Originally Posted by
amolkold
I'm in the same boat as you. I've decided to hold short of 50K for this year (I'm at about 43.8K so I can still do a transcon round trip without going over).
My GM status is good until Feb 28 2013, so I'm going to move up some March travel to try to regain Gold before the end of February. That way, I'll limit the amount of time I'm stuck at Silver. I also value EC and Sky Priority the most so I want to avoid FO.
Can you explain this? I'm at 58k, and my GM status is good till 2/28/2013. But I thought I only had until 12/31/2012 to hit 75k for PM? If I have an additional two months my calculus might change.
Originally Posted by
amolkold
I'll then try to hit Plat by mid-year so that I can see what status matches are available after July 1, where matches are good for 18 months instead of 6 months if you do them on June 30. Also, my PM status will be good through 2/2015 instead of 2/2014. In my mind, that's forgoing 6 months of PM now for 12 months of status later. Plus as I begin to move Skypesos out of my account, PM will help with award changes/cancellations for free before T-72.
This is a really good point. My wife and I have over 500k DL miles between us and have just not found the kinds of redemptions we want. So hitting PM now (which would be good through 2/28/2014) might be a good way to get flexibility in canceling award tickets while I transition to another program.
Originally Posted by
amolkold
As for matches, AA does challenges but only up to PLT (50K level). You have to use 500-mile upgrade stickers for non-EXP elites there, so it's not an automatic upgrade, though you get to pick and choose which flights you want to upgrade, which means that mid-tier upgrades have a better shot. There a ton of EXPs valid through the end of next year (because of Jan 2012 DEQM and TEQM) so UGs may not be the greatest.
UA does status challenges now and DL PM can challenge for their 75K PP level. I don't really get the UA UG system, but I'm interested in that for the ability to change awards for free (since I have a lot of UR/UA miles from credit cards).
If UGs are your thing, I know US Silvers who get decent UG %. But there's no EC/MCE/E+ for when you don't get the UG.
For me, domestic upgrades are nice, but I'm fine with extended legroom coach seats. To me, the award change rules and better earnings of more usable miles are what are attracting me to other programs.
With regard to AA, how do the 500 mile upgrades work? As I see on the website, you can buy one for $30. Let's assume it's 3000 miles transcon. Does this mean I can upgrade r/t transcon for $180 each way? If so that seems like a pretty good deal.
As I said the wild card is my work travel schedule. That's the difference for me between first-tier and mid-tier...