timfountain

Made gold, gold plat in the last 3 years and on-course for gold this year, but with the US/AA merger, I will have a lot more choice out of PDX, especially with the new PDX-ORD route. So it's back to AA for me, where I am lifetime Plat. I am trying to status match to WN from UA plat for my west coast travel.
After next year I'm done with UA. The company I work for only buys on price so it will not be difficult for me to rack up WN points and get to A-list. The only reason I dislike WN is that my pleasure travel is mostly international and that makes WN hard to use. The race to the bottom is complete for me.
Seriously, air travel has become such as commodity and, for me, such an unpleasant experience that I'll look for more direct, shorter routings from now on.

JC5280

I think food/drink offerings are part of what's considered a hard product. Those are, as defined, to be be hard products. Service and experience are considered "soft product".

bseller

You are GENUINELY an optimist. I personally believe that the HouCrew's actions to date make a mockery of your belief in "better things to come", but we'll see, I suppose.

Dave

gaobest

Even SFO/BOS can be $400 a bunch of times, and that's about 5500 miles; so 5 trips would be *Silver, but total $2000 spend (and that includes taxes, so deduct the tax portion for PQD), which would also impede *S status. Just an example; I'm *G because of Accelerator already, and cannot decide what I'll do for next year.

mecabq

I guess I am the type of traveler that Mileage Plus doesn't want (at least based on my current spend patterns) -- I spend well over $10K per year reaching 1K, but will find it difficult to spend $10K on UA-plated tickets or UA segments within itineraries ticketed by other Star Alliance members.

I will be MM soon, so would be content to enjoy my *G status while flying UA for 20K-40K UA economy class miles per year (I rarely get upgraded anyway as 1K on flights of significant distance). I am looking for another Star Alliance carrier on which to earn and accrue on non-UA star flights or UA premium-class flights. I could probably achieve LH SEN status, for example.

But I have looked at the others, and don't see any program that offers anything close to the earn and redemption rates on Mileage Plus. The lack of award availability puts somewhat of a damper on that, but if I look at, for example, the OZ, LH, or TK earn rates and award charts, they compare unfavorably to United. This is especially true when you consider premium-class bonuses, 1K RDM bonuses, and free award changes/cancellations for 1Ks (like many travelers, I make a handful of changes to most award bookings and find it convenient to book and cancel several times per year). (Pushing the free award-ticket changes/cancellations down to UA Gold level would be a nice concession by UA, that might tip the scales for me to stay at that level -- but of course would run counter to the very purpose of this change, so it won't happen.)

For example, I already have enough PQM to reach 1K for next year, and have one P LH IST-SFO and one biz TK/OZ IST-SYD round-trip coming up, which could get me close to 50K PQM on another Star program, but I don't see any one that would leave me better off than just accruing these to Mileage Plus. This would still be the case if I weren't 1K on UA.

So I am stuck. The benefit to sucking it up and continuing to hit 1K, especially considering GPU earnings, probably outweigh the significant costs. So UA might end up getting a lot more revenue from me by keeping 1K as a superior option to SEN, TK Elite Plus, or similar levels on other Star partners, at least for my flying patterns. So from that standpoint, it's a smart move by UA, painful as it is for me to rationalize.

Has anyone else here looked at this and come to the same, or the opposite, conclusion?

RNE

Astute.

Same conclusion. UA appeals to me because of MileagePlus's generally available saver award flights to places I wanna fly, its sometime-no-co-pay award upgrades, as well as its easy-to-earn and cheap-to-buy miles, and of course the Chase cards' sign-up bonus miles and everyday spend miles and bonuses make MileagePlus a...well, plus.

RNE, admitting CPUs are great, but I'm typically able to buy or "mile" my way into FC if/when I want to.

alex_b

I'm moving back to the UK, seems the best way to avoid the PQD requirement. If for some reason that doesn't happen I may well just switch to AA towards the end of the year and try to status match. Then I'll just burn out the remaining UA miles in my account and kiss goodbye to a 20-year MP relationship.

I easily spend $20k per year on *A, but most of that is booked by my corporate travel agent with no discretion to ticket on 016 stock.

As for getting PQD credit on UA segments ticketed by other airlines, I'll believe it when I see it. It was enough hassle getting UA to believe I could apply RPUs for JFK-LAX on my last NZ ticketed itinerary (SHARES believed they were BULK tickets until I read the fare construction over the phone to the 1k desk).

RNE

And when AA goes to PQD?

RNE, opining that you can run but you cannot hide.

alex_b

You may be right, but I'd have a year seeing if I like AA more and then can make a more informed decision. Plus I can probably get AA Plat (not EXP) through our corporate contract if I stay in the US. That might be enough for me.

lensman

Do you use your US or IST address for MileagePlus? If you use your IST address, wouldn't you be exempt from PQD requirements?

alex_b

If you're *G for life anyway, I'm not sure what membership of another program would gain you, especially as UA probably has better redemptions than the other *A programs.

If I were you I'd consider two options:
1. Switch your address to IST or Doha and carry on as you currently do by avoiding the PQD requirement
2. Become a Kayaker, credit *A miles to MP and try and earn status on AA to cover OW flights.

tom911

If you have an AA flight number, 100% miles all the time on published fares plus your elite bonuses (25% at the 25K level and 100% at the 50K and 100K level).

If you're on a partner flight with their flight number, such as a Cathay or Qantas flight number, the miles can range from zero to 100%. I know I've flown some LH flights that didn't accrue UA miles, and I saw a thread today about someone not getting UA miles on Swiss, so I'd say it pays to check out any partner, be they UA or AA, to make sure what you're getting. AA makes it very easy as the partners are all listed on one page and as long as you're on the AA flight number you'll never miss a mile.

Tom in Indianapolis

username

I really don't think the old UA side is completely voiceless in the combined company. In fact, there have been movement in the ranks to say that the old UA side is making a comback now that it has been proven they are not completely wrong...

jbsay

To the OP, and to other non-1Ks who are considering defecting: have you considered the CC route to earn/keep Silver/Gold/Plat? See Gary Leff's discussion of the topic here: http://boardingarea.com/viewfromthew...revenue-rules/

oracles4444

Thank you appreciate the explanation