Why some United flyers will suddenly earn less for the same flights

You may be loyal to United, but the airline really wants you to show your loyalty by carrying around a United MileagePlus credit card or debit card.

Chicago-based United Airlines announced a major overhaul to its frequent flyer program on Thursday, with better benefits arriving soon for its cardholders. While the airline cheerily billed the changes as giving travelers “new reasons” to have one of its credit or debit cards, the changes mean that non-cardholders will soon accrue fewer rewards than they currently do.

The biggest change is that starting on April 2, United MileagePlus cardholders can earn up to four times more miles on travel booked with the airline than non-cardholders—and even if the flight wasn’t booked with that card. That provision ensures that cardholders, which United deems its “most loyal members,” still reap more rewards for travel, even if they have to book with a different credit card.

As the airline lays out in detail, the changes mean that different tiers of membership status or different cardholders will accrue different rewards for travel. But other changes are also designed to benefit cardholders, including a discount of 10% or 15% on airfare and access to a benefit once reserved to the highest-status members: “Saver Award” seats for less miles in United Polaris business class.

“MileagePlus is designed to reward loyalty to United, and our best customers deserve the best benefits in the industry,” Andrew Nocella, United’s chief commercial officer said in a statement. “MileagePlus members can now earn more miles faster with a United card—and every one of those miles will go further with our always-on award ticket discounts and expanded access to Saver Award fares.”

‘STRAIGHT UP INSULT’

United claims the forthcoming changes to its frequent flyer program will offer cardholders “some of the richest rewards among airline or travel credit card programs.” But United frequent flyers who don’t have a card will likely view the changes as a considerable downgrade because they’ll soon earn less on a ticket than they do today. 

A standard MileagePlus member without status or a credit card currently earns 5 miles per dollar on travel, which will be cut to 3 miles per dollar starting April 2. Cardholders, meanwhile, will earn 6 miles per dollar. Another significant blow to non-cardholders who don’t have elite status is that they’ll no longer earn miles by booking the airline’s basic economy fares.

Not only is the scaling back of benefits frustrating to some United flyers, but also how much the airline is pushing its line of credit cards co-branded with JPMorgan Chase. 

Several Redditors on the r/unitedairlines subreddit lamented that the changes will hurt United frequent flyers who aren’t U.S. citizens and can’t—or don’t want to—get a credit card, with one calling it a “straight up insult.” Several people also noted that the changes seem to indicate that United cares more about its banking relationship with Chase than flying, with one person saying the airline has “essentially” become a subsidiary of the bank.

Finally, one Redditor who said they’ve achieved both “gold” and “platinum” status levels with the airline purely based on “butt-in-seat miles” and flights, declared: “There goes the last of my United loyalty.”

CHANGES TO AIRLINE PROGRAMS

The travel reward space has become big business in recent years, as credit card companies and airlines individually and collectively try to up the ante to lure customers. But these companies must balance the perks they offer in pursuit of the biggest spenders versus those they dole out to the hoi polloi.

Since airlines started teaming up with banks to offer co-branded credit cards, they’ve reserved their best rewards for cardholders. United’s latest move goes beyond the changes that other airlines have made to their frequent flyer programs in recent months—and could test the limits on loyalty.

United follows competitors Delta Air Lines and American Airlines in stripping the reward benefits for basic economy travel, after those airlines announced the same change in December. Delta also announced increased rewards for people who have one of its credit cards that are co-branded with American Express.

Last year, United raised the spending requirements to achieve its premier frequent flyer status. The latest changes to the MileagePlus program have been in the works for about 18 months and are in response to a changing landscape for travel credit cards, as Nocella told CNBC. The company didn’t immediately respond to an interview request from Fast Company.

“In the credit card space in general, a lot’s changed over the last five to 10 years in terms of the number of travel credit cards that are out there,” Nocella said. “What I’m thinking about as we make these changes for United is to make sure that if you hold the credit card, you put it top of wallet, and then if you don’t hold the credit card, there’s a reason to get the credit card that seems incredibly compelling if you’d like to fly United Airlines and if you’d like to have that … trip to Tahiti or to Rome or wherever we may be able to take you.”

WILL TRAVELERS BE ONBOARD FOR CHANGES?

The rewards space has been a bonanza for savvy customers in recent decades, but those freebies come with more and more strings attached. While many companies have opted for the subscription model, leading to subscription fatigue, United may find that there’s some pushback in so aggressively tying its sense of loyalty to what credit cards flyers carry in their wallets

It’s also happening at a time when Americans are increasingly stretched thin financially.

Americans had $1.28 trillion outstanding in credit card balances in the fourth quarter, up 5.5% from the same period in 2024, according to figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Meanwhile, 29% of Americans have more credit card debt than emergency savings and less than half (47%) of Americans have sufficient liquidity to cover a $1,000 emergency expense, according to an annual survey conducted by Bankrate.

And the changes to the MileagePlus Program weren’t embraced by investors in the stock market. As of late Thursday, United shares fell nearly 6%. 

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