I had just moved from US/AA over to UA in 2007 with status challenge so my starting 2007 BIS was rather low. 2008 was my first year earning 1K I joined a random team through FT and we placed 14th among FT teams and among the 50 winning teams. Thanks to FT guidance on value of UA miles, I was able to reduce my taxes on the 250,000 RDM.