Originally Posted by
Rommie2k6
Fair points, I'm mostly domestic travel and I only use miles for travel. I don't do paid personal travel, and corporate travel will not be on United (because no status). Mostly solo traveler perhaps 2-3 UA RT trips per year, at most another 1-2 group trips per year. So I can charge the award travel fees to my Chase United Explorer. Not going through the PQP route since I have no spend on UA, and my intention is to have minimal spend. The only way I can get UA Silver is through Marriott Titanium.
At just 5 trips max per year, does it make sense to buy a subscription vs just paying to upgrade to E+ a la carte? Regarding status, when I first obtained lowly 2P (Silver) status, I immediately noticed much better service when weather would shut down the midwest, or even IAD. I got out of dodge (via creative routing sometimes) while others without status were left behind. My travel no longer includes frequent midwest of east coast trips in the winter, so it wouldn't be such a big deal now.
In a non-status world, I'd doubt that I'd retain my allegiance to United. Buying by price and seat selection alone, United is often not the best buy. But for me, United flies where I need to (and want to) go, and my local airport is SFO, a huge United hub. Plus my business CC spend allows me to maintain status even years I don't fly much (like this past year).