The news that United is moving to a revenue-based frequent flyer program in 2015 smacked the front page news for the Miles & Points community yesterday.

 

I don't care and here's why:

I rarely pay for flights and I don't earn miles by flying. So, I really don't care if United changes to a revenue based frequent flyer program.  Here's all the miles I will probably earn this year due to one business trip, everything else will be purchased using rewards:

I fly free on United mainly by:

1. transferring miles from credit card bonuses (thanks to Chase Ink, Sapphire, United Exporer cards) (read an intro to small biz cards here)
2. transferring Amex points to a Star Alliance airlines (thanks Amex, ANA, Air Canada, Iberia, Singapore etc) (www.membershiprewards.com)
3. getting credit card bonuses for Star Alliance Airlines (Frontier)

This just makes those cards that allow transfers to United more valuable – for example the Chase Ink cards or the Chase United Explorer.  
The Chase Ink cards usually offer 50k and just recently ended a 60k offer and we will probably need to wait until 2015 to see it again.  In fact, the 60k sign up bonus went towards paying for my Maldives/Asia honeymoon.  I keep a fresh monthly list of the best sign up offers here for your reference.

 

All the details… analyzed

This was big news and many bloggers analyzed all the specifics if you want to read it.  Here are few of my favorites:

• View from the Wing: United Just Destroyed Its Frequent Flyer Program as a Way of Rewarding Travel on United
• One Mile at a Time: United MileagePlus Program Revenue Based Program Details
• Mile Value: United MileagePlus Earning Will Be Revenue-Based in 2015
• Wandering Aramean: So, about United’s new spend-based earning rates…
• MommyPoints: United Going Revenue Based on Mileage Earning and Will You Dump United?
• Running with miles: The United Devaluation Equalizer

 

 

What do you think? Do these changes bother you?