Steve M

Mine are all still at 10 cents/mile (2 cents for base miles, plus 8 cents for PQM accelerator).

vandesa

I think offer prices are also based on what level you are. Perhaps the poster just change status.

pdk560

I have a flight leaving in december 2012 (2250 miles) and returning in january 2013 (2250 miles). It's giving me the option to purchase double miles and premier accelerator on the whole trip (4500 miles). If I purchase this now, would all 4500 miles apply to my elite qualification this year? Or will half the premier miles apply to qualification this year and half towards qualification in 2013?

I wasn't able to find this answer on the United webpage. Just the wording "Premier Accelerator is applicable on actual flight miles only", not sure if this applies to this situation. Thanks for any advice.

chinatraderjmr

When you buy them. It has nothing to do w when the flights are as you can cancel the flights after buying the miles

pdk560

Great - thank you for the quick helpful answer.

travel_nerd

Hi, I'm relatively new here (or I should say, posting-wise) and would appreciate some help from any of you experts. Pardon any incorrect usage of terms. My husband is currently approx. 21,000 miles short of 1K and I'm really hoping to help get him there without too much pain involved (his schedule is too tight for multiple events of mileage running). His work booked all of his tickets this year so he wasn't even aware of the EQM/PQM/RDM (whatever it's appropriately called) maximizer buy-up. But, of course, in reading this thread, now I am. So, I was wondering if anyone had suggestions on a short itinerary that could take advantage of all of these things to help him get to that threshold? (I'd even be open to considering first/business-class if it could make a significant difference.) Or alternatively, did I just read and understand correctly that I could book a refundable ticket, pay for it, it will then allow me to purchase the EQMs, but then I could cancel the ticket? Thanks for the help in advance!

EmailKid

It would really help if we knew your location @:-)

Of course that only applies if there's a possibility of a MR, but if schedule really is too tight for that then it's a moot point.

Too bad you didn't find this thread a month ago when prices to buy EQM/PQMs were lower. OTOH, they will only go WAY up as we get closer to end of year, so if you don't mind spending the bucks to get 6 SWU/GPU plus 2 additional RPUs then do it ASAP.

21K miles is a r/t to Asia or 2 r/t to Europe or Hawaii. I exclude South America because that tends to be way too expensive. Look in Mileage Run forum for possible MRs from your location, they will most likely be much cheaper than buying the miles, especially this late in the year.

And of course if you can do one MR, you would only need to buy half the miles

And MRs don't have to be on UA, just be careful that you get 100% qualifying miles - usually not a problem for US, but many/most Asian carriers offer few, if any EQM/PQMs on cheap fares.

EmailKid

WineCountryUA

Yes you can cancel the underlying ticket with no penalty and kept the Maximer PQMs.

For 21K PQMs (and the required RDMs) you are likely talking $3K or so.

dmunz

I was just offered PQMs at $0.08/mile on a brand new ticket. Didn't bite. Went back in to the reservation later and they were up to $0.10/mile.

FWIW
DLM

travel_nerd

Thanks for all the tips! We're located in Los Angeles.

Thank you ... that definitely sounds like where we might need to be going if he can't do a run, but out of curiosity, does the airline frown on this sort of thing? Because I can understand purchasing one refundable ticket, buying the miles and canceling, but if you do it multiple times (being that there's a lot of miles involved in this and assuming that they'll only offer the amount of miles that the flight actually flies), will they look at it as if you're trying to scam them or are they accepting of this practice?

EmailKid

They probably welcome the practice, especially when the price per mile goes up at the end of the year. Why else would they do it? UA Insider has presence on this board, so they know we do this, and could easily stop it, but for them it's more revenue than if you were to fly a few transcons, where price per mile is much lower.

EmailKid

travel_nerd

Thanks for the heads up! Much appreciated

martusd

I just made a new booking on united.com and did not get an offer to purchase additional miles. Is the offer a random chance or did I miss something. The only offer I got was to upgrade one segment.

Thanks for your help

aacharya

Wait until it tickets and then revisit.

slariz

So, I'm about 900 miles from hitting 1K with no more flying planned for this year. Best option looks to be purchase a ticket, buy the EQMs, then cancel the ticket. Would a 500-mile one way ticket be long enough to get the 900 EQMs? I obviously don't want to buy more miles than needed. Guessing it'll be around $150?