I called CP desk (well, what's left of it) and didn't get an answer. I emailed twice and got no answer. I'm a CP that qualified for gold+ and was hoping for bump/soft landing to platinum. My status for 2012 will force a lot of decisions for me -- several trips planned in March-May plus considering joining the club. If I'm gold and can't buy up for a reasonable price, I'm going to switch everything to Continental/United. If I'm platinum... then I'm sticking with US. But I need an answer now, not in 3 weeks, and I haven't received anything from US. Ideas?
Superguy
Feb 15, 12, 8:01 am
I wouldn't count on a soft landing. I'll tell you one thing - UA won't do it. I fell from 1K to Premier. I know of folks who fell all the way from 1K to GM.
I'd take whatever your PQMs were for last year, and plan on that. Then decide if it's worth the buy up from there.
You may get a challenge out of UA, but I don't know that they will coming from US as alliance carriers try not to poach from each other.
One thing I can tell you - the grass isn't any greener on the UA side. There are a lot of unhappy people with the changes coming to MP in a couple weeks. Upgrades will be significantly harder to nonexistent for anything less than a platinum. If you don't get any sort of challenge, the first 50k on UA will really suck. E+ will be tough for Premiers/Silvers if you have to go thru that - especially out of IAD.
UA may be a better choice depending on your patterns, but I wouldn't count on it being a bed of roses, especially since CO pretty much took it over.
It will check your status for next year and offer the buy up available to you. It might not take into account any upgrade you might get from marketing. But if it says you can only buy up to Chairman and not Platinum that might be a good indicator.
It will check your status for next year and offer the buy up available to you. It might not take into account any upgrade you might get from marketing. But if it says you can only buy up to Chairman and not Platinum that might be a good indicator.
It will check your status for next year and offer the buy up available to you. It might not take into account any upgrade you might get from marketing. But if it says you can only buy up to Chairman and not Platinum that might be a good indicator.
This only works if you haven't been downgraded. It only lets me buy up to CP but that's because I am CP. Even if I call they won't let me buy Platinum until March 1, 2012 when I am downgraded.
thomwithanh
Feb 15, 12, 9:49 am
You may get a challenge out of UA, but I don't know that they will coming from US as alliance carriers try not to poach from each other.
From the official MileagePlus Premier Status Match Challenge:
Customers who hold Star Alliance Silver or Gold status are excluded from this offer
Still there's no harm in trying - send a list of your travel plans on United and convince them you're going all in and maybe MP will bend the rules.
thomwithanh
Feb 15, 12, 9:55 am
One thing I can tell you - the grass isn't any greener on the UA side.... Upgrades will be significantly harder to nonexistent for anything less than a platinum.
From what I've gathered post merger it looks like even 1K's are having a difficult time getting upgrades now with tens of dollars upgrades and SWU's being prioritized ahead of them.
At the other end, now Silvers can't even be added to the upgrade list until they're at the gate (not check in, not online, not T-24). In the past it seemed Premiers did occasionally get an upgrade, maybe once or twice a year if they happened to be on a near empty flight. Now it looks all but impossible. When the upgrade standby list is five pages long and the first two pages are 1K's why even bother keeping UDU's as a Silver benefit, or a Gold one for that matter?
Superguy
Feb 15, 12, 11:11 am
From what I've gathered post merger it looks like even 1K's are having a difficult time getting upgrades now with tens of dollars upgrades and SWU's being prioritized ahead of them.
At the other end, now Silvers can't even be added to the upgrade list until they're at the gate (not check in, not online, not T-24). In the past it seemed Premiers did occasionally get an upgrade, maybe once or twice a year if they happened to be on a near empty flight. Now it looks all but impossible. When the upgrade standby list is five pages long and the first two pages are 1K's why even bother keeping UDU's as a Silver benefit, or a Gold one for that matter?
Both of those are reasons why I'm here trying US now instead of sucking it up over at UA.
I at least got a few upgrades as a silver last year. Mostly on CO metal. But it still seemed like almost half of the time. Why keep the benefit? It doesn't cost UA anything. Really, it's an empty promise. It's still POSSIBLE it could happen ... just like it's possible hell can freeze over.
I didn't know about Silvers getting screwed even further that way. Big :td: to that. I can't say it surprises me though.
Funny thing my travel was picking up too. I'll have flown as much as I did all last year by early April, and that's not including the business travel I have coming April thru June currently. 2 of these trips will be in paid F. Work trips all require refundable tickets with B fares at a minimum on the international trips (may get C). Thing is, I could have easily qualified for gold, likely platinum and possibly 1K this year. However, I'm not going to suffer thru 50k of spinning the E+ wheel, especially on B or better fares, and 1 bag. To add insult to that injury, it doesn't look like UA will let the extra bag stack if you already have a CC. For the most part, you get exactly what you can get with a credit card, and you STILL have to compete with the Kettles who can buy an E+ upgrade before you.
I have yet to see why anyone under flying under 50k would be willing to put up with that.
Granted, DL doesn't give free E+/EC either to silvers, but it was never a benefit that was given to them anyway. DL still at least gives their silvers +1 bag over what the kayaker would get.
It seems like US offers the best deal to the low/mid level flyers. They're not perfect by any means, but I've been happy with my experience so far. I at least feel like my business matters somewhat and I get something in return for giving them my business.
UA used to be great if you were a 1K. I loved being a 1K there. With all the complaints at the 1K level though with upgrades, it doesn't seem worth it.
thomwithanh
Feb 15, 12, 4:57 pm
Both of those are reasons why I'm here trying US now instead of sucking it up over at UA.
I at least got a few upgrades as a silver last year. Mostly on CO metal. But it still seemed like almost half of the time. Why keep the benefit? It doesn't cost UA anything. Really, it's an empty promise. It's still POSSIBLE it could happen ... just like it's possible hell can freeze over.
I didn't know about Silvers getting screwed even further that way. Big :td: to that. I can't say it surprises me though.
Funny thing my travel was picking up too. I'll have flown as much as I did all last year by early April, and that's not including the business travel I have coming April thru June currently. 2 of these trips will be in paid F. Work trips all require refundable tickets with B fares at a minimum on the international trips (may get C). Thing is, I could have easily qualified for gold, likely platinum and possibly 1K this year. However, I'm not going to suffer thru 50k of spinning the E+ wheel, especially on B or better fares, and 1 bag. To add insult to that injury, it doesn't look like UA will let the extra bag stack if you already have a CC. For the most part, you get exactly what you can get with a credit card, and you STILL have to compete with the Kettles who can buy an E+ upgrade before you.
I have yet to see why anyone under flying under 50k would be willing to put up with that.
Granted, DL doesn't give free E+/EC either to silvers, but it was never a benefit that was given to them anyway. DL still at least gives their silvers +1 bag over what the kayaker would get.
It seems like US offers the best deal to the low/mid level flyers. They're not perfect by any means, but I've been happy with my experience so far. I at least feel like my business matters somewhat and I get something in return for giving them my business.
UA used to be great if you were a 1K. I loved being a 1K there. With all the complaints at the 1K level though with upgrades, it doesn't seem worth it.
I used to be a JetBlue fanboy. I started flying them out of Buffalo since they flew non-stop to Boston, better fares and schedules than any of the mainlines, and it reminded me of flying in the 90's - not nickled and dimed for everything, and some of the nicest airport staff I've ever dealt with. Loved the free DirecTV, DunkinDonuts coffee and real snacks.
When I moved to Binghamton I had no choice but to go back to a mainline and start paying $25 a bag again (or chancing it with the rollaboard and a swanky Zone 5 boarding pass) That or drive to an airport two hours away to fly B6.
Then I discovered trial Silver: 10 segments in 90 days? Easy - especially now I have to make a connection to get to Boston - actually I should get 20 and Gold by time this is done. I'm seriously impressed with how they're treating me as even a lowly Silver and I'm getting upgrades 50% or so. Not regretting going all in with US one bit.
Requalifying the normal way for next year shouldn't be a problem between my 1-2x monthly trips to Boston, a few transcons this summer and fall and a TATL flight in September, may be doing Australia around thanksgiving as well - oh wait, that's on a United 747 in the back :td: - would go Air New Zealand but most economy fares don't earn miles. At least the UA flight gets me 20K RDM and PQM's.
treznor
Feb 20, 12, 2:34 pm
Searched but couldn't find anything. Is there a way on the US website to see what your status will be in the new status year (i.e. after March 1)? The only thing I can find on the website is my current status (Chairman) and I know what status I -should- have qualified for next year (Gold). However, in an email US just sent out about buying your status back, it said I'd be dropping to Platinum ("You’re going to lose your Chairman's Preferred status on March 1, 2012. This means you’ll drop down to Platinum").
In the end, its not the end of the world if I don't find out until March 1, as I'll be pleasantly surprised if I was kept a level higher than I re-qualified for (if true, probably based on a couple of years in a row and a much higher travel activity in the second half of the year) but still not really expecting it.
Just trying to gauge whether the email they sent out is wrong or whether they're keeping me at the higher level.
aztimm
Feb 20, 12, 2:46 pm
I received an email this afternoon letting me know that my status will be dropping--to Plat--and to buy-up by 3/1, "to avoid any disruptions."
Now I think my PQM for 2011 was around 72k, so this was kind of a surprise. I'll probably buy-up anyway, as I enjoy having the CP certs, and that alone makes it worthwhile (plus the extra few days for auto-upgrades helps).
Biggie Fries
Feb 20, 12, 3:26 pm
I received an email this afternoon letting me know that my status will be dropping--to Plat--and to buy-up by 3/1, "to avoid any disruptions."
Now I think my PQM for 2011 was around 72k, so this was kind of a surprise. I'll probably buy-up anyway, as I enjoy having the CP certs, and that alone makes it worthwhile (plus the extra few days for auto-upgrades helps).
First, congrats on getting a soft landing (Platinum instead of Gold).
Now, I get confused as to where you are buying up from ... usually buying up is a function of miles needed. But once you are soft-landed into Platinum, how do you calculate the price? Also, isn't 1 March the first day you could do this (since you are still CP until then)?
Curious since I was just counting PQMs likely for this year and was seeing numbers closer to 70 than 90 or 100 ....
aztimm
Feb 20, 12, 4:24 pm
Here's the message I received:
Keep your unlimited upgrades, bonus miles & more
You’re going to lose your Chairman's Preferred status on March 1, 2012. This means you’ll drop down to Platinum – but it’s not too late! Now, you can buy any level of Preferred status online. Just log in to your account to see how much it'll cost.
Make sure you don’t lose all your benefits. Get them by March 1!
When I go to the, "buy up," page, it appears to want the difference between what I actually flew and 100k miles.
treznor
Feb 20, 12, 4:56 pm
I got the same message aztimm in a similar situation (see my post above). We'll see if it actually sorts out that way on March 1 or if there email was just improperly created.
thomwithanh
Feb 20, 12, 5:03 pm
Here's the message I received:
When I go to the, "buy up," page, it appears to want the difference between what I actually flew and 100k miles.
It bases the price based on your total PQM's or PQS'es from either last year or the current year (whichever works in your favor) - it has nothing to do with the status you currently hold. You were given a soft landing to Platinum, but it's correct to want the difference to 100,000 miles.
It would be the similar to if somebody on a preferred trial flew 22,500 miles in 90 days and achieved Platinum. If they wanted to subsequently buy up to Chairman's, assuming no additional PQM's had been flown in the meantime -they would pay the buy up fee for 77,500 PQM's (as opposed to 25,000). Yes the member is Platinum, but he or she only has 22,500 PQM's for that program year.
Biggie Fries
Feb 20, 12, 6:53 pm
When I go to the, "buy up," page, it appears to want the difference between what I actually flew and 100k miles.
I got the same message aztimm in a similar situation (see my post above). We'll see if it actually sorts out that way on March 1 or if there email was just improperly created.
Interesting ... and just slightly weird, since this could sort of disincentivize one from wanting to buy up since, if I understand it correctly, the option is essentially be Platinum for free or buy up to CP from another pricing tier down.
miffSC
Feb 20, 12, 10:40 pm
My email said:
Don't lose your Chairman's Preferred status!
Keep your unlimited upgrades, bonus miles & more…
On March 1, 2012 you’re going to lose your Chairman's Preferred status. This means you’ll drop down to Platinum.
But it’s not too late! Now, you can keep your great benefits and any Preferred status level.
So I knew this... I think I had about 82K miles and it will cost me $920 to buy up. Worth it for the perks even though I won't be flying until after June. I'll just have to do a couple of TATL flights this year to pump up those miles for next year.