Originally Posted by FC_Dave
The basic lesson is not to waste your comps untill you are sure you can use them (ie wasted comp to UA) - Also got a rare comp to Marriott Gold (don't ask how or who, just got it done) and let it go to waste, after focusing on Hilton Points.
Any other suggestions before I book my mileage run ?????????
UA's policy used to be that they'd comp you every year that you could produce an appropriate status level from anothe airline....it may have changed. They kept me at gold again a year even after I didn't fly enough to qualify for gold (I was midway b/w silver and gold). In any case, the comp worked out for me b/c my company had me flying to Europe for business several times when it was going to be convenient to use *A airlines.
The benefit was really the *A Gold that came with the UA comp, b/c of lounge access and elite boarding lines, particularly (IME) in Vienna, where the serenity of the Austrian Airlines lounge was a far better alternative to waiting in a long line where one's sole entertainment would have been watching the tick races on the the many folks who seemed to have a rather cavalier attitude about personal hygiene.
Best,
O/H