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Elite status "holds/leave of absence" {Archive}

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Old Dec 14, 2011 | 5:53 pm
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Elite status "holds/leave of absence" {Archive}

Not for me but for a co-worker She has 250K EQM combined between UA/CO this year, probably borderline GS, but may not travel much, if at all, in 2012. Any precedent for this (either UA or CO)? Didn't see any in searching.

Regardless she'll be a MM post-merger so won't drop below Gold, but she's wondering if she can basically "postpone" 1K for a year (probably can't extend SWUs or anything, but maybe defer 1K). I'm guessing the answer is "no way", but curious.

Thanks for any insight into this.
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Old Dec 14, 2011 | 6:04 pm
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Originally Posted by UA-NYC
Not for me but for a co-worker She has 250K EQM combined between UA/CO this year, probably borderline GS, but may not travel much, if at all, in 2012. Any precedent for this (either UA or CO)? Didn't see any in searching.

Regardless she'll be a MM post-merger so won't drop below Gold, but she's wondering if she can basically "postpone" 1K for a year (probably can't extend SWUs or anything, but maybe defer 1K). I'm guessing the answer is "no way", but curious.

Thanks for any insight into this.
US wouldn't "postpone" CP for me (earned CP by an extremely long shot, and then flew a grand total of 4 segments the next year on US), but they did soft-land me to Gold and then to Silver in the years following that.

UA extended me to 1K without asking in the same time frame for an extra year in which I didn't fly at all, and then soft landed me to 2P. (Maybe more like hard landed?)
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Old Dec 14, 2011 | 6:11 pm
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Originally Posted by Joshua
US wouldn't "postpone" CP for me (earned CP by an extremely long shot, and then flew a grand total of 4 segments the next year on US), but they did soft-land me to Gold and then to Silver in the years following that.

UA extended me to 1K without asking in the same time frame for an extra year in which I didn't fly at all, and then soft landed me to 2P. (Maybe more like hard landed?)
Feel fortunate. I got "soft" landed from 10 years as a 1K to GM. Ouch. At least I'll get status back again in 2012 from flying and MM. So will be at least Gold for rest of my or UA's life.
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Old Dec 14, 2011 | 7:35 pm
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Thanks for the responses - to me, a postponement for maternity (could make the case for going into military service as well) is a slightly different issue than a general soft landing. Might be tougher now due to all the integration issues, but I'll probably PM UA Insider just to see if there are any options.
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Old Dec 15, 2011 | 7:01 am
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I just can't let this one go...
I wonder why someone who CHOOSES to have a baby thinks they should get special treatment? What if you lost your job? Had a death in the family? Got diagnosed with a life threatening disease?
In this economy there are an awful lot of people who are having trouble keeping their platinum status. I barely managed it by doing expensive, time consuming, annoying mileage runs -- it was not fun.
Everyone can't get a soft landing.
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Old Dec 15, 2011 | 7:09 am
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Originally Posted by chavala
I just can't let this one go...
I wonder why someone who CHOOSES to have a baby thinks they should get special treatment? What if you lost your job? Had a death in the family? Got diagnosed with a life threatening disease?
In this economy there are an awful lot of people who are having trouble keeping their platinum status. I barely managed it by doing expensive, time consuming, annoying mileage runs -- it was not fun.
Everyone can't get a soft landing.
IMHO you are being overly harsh here. I think there is nothing wrong with asking. No where does the OP say that the pregnant woman expects or deserves special treatment. To me there its okay to ask but if the answer is no then you need to move on. To pursue if further would then signal entitlement to me.
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Old Dec 15, 2011 | 7:44 am
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Originally Posted by UA-NYC
Not for me but for a co-worker She has 250K EQM combined between UA/CO this year, probably borderline GS, but may not travel much, if at all, in 2012. Any precedent for this (either UA or CO)? Didn't see any in searching.

Regardless she'll be a MM post-merger so won't drop below Gold, but she's wondering if she can basically "postpone" 1K for a year (probably can't extend SWUs or anything, but maybe defer 1K). I'm guessing the answer is "no way", but curious.

Thanks for any insight into this.
250k EQM and pregnant!!!....God bless her
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Old Dec 15, 2011 | 7:49 am
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Originally Posted by chavala
I just can't let this one go...
I wonder why someone who CHOOSES to have a baby thinks they should get special treatment? What if you lost your job? Had a death in the family? Got diagnosed with a life threatening disease?
In this economy there are an awful lot of people who are having trouble keeping their platinum status. I barely managed it by doing expensive, time consuming, annoying mileage runs -- it was not fun.
Everyone can't get a soft landing.
Seriously - take a chill pill. She knows she has a soft landing - but likely won't be able to take advantage of her 1K status and ~30 combined RUs/SWUs banked. She's not going to DEMAND that they do anything - she's making a request. With 250K EQM and ~$40K UA/CO spend this year (and ~1.2MM lifetime miles), MAYBE they'll do something for her.
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Old Dec 15, 2011 | 7:52 am
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Originally Posted by chavala
I just can't let this one go...
I wonder why someone who CHOOSES to have a baby thinks they should get special treatment? What if you lost your job? Had a death in the family? Got diagnosed with a life threatening disease?
In this economy there are an awful lot of people who are having trouble keeping their platinum status. I barely managed it by doing expensive, time consuming, annoying mileage runs -- it was not fun.
Everyone can't get a soft landing.
I'm not going to begin to debate the pregnancy side of things with you.

In this tough economy, wouldn't this be a way for United to ensure the continued loyalty of a high value customer?
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Old Dec 15, 2011 | 8:25 am
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Originally Posted by UA-NYC
Didn't see any in searching.
It usually comes up in a military deployment context....

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...atus-year.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ss-status.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...atus-year.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...d-threads.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ng-status.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-war-zone.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...extension.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...dy-2009-a.html
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Old Dec 15, 2011 | 12:29 pm
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Originally Posted by nova08
250k EQM and pregnant!!!....God bless her
I feel the need to calculate this...

250,000 EQM is 500 flight hours.

At 35,000 feet, you're sucking up about 5 microSieverts per hour (thanks, cosmic rays!), so we're talking 2.5 milliSieverts over the course of the year.

Actually that's not too bad, the average dose for Americans is 6.2 mSV/annum anyway so she hasn't actually sucked up all that much more radiation than normal.

Good stuff, I'm no longer concerned.
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Old Dec 15, 2011 | 1:15 pm
  #12  
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Originally Posted by Baze
Feel fortunate. I got "soft" landed from 10 years as a 1K to GM. Ouch. At least I'll get status back again in 2012 from flying and MM. So will be at least Gold for rest of my or UA's life.
Ten years as a 1K, and you're not a MM?
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Old Dec 15, 2011 | 1:19 pm
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Originally Posted by FriendlySkies
Ten years as a 1K, and you're not a MM?
Welcome to segment flying.

Back the original topic, I think it's entirely reasonable to offer to United the opportunity to retain someone who paid for 250k EQMs (and I suspect a high revenue customer as well) when they come back from maternity leave. Otherwise, this valuable customer might as well mail in their 1K card at the end of next year to DL, AA, etc. and secure a match with them.

Could be smart from UA's perspective to ensure she doesn't try to fly 250k again next year with an infant in tow.
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Old Dec 15, 2011 | 2:04 pm
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Originally Posted by Joshua
Could be smart from UA's perspective to ensure she doesn't try to fly 250k again next year with an infant in tow.
If I have a kid I'm going to take it everywhere (in F) and enjoy some sweet, sweet revenge for all those sleepless nights when I had meetings the next morning.

Do lap babies earn miles?
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Old Dec 15, 2011 | 4:35 pm
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Originally Posted by rruaco
...Do lap babies earn miles?
no
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