I don't know if this has been discussed before.

As most of you know; for US Silver & Gold, US Airways sends out these upgrade certificates upon flying 10,000 miles (4 for silver, 8 for gold with 2 extra at each 20,000 miles).

The 'mileage clock' resets for these each year on 3/1. If you have 9999 miles on 2/28, you will start again at '0' on 3/1. It's something to consider for any potential mileage runs in February.

Sorry Bill Morrow,
but the mileage clock resets for that count as it does for the status miles at the beginning of the year meaning 1/1.
That is at least how my upgrades were calculated on the 50.000 level now being called Gold Preferred.
For the first 10.000 miles in a calendar year I get 8 upgrades for the second 20.000 you get 10 and so on. Only difference this year the double status miles we got after the Get us back after the near strike promotion are not counting for upgrades.
eurousair

Actually, the information that I posted was given to me by the Gold DM desk last week. I was curious about it as we are approaching the end of the year.

I am planning a short mileage run to capture a 10K online booking bonus. I wanted to make sure that I was maximizing my opportunities for upgrade certificates also. I do pay for them when I run out and the chance to get a 8-10 upgrades for free is a definite money saver.

That being said, someone might want to call the DM center and ask again. I could have gotten someone who wasn't totally up to speed with the program.

They told me earlier this year - when I questioned why I hadn't yet received any coupons - that the clock begins on 3/1.

Can someone clear this up?

Does the clock start over on 1/1 or 3/1? Does that mean that if I am approching the next 10,000 mile level at this time, my "counter" gets reset to 0? Is there any leeway given (i.e. if I have 9,500 miles, do they count be as having 10,000 miles for upgrade rewards)? Somewhere I had read they sort of "prorate" the upgrades at end of the "upgrade year".

I would guess if I have only a few hundered miles to get upgrades, I may try a cheap mileage run to go over the top.

Spoke to a GP agent today. She told me the Q miles counter for status resets 1 January and Q-miles counter for benefits including upgrade accrual resets on 1 March.

Originally posted by terenz:
...upgrade accrual resets on 1 March.


terenz is correct. I wondered why I received 8 upgrades in early March this year (before flying 10k miles for calendar year 2000) and the GP agent said the same thing: status miles for elite qualify are reset at 1/1 but upgrade earning is until 3/1.

I called the Gold DM desk today and they confirmed my earlier post.

The clock for NA upgrade certificates resets on 3/1. If you have accumulated 9,999 miles on 2/28, you are S-O-L!

As I mentioned earlier, keep this in mind for those February mileage runs.

I called the Gold DM desk today and they confirmed my earlier post.

The clock for NA upgrade certificates resets on 3/1. If you have accumulated 9,999 miles on 2/28, you are S-O-L!

As I mentioned earlier, keep this in mind for those February mileage runs.

Thanks all. I will check my miles in mid Jan and calculate where I will be at 2/28. Then try to get some extra flights IF I will be close to the upgrade mileage level.

This does seem like a raw deal. Why not just keep that counter going? Or at least prorate the upgrades for % to 10K miles at 2/28. I can imagine some teed-off folks who got reset to 0 with 9,000 miles at 2/28.