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UNITED, 940,000 MILES and counting

UNITED, 940,000 MILES and counting

Old Jul 19, 2015, 12:55 pm
  #16  
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: DFW
Programs: AA Exp, United Silver, Delta Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 280
Originally Posted by googs185
I disagree. I think United miles are great. My wife and I went on our month-long honeymoon in January. We were able to fly direct EWR --> NRT then
NRT--> CHC direct, CHC--> SYD direct (paid flight $200 each for open jaw), SYD-->RAR direct then RAR-->AUK direct and finally AUK-->LAX-->EWR. All this for 160,000 and $400 in fees. This is incredible value as all those flights would have probably cost $10,000 or more.
Are those Business class rewards ????
fnuhenry is offline  
Old Jul 31, 2015, 4:32 pm
  #17  
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: SAN
Posts: 487
and here I am looking at my 100K balance like I'm something. hahaha
djtsukasa is offline  
Old Aug 2, 2015, 12:59 am
  #18  
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Kingdom of Bahrain
Programs: GE, UA silver, Amex Plat, SPG Gold, Club Carlson Gold
Posts: 24
Originally Posted by djtsukasa
and here I am looking at my 100K balance like I'm something. hahaha
Yeah, me too. But thinking that it's OK, cause none of mine is work-related..... <smile>
DebbieT11 is offline  
Old Aug 2, 2015, 7:24 am
  #19  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
Programs: AS 75K
Posts: 18,323
Originally Posted by josephstern
For clarity, are you talking about redeemable miles, or lifetime miles?
Originally Posted by npei
OP refers to lifetime status miles [earned by flying eqm], not redeemable miles [rdm] which can be obtained through non-flying methods like credit card spend [e.g. Mfg spend techniques]
OP never actually confirmed. Some people do incorrectly think just having 1mm RDM in their acount is the same as flying 1mm. This type of mileage hoarder gets screwed in each deval.
CDKing is offline  
Old Aug 10, 2015, 10:32 am
  #20  
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: BOS and ...
Programs: UA 2MM, DL 500k, AA 500k, Hyatt GP 1M, HH Gold, Rad. Gold, CP Gold, Miracle Fruit-su Club
Posts: 9,950
Originally Posted by wise2u
not if he's trying to get to Hawaii....every business class award I can find for the next year (from DFW) has "mixed cabin" with the long segment only available in coach...I refuse to believe that all the first class seats to Hawaii are sold a year in advance....it's just UA making your points useless for that particular award....cant wait to go to Europe and finally burn some of these horribly useless points...I have had over 150k for a few years and cant find a good use for them, even with their hub so close award routings are always unavailable, overnight connections, 2+ stops with the worst choices of any of the major airlines....do you have to have status to get a decent award route?
Sadly, this has been the case since almost forever with (pm)UA, and not just for the premium cabins. At the beginning of the Mileage Plus program, it wasn't so, but immediately, HNL etc. were the highest demand award travel. First, they increased the RDM requirement, then they added availability restrictions. An early frequent flyer Pogo situation. Alas.
Firewind is offline  
Old Sep 5, 2015, 10:34 am
  #21  
Original Member
 
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Miami/Ft. Lauderdale
Programs: AA 2MM Lifetime Platinum, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Gold
Posts: 1,348
Originally Posted by sfsilverbear
SFO and LAX based, anyone see any deals so I can top this off,within the next 6 months? i'm retired so have lots of time.
Thanks
I achieved lifetime platinum on AA years ago. I reached 2,000,000 miles back when ALL miles earned were counted, not just actual flight miles. It was such a great feeling when it happened which I'm sure you'll experience as well.
Neal is offline  
Old Sep 9, 2015, 12:12 pm
  #22  
 
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 35
Originally Posted by Firewind
Sadly, this has been the case since almost forever with (pm)UA, and not just for the premium cabins. At the beginning of the Mileage Plus program, it wasn't so, but immediately, HNL etc. were the highest demand award travel. First, they increased the RDM requirement, then they added availability restrictions. An early frequent flyer Pogo situation. Alas.
same reason devaluations happen. airline cobrand credit card competitors offer larger sign up bonuses and multipliers, everyone on a macro level gets more points, everyone spends the points, points systems get devalued. then the cycle continues.
ilovemynikes is offline  
Old Oct 9, 2015, 11:31 pm
  #23  
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: San Jose, CA USA
Posts: 93
Managed to complete a neat scenario this week:
1. Last year i achieved United lifetime gold. Merger with Continental was huge for me as I had a lot of United/Lufthansa flights in First to Europe in my history and all the bonuses got converted to lifetime miles since that was what Continental did.
2. Made my wife my companion with Gold.
3. Got a status match for my wife on Alaska so when she flies to Hawaii she can get exit rows and free bags. Applied on October 1 so it would be effective for the rest of 2015 and all of 2016.
4. The Alaska status will then be honored by American so she can also get exit rows and free bags on American for the rest of this year and 2016.

Agree with some of the posters that it is becoming increasingly difficult to use United miles, especially if you want the lower priced tickets. However, for us, exit rows and free bags are a great benefit as we take long trips several times a yearso we have a lot of checked bags.
lunarbrian is offline  
Old Oct 17, 2015, 12:39 pm
  #24  
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: WAS
Programs: Lotz
Posts: 1,534
My theory is points are actually harder to get now since earnings are so far less. Therefore points become more valuable as there's less competition for reward seats.
tassojunior is offline  
Old Oct 17, 2015, 5:17 pm
  #25  
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Upper Sternistan
Posts: 9,981
Originally Posted by tassojunior
My theory is points are actually harder to get now since earnings are so far less. Therefore points become more valuable as there's less competition for reward seats.
I agree and I've been hoping to see this play out, but I can't really say I have so far. Might just be too soon.
josephstern is offline  
Old Oct 18, 2015, 5:32 pm
  #26  
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: SJC/SFO
Programs: WN A+ CP, UA 1MM/*A Gold, Mar LT Tit, IHG Plat, HH Dia
Posts: 6,282
Originally Posted by tassojunior
My theory is points are actually harder to get now since earnings are so far less. Therefore points become more valuable as there's less competition for reward seats.
True in theory, but UA controls award seat availability. Over the past 12+ months I've noticed they keep it very tight until the last minute, effectively limiting the redemption value to a very low level for anyone who needs to plan their travel in advance.
darthbimmer is offline  

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