Originally Posted by
Scott Heemann
I'm looking to get to next level status with United Mileage Plus, either via United accruals or reaching Marriott Titanium (up to 63 nights YTD). I already have met PQF threshold for 2022. However I still need just over 1,500 additional PQP. So far in YTD 2022, I have domestic and international, to South/Central America, all on Copa, trips but largely have been on bottom dollar fares and economy fare classes. So PQP is languishing.
You say “next level status,” but it sounds like you actually mean first level (i.e., Silver) status.
FYI, if you earn status via United (as opposed to via a Marriott Titanium match), you also need four flights operated by United (or United Express) to qualify.
Originally Posted by
Scott Heemann
I have bottom dollar Economy fares booked via United website for whole R/T itinerary (includes UN, Swiss and AC operated flights). For return trip LIS-IAD, via YYZ, if I were to upgrade to business class how do I determine how many PQP could be earned? The transatlantic flight is operated by AC, but code-shared as UA 8038, current booking class K. (Current roundtrip fare is under $400 USD.) Will PQP earned be calculated as UN as the carrier or AC? Appears if it is AC the PQP accruals are much higher. (Ticket was purchased on United.com.)
Others have already given you the correct answer — because you booked on United, you’re going to earn PQP based upon what you paid, for all flights. If you had booked with another carrier, then partner flights would have been credited based upon a distance factor, but, as already mentioned, upgrades tend not to count for those calculations.
All of that said, there’s another question to answer first — why are you trying to achieve United status? It seems that you rarely fly United. You get almost no benefits from being UA Silver when flying other airlines. UA Silver gets you Star Alliance Silver (*S) status; the benefits are here:
https://www.staralliance.com/en/recognition . Note that Silver contains only two items on its list: Priority Reservations Waitlist and Priority Airport Standby. I would be surprised if 5% of *S members actually use either of these benefits during a given year.
If you don’t fly United regularly, you may want to consider earning status on another airline instead, as you’re not getting a lot of bang for your buck with MileagePlus.