United Airlines is following Delta’s lead, in terms of instituting a revenue based system on mileage accrual. Up until now, you got miles based on the distance flown. As of March 2015 though, it will be based on the amount of money you paid for the ticket.

Starting March of 2015, regular base members will earn 5 miles per dollar paid. Silvers members will earn 7, Gold members will earn 8, Platinum members will earn 9, and 1K members will earn 11. There is a cap of 75k miles one can earn per ticket.
Miles will be earned on the base fare plus carrier-imposed surcharges. Miles will not be earned on the taxes portion of the ticket.

These changes will affect flights flown on United Airlines, United Express or partner tickets issued by United Airlines and which are credited to United’s frequent flyer program.

These changes will not effect tickets which are bought on Star Alliance or partner airlines (other than United) and the mileage is credited to United Airlines. Miles accrual on those tickets will continue to be distance-based.

Elite status will continue to be earned on distance flown and not price paid.

No matter how United would like to spin this, this is not a good change for most United members. The only ones who will gain from this change are business class travelers who are paying lots of $$ for tickets – Though in that case it’ll be more worthwhile to just redeem miles.

Once this change kicks in, American Airlines will be the last remaining domestic airline which still rewards miles based on distance flown.  Will American Airlines follow suit and go revenue based?

Via Reuters “American Airlines Group said it would first seek to combine the American and US Airways loyalty programs after its merger last year. “We are always watching the competitive environment and we’ll make sure AAdvantage is positioned as an industry-leading loyalty program,” spokesman Matt Miller said.” 

One thing is for certain, in the unlikely event that AA chooses to keep their mileage program as is, they will undouebtly get many new frequent flyer members.

In terms of redemption changes – United announced that there will also be “new ways” to use your miles, including Economy Plus upgrades, Checked baggage subscriptions and “more on the way”. While these new redemption options will most likely not be at a decent redemption value (though we’ll have to wait and see as no details were given) one really has to wonder, being as the wording is extremely vague, if their ultimate goal is to go revenue based on the redemption side as well, as Delta already has – which will not be fun.

Bottom line: As of now, this is not the worst devaluation and the upcoming changes will for the most part only effect those who earn miles from flying, and not for those earning miles from credit cards. Though this is coming on the heels of United’s massive frequent flyer devaluation back in March, and one has to wonder what else United has up their sleeves…

— Jeri