It actually means four segments of any sort on UA metal. A single round-trip itinerary with a connection each way (e.g. MKE-ORD-CMH or SAT-IAH-AUS return) counts.

A business class award ticket to Europe (for example) from the 100k RDMs and 6 GPUs. You could easily spend more than $7,000 getting the benefits from that. While the fare difference between Y and J on international routes can sometimes be small (e.g., summer BF sale) it can sometimes be very large, particularly to South America and Asia. Then add the 4 RPUs which could be worth a few hundred $ each or more, depending on usage. Like EWR/IAH-HNL or transcons.

Oh, I don't know. Seven large goes long. I can probably get two BF tickets for $7000 on a lot of routes, while earning EQMs and RDMs instead of spending them. As for upgrades, while nice, they require buying a bunch of coach tickets to use 'em with, which means even more money out of my pocket. Seven grand is suddenly looking more like $10,000. :eek:

It can also go very short. Last-minute BF tickets easily go for $5-6k+, even to Europe. And that's when it's also usually easiest to use those 100k miles you just earned.

Well, you'll come out only about 35-40k RDMs ahead for 2 r/ts to Europe in Z @ $3,500 each vs. my scenario, and that's assuming you're Plat and get 100% bonus RDMs. But my scenario also gets you all those GPUs/RPUs, your scenario leaves you 75-80k EQMs short of that.

:confused: Surely you're not suggesting SWUs are a bad thing? Of course this all assumes you're going to be buying coach tickets in the future anyway. While I never suggested buying 1K for $7k was a good idea for everyone, there is clearly good value for some people depending on your travel patterns.

Some people, huh? OK. Let's see if anyone makes a credible claim to having actually bought 100,000 EQMs. :rolleyes:

It is 8,5 cpm in my itinerary now... End of the year coming and demand goes up, so does the price??

Whether someone here claims to do it or not doesn't change the facts. :rolleyes:

I am challenging your opinion, not your facts.

My domestic itins are now 9 cpm.

Or take someone who flies to Aus or Middle East frequently and burns miles and cash to upgrade. 6 SWUs is equivalent to 180,000 upgrade miles + $3,000 in award fees on that route. Add in 30,000 miles and $200 upgrade fee for the rt domestic upgrade, and you get the equivalent of 310,000 miles for a net price of $7,000 (@ 7 cpm) - $3,200 = $2,800. On top of that you get 1K priority on the upgrades plus other perks. So you end up paying $2,800 to save your self spending 310,000 miles (if you have them). If you don't have the miles you are effectively buying miles for < 1 cpm.

Maximizer now showing 9 cpm on my itinerary.

Up up up it goes!

Well, considering my posts were all factual, feel free to challenge the thin air.

"Good value" is not a fact, it's an opinion—one with which I happen to disagree. Nothing's wrong with having an opinion. You have yours; I have mine. Flyertalk's raison d'etre is disagreement of opinion. That's a good thing. Let's leave it at that. :)

I wish I had bought at 7c/mile- any chance it will come back down briefly or is it really just a constant march up toward the end of the year?

I remember it vacillating quite a bit during the fall-- but keep in mind that last year was the first year CO offered Maximizer and they were playing with the pricing quite a bit. One day it would be 7c another day it was 10 and then the next it was back down to 7. However, as we got closer to the end of the year the cost went straight up and stayed there. As I said in a prior post, on 12/31 EQMs were through the roof. I had one reservation that CO was offering me 10,000 EQM for $9,000 (yes, nine thousand dollars....ninety cents per mile.)

If you absolutely need the miles are definitely not going to fly, just buy them now and be done with it. I think the odds of it going back down to 7c are pretty low.