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-flier 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—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 and 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 fewer miles in United Polaris business class.

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The changes are designed to showcase the value of being a cardholder and to reward these MileagePlus members, Jill Doyle, managing director of the MileagePlus program, tells Fast Company. “It’s just a way to double down on the members that are willing to go a little deeper with us.”

“STRAIGHT-UP INSULT”

United claims the forthcoming changes to its frequent-flier program will offer cardholders “some of the richest rewards among airline or travel credit card programs.” But United frequent fliers who don’t have a card will likely view the changes as a considerable downgrade—because they’ll soon earn fewer miles 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.

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