I'll disagree that the perks are almost useless. But they can be a bit subtle. In comparison to people's typical experience flying, as a United 1K:
When I call the 800 number, a real human being picks up right away and helps me.
If I'd like to catch an earlier or later flight, if it's within 24 hours, I can usually make the change with no charge. I use this perk dozens of times a year, and it even enables me to book cheaper flights because I'll usually be able to make adjustments on the day of travel.
If I end up on the standby list, I'm put at the top (because it goes in order of highest status before first come first served).
If I use miles to book a flight, I can cancel or change the flight at any time. This lets me speculatively book a vacation flight to Maui months ahead of time when availability is good, even if I'm not sure I'll be free then.
My entire family gets free bags and free extra legroom seats when they travel with me.
I get to sit in fancy lounges when traveling overseas.
And the first class upgrades are a nice bonus.
Arguably, United is intentionally providing a lower class of service to those that haven't reached your level. It's all relative - but you're not getting "good"; you're getting "not bad."
Actually, that is a popular misconception. Airlines have been highly profitable for the past few years. It is directly related to the degraded consumer experience. More capacity discipline and new ancillary fees have really boosted margins. Also, the cost of fuel has plummeted.
United's average quarterly profit margin over the last 5 years is 4.37%.They've dipped into quarterly losses three times during that period. They're not "highly profitable"--they're just not losing money for once.
I don't know, I'm BA gold and I've honestly seen the quality of service go way down as my status rose.
You can't make free changes anymore, their new point redeem costs are too high, I only got an INVOL upgrade once and honestly haven't had one single flight experience with them that warranted handing my golden ticket to a crew member in the last year.
In fact, just a few months ago we were neglected pretty badly in their flagship A380 LHR-MIA in club world (business).
The lounges are still pretty good, plus I get to go to the Japan Airlines lounges in some airports, those toilets are a palace.
When I call the 800 number, a real human being picks up right away and helps me. If I'd like to catch an earlier or later flight, if it's within 24 hours, I can usually make the change with no charge. I use this perk dozens of times a year, and it even enables me to book cheaper flights because I'll usually be able to make adjustments on the day of travel. If I end up on the standby list, I'm put at the top (because it goes in order of highest status before first come first served). If I use miles to book a flight, I can cancel or change the flight at any time. This lets me speculatively book a vacation flight to Maui months ahead of time when availability is good, even if I'm not sure I'll be free then. My entire family gets free bags and free extra legroom seats when they travel with me. I get to sit in fancy lounges when traveling overseas. And the first class upgrades are a nice bonus.