green2014

With 3 months left, I hope to make a couple MR trips to maintain Gold on UA for 2016. Flying out of SFO. Any suggestions, help. Thank you!

Paladin

I'm not an expert at this, but I just booked a non-MR flight to PVG from SFO for $722. $718 for SFO to PVG RT 12,336 miles and $722 for SFO->LAX-PVG on the Dreamliner and which is about 13,644 miles. This seems like a great price.

Tblack15

Solid for people with a visa. TWOV only applies if connecting to a 3rd country.

With the assumption of 5cpm, this is a $1,250 investment.

SFO-BAH for $733 & 18.5k miles. That's 3.9cpm.

Then you're down to a manageable 6.5k miles which is a Tcon and a SDC away from getting you to where you want to be.

Madone59

+1 ^. This is a good on, almost guaranteed to get your own row in coach.

rolltribe

+1 vote for not worth it. Just get the credit card and join 60% of the plane in group 2. If its the e+ you are wanting, just get the subscription.

Tblack15

Gosh, let's keep the "Is Gold worth it..." in the UA forum. OP asked for some help on a task.

Some data would help OP, rather than blind assumptions:

E+ subscription: $499 for lower 48 US domestic only. +$200 for global, plus $200 more for just ONE companion (another $200 for 8 companions).

That's $899.

Spend $1,200 for the MRs?

Get about 8/9k RDM back (if OP is a gold). Get maybe 1 CPU next year. Unlimited E+ for 8 companions, uses lounge access when flying int'l, etc.

So the real question is that little section worth $300.. not $1,200.. if we're discussing E+ as the priority here.

People MR for different reasons...

green2014

Thanks for the tips. I will consider the E+ subscription, but also don't want to lose the international lounge access...

ovlaere

As far as I can tell from my experience, you get E+ for a +1 as Gold, and +8 for plat/1k?

I was/am in the same position + I could not travel internationally due to immigration processing. I am missing 25k for renewing gold. I booked 2x SFO-EWR-MIA RT on Oct 16 and Oct 23, for 383 USD (think it's up to 5-600 per RT now), which gives 7302miles @ 5.24cpm. I have one RT home to Europe scheduled in Dec, so all together I will clock 51.3K at Dec 29 The SFO-MIA is 14.6K of that for 765.

I would have booked the BAH run though if I could. Since yesterday I'm clear on intl travel, but MIA is already booked, damn

People also consider me nuts, but the E+ on gold is worth 150USD one way per person to Europe, and me and my girlfriend do this at least 2times a year, so that's 1200USD en E+ alone (apart from all the domestic flights) + the luggage perks are not to be underestimated + *G lounge access. Really worth the MR for me. And I already got upgraded 3 times (twice with my +1) out of the last 10 flights or so

Good luck with getting the status,
Cheers,
O.

PV_Premier

will you fly enough in 2016 to get adequate benefit from your investment to earn UA gold?

if not, consider stacking a credit card that gives lounge access + E+ subscription for many of the same benefits of UA gold, except for the non-existent complimentary upgrades

rolltribe

Ya. Take a look at the club credit card. It's $399/year and I know they were offering first year free for a while. Economy plus subscription is $499. If you're going to spend $1k on a MR, even paying for the credit card and the subscription is cheaper than the MR at $1k. Like it was said above, you just wouldn't get any upgrades. But you have a better chance of seeing the Raiders in the Super Bowl than getting an upgrade from SFO at gold in 2016.

Wise-Broccoli8301

I've never done a MR, but SFO-BAH looks interesting. To clarify I shouldn't need to do any Visa work if I'm doing same day turn right? US Passport.

Madone59

Correct. If you are making an immediate turn back onto the same A/C you will just be in transit. If you want to stay a day the visa is $50usd and you can get it upon arrival.