UA-NYC

Per Gary at VFTW, looks like that pesky $10K minimum spend might have chased away a few too many 1Ks for UA's taste:

http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea....tatus-members/

RNE

How you reached that conclusion is beyond me. UA is simply rewarding the 1Ks who stuck with them—but didn't quite qualify. It is nothing new—nor particularly newsworthy—for UA to help worthy Premiers across the finish line. Happens every year. UA's largess constitutes no indication whatsoever that it is worried—or even cares—about the 1Ks who jumped ship. Period.

UA-NYC

We'll agree to disagree. It's not like he was a few hundred bucks short of $10K.

The poster cited in his article is a 5-6 CPM flyer - precisely the type of over-entitled, lower-revenue 1K UA is trying to downgrade. Their credit card spend is irrelevant, as it doesn't factor into the 1K qualification waiver.

itrvl

I am in a similar situation to the United 1K in Gary's post EXCEPT I quit flying for the year at 97,515 PQM's. I had over $6000 PQDs and met the $25,000 Chase waiver. I've been a 1K for 4 years and various levels of Premier with United on and off since 1989. Since I knew there was "no way" I was going to make 1K, I just didn't take any more trips. Now, I'm sorry I didn't make a quick MR somewhere just to test the waters.

weirdlyndon

I know Gary at View From the Wing posted about this the other day, but I mentally disregarded it because I figured it wouldn't apply to me.

I just logged in to mystatus.united.com and saw this nice bit of news at the top: "Because of your long-term commitment to United, we're pleased to award you Premier 1K status for 2015."

I'm fly for leisure and all travel is self-funded. I'm not sure what the criteria is for this gift of status, as I had resolved to be a Plat in 2015. I closed out 2014 at 102,021 miles flown, and only $3,978 in PQDs. I did, however, put well over $35K in spend on my MP Explorer card. I've also been a 1K with United for the last 5 years, and a 1P for a year prior to that.

If there's one thing I've learned from FT, it's not to look a gift horse in the mouth. I had already started shifting some flying to AA, but this may in fact be a game changer for me.

kb1992

This is amazing.

My friend has 100,500 PQM and $8200 PQD in 2014. He is 15-year 1K, and almost 2 MM.

No gift 1K.

Do you get 6 GPU?

IAH-OIL-TRASH

UA can gift status w/o the instruments. Instruments are usually granted with earned status. I'm sure there are some 1Ks that have been 1Ks for a long time but are not considered valuable because of their revenue record. Maybe you friend (at 8 cents/mile, at least for last year) hasn't cleared a value hurdle of some kind. It'll be interesting to hear reports of length of status, average spend, etc that do/do not lead to gifted status.

Baze

Does your friend have a Chase UA CC? I know it says the waiver does not apply for 1K but I think in this case it created some goodwill. Kind of ticks me off a little though as I had over $15K PQD's and 82K PQM's, been with UA since 1997 with many years as a 1K. No gift for me (don't expect one either as I did not fly the miles) So I would say is most likely there is a hidden waiver for 1K if you meet other criteria.

IADFlyer123

Now I am not sure what to make of this language for Mrs. IADFLYER's mystatus page:"Enjoy your 2015 Premier Silver status, with all the benefits and services that come with it.". She was sitting at 24,440 PQM and $3031 PQD. Does this mean she made the cut?

kb1992

No. He does not have UA CC. But he was a HVF few years ago.

He submitted change of address request last month since he has an apartment in HK.

Still waiting to hear from MP. Not sure if it's too late.

Did you see this? If yes, she made Silver.

Congratulations, you've earned Premier Silver status for 2015.

IADFlyer123

Did you see this? If yes, she made Silver.

Congratulations, you've earned Premier Silver status for 2015.[/QUOTE]

Sadly that doesn't show up for her. I was hoping she would get a soft landing, but if not I will wait for an email to purchase 560 PQM (sometime later this month).

You are right - my 1K status page shows Congratulations, you have earned Premier 1K for 2015.

robbgrn

For two different years I was granted level-ups (Silver>Gold) when I didn't make the PQM requirements. On one of those occasions I was off by over 17,000 miles.

Just takes a little social engineering ;-)

gengar

UA becoming even more opaque - who would've guessed??

Baze

UA is like schools that grade on the curve. They are looking for certain percentages at each level for certain areas. So they fudge their requirements to maintain those numbers. Though it is strange that with their disdain for elites that they would fudge the numbers up and not down.

787fan

Just like many risk models, UA's internal criteria is probably some really complex decision tree. It's not like they want to be opaque - normal folks would go nuts if publish a criteria that says "if you hit any one of these 116 conditions, you made 1K"

The PQD requirement is already the "fudge down"

Imagine the public outrage if u login and see "100,500 PQM, $10,007 PQD, platinum status achieved" because they decided to fudge down ?