The one way confirmable upgrades for 1Ks make a big difference. Also if you have international flights, the flight miles towards the certs really add up.

But for PEs with domestic travel (like me) complimentary upgrades are about 20%, and sometimes not even 20%. 1000 mile upgrades are needed for a flight like Denver to Dallas, an hour and a half flight where they do not serve food, even in 1st. The flight is 645 flight miles, so you get roughly 1 upgrade in 7.5 flights (roughly 13%). It is not even worth it to upgrade on such flights, especially if the middle seat is empty.

I think that United should uniformly enforce collection of certificates (or eliminate certificates, which I doubt they will). There are some very creative strategies for getting additional freebie certificates, but they border on abusing the system and hurt those who follow the rules.

I also do not buy the booklets.

[This message has been edited by PG (edited 02-10-2000).]