There have been a lot of questions in the main thread about the status qualification change regarding how to earn PQP when flying on partner tickets, so I thought I would start a new thread and wiki for that since it's a small piece of the overall change. That is, on pain of laying out too clearly to United how to game the system... (however AA and DL have the same thing).
Partner Earning
Beginning in 2020, if you fly a partner airline (not UA metal)
and your ticket is on the stock of another airline (not 016 ticket), you will earn PQP as a fraction of the distance flown. That fraction is determined by your fare class, and can be found in the tables below.
The way to derive this fraction is to go to the
United earnings page for your airline and determine the RDM (
not PQM) earning rate for your fare class. Then divide this number by 5 for "preferred partners" and 6 otherwise.
Preferred Partner Airlines: AC AD AV CA CM EN EW LH LX NH NZ OS SN VA WK
Other Partner Airlines (status earning): A3 AI BR ET HO LO MS OA OU OZ SA SK SQ TG TK TP ZH
Other Partner Airlines (
NO Premier credit): 3M 4B 9K EI HA UK VW
Note that for the third category you will earn RDM but no PQP, regardless of ticket stock (this is no change from before when you would not earn PQM).
Frequently Asked Questions
What if I fly a United-operated segment on a non-United ticket? You will earn PQP equal to the portion of the fare assignable to that segment. This information is transmitted from the ticketing carrier to United, and will be a somewhat arbitrary number between 0 and the full value of the fare component which includes that segment**. (This is the same as earning PQD on such a segment today.)
**Many reports of this not working even this well, and the potential number being outside this range.
What about codeshare segments? As before, codeshares do not matter. Only the operating carrier (metal) of each segment and the stock of the ticket determine your earnings.
How do I get a non-016 ticket? Any ticket purchased directly from another airline will be a partner-issued ticket, even if it has United segments. (Any ticket purchased from United will be an 016 ticket, even if it has no United segments.) Tickets purchased from an agency will usually have a stock of the marketing carrier of the most significant segment ("first long segment" usually).
What's the trick here? Because PQP are earned as a fraction of the distance flown, flying long distances on low-priced fares can earn more PQP than dollars spent. For any given journey, you should consider where you are earning a favorable ratio of PQP to dollars of at least 1.0 when ticketing this way, and consider ticketing with United if you are not.
What about BULK fares? As far as I know, no official word from United, but since they have been PQD-ineligible in the past, they will probably earn PQP as 1/5 of the award miles which are distance based.
Earnings Tables
Last updated in the image on 17-Nov-23.
Note that values >= 20% are
rounded to the nearest 1%, and smaller values are rounded to the nearest 0.1%. If precise calculations are needed, you should always use the original source material (United website).
Star Alliance Airlines
Warning: It is
strongly recommended that you consult the
United earnings page for your airline and confirm the earning rate here, as they have been to known to change without notice and apply retroactively to tickets purchased before the change.
GREEN background is a "preferred" partner.
Other Partner Airlines (not Star Alliance)
Warning: It is
strongly recommended that you consult the
United earnings page for your airline and confirm the earning rate here, as they have been to known to change without notice and apply retroactively to tickets purchased before the change.
GREEN background is a "preferred" partner.
