JC1976

I haven't accumulated much PQD this year because all of my flights were available in G or N fare class. UA told me people that were slightly short last year were offered to buy up however much they were short. They wouldn't tell me how much is slightly.
Anyone bought PQD last year?

Asiatraveler15

You are talking PQD not PQM?

I have never heard of buying PQD. I believe you got to spend it on United or get the credit card waiver for PQD .

emcampbe

Last year, I believe there were offers to buy up to the next status level. IIRC, you didn't buy PQD per say, but bought the next level of status, basically waiving PQD. The price one was offered almost 100% for sure took into account what your PQM/PQS/PQD were.

While these offers will likely come up again on a targeted basis, the question is who will be targeted, I.e., how close to the next level do you need to be to get the offer. Is having the miles for gold but only half the PQD going to get you the offer, or will you need to have closer to 75% of the PQD? Will being 30% short of the miles and PQD get it, or will you need to be within 15%? A lot of these targets are probably going to be determined at the end of the year, when UA has a better idea of how close they are coming to having met their goals for each level. Two many elites and the offers may be fewer and cost more, too few, and there may be more and they are not as much (not that they won't be pricey either way).

IMO, it's always cheaper to actually purchase additional flights during the year to make up for what you might be missing than taking these buy up offers after the year is complete. UA has complete pricing power at this point since it's the only way to get the next status level of that what you really want. If you are only short, say, $500 PQD, you can expect an offer way higher than that. Plus, the offers generally come in packages. If you are say, 100 miles short, the cheapest buy up offer will be for, say, 1000 miles. There's lots of time in the year to plan - so you can do a MR (or spend run?), take a weekend to visit a friend you haven't seen in a while, or even just bump up a fare class or two on your existing trips to make it.

WineCountryUA

In January of 2015, UA did offer "buy-up" programs for those short of PQDs or PQMs or both. In general for the PQD only folks, it was essentially the $$ shortfall (little discount) -- such as http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/24151972-post4.html
or http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/24153394-post25.html

but some did get a discount, such as http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/24152918-post17.html

JC1976

It really depends on how much one will fly next year to take advantage of the higher status. Hard to just spend more this year if I don't know how much I'll fly next year. I've bought up to W fare class to use by global but W class is about $200 less than last year for my route which is great but doesn't get as much pqd. This year's fares are alot less than last year for my routes because last year I had no problem being over 10k pqd to be 1k. Comes down to if 1k next year is worth spending over 12k pqd. Still have to wait to see what changes are in store mileageplus for next year.

computerguy

Hey guys,

i love the flyer talk forums, i've been a long time fan, but im a first time poster.

i'll be 799 PQM and 153 PQD short of reaching a premier silver at the end of december, i'm located in san francisco.

I already have trips on september, october, november and december. would you recommend a airlines-non airline way to earn the missing pqm and pqd ?

there is a way to buy the pqm acceleator but i think it's really expensive and maybe not worth it to reach premier silver. i do have a flight back in the first week of january 2016, but i believe the pqm and pqd would not help then ?

maybe buying a short weekend trip ?

let me know if you guys have any ideas.

thanks a lot!

WineCountryUA

Welcome to FT!, computerguy

PQDs can only be earned by flying
-- you could purchase E+ access, that will count toward PQDs
-- get a Chase MP credit card and charge $25K before the end of the year, that will waive the PQD requirement

PQMs
-- UP fare and exisiting trip to B or higher fare and get 150% PQMs and hgher PQDs

Take a short $-run SFO-LAX RT shpld get you there

PV_Premier

another option for the PQMs is to execute a same-day change on one of your existing itineraries, to add a connection or extend a trip via a more distant hub. for instance, if you are flying SFO-ORD-PHL, by doing SDC to SFO-IAH-PHL in each direction, you will gain most of your way toward the needed PQMs.

another option is just to do a two segment mileage run with enough base miles to add up to 799 (assuming that you have no current status), where the base fare is at least $153 (hint, this is an out of pocket cost of about $180ish). with no existing status, this might be the most cost effective way to accomplish what you are trying to do (eg, think SFO-LAS-SFO which can surely be found for a base fare of $153-ish), because IIRC the same day change fee for non-elites is $75 per change, and you'd probably need to make more than one change to existing itinerary to get 800 miles.

buying E+ as mentioned above is another good way to get the PQDs.

Goaliedad30

That seems like a small enough PQM/PQD amount that a quick SFO-LAX or SFO-DEN round trip turn (fly, get off, board, home) will cover it. It costs you 5-6 hours of time.

snark

What benefits of Silver could possibly justify 5-6 hours of time (probably more in reality) + $250 (say) for the ticket?

sb3

A round trip SFO-LAX will not yield you enough miles in economy as someone without any status. That trip would leave you about 100 miles short. SFO-SAN / PDX / LAS would all work. SNA and PSP are also too short.

sincx

It can easily be done for less than $250. Benefits of Silver? Let's see:

1. Y/B instant upgrades.
2. XN access for award flights.
3. E+ within 24 hours (usually works decently if you check in right at 24 hours)
4. Free checked bag
5. Priority in irrops/when standing by

I'd say having the above for an entire year is worth a few hours and $200 or so.

Kacee

SFO-SEA has had dirt cheap fares lately.

PTahCha

Buy-up on one of your existing reservations. That's probably the fastest way without flying more, plus you'll be confirmed in first/business class.

snark

You get much of it (plus bonus miles) with a credit card, which is free for the first year. $200 would buy a reasonable amount of E+, at least domestically.