Evelyn Boughton Ferry

I'm currently Silver- (Jan. 2016)

Last year I traveled 35,500 miles, 50.5 segments and spent about $10,000 on the card.

Today I got an offer to upgrade to Gold for $1699

My company already pays for the yearly club pass... what else would make it worth that kind of money? Should I pay that? Will I get enough to make it worth it?

Thoughts?

jmcintosh

Generally speaking my opinion would be no it's not worth that kind of money ...

Depending on where you are based (for CPUs), and whether the other Gold perks are worth $1699 to you (e.g., E+ access, etc.), you have to decide.

SEA1K4EVR

Well a Club membership is not included when you're Gold anyway (except you would get free access to Clubs when you fly internationally even in economy class, and access to Star Alliance lounges overseas). If you travel mostly domestically being Gold doesn't get you any additional access so you'd need the Club membership anyway.

With Gold you get a higher baggage allowance, reserved E+ seats at booking instead of when you check in, higher upgrade priority, free same day flight changes instead of having to pay $75, reduced fees for award ticket changes/cancellations, earning 8 miles per dollar on flights instead of 7...those are the big ones. Visit the Premier page at United.com here: https://www.united.com/web/en-US/con...r/default.aspx and you can see the benefits of the various levels.

If you're going to keep flying 35k miles... and you fly longer routes and value E+ seats, tend to change your flights last minute sometimes, and book award tickets then I'd consider moving up to gold. Whether the $$ is worth it you should weigh it. If it were me.. I'd have done a mileage run to Singapore near the end of last year.. .it would have cost less and you could have earned more than enough PQM's to put you over 50k

EmailKid

IIRC they are selling subscriptions to E+

Othewise Same Day change (if fare buckets are available) is only benefit I can see (you earn so few miles I would not even count that as benefit unless purchasing high $ fares).

worldwidedreamer

If you don't fly enough to get silver status, don't bother. If you do, an economy plus subscription costs $499/year, and a Club Card costs $395/year. Together they provide all of the effective benefits of Gold with the added bonus of United Club access domestically.

Depending on your travel pattern, an Amex Plat might provide a better suite of choices. (Especially if you frequently start/connect through airports with Centurion lounges like SFO or IAH.)

Boraxo

Welcome to FT

I would not pay $1699 for Gold - as discussed above I think my over/under from Silver is somewhere in the $500-1000 range.

Here is my subject assignment of value to the benefits (YMMV):

1. Use *G lounges on international trips. You may not need this since you have a UC membership. Might be worth something if you want to use partner lounges overseas when flying economy. Personally I wouldn't pay more than $10 to access these lounges, so I'll be generous valuing this perk at $100.

2. Check lots of bags or travel with family members who check bags (1 free with Silver vs. 2 free with Gold). Assuming 2 family RTs x $25/bag = $100.

3. E+ at time of booking for yourself + 1. IMO this is by far the most valuable benefit and saves me $500-1000.

4. Gold gets 1 extra RDM on your $10k spend @.02 = $200

5. Higher on upgrade list = $0 if you fly from SFO/IAH/ORD/EWR/IAD, maybe worth something from non-hubs.

So overall maybe worth $900-1400 but only if you would otherwise pay for E+

EmailKid

Um, as mentioned already, you can get E+ subscription @:-)

$499 for ConUS, + $100 for Americas or $200 Global.

IMHO, SDC is the most valuable. To me, and plenty of other posters in various threads. But to each his own.

DCEsquire

Wow! I couldn't disagree more. This is a huge perk for Gold. I don't know what lounges you visit but you clearly don't fly to London much. The departure lounges are great too. I don't know about you, but I like a shower and to brush my teeth before I attend client meetings abroad!!!!

Boraxo

E+ subscription does not cover your travel companions, a huge *Gold and Plat perk.

I only use SDC on business travel, so it's worth zero to me as its covered by the fare class or my employer.

I fly paid C so it is worth $0 to me as it's included in my ticket price. Even if it wasn't, I'd value at $10. And yes, I bet I've visited more lounges than you. For my money the LH ones at FRA/MUC blow away *G @LHR (so does *G @SYD). Though still not as nice as some of the EK & QF ones. Sadly BA has gone downhill...

Guys, feel free to do your own math and share the results. We like metrics and quantification where I work. Everything has a value, even soft perks. Some things even have prices.

always_solo

I am Silver on UA and have a *G on A3, which give me the lounge access internationally AND domestically. I was at 52,500 miles last year, but only had 3100 PQDs, so I stayed at Silver status.

I've pretty much been able to upgrade at check in to E+ on every flight I took last year, with the exception of 1 MCO-LAX. However on the LAX-MCO flight, I got a F upgrade, so I guess it balances out.

This year, my boyfriend and I were both upgraded to F on LAX-PVR and had E+ on the way back.

Gold doesn't mean a whole lot more than Silver if you're okay sitting in economy once in a while and if you have lounge access from another source. At least that's how I feel about it

jfk747

Don't listen to these people who lack money. Gold is worth it as is plat and 1k . If you don't make at least 250,000 dollars a year you shouldn't even carry elite statuses and instead fly southwest.

yeekin

The higher E+ subscription has an option for +8 companions but must be under same PNR. I paid $1099 for it when I was just a member. Useful for the family which even being gold is only +1 companion.

Well this thread is all about making choices based on your own needs. For me, it is just the lounge benefit since I usually travel internationally along with the *g benefits.

Cargojon

You forgot to mention that if you don't fly paid premium classes, you have no business being in a club or on the plane as a whole

chrisl137

Different things have different values to different people...

I generally am flying by myself, so the companion access to E+ has no value to me.

Changes to tickets are only covered by work for me if there's a business necessity. If it's for my convenience, then I pay, so SDC is actually worth something.

As worldwidetraveler points out above - for the most part, you can get the perks of gold by getting an E+ subscription+Chase card (club if you want club access, otherwise the base UA card is enough for most perks). If you're already silver then you also get the same IRROPS benefit you'd get with gold. So the max gold should be worth is around $700. The offers they made last year were more useful for amusement than anything else. I think I saw at most one posted that was even worth considering.

br2k

I think this benefit should be valued more like Priority Pass, i.e. about $25 per lounge visit (per person, so may be up to $50). So anywhere from $250-500 for 10 visits a year.