itaexpat

Hi all,
I need a sounding board to figure out my elite status strategy over the next few months, and specifically the bolded part below.

Who I am: FB Gold since 2019, currently at 231XP (with 30XP pending for an upcoming international return flight). I've lived in the Boston area for a few years, didn't make sense to switch to Delta since my most lucrative trips have been to Europe, both personal and business, well served by AF/KLM/Delta (once also Alitalia).

The problem: I'm moving from the Boston area to the Denver area, which is very poorly served by Sky Team airlines. United/Star Alliance have it. Both my personal and my business trips are likely to remain to Europe as well as Boston / NYC / SFO - with Delta having exactly no direct flights to either of these three hubs.

Solutions I've explored: United offered me a status match challenge to Premier Gold between January-May. But I'm so close to FB Platinum that I'm thinking I should focus on reaching that first, and then status match to Premier Platinum. I'm in Europe right now and saw that I could fork $930 to switch my return ticket (Italian city I'm in right now to CDG to BOS) to business from economy - this would easily push me over the Plat threshold, especially since XPs are doubled for trips taken before December 31, and I could then focus on United/Star Alliance in 2022. I'm just not sure it makes financial sense. For this trip I've already spent:

$657 original RT economy ticket
$334 upgrade / ticket switch to Premium Economy
68,400 miles for last minute upgrade to business - maybe not cheap but I really, really thought I deserved the treat and I had over 151k miles that I do not plan on using (I care about receiving XP/miles for trips to maintain status, and prefer applying Chase UR points toward trips than booking award tickets)

Would it be insane to add $930 on top to reach Plat - and have a nice 8 hour business class cross-Atlantic trip - and thus wrap up my Flying Blue / Sky Team relationship? This way I would:

• Enjoy Platinum status across Sky Team until May 2023 - it's possible I'll still fly Delta and other Sky Team airlines even out of Denver
• Request a status match challenge to United Premier Platinum and focus on flying solely United in 2022 to reach status within Star Alliance as well

Notes:

• $930 is within easy reach - I place a high value on airline status because I travel a lot and being elite has taken a lot of the stress out of it
• I far prefer Sky Team. Delta is far superior to United IMO. I could also just suck it up and take the extra layovers just to avoid switching. But not sure it's worth all that stress after all.

This was a lot - thank you for helping me

fifty_two

Hi

few points to adress
.

1. I'm so close to FB Platinum that I'm thinking I should focus on reaching that first, and then status match to Premier Platinum = Yes , at is better to have platinum than gold
2. Would it be insane to add $930 on top to reach Plat - and have a nice 8 hour business class cross-Atlantic trip - and thus wrap up my Flying Blue / Sky Team relationship? = not really , if thats not a big issue for you and your budget
3. Request a status match challenge to United Premier Platinum and focus on flying solely United in 2022 to reach status within Star Alliance as well = yes thats a good strategy

.
Again , enjoy status matches and see , but they need to be useful for you .... so wait to get FB platinum and then try the status match ... I think DEN is located in "fly over the country" area , so you are not lucky , but still you can use some shuttle flights with UA to whatever DL or Skyteam airport which is convenient for you

Ditto

One thing to probably keep in mind, there is no "Platinum status across Sky Team", you will be STE+ regardless of whether you are FB Gold or Plat, there are still some advantages to being Platinum, the most useful one for you might be that you only drop one level if you don't re-qualify, meaning you will be STE+ until 2024, otherwise the one I value the most is the Platinum line followed by the free EC seats however if you won't fly AF/KL both are meaningless.

itaexpat

thanks! With regards to adding $930 on top of 657 + 334 + 68,400 miles, am I spending an insane amount of money out of pocket for a RT business? I know this can be highly subjective — but some I’d love some general ballpark estimate

very true about dropping one level, so I am guaranteed STE+ until mid-2024. That’s a great datapoint I had not thought about. What would be valuable in having elite status with two different alliances is the flexibility of choosing what airline to fly. I could still end up flying delta domestic out of DEN, or AF/KL in Europe, its just great to be able to choose since flying with benefits is truly so much better than not (another big perk is 2 free checked bags starting at Gold level on both Sky Team and Star Alliance)

747jetter

I think for last minute upgrade you are talking about you will not receive any additional XP, only those originally for your ticket (economy). Otherwise go for Platinum and see what you can come up with. Status match never hurts.

fifty_two

As i said , its your money , not mine, if you earn $10k/$15k per month after taxes and your lifestyle allow you to spend 900$ just for platinum then go for it

thats the point , not being stucked with one airline cause of FFP

Only one free bag for STE and STE+ on skyteam flights is the general rule amongst the alliance members (some can allow more but at least its the basic)

itaexpat

This would be an actual ticket change to business, not a last minute upgrade, so I would earn business class XP.

I get that (also no, I don’t make that kind of money) — my point was more about whether the sum of all parts (cash+miles) that went into this RT ticket was exceeding normalcy for a RT US to/from Europe business class ticket. No need to reply further on this — I can do my own math, was just trying to get a sense of whether I was crazy or not.

I’ve been able to check 2 bags free with delta as STE+! I guess it may vary.

itaexpat

This would be an actual ticket change to business, not a last minute upgrade, so I would earn business class XP.

I get that (also no, I don’t make that kind of money) — my point was more about whether the sum of all parts (cash+miles) that went into this RT ticket was exceeding normalcy for a RT US to/from Europe business class ticket. No need to reply further on this — I can do my own math, was just trying to get a sense of whether I was crazy or not.

I’ve been able to check 2 bags free with delta as STE+! I guess it may vary.

r0gerthat

Sounds like a good idea if you travel a lot!

You better be sure that this upgrade really is a new ticket. Any upgrades on AFKL will not give you the expected XP.

random.parts

Just wanted to add a point about UA and Star Alliance (*A) - once you have UA Gold you earn *A Gold which is the highest alliance level. The jump from UA Gold to UA Plat is not really worth added effort.

Silver to Gold: Yes
Plat to 1K: absolute Yes
Gold to Plat? Unless you travel with more than one other person frequently, then there is not a lot of extra you will be earning. Upgrades into and out of DEN, especially to SFO and EWR are difficult even for 1Ks. The 40 Plus Points are nice but even that wont help much with upgrades on those routes, but could maybe use it on a single one way upgrade to/from Europe. Still not sure it is worth the effort if UA Plat is the sole reason to go out of your way. I say that as someone who has no problem taking a flight from AUS to IAH with a layover in DEN to pad my segments for re-qualifying.

Here are a couple of threads you may want to look through to help with your choices.

Gold to Platinum
Is it worth it to stretch for Plat (over Gold)? [2019 Consolidated]

brunos

I am unsure about your exact situation.
You live in BOS but are in Europe now. SHould we assume that you have already flown the outbound and we are only talking about the inbound to BOS?
Have you already secured the award for the upgrade to Business? If so $930 will not provide you any additional benefit in terms of flying in business. The question is trading off 68,400 miles against $930. Or is my understanding incorrect?

Regarding the status issue. FB Plat is STE+ and won't bring much benefits on DL over FB Gold. To me, the big advantage would be to secure one additional year of STE with the soft landing.I cannot judge the benefits of UA Plat vs Gold, nor how easy it will e for you to get a successful match.

itaexpat

Thank you, this is very helpful and informative -- I wasn't aware *A Gold was the highest tier, which means I could theoretically qualify with a Gold status match (is there really no difference between a Premier Gold and a Premier 1K, though?).

Regarding your second point, however, I'd be reaching FB Plat also for the sake of it, as in: it's entirely possible I will continue to (occasionally) fly Delta in the US and/or AF/KL in Europe, with all the Plat benefits therein (higher upgrade chances with Delta domestically, reserved premium customer line on AF/KL, extra mileage accrual x dollar/euro spent)

itaexpat

Correct. To your question below, the outbound is where I used 68,400 miles at the check-in counter (last minute) to upgrade to business. I earned 50XP on this leg because I had switched my ticket from economy to premium economy (paying $334 - and I believe doing so unlocked the eligibility to a business upgrade, because I had been told I wasn't able to get an upgrade from economy). BOS-CDG premium economy: 20XP x 2 (promotion) + CDG-Italy: 5XP x 2. Original economy ticket was $657. These are below average fares for a Christmastime US-EU ticket (thanks covid?). Obviously, I flew business but earned prem eco XP.

I have not, and this is not an award upgrade (which would not earn additional XP), this is a ticket change akin to my switch from economy to premium economy on the outbound leg. This causes reticketing and additional XP earning (I can say so confidently since I did it on the outbound):



My original questions were:

1. Is this worth it?
2. Is this pushing the total financial investment in this ticket ($657 + $334 + 68,400 miles + $930 = $1921 + 68,400 miles) beyond what is reasonable for a RT business class ticket from US east coast to Europe, at the net of any personal financial situation? (I thought this was an objective question to ask, but perhaps it is not)

Ditto

It doesn't sound too bad IMO, you could try and make a dummy J booking for your route and see what it would usually cost.

random.parts

There is a huge difference between Gold and 1K. 1K being the highest published tier. Just not much difference between Gold and Platinum, with Plat being between Gold and 1K. If you can get to 1K I say def go for that, but if you are going to get to FB Plat anyway and can challenge into UA Plat over Gold then might as well, UA Plat well open some additional award space but like most programs awards keep getting devalued and are hard to find.

I went from UA Plat to 1K a couple years ago and it is night & day difference. The benefits at Gold and the benefits at 1K are so good for their level that it leaves Plat in a weird position, like getting a new fancy title at work but no pay raise.

One option you may want to look at is to status match with Air Canada (AC). They were doing a real easy status match for US based flyers, not sure if it is still available. I know some people do this over UA - You wont get UA specific benefits obviously, but if you get matched into an AC tier that earns *A Gold, then you get *A benefits on UA including access to the United Clubs (UA status only gets United club access on Int’l routes) and other *A clubs, priority checkin lanes and extra baggage on some flights - I don’t check bags so am unsure on the full details here, in case that’s important