Originally Posted by
Lefleur
I have some questions about whether it might make sense to pay for miles (and buy PQP) to hit Silver earlier so I accrue more miles.
As I think you already realized, absolutely not. At most, you're talking about ~8000 extra MileagePlus miles.
Originally Posted by
Lefleur
*edit-update: d’oh! I forgot regular members earn 5 miles per dollar, so I am thinking about this all wrong. The difference in mileage - for one upcoming trip for example - would be 12.6k versus 9k — not sure it’s worth it to buy up early!) I still think of miles as BIS miles — not the dollar amount involved. Whoops.
$1800 RT before taxes and fees?
Under the (at this point, decade-) old mileage-based accrual plan, you'd have earned the actual flight distance as a general member, plus a 25% bonus if you were silver. Under the new spend-based accrual plan, you earn 7x instead of 5x, which is a 40% bonus -- but it's still not worth paying anywhere close to $1K for a 40% bonus on UA miles.
Originally Posted by
Lefleur
one additional Q — if I had a United credit card, would I earn extra miles (or PQP “credit”?) *purchasing* miles and PQP? Or is that treated as double dipping, so to speak.
Sure, but that doesn't change the calculus in any meaningful manner. Spending $1000 on a Chase United Explorer card to buy miles will gain you an extra 50 PQP, and you'll get either another 1000 or 2000 redeemable miles depending upon whether or not Chase sees United as the merchant. The 50 PQP are unlikely to put you over any threshold on their own, and even an extra 2000 redeemable miles is worth between $20-$30.