US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Will Double Elite Miles Dilute Elite Levels?

So, from the sounds of it, the double miles counting for status miles promo is going to add a significant number of folk to elite levels. Does anyone think this is going to devalue elite status, especially with more and more people competing for those precious upgrades?

I guess I'm probably particularily paranoid since I'm here in Europe until the 23rd of May, so I can't take advantage of the promo at all. :-( Of course, I'll have about 9000 flight miles between the 23rd of May and the end of May...after the promo ends. GRR!!

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I agree. I think both Preferred Silver and Gold will be somewhat diluted. I'm hoping that the jump from Gold to Chairman's is still tough to make, even with the extra push of double miles <grin>

I doubt it will matter.

The bonus is only open for 6 weeks as I recall. Also, US has very few elite travelers, compared with UA or AA, or even DL, especially since US does not have significant alliance partners for purpose of sharing upgradable seats, and it is a smaller carrier.


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TFNF,

I assume you signed up for silver to gold program. <g> Hopefully, gold won't get too diluted. If you fly 12,500 miles (or 16 segments) with US from 3/1 through 5/31 and are Silver, US will upgrade you to Gold thru 2/28/2001. You do have to register with them.

Hopefully, you will be able to qualify with your late May travel. (I see a mileage run in my near future)

[This message has been edited by BillMorrow (edited 04-17-2000).]

Chairman's has already grown significantly, witness more and more calls being answered by overflow agents(you can tell, when they tell you your number didn't display). The other night alone, on a flight from PIT to BUF, I spotted two other people with Chairman's tags on their briefcases. I believe most of the growth has come from segment qualification, which of course isn't affected by this program. In my case, where much of my flying is long haul, it's been a bonanza. I will requalify for Chairman's in May, with nearly 40,000 miles accrued during the promotion window. The real negative from all this is, rather than appear to cut back on benefits, they will just continue to hold back more upgrade inventory. The lower elite levels will really feel that.

The promo will not dilute the program - IMO. US has a conservative policy - not nearly as many mileage earning extras as AA-UA-DL, its those promo's that dilute a program, all those miles for no flying. I'm Silver and have done real well on getting upgrades - one of the big complaints on the UA thread is lower level elites not getting upgrades. This is actually a main reason I chose US over UA.

MG

I don't believe it'll dilute the number of elites for the most part. As noted by JGill, the bonus was for a limited period. Assuming not much flying from the non-elites, to get Silver would mean taking a flight out to the West Coast and a flight to Europe, plus possibly one other domestic flight to get the 25k required for Silver (which'll be easy to do - if you have the time)(but there is the Silver challenge - just hope folks don't register for it). While there have been e-savers for the transcon flights (I think the week the promotion was announced) - there aren't any for the int'l routes. Of course, there is the ongoing fare sale.

Of course, there are those of us who'll make the mileage runs to the left coast to get to Gold from Silver with the challenge (and remember, it's only flight miles, not bonus for the challenge). http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Yes, I'm hedging my bets - but I think dg1 is on point in that it'll be very hard to make the jump to CP. Unless, you make a few round trips to Europe in Envoy - or more round trips in Coach. And there are many of us on FT who'll probably do what they can to get elite in Div Miles.

But unless the potential new elites had a lot of flights in a short time span, I think it'll be tough to qualify unless you're really trying.



[This message has been edited by CLTFlyer (edited 04-18-2000).]

what is the challenge some of you are speaking about? is this similar to the aa challenge?

i would also like to think that the double mileage program will not dilute the ranks too greatly. i, being one of the cannibals who has not flown us for 4 years prior to this offer, was shocked to see the limited amount of coverage us has in the western us. why anyone would want them unless they had frequent business in phl, clt or pit from the west would be beyond me. as for east coasters like myself, to really take advantage of this you would have to fly at least to the left coast once, or do more than one trip to europe to earn a whole lot of miles quickly.

needless to say, i'm doing both http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

It isn't like the AA challenge at all (of course, if one buys the other, you never know ... off topic here - but it's interesting that at EWR, US vacated (or was forced to) its satellite in Terminal A - which the gates went to Continental and Air Canada. Guess whose satellite in A they moved to (not a rhetorical question) - American's. And since they gave up the US Airways Club there, you're able to use the AA Admirals' Club past security on their new home satellite. the integration moves on. Quietly ... gently ... kind of like Invasion of the Body Snatchers when you think about it.)

Periodically, US targets those who may have been Gold the year before, and didn't requalify at that level, and sends them a mailer telling them that if they fly 12,500 miles or 16 segments between a certain period, they get back to that elite level. Or, towards the 4th quarter of the year, if you've flown x number of mile, they'll tell you that all you need to do is fly x miles between certain dates to automatically qualify for Silver without having to fly all 25 k miles. There is also a Silver challenge - fly 7,500 miles (don't recall segment #s) within certain amount of time - and get Silver. Again, may be for former Silvers.

There are probably other targeted opportunities, others may be able to elaborate.

What we've been all talking about is that for some Div Miles folks, there is currently a Gold challenge, telling them that from 3/31 to 5/31, that if they fly 12,500 mi. or 16 segments, they'll qualify for Gold.

Normally, that is a targeted promotion, and unlike AA's challenge - you just can't sign up for it. Some of us have had varying degrees of success in getting put into the hopper for the challenge. It sometimes depends on the DM rep involved (for a good bit more on this (and maybe a more coherent explanaion - must stop posting after more than a few beers) see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum51/HTML/000222.html

Am I missing anything folks?

CLTFlyer,

You are doing fine.

I would only add one thing. Because this promotion is pushing some of us (read me) to fly some extra miles to make the 'gold promotion' during the 'post almost-strike' double staus miles promotion, there is a very good chance that I will make gold this year and retain gold for next year!

That's quite a jump for someone who rarely flys for business and barely squeaked into silver for this year.

My apologies - I erred on the current challenge dates. It's 3/1/00 through 5/31/00.

Bill - congrats on getting very close to and likely qualifying for Gold - you're right that this promotion does offer some interesting opportunities if you have time to take advantage of 'em (like say dg1's mileage run to FRA - or is it someone else's).

[This message has been edited by CLTFlyer (edited 04-20-2000).]

dg1 requalifies for Chairman's Preferred (lucky bugger) with segments, not miles, if I'm not mistaken. I was going to do a mile run to FRA but had to bail because a distant cousin is getting married and I need to be there. I am Gold this year but wanted to cement it for next year as well. Gee, doesn't my cousin know that this double miles promo is far more important to me than drinking lemonade and wine with a bunch of dusty old relatives. Gosh, the nerve of some people... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Yes I'm a segmenter -- miles don't matter to me (how often do you hear that on this bulletin board!) I have a running chart on my bulletin board where I track both my wife and my segments; I aim for an average of 8 a month for me, 5 a month for my wife.

I want to go to FRA because there's N/S service from PIT, and because we will have eight one-way international upgrades.. Four to get my wife and I back and forth to LGW on the new N/S service (yeah!) and four more to go to FRA (e-saver!) since I was just recently in CDG, the other N/S destination. Next year it's FCO http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

FYI, like others on this bb, I just called the Silver Preferred desk for my wife and asked to be signed up for the Gold Challenge. The rep did it without any arguing, and I called back later and another rep confirmed she was signed up. I believe due to the almost-strike they are allow more people into the promotion to get business back...