Originally Posted by
ajc1970
And I'm glad for that, since I feel like an admission mistake. But honestly, I would've left UA this year had it not been for GS... they've really up'd what they're offering, and it's made it worth if for me to stick with them. That made the difference for me -- so whatever magically caused them to select me, it resulted in me staying with them as a customer.
Funny indeed that you say that, because that's exactly how I feel, too. I didn't have the full-fare miles to qualify for GS, but I was *very* price inelastic in my travel last year, and made a lot of last-minute buys and ticket changes.
By November or December I had long since qualified for 1K, and since I didn't feel my full-fare miles or spend would put me in the realm of GS qualification, I took every opportunity to fly either a partner carrier, or even VX when I could.
But, when I actually *got* the GS nom, it encouraged me to bring a lot of my flying back to UA whenever possible. The benefits (more peace-of-mind with upgrades, IRROPS, etc) were enough to entice me back, even when a better product could be had elsewhere.
This year, I probably won't requalify for GS (only 30K full-fare), so in 2010 I'll be back to my old travel patterns of avoiding UA metal (at least in premium cabins) wherever possible.
Originally Posted by
SportsTech
Oh, and it's probably easier to requalify than to get the original invitation.
Not necessarily. You have a better idea of what you need to do to requalify (50K FF mi), but as we've seen with many posters, it's often possible to qualify for GS per UA's hocuspocus, but have no hope of requalifying per the official parameters.
IMO, the difference between qualification and requalification is a big drawback to the GS program.