Originally Posted by
sgfood
I think United reached the final stage of their version of designing the upgrade process on 2/1 with the doubling of PQM for P fares. This was the final stage of TOD's etc.
I just purchased a last minute vacation trip 10 days ahead. Agreed, this was to a vacation location, CUN, but both legs were via SFO/IAH during the workweek.
F in P $652.80 PQM 9788
Cheapest Y $528.98 PQM 4894
Both legs in F, SFO/IAH/SFO are on lie-flats so popular selections for CPU hopers.
If UA prices like this it doesn't matter what system FF's would wish for, the upgrades are are just going to be less and less available.
I think this is how UA is going mostly moving forward. Like many other posters on here I have to buy the lowest fare when traveling for work but I can pick any flight during the day of travel. I have started trying to pick flights that have low P fares and I will book the Y fare with my company card then usually pay out of pocket the difference for the P fare when I get the offer to buy up (either at purchase or TOD). The 2x PQM on these lower P fares was a huge reason for me to do this. It makes reaching Gold fairly easy for me with almost all fairly short haul domestic flights. If P fares were priced similar to what they were last year I do not think I would buy these upgrades very much and just get whatever status I would end up with (most likely Silver).
One thing that is ironic is that these easier methods to reach gold may also devalue gold status as well. Since CPU's seem to be much harder to get (cheaper P fares being a big reason) the gold status will actually have lower value for myself. Sure I will still get the two checked bags and E+ at time of purchase but for what I travel that is not that much of a benefit to me.