United has revamped its Milage Plus frequent flyer program to severely shortchange its silver and gold (1P and 2P) elite members. For silver members, free bags go down from two to one (most other US based airlines give silver elites two free bags) and made E+ and biz class upgrades much less likely. For gold members, UA will now only give a 50% milage bonus compared to the 100% given now and the 100% still given by American and Delta. Gold and silver level frequent flyers are much better off switching to American or Delta. In terms of rewards, for a Trans-Atlantic redemption in off season or shoulder season, it is 60K miles on UA but only 40K on AA. Both are 60K in summer. On this flight, my reserved seats kept getting cancelled, beginning three times online. Even when they were put into the system again on check-in at the airport, they disappeared again by the time I got to the gate. I have never seen this level of incompetence. I finally only got a decent seat back because someone failed to show up at the last minute.