Mileage-earning Strategy after Making MVP Gold 75K
Hi all,
I'm about to requalify for Gold 75K after a trip I'm taking today. What is your mileage-earning strategy after reaching the highest elite tier? Do you keep banking your miles with Alaska's mileage plan (with 100% bonus for Golds) or do you start accruing miles on other programs such as Delta or American to make status there? The majority of my flying is international on Alaska's Skyteam partners (Delta, Air France, KLM) and British Airways. I'm interested in your thoughts... Thanks. |
Originally Posted by koopas
(Post 22868658)
Hi all,
I'm about to requalify for Gold 75K after a trip I'm taking today. What is your mileage-earning strategy after reaching the highest elite tier? Do you keep banking your miles with Alaska's mileage plan (with 100% bonus for Golds) or do you start accruing miles on other programs such as Delta or American to make status there? The majority of my flying is international on Alaska's Skyteam partners (Delta, Air France, KLM) and British Airways. I'm interested in your thoughts... Thanks. You already have access to DL, AA, BA, EK, CX... reward inventories through Mileageplan. Start earning on UA and you'll get access to LH, LX, TG, NG... and have the whole world pretty much covered. |
Whats the point in having 75K status if you arent going to use it? I dropped to Gold and did 1K on UA.
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are you buying J on the partner (DL/KLM/AF) flights? if not, you might want to look at diversifying to a program that offers international upgrade instruments. however, i agree with CDKing, if you aren't going to leverage your status, why have it?
for me, a commensurate 100K per year traveler, my strategy now is to try to maintain mid-tier status on both UA and AS, and trying to buy J or premium economy on whoever is cheapest for my international travel. |
Do you fly internationally? If so, I would move all of those travel over to an airline within an alliance that works best for you.
If not, then assess what airline fills the gap well for you that AS can't fill and explore that airline's program for those trips. Sounds like you fly well north of 100K a year, at this rate probably close to 175K, so it is a good idea to diversify. |
Originally Posted by MonThruThurs
(Post 22868790)
I would status match to *A to diversify my options to redeem, even with the spend component to UA's program. Making 75K in ~6 months is more than enough spend to make it worth while.
You already have access to DL, AA, BA, EK, CX... reward inventories through Mileageplan. Start earning on UA and you'll get access to LH, LX, TG, NG... and have the whole world pretty much covered.
Originally Posted by CDKing
(Post 22868808)
Whats the point in having 75K status if you arent going to use it?
That being said... I'd probably look at BA...
Originally Posted by koopas
(Post 22868658)
Hi all,
I'm about to requalify for Gold 75K after a trip I'm taking today. What is your mileage-earning strategy after reaching the highest elite tier? Do you keep banking your miles with Alaska's mileage plan (with 100% bonus for Golds) or do you start accruing miles on other programs such as Delta or American to make status there? The majority of my flying is international on Alaska's Skyteam partners (Delta, Air France, KLM) and British Airways. I'm interested in your thoughts... Thanks. |
Thanks for the comments. At this rate, I'll be flying close to 200K a year, with most of the miles stemming from international J-class business travel.
I hear the point "Why get 75K status if I'm not going to use it?". I chose AS as my main FF program because I'm Seattle-based and fly Skyteam a heck of lot to Africa (DL/AF/KL), sometimes BA to switch it up (though BA has spotty coverage for my destinations). While I'd love to build some miles in a *A program, I just don't see lots of connectivity from Seattle to North/West Africa as Air France dominates those markets. UA also isn't that big in SEA... I also do fly Alaska for the one-off biz trip to the East coast but I do take AS for personal trips, particularly up and down the coast. It's nice to get upgraded virtually all the time and to benefit from the MVPG fee waivers, particularly for award redemptions -- I do earn and burn quite efficiently and am quite fond of the choice and quality of AS partners (CX, I'm looking at you!). Thanks again for your input. |
Originally Posted by MonThruThurs
(Post 22868790)
You already have access to DL, AA, BA, EK, CX... reward inventories through Mileageplan.
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Originally Posted by koopas
(Post 22869331)
I hear the point "Why get 75K status if I'm not going to use it?". I chose AS as my main FF program because I'm Seattle-based and fly Skyteam a heck of lot to Africa (DL/AF/KL), sometimes BA to switch it up (though BA has spotty coverage for my destinations).
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Originally Posted by koopas
(Post 22869331)
Thanks for the comments. At this rate, I'll be flying close to 200K a year, with most of the miles stemming from international J-class business travel.
Thanks again for your input. 75K and top tier status with *A airline is a good way to diversify. Heck, I think you will easily make HON status with LH. |
"I would status match to *A to diversify my options to redeem, even with the spend component to UA's program. Making 75K in ~6 months is more than enough spend to make it worth while. "
That's great and then when you have a legitimate need to change, you'll have no options for a status match. I'd avoid that advice. The top tier status on someone like United is 100k miles. That's the only way to get a 100% match, so by doing it, you're costing yourself miles. The only way I see that making sense is if you would hit 100k miles and it wouldn't cause you to have a lot more stops. You travel AS for a reason I'm guessing. Unless you want to start spending a lot of time sitting in SFO changing might not be a good idea. |
Originally Posted by ou81two
(Post 22869694)
Unless you want to start spending a lot of time sitting in SFO changing might not be a good idea.
Not sure what SFO has to do with it as the OP's travel patterns does not require connecting in SFO. The OP is with AS due to AS's extensive partnership with international partners particularly BA/AF/KL [seems like OP flies to Europe directly from SEA then onto his/her destination]. Nobody is saying the OP should dump AS for UA/*A, AS will still be the primary airline for domestic travel, but split the international travel between AS's partners and Star Alliance [LH] or one-stop to Africa trips on UA via IAD. |
Originally Posted by CDKing
(Post 22869532)
The main reason gold is high enough for me is, other than 50K bonus miles, 75K doesn't get you anything that Gold wont, if you primarily fly partners.
As for the OP- that is quite the pace you have set! If you're having luck burning & earning on partners easily I'd be inclined to keep with AS. Diversification can work well, but if its working now, why change? |
Originally Posted by koopas
(Post 22869331)
Thanks for the comments. At this rate, I'll be flying close to 200K a year, with most of the miles stemming from international J-class business travel.
I hear the point "Why get 75K status if I'm not going to use it?". I chose AS as my main FF program because I'm Seattle-based and fly Skyteam a heck of lot to Africa (DL/AF/KL), sometimes BA to switch it up (though BA has spotty coverage for my destinations). While I'd love to build some miles in a *A program, I just don't see lots of connectivity from Seattle to North/West Africa as Air France dominates those markets. UA also isn't that big in SEA... I also do fly Alaska for the one-off biz trip to the East coast but I do take AS for personal trips, particularly up and down the coast. It's nice to get upgraded virtually all the time and to benefit from the MVPG fee waivers, particularly for award redemptions -- I do earn and burn quite efficiently and am quite fond of the choice and quality of AS partners (CX, I'm looking at you!). Thanks again for your input. |
Originally Posted by fishywang
(Post 22869916)
I think TK and LH should have some coverage at north/west africa? They both have flights to SEA.
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