Originally Posted by
bloodyeyeballs
More than 1300 posts in a day about this?!?
Maybe I am being too nonchalant as I easily hit 10K spend, but isn't it difficult to fly 100K miles on UA metal without spending 10K?
I mean this comes out to $100 spent per 1000 EQM's flown. With the exception of a few deep discounted international tickets and transcons, I would find it difficult to do 100K miles on less than $10K.
I realize this weeds out some mileage runners and segment runners, but isn't this really a small percentage of those with status?
Disclaimer: I didn't read all 1350 posts, so if this was said and commented on before, please reply with the post numbers.
No, as a leisure traveler, it is very easy to earn over 100K miles and spend considerably less than $10K. I will end the year with 112K miles at a cost of under $7000. 12 trips done for my leisure/vacation. This includes 2 AA flights not included in the totals. Adding them gets me about 142K and under $9000.
When I flew for work I would have had no problem meeting the $ requirements as most of it was business class. Now I buy W fares on long-haul flights to use my GPUs and to get my miles up. I add other trips when I find an interesting fare to a place I want to go.
I have been a loyal CO/US flier for over 30 years. I have the credit card so I will be able to hit Platinum next year but after that, who knows. I will not spend more on fares just to hit Platinum. I may take a few more trips if something is of interest and I'm close to the $ threshold, but that's it.
This mindset that you are either a "kettle", MRer or business traveler funded by work with no problem hitting the 1K bar is tiresome. There are a lot of us who like to fly and do so to get to places we want to visit. And we look for the best fares to do so.