Originally Posted by
SPN Lifer
However, only MileagePlus Premier Silver members and above earn a minimum of 500 miles per segment toward lifetime status!
This makes a big difference if striving for Million Miler (MM) lifetime Premier Gold membership -- especially if one anticipates flying numerous sub-500-mile segments in the upcoming year before one could earn Premier Silver.
Each of us must consider our own individual circumstances in making such decisions.
As someone with hundreds of sub-500 mile segments and Million Miler status, I disagree with the implicit premise here. Keep in mind that most travelers — even, I’d wager, most 1Ks — will never come anywhere close to 1MM in their entire flying career. If OP is in PDX (based upon the username), there are no sub-500 mile UA flights to/from home.
The truth is that most people should ignore the Million Miler program entirely. If you’re talking about spending real dollars to reach a Million Miler threshold, I recommend looking no more than two years into the future, because there’s no way to know what the program may look like further out than that. In this case, we’re talking about $1600 in potential spending. For that, if OP winds up at a point where the sub-500 mile flights would help hit a threshold, OP can get to Singapore and back and earn a lot more lifetime miles than would come from rounding up SFO-FAT or whatnot.