Originally Posted by
BillScann
My 2011 flying is a mess. As of right now, I have:
38K on AS, which places me just shy of requalifying for MVP Gold;
49K on UA, leaving me a grand short of Premier Gold;
19K on US, leaving me 6K short of Silver (long story, don't ask
)
I have a flight to HKG in a couple of weeks, which will get me over with AS, but what to do with the 6K I will earn each way flying AC YVR-BKK? Do I split it so I have status on both UA and US? The new UA MP program looks pretty grim for Golds...is it worth dumping all of it on UA and then MR-ing it to Platinum? Are the benefits at 75k all that much better?
What to do?
With hindsight being 20/20, you would have (probably) been better off collecting the *A miles in one place. That said, are you currently a 1P on UA? You may want to credit everything to UA for the RDM bonus unless you expect that the US Silver status would be useful next year.
If you were to strive for the 75k mark, you'd get 2 CR-1s (it's going to be awhile before the United terminology works its way out of my system...), a slightly better mileage bonus next year (assuming you would requal at the 75k mark on *A somewhere next year, it's 25% of 75k, so about 19k additional RDM), and a slightly better shot at upgrades.
The CR-1s are mostly useful if you're flying routes without UDU (p.s. and next year, EWR/IAH/DEN [I think]-HNL in BF). Between my requal RDM bonus analysis and the RDM you'd get for MR'ing for ~12k BIS (I'm being lazy and assuming you're doing YVR-BKK direct and crediting the ~14k EQM to only UA)...
You'd make 1P by crediting almost anything to UA (I don't remember whether the RDM bonus kicks in on that flight or whether you'd have to wait until the status posts), so your ~12k BIS MR would give you ~24k RDM. If you can requal during next year, you'll be flying enough that the RDM bonus difference is ~19k RDM (see above), so this brings your total to ~43k RDM plus 2 CR-1s.
I'm not sure what fares are looking like for you right now. For me, this would run ~$600 assuming I went simple (e.g., mostly nonstop transcons out of NYC) and avoided holidays. If I could come up with the slightest justification for those trips, I'd probably pull the trigger. Your valuations may differ.