Originally Posted by
ProfessorPlum168
- Doing a quick SFO-HKG flight using Air Canada via Vancouver in late February. Cost is around $560, K class. Under the new rules, I would get 4 PQS and ~3,000 PQP points. Under the new plan, preferred partner airlines such as Air Canada, since United doesn't know the ticket cost, they use total mileage divided by 5. So roughly 7,500 miles one way, times 2, 100% mileage apply for K class, total divided by 5 = 3,000.
No. Air Canada K is 50% (and 25% for flights within Canada). You need to look at the award mile earnings table. NOT the PQM earning table. Assuming you're also flying SFO-YVR with AC, you only get 14384/2/5 = 1,438 PQP.
Originally Posted by
ProfessorPlum168
- If I had used United instead (for roughly $625 RT), I would only get 625 PQP and 2 PQS (direct flight). 3,000 >>> 625. I would miss out on lifetime miles, but I'm nowhere close to making a million (at 600K currently and I'm getting close to retirement age), so lifetime miles isn't a great concern for me..
From UA:
You will not earn PQP or award miles for the full amount of the displayed price for these flights because the U.S. Federal Transportation tax does not earn PQP or miles.
Originally Posted by
ProfessorPlum168
- Doing a SFO-EWR flight on Basic Economy, $199. I would get 0 PQS towards the 12 needed for Mileage Plus Silver (Basic Economy does not count apparently) and some PQP points for the $199 purchase. However, it would count for the minimum 4 segments for a given year needed on UA metal to qualify for Premier.
You're right you get 0 PQF in 2020 for BE. So I don't think that will count towards the 4 segments. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.
Originally Posted by
ProfessorPlum168
- Because of the 12 segment rule, it seems to make some sense to find some flights that make 2 or more stopovers, in order to more quickly make the 12 PQS limit. Are there UA flights that do 3+ stopovers? Or would I need to just embed a couple of smaller round trips inside of a big round trip? (i.e. SFO-EWR, embedded by say an EWR-MCO RT flight).
You can play with routing on Google Flights / ITA. Try adding hub cities as layovers. For example I've found YVR-DEN-SFO-HNL to be the same price as YVR-SFO-HNL sometimes. You can also try to use SDC to add segments although I have had to call multiple times to finally get a willing agent for my last few trips.