage travelers. Translation: It's getting harder for frugal flyers to be elite.

A new era of airline loyalty programs has arrived. United Airlines announced this week that the criteria for elite qualification in its MileagePlus loyalty program would change dramatically next year. Starting in January of 2020, United's loyalty members will earn elite status based on Premier Qualifying Flights and Premier Qualifying Segments only. Flight miles, the traditional metric by which frequent flyers used to earn status, are no longer going to be considered. It wasn't too long ago that frequent flyers on American, Delta, and United earned elite status based solely on how far they fly. If a passenger flew 100,000 mil

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United Upends Loyalty Program to Prioritize Dollars Over Miles

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