Jan 21, 2026, 11:27 am

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2026 UA MP elite status buy-up offers (for higher status than earned in 2025)

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Jan 26, 2026 | 11:11 am

#46

WineCountryUA

Moderator: United Airlines

Join Date: Jun 2007

Location: SFO

Programs: UA LT Plat 2MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat

Posts: 72,948

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nihon_Ni

A different perspective

I know most of these offers seem agast to the recipients, but looking at it from the perspective of those who qualified by achieving the stated milestones, wouldn't most qualifiers be furious if the offers were for less than 100% of a recipient's PQP delta? What would the incentive be to qualify organically, if you could get a big discount by buying it in Jan?,.

I, for don't disagree but in the initially years, UA just no bid those case that no reasonable person would consider.
I have been earning just above the Plat level since retiring and in most years never got a 1K offer. This year I fell short of Plat due to some cancellations (but protected with LT Plat) and got offer of over $15K -- more than my actual spend for 2025. While there might be a total fool willing, such offers just make this promo look silly and easy to make a FT posting making fun of.

Jan 26, 2026 | 11:13 am

#47

aero219

Join Date: Oct 2018

Location: Waiting for a gate at EWR

Programs: UA 1K

Posts: 120

1K for 5 years, and barely made gold this year. My offer is ~6,000 or ~615,000 miles for platinum.

Any word whether UA is still doing complimentary 1-time status extensions due to life events?

Jan 26, 2026 | 11:27 am

#48

lessthanzero

Join Date: Jun 2005

Programs: UA GS, *G, Bonvoy AMB & LTP, HH Diamond, Platinum Blockbuster, GameStop, several library cards

Posts: 1,355

Jan 26, 2026 | 11:41 am

#49

wnielsen1

Join Date: Aug 2007

Location: ORD

Programs: UA 1K

Posts: 221

Quote:

Originally Posted by aero219

1K for 5 years, and barely made gold this year. My offer is ~6,000 or ~615,000 miles for platinum.

Any word whether UA is still doing complimentary 1-time status extensions due to life events?

There have been reports in other threads. Pick up the phone and give it a shot.

me4tux likes this.

Jan 26, 2026 | 12:56 pm

#50

Nihon_Ni

Join Date: Feb 2016

Location: Virginia

Programs: UA 1K (1MM), Marriott Lifetime Plat, Hertz PC

Posts: 159

Quote:

Originally Posted by WineCountryUA

I agree with all of that. I hadn't thought about the plethora of "no offers" in previous years. A bean counter would say if you don't offer the giant price, you definitely won't sell it. The unintended consequences of the silly promo are much harder to measure.

Jan 26, 2026 | 1:02 pm

#51

WineCountryUA

Moderator: United Airlines

Join Date: Jun 2007

Location: SFO

Programs: UA LT Plat 2MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat

Posts: 72,948

Quote:

Originally Posted by aero219

1K for 5 years, and barely made gold this year. My offer is ~6,000 or ~615,000 miles for platinum.

Any word whether UA is still doing complimentary 1-time status extensions due to life events?

Depends on the "life event"
see Elite status "holds/leave of absence" (adoption, pregnancy, illness, deployment, ...)
and
Will UA Grant 2026 Elite Status if I am XXX PQP/PQFs Short of Qualifying in 2025

Quote:

Originally Posted by lessthanzero

Not surprising as GS and 1K requal

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Jan 26, 2026 at 1:07 pm

Jan 26, 2026 | 2:11 pm

#52

skelso

Join Date: Aug 2019

Posts: 15

Seeing $1.4K for Plat- not as egregious as some other offers. Thoughts? I’ll definitely use the PP.

Jan 26, 2026 | 2:34 pm

#53

caseminole

Join Date: Feb 2009

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Programs: UA Premier Gold, Starwood Gold, Plat AE, CO PP MC, Marriott Rewards Plat, Virgin Elevate Gold

Posts: 1,756

While qualifying for Silver for decades, and the occasional Gold (both pmCO and UA), I have been hitting Premier Gold the last 2 or 3 years due to higher than normal travel to Argentina

I think I "barely" qualified for Gold in 2025, but the offer to buy up to Platinum is $6,962

Hard pass.

Jan 26, 2026 | 3:59 pm

#54

z28lt1

Join Date: Mar 2010

Programs: ua Gold, Marriott Gold, Hilton Silver, Hyatt Gold, National Executive, Avis First

Posts: 207

Missed Gold by around $1200 so my buy-up to Gold is $1,421 or 142,110 miles.

Would consider it if I was flying more in 2026 as it is not too far from an E+ subscription, but I'm likely not flying enough to make Gold next year, so hard to justify those benefits this year.

Jan 26, 2026 | 4:24 pm

#55

jsloan

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Oct 2001

Location: Austin, TX

Posts: 25,543

Quote:

Originally Posted by skelso

Seeing $1.4K for Plat- not as egregious as some other offers. Thoughts? I’ll definitely use the PP.

Platinum is not worth $1400 in my book unless you regularly travel with 5+ people and would buy an E+ subscription or individual E+ seats for your traveling party.

I suspect that pretty much any flight that you’d clear, as a Platinum, with 40 PlusPoints, you could pay less than $1400 for a buy-up.

SPN Lifer, Repooc17 and NJSwamplands like this.

Jan 27, 2026 | 2:03 pm

#56

myalchod

Join Date: May 2025

Posts: 6

Was 99% sure that my 'discounted' offer for ~$1650 to Gold was not worth the buyup, and talking here I'm feeling justified. Fell short of Gold PQPs by a little under 1400 points. With my first major trip this year on points, I suspect I'll end up falling short again this year and I've got Silver and the basic card already for basic perks.

(Someone tell me if I'm dead wrong, but the more I see here the less I think that's true.)

Jan 27, 2026 | 11:32 pm

#57

me4tux

Join Date: Sep 2004

Location: SJC, SFO, OAK

Programs: UA, QFF, AA, IHG Plat, Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold, Hertz Pres Circle.

Posts: 225

To answer your question: I was 591 PQP away from Silver last year...

Quote:

Originally Posted by hscottm

I had posted a few before you with a "not nuts" but still too much offer for Silver. In my post I said that it was hard to justify spending almost $900.

But $270? I can't speak for you, but it worth it probably in most cases. If you can get E+ seats on a single round trip for you, it comes close to paying for itself. Oh and you get those $300 back almost immediately as PQP for this coming year.

BTW - can you post, for the record, how far off you were? I am guessing about 200 PQP.

Feb 5, 2026 | 9:14 pm

#58

frappant

Join Date: Sep 2022

Programs: United Mileage Plus

Posts: 1,667

I’m not sure how short I was but UA just offered me Platinum for 299k miles or just under $3k.

I never targeted Platinum, just Gold. I did hit it a couple of times but never made much use of the 40’Plus Points so very little incentive to go for Platinum.

I’ve read that people just ask for it and once every few years they will grant it but I don’t know how close you have to be.

After they emailed this “offer” maybe they wouldn’t grant it anyways.