Ubbe

yes that is correct. you will NOT earn any points in P-class at UA.

taliesin

Wow, that's crazy! You'd think it would at least be the same as Y or B.

Well, that kills my idea of a luxury mileage run to Shanghai.

pinniped

Dumb question: Why isn't this thread (or this forum, or this concept in general) exploding in popularity throughout Flyertalk? This seems too easy.

I promise I won't go posting about it elsewhere.

There doesn't seem to be a catch, other than some 50% earning and some oddball fare buckets that don't count.

I personally won't take advantage of it - except maybe if I have some short-haul United Express segments. (Might have a couple this summer...)

sparkchaser

I think this is the main reason. A $600 fare that would have given you 100% miles on US can give you 0 on A3.


I don't think a few short-hauls will get you there unless you want to space it out over a few years.

pinniped

True...and I understand the disappointment that P isn't there to jump on the bargain business-class fares. But the normal fares that I end up booked in for my regular trips (both business and leisure) are on the list for both UA and US. All of the cheapest "normal" fares are there - S, L, T, etc.

Upthread, a 500-mile minimum for UA segments is referenced, even on discount economy. So wouldn't signing up for the program and then flying three UA MCI-ORD round trips do the trick?

Not that I'd go out and do a mileage run just for *S since I already have *G, but getting to the *S level for my wife and daughters who don't fly much would give us some travel flexibility on some of our regular trips.

mabramovich

Ok, looks like *S does give free bags on Air Canada transborder flights and US domestic flights. In this case, it makes sense, I think, to get my parents *S. They have some flights on UA coming up: YYZ - EWR - LIM; UIO - IAH - YYZ. The tickets are in 50% earning buckets on A3, so they would make 3000 miles. Combined with the 1000 mile sign-up, they would get 4000 miles and Star Silver status. I think that's correct, anyway.

Now, the issue is, once they reach Star Silver. To enjoy their free bag, do they always have to credit all subsequent flights to A3? With Air Canada, if you put your FFP number into your boarding pass, the system will automatically recognize you as Star Silver. However, I guess then you can't credit to Aeroplan, because your A3 number is in there. Am I correct?

Eventually (although I hear it's slow), they would get a Miles and Bonus Blue card. This card then recognizes them as Star Silver, right? Then could they credit their flights to Aeroplan and just try to show their Star Silver cards on check-in to avoid paying fees?

I mean 4K miles to get a free bag for a couple of years is great, but it would suck to have to keep sinking miles into A3.

Thanks for any advice

gordo6

Just to make sure I understood correctly: If I get 19000 tier miles, I become a GOLD member. Then, to renew it, I only need to keep to account active, meaning after every flight I get the status for 36 months starting from that flight?
So it's actually a "life-time" status, as the status granted to me forever if I keep the account active, no matter which flight I fly every 36 months?

If that's correct, that's just insane... I'll use that to get *G for everyone in my family, including me (unfortunately, I don't fly *A as much as I used to, mostly BA and LY nowadays...). How can they make money like that (not that I'm complaining, of-course)?

pinniped

They way I've always understood using partner status within an alliance, you do need to use the elite-status FF account to actually receive those benefits.

The "hack" is to change your FFP at the gate. You've checked your bag, used the elite security line, and might even have preferred coach seats. Some airlines frown upon this. Others don't. Some GA's might notice if you switched from an elite A3 number to a non-elite AC or UA one and ask questions about why. They might consider it gaming the system and refuse to do it. Others might not care. YMMV. Personally, I wouldn't want to rely on playing this card often.

Thus, I would assume that the more you fly using your "quasi-lifetime" status, the more you're channeling your miles into A3.

But...I think I can live with that. The *A award chart looks "normal" for enough ex-North America regions that it would work for me. One-ways are permitted.

For my family and I, I suspect we're going to be on US metal more than anything in the next year. Flights are typically over 500 miles. So as long as US doesn't buy AA and head off to Oneworld land soon, it seems like a reasonable path to *S without much downside...especially considering my wife/kids would never achieve it going the 25,000-mile or even the US Silver Trial route.

sparkchaser

Unless I missed something, wouldn't that only get you as far as Blue status?

Egor

No, european programs in general tend to have minimums from the start, not only for elite customers

sparkchaser

I'm confused. I must either be missing something or we're talking about different things.

1,000 miles for signing up
3 round-trip MCI-ORD UA @ 500 miles per segment is 3,000 miles

That's 4k which gets you A3 Blue. You need another 16k for gold.


I'm still a n00b at this stuff so feel free to set me straight.

Egor

Oh, sorry, I misread your post completely, I though that you implied that blue status is required for min 500 earnings

sparkchaser

Ah, ok. No harm, no foul.

MSPeconomist

So do some USA based programs.

pinniped

Sorry if I was confusing earlier. I'm mostly interested in Star Silver for my other family members who don't fly much. Even we just got to a point where they always credited their flights to A3 to maintain Blue (and never did a run up to Gold), I'd be happy with that.

As for me, if I ever drop out of my usual Star Gold with US, I would come back to A3 and chase Gold. (What can I say...I like lounges. )