Originally Posted by
spin88
Lets think this one through... how many folks not flying for business pay $5K/year in travel. Outside of some retired travelers (e.g. my parrents) who take 2-3 trips per year in J, I would bet that few if any travelers spending $5K/year traveling just on personal travel.
+1. This is what the leisure traveler does, they don't try to spend $5K on UA to get silver.
You'd be surprised. My wife and I are both 1Ks on purely personal travels.
Remember $18k doesnt actually mean $18k spend. I m pretty confident we will be 1Ks again this year for ~USD7000 (tax incl) spend, with maybe a quarter of our flights in economy.
The only think I may come up short on is a few (<10) segments - which may require a frivolous segment run in December - but segments can be had at <$50 each.
And neither of us is anywhere close to retirement (I wish!)
Of course this program is designed for OPM flyers. People who will wait that extra day to book their work ticket, people who will direct spend to United, even though there are cheaper alternatives, because its not their money. Both scenarios are a win for United, whereas with my personal money, I look to spend
the least, OPM flyers are looking to spend
the most allowed without being questioned to pad their personal PQD.