Further erosion of frequent flyer rights (UAL)

United has decided to remove the 500 mile minimum for mileage and elite qualification mileage. This means that only actual mileage will be accrued. AA also has the same rule, probably for longer that UA. This will be interesting to see whether my favorite airline, Delta, decides to follow suit. It will actually be difficult for them to do so, since UA and AA both use miles or segments for elite qualification. Delta got rid of segment qualification when they introduced MQM, and if they try to follow UAL's lead, there will be a lot of very unhappy campers, who used to make elite status on short flights, that will now miss that privilege.