meFIRST

The way 1K is today, yes.

Reasons:
I'm 100% so far on UDU ( Disclaimer : Not all my fares are cheap, low bucket)

I'm also 100% on SWU ( all redeemed for International travel to far away places). I had to wait list and be flexible, but it all cleared, ahead of departure.

I'm also 100% on CR-1 (used on p.s flights)

Sidenote :
I've also taken advantage of the liberal change policies allowed on awards on MileagePlus, which to me is still the most valuable frequent flyer program out there, next to AAdvantage ( at present time)

I / We (my staff) don't give DL any business, because the program is worthless. Does anyone dispute this? ( despite the fact that DL flies non stop to some places I frequent, i.e New York->Moscow).

Unlike some people ( based at IAD and LAX/SFO/ORD), who are still bitter about the loss of the tulip, when UA left JFK (circa 2003), I moved my business over to CO at EWR, so I got used to the way things are done over at CO. So for me its nice to have both sides back.

AFAIK, there was a large wave of defections last year when people basically abandoned UA, and moved over to AA and DL, some of these people I know personally.

Even the bloggers, Gary Leff, Ben Schlappig(well Ben I think moved for other reasons) , Brian Kelly, etc, etc all switched over to AA. To be fair to BK he moved to MIA and bought an condo there, and also has a place in NYC, so I guess the route structure, with hubs in MIA and JFK works better for him.

The hard core flyer talkers + bloggers probably don't think 1K is valuable, but it works for me. Most of those people fly AA .I'm just waiting for the upcoming show when Doug Parker start to make enhancements to AAdvantage.

I'm retiring from Flyertalk, but I'll come back and check that out.

chillionaires

Hi All,

I'm currently based out of Vietnam and recently started traveling a lot more than before. I achieved Gold this past year and should be 1k before years end. I have a couple of rookie questions I'd love to get some feedback on if anybody is willing:

- Is 1k worth it? I may have to spend $1200 + to do a mileage run and wondering if it is worth it.

- Is anyone with One World out of Asia and would they prefer One World over Star Alliance? Most of my travels are to the US, Australia and UK.

- What's the best credit card deals for miles, points and perks?

- Does anyone belong to any hotel loyalty programs and are any of them really worth it?

Any feedback is appreciated and hopefully I'll learn the ropes and be able to help someone else out. ^

Kacee

For me, yes. Six GPUs is the biggest perk. Upgrades across the Pacific (TPAC) are not that difficult if you book carefully. Depending on how you use them, they can easily be worth $1,000-2,000 each. Also, 100% miles bonus, and I never have to wait on hold or have my calls forwarded to an overseas call center.
[QUOTE]

love_to_travel

For me, 1K is certainly worth a $1200 MR. The GPUs are awesome. I'm not sure what you would do with the RPUs though, I wonder if those work intra-Asia.

Kacee

Yes, everything except for NRT-BKK/SIN and HNL-GUM.

tom911

We have an entire set of forums on hotels. That topic is probably best discussed there:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hotel-programs-389/

Welcome to FlyerTalk

5khours

Definitely. As someone else said, the GPUs are great and relatively easy to use on TPAC. You might want to think about buying PQM through a mileage accelerator rather than doing an MR.

OW might not be a bad choice. CX has some good options for travel to SGN.

UA Chase Club. Decent mileage earning, no foreign fees. Club membership.

I've been flying US<>VN once or twice a month. Wish there was a non-stop to the U.S.

lhrsfo

If you are based out of the US, things are slightly different. Essentially, the advantages of 1k over Gold are:
1 6 GPUs (but only useable on higher booking classes and if space is available - not easy, but not impossible to use either - and certainly a great perk)
2 RPUs - probably not of great use unless you also fly domestically
3 CPUs - probably irrelevant unless you fly domestically more often than your RPUs last
4 Double redeemable miles rather than 150% - quite big as it's more difficult to earn miles other ways if you are outside the US.
5 Virtually no phone wait time
6 And probably some more which are so minor that I've forgotten about them.

For me, it's the GPUs, extra RDMs and marginally the RPUs only.

5khours

Good summary. Would just add...

3. CPUs. - Also good for some international flights (SGN<>HKG in particular).

6. No fees on award travel.

eyuro

The two most important reasons are the 6 GPU's and no fees on anything related to reward travel. These GPU's as someone just said are worth at least $1,200 each based on a .02 cents per mile as well as a $600 dollar upgrade fee. I am batting a solid 6 for 6 in the last two years on using these EWR-HKG. The fact that you only have to buy up to a W fare is a joke compared to the cheapest fare.
No hold time on the phone is also a great plus in these days of up to 1 hour with some other travel related lines. The call center staff just seems very eager to try and please you any time they can. If you happen to get an unfriendly agent, hang up and call again.
Cheapest MR now out of NY is the PS flights to LAX or SFO in late August and beyond. Translates to about .07 per EQM. I am taking 4 such flights to bring me up to 1K for next year. Shame is that even with my 6 flights to HKG and whatever small domestic travel I do, next year with the new rules I wont make it. Even with my 3 trips paying for the upgrades, which as I understand wont count, I may be 2 or 3 thousand short based qualifying dollars.

escapefromphl

Yes, it used to be great. But recently my upgrade rate has plummeted, and I cant help but wonder who is getting the upgrades. Is it all the lower level elites that UA has given away, either to corporations or to Marriott Platinum's. They all get ahead of 1K's on the upgrade list if they get rebooked or if they buy Y/B fares. Yet from next year we will be expected to cough up $10K to maintain 1K status. I don't see the upgrade situation improving as a result. Seriously giving them that much business to be number 12 of 50 on the upgrade list, I'm not sure I see the value. And it's not the cheapo 1K's taking the upgrades, its corporate, Gov't flyers and TOD's. This isn't going to change. I'm already qualified this year, but next year I may be better off getting companion pass on Southwest or whatever on Virgin America and settling for Gold on United.

edcho

These questions pop up here and there but IMO, only you can make that decision.

Obviously upgrade experience will vary (besides status) depending on the city you are based in as well what fare you pay for + what routes you fly. Obviously someone paying the lowest fares for hub to hub routes and based out of SFO will have a totally different upgrade percentage than a person paying full Y fares out of FLL.

If you are not sure about staying with UA and upgrades are important to you, I would actually highly encourage status matching to various other programs just to check them out. Each has their strong points and weak points but your experience will vary differently (esp in upgrade experience) based on what I said previously.

FlyWorld

I deliberately dropped from 1K to PP last year because, even before the spending criteria, it was no longer worth it.

A point of clarification, they've never said that you have to "cough up" $10,000 to become 1K. In fact, they've said that you have to spend $10,000 in "qualifying" dollars to become 1K.

This means:

1. You need to spend more than $10,000 for them to arrive at something they'll count as $10,000, and

2. You'll need to spend more time trying to figure out which dollars count and which dollars don't count, and

3. I speculate that you'll need to spend more time yet fighting with them over errors and miscalculations since they can't seem to do anything else right (or honestly).

In my view, this brings the true cost well above $15,000. Perhaps even $20,000, depending on how you value your time, and the frustrations involved.

And, for that, you get to sit in the back of the plane and watch the kettles laughing in F for $29 TODs.

1K makes no sense anymore. None whatsoever - for anyone who has choices.

It might be worth it for someone traveling on company business, who has to do the miles anyway, who isn't paying for the tickets, and where UA is genuinely the best choice based on schedule. In that case, why not put the miles in one place and get 1K so you can at least think you might see an upgrade. The thought of it might give you some happiness.

But, to actually make a choice to spend money that you don't need to spend - or to choose UA if there are other options with better product, better schedule, or cheaper fares - then forget it - that's lunacy in this environment.

I don't know what I'll end up doing for this year. But, it's likely to be Gold if anything at all. I'm inclined to dump the whole thing and walk away but I've got a pile of vouchers to use due to service delivery failures last year, and just burning those will get me close to Gold. ;_)

avi8tir

My fiance is 1K and she has been very lucky this year with upgrades.... so, Id say yes.

Bonehead

Friend of mine just made 1K for the first time a month ago. I showed his wife how to grab 1K also [Clarification>> He also made 1 MM miles, and that's how the wife obtained her 1K], and now she gets upgraded "all the time". Today they are flying DEN-LGA with two non-status minors on the reservation, and the whole lot of them ended up in FC on the 752.

Ummmm...yes, it's apparently worth it.