I flew last Friday and that flight brought me over 500,000 miles on United Airlines.
Up until a few years ago, I didn’t have any brand loyalty with an airline, but I decided to focus on getting frequent flyer status with one and United made the most sense for the routes I was flying.
I am in my third year with Premier 1K status on United, which is their highest tier that is publicly accessible. United also has a level called Global Services that has high, mystery requirements. I flew over 150,000 miles last year and I wasn’t eligible for that one.
But with the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak around the world, I expect that my travel will be less than usual this year, and that puts my future status at risk.
Clearly, I wasn’t the only one thinking about that, because United sent out an email on March 7, 2020, that began…
As a MileagePlus Premier® member, you are one of our most loyal customers, and I wanted to reach out to you personally to share the steps we are taking in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, including how it pertains to your Premier status.
That had me optimistic that they were going to relax the requirements, but no…
At this time, we are not planning any changes for our 2021 Premier program but we will continue to evaluate our options as we learn more about how the current climate is affecting members’ activity.
I would have preferred that they didn’t say anything.