ZZYZXROAD

someone would actually rent an apartment in another country to achieve status? man, i am way to busy in life to even consider that as a possibility for anyone. nothing amazes anymore.

WineCountryUA

An account mailing address in USA will make the individual subject to PQDs.

ftweb

But non-earnimg for PQD as well? That part is ambiguous, since the web page you speak of also says see the earning elite status page for PQD.

I also see I got 0 PQD for some U segments on LH. I thought that was 016 ticket stock but maybe was wrong. Is it possible that tickets purchased in Europe with a Euro credit card are ineligible for PQD?

Kacee

If it doesn't earn PQM, it doesn't earn PQD. I agree the website could be clearer. It used to be worse.

Did you buy the ticket from UA? Who is the operating carrier? U would normally be an accruing fare.

findark

As a more general thought..

I may also be in this boat this year, hitting 100k PQM but falling short of the PQD. If I decided to do a "dollar run" it would of course be easy, but are there any suggestions for what to do? I'm thinking things that are "cool, but not usually worth the price tag" that can be taken advantage of since the objective is to burn a pile of money. I could always do a $1,700 SFO-LAX turn, but it would be more fun to e.g. pick up a 77W to EWR. Other ideas?

WineCountryUA

There is no ambiguity in the UA statement, hidden maybe, but crystal clear
Exclusions to earning award miles and Premier qualifying credits (PQM/PQS/PQD), Additional conditions

UA_Flyer

Just as a reference point:

I have made mistakes in the past by purchasing international bulk P fare from consolidators. It earned $0 PQD with 2XPQM. I could do as many flights international flights on bulk fare and rack up hundreds of thousands of PQM without earning a single $ of PQD and not earn no status (with a US address).

ftweb

I just went back and checked. The ticket appears to have been purchased from a travel agent (someone bought it for me). However, it definitely has an 016 ticket number, cost 2700 EUR round-trip SFO-FRA-LUX-FRA-SFO (so definitely not a bargain-basement fare), booked into U on all segments. But the website says I get 500 PQM but am ineligible for PQD on the FRA-LUX-FRA segments.

One thing I do notice is that I had an LH flight number for the LH segments, not a UA codeshare flight number. Is it possible to have 016 ticket stock with segments that are not code share and therefore don't count towards PQD?

It feels like if I have any segment on another carrier, United somehow decides that's where a huge number of PQDs should have gone. I just flew a $1400 ticket with 4 segments, 3 on UA metal, 1 on LH K fare, and got $800 PQD for it. That's a 40+% of PQD attributed to way less than 25% of the miles (and what probably would have been a cheap standalone segment).

Flyingwasabi

Why would this be a violation of T&C? It’s not against the law or T&C to have an oversea address...
Logistics-wise, it may not work for everyone of course, but if you already travel aboard, it’s easy to just sign a rental aggrement on your travel, and it costs usually less than $1k.
Am I planning to keep doing this? Yes, because I do have my own house overseas, and it is my legit home. I spend half of my time in the US, the other half overseas in my home, so why not register my address there?

Flyingwasabi

That I’m sure, but if you have an oversea address under UA account already, it doesn’t hurt to call them and say “hey, i’ll be staying in the US for a while, so is it possible to mail a card to me directly so that I can have it earlier”.
Worst case scenario, you wont be getting the physical card, that’s it..

WineCountryUA

Depends on how dumb you think UA is.

Hmmm ... someone who has long had a USA address but recently change to non-USA address and just happened to make higher status because of that address change and now wants their material sent to USA address? That does not trigger any red flags...

Worstcase they sent it off to the audit team

Flyingwasabi

Hey, I’m not asking you to change the address today and call them to mail the materials tomorrow...

If you have a legit oversea address, why should you be worried about their audit team?

WineCountryUA

The earlier proposal stretches the imagination to be considered "legit" -- while there is no evidence of UA acting on those using this gambit, UA can at any time decide this has gotten out of hand.

Two Bee

Whoa, Flyingwasabi, before you dispense advise, lets do the XXX game, first!

A MP member wants to be a 1K, and doesn't want to spend big bucks like all the other folks, so he/she tells UA that they reside way over in XXX land. However, a great majority of their flights are from YYY (both domestic and international), where they previously lived prior to changing their mailing address. Unless one is very astute at deceiving, which most aren't, it won't take UA long to figure out that this member is doing most out-bounds from YYY. I know, I know, a sly fox would maintain that they actually began in reverse @ XXX, but why not just do the credit card thing instead of losing all status and possibly all one's miles in their account?

Then again, perhaps UA doesn't really care about this, and people can live happily ever after in their real home at YYY!

Side bar --- UA has every right to demand proof of residence before allowing ANYONE to scam their MP program, and this includes coming up with a drivers license, vehicle registration, utility bill, or yes even a 1040. Just read the printed rules where it states that UA MP people have the sole right to decide who plays their game!!!

kale73

According to the PQD FAQ: "The PQD requirement only applies to members whose primary address on their MileagePlus account is in the 50 United States or the District of Columbia. Members who use U.S. military or diplomatic addresses (APO, DPO or FPO) are exempt from the PQD requirement."

While I don't want to encourage profiting from other people's tragedies, I suspect property in PR and the USVI will be relatively inexpensive for the next couple of years.