Choice Benefits - All GCUs?
 

Hello,
If I make Diamond this year towards 2020 status, can I select Global Certificate Upgrades for all 3 choice benefits, netting me 12 one-way certs? Or is 4 the maximum per medallion year?

Thanks

You can only choose upgrades once, so 4 GUCs max per year.

Dang it. Thanks. It sounded too good to be true.

Agreed!

What you get to pick:
- Platinum Choice Benefits when you hit PM (one selection)
- Diamond CBs when you hit DM (3 selections)
-- The Certs are available as:
--- 4 Global OR
--- 8 Regional OR
--- 2 Global AND 4 Regional

Correct - that's why I listed them under the DM selection list (I didn't put down that OP had to select 4x RUCs as PM selection - as there are other options, I only highlighted the GUC options that only are available as DM)

What do most people pick? Seems like the 4 GUCs are the way to go, but as someone who flies LAX-JFK a lot, and am pretty flexible with travel times, the 2/4 might be the way to go?

Unless you're super flexible with your international travel, GUC's can be a waste. In the last 3 years I've had a few expire worthless because they waitlisted on flights and it was full. Of course, all depends on the route/day. Maybe I'm just unlucky

I don't think there's ever been anything officially published that says anything either way on this

This is another one of those route/timing things. After several years at PM I was quite disillusioned with RUCs - having many expire or just tossing them right before expiration at sub-2 hour flights because they hadn't cleared before.

Since making DM, I've been pleasantly surprised at the usability of GUCs. All of mine have cleared at booking for TATL trips on the exact dates I wanted. Granted, I do have some minor flexibility for my int'l travel in terms of what time/route I want to fly, but I have never had to change the day of departure/arrival or take some crazy ridiculous routing to use a GUC. Usually if there's no space on any of the nonstop flights, I can find something at comparable times by adding JFK, CDG, or AMS as a quick connection point.

Here's the master thread if OP wants to reference success/failure reports: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delt...yay-i-got.html

Flexibility is key. If you're flying purely business schedules, of course certs are going to be hard to use. My schedule is less traditional, so I generally have a lot of luck. Heck, I even recently cleared a mileage upgrade on DTW-ICN at booking.

All my TATL this year has been for business. Out Sunday/Monday, back Thursday/Friday/Saturday.

Point is - *some* flexibility is needed but IME GUCs have been far more usable than RUCs.

Is there a way to check GUC availability before you select your Diamond benefits? I won't want to select GUCs unless I know there are dates when I can make them work for a specific trip I have in mind.