OT and brain teaser for Flysurfer and weero
 

Gosh how complicated ....

:confused: I need to change my strategy to keep up with this mathematics.

My goal was to get my 600K miles on LH/LX this year and collcet the rest --meaning my UA miles -- on MP....then again I wonder if this is smart, as I am interersted in award miles rather than another posh (black/ puke green card called 1K )

But flysurfer might enlighten me.... :confused: :confused:

So assuming I can get my 600k on LH metal this year, and I fly another 50K BIS in F on UA (so about 120k?? in MP EQM??, asuming I start off as a 1P level - complimentary level)

I should get the 1K level (6SWU) and if I things go along well I might even land the GK level ??? :eek: :confused: But what if I just miss the 1K as some trips might be postponed ??? WHat then; did I waste the miles ??? I could also not put any FF number on my UA flights and then decide afterwards, once I can be sure I reach 1K ...


Is this right flysurfer ????? :confused:

So is this really the best strategy for my mileage earning ????

Now it gets tricky on the award side so something for weero how difficult is it to get C or F awards to AUS on UA or NZ..

Which opens up another possibility as I want a few awards to NZ shall I collect on NZ and go for gold (I can't get gold elite due to lack of flying sufficiently NZ, but does htis give me better chances to grab a NZ C ward ??


Or shall I just put everything on LH and go maximizing my wards on LH ??????

Wow now I completely hijacked the thread !!!!

:D

Yes there is special award inventory in business class for NZ elites. Not only that, but you can use airpoints dollars to buy any seat (on NZ metal only) that is available for sale at the same price but using airpoints dollars instead (except taxes must be paid in cash/credit card) - albeit the latter is an extremely expensive way to get award for SFO/LAX to NZ/Oz. Additionally NZ allows award in economy and upgrade this using airpoints dollars or upgrade vouchers (2 complimentary with Gold status, use one per flight segment).

Not yet, as you haven't mentioned any nuts so far.

To answer your questions: You "only" need to earn an annual average of 300k HON miles a year to requalify for HON, not 600k. The requirement is 600k HON miles within TWO calendar years.

Also, to make 1K by flying F, you need more than 50k BIS miles on UA. The COS factor for F,A,C,D,Z fares on UA metal is only 1.5 with Mileage Plus, so you do the math. Please note that if you are flying in paid F (which, I understand, you are most of the time, so this really does make a difference), you'll earn MORE status and award miles on M&M than on MP .

If you only want the SWUs and really fly 50k BIS a year in F on UA metal, just get yourself the UA 1K elite prepaid travel card for $20k. You can pay down your UA flights with this card, you'll immediately get the 1K status and 6 SWUs, but you'll still earn full 300/350% M&M miles for all your *A flights in F, no matter which carrier. If some of your UA flights are operated with LH metal, this will also ease the pressure on your HON requalification, so you might actually find more opportunities to SPEND your M&M miles on award flights.

Doing this, you can still double dip with KrisFlyer for PPS as long as you have enough flights on SQ metal to qualify. So, in effect, you'll be a 1K, HON and PPS, but you only need to worry about your HON requalification.

Thanks flysurfer and KIWI..

The 600k in two years I knew, was just trying to say that once I had done it this year I can focus on oter things...

unfortunately no SQ for me or not significnat...

on the 50BIS I thought 1P woud give 100% EQM bonus on UA metal

finally the NZ gold does sound attractive so I might try that

The MP bonus is for redeemable miles.

As for NZ, note that if no flights on NZ (whether mileage earning or not) there is an annual membership fee. Also awards tend to be expensive unless on NZ metal only since every flight is charged for separately.

BM's DC program could be an option, too, especially if RTW collects more miles than he needs to qualify for *G there. After reaching the (re)qualification level, all additional status miles are converted to additional award miles, and DC also offers cash/mileage award combinations.

No, don't work that way.

A base member in BDs DC who earns 16K status miles within 12 months will be upgraded to silver status. After holding silver status he has to earn 38K status miles (elite bonus don't count) within 12 months and he will be upgraded to gold. To maintain gold he has to collect 38K status miles within 12 months. If he accumulates more than 55K status miles within these 12 months any miles over 55K will be converted to redeemable miles.

Greetings weero,
under the current M&M TOS, your three scenarios are correct.

Technically there is no difference if you fly on LH or any other qualifying metal to gain/ maintain *G status within M&M. IMO if you try to maintain SEN status explicitly saying by minimising flying on LH, it looks like that M&M – in contrary to other FFPs - still offers you benefits you want not to miss.

Saying that I would evaluate my travel plans for 2006 and 2007. Then I would look on fares and in which FFP the miles I will earn are most valuable for me. At the end, I see how many miles I would earn and decide if I should shift some miles in order to gain status.

The option you called “ambitious” looks very expensive for me: I think that you will do some unnecessary trips on paid tickets in order to earn 100K status miles within two months.

From what I read so far (but be patient with me as I am not a regular visitor of this BB), you are a very price sensitive consumer based in Sydney who is travelling to and within Europe. IMO if a customer fits perfect to 1K and UA it’s you! Search for fast track, coupons for fare deduction, promotions, friends Plus e-Certificates, etc. Fly on a cheap coach fare, upgrade to Biz and relax on the upper deck on your flight SYD-SFO-FRA.

Yep, that's exactly what I meant to say. Thanks for filling in the details. ^

@ flysurver: BD’s Diamond Club (DC) is an excellent FFP for those who are travelling on a lot of different airlines on paid Biz tickets. If not comped/status matched the first hurdle (16K status miles) is onerous as the counter goes back to zero. At the moment someone holds gold status and able to fly 50K BIS miles on paid Biz tickets he collects 100K status miles (excluding SQ less, BD more) within his 12 months observation period and will earn 170K award miles (= 100K + 25K executive bonus + 45K bonus miles). 170K award miles factors 3.4 for 50K BIS miles on paid Biz.

IMO this is the most valuable feature of DC: Cost of miles are between 0.675p and 0.7p (around 1 €cent/mile) when redeeming an award. Look how much time and money some customers spend for unnecessary trips in order to earn miles and I feel confident that you know the way I am thinking!

It pays off, if a customer evaluates his travel plans. Looking at Airpoints’ zones, for an European based traveller Airpoints may offer valuable opportunities if he credits short and redeem long intercontinental flights, e.g.:

• 1 ½ round trips NCE-ZRH-CAI-ZRH-NCE in paid Biz cover one round trip ZRH-MCT-ZRH in Coach (M&M: 3 ¼ round trips).
• 5 ½ round trips NCE-ZRH-CAI-ZRH-NCE in paid Biz cover one round trip ZRH-JNB-ZRH in Biz (M&M: 7 round trips).
• 8 ¾ round trips NCE-ZRH-CAI-ZRH-NCE in paid Biz cover one round trip ZRH-SCL-ZRH in First (M&M: 14 ¼ round trips).

Thanks Ventimiglia

My travel budget is price sensitive and I indeed suffer from the problem that
I could afford better than coach but not as good as new C classes and fares.
So I will keep my 1K anyway and keep doing what I always did, using MP
mainly for upgrades.

With MP and cheapo coach fares, you have to be careful though as they
do not earn 150% EQM and they hurt your chances for upgrades. So if
I want to reach the 300K level this year, I will need to buy B and occasionally Z.

So with the insight you and Kiwi Flyer provided, it would be wisest for
me to redo my SEN level in 07 or allow it to expire and redo it in 08.

Do want the 1K level just for the SWUs? That is sensible.
There will be a double EQM qualification period later this year which normally
lasts between mid October and mid December. In that window, it will
only take you 50K flying in cheapo Y or 40K in the fare classes Flymaster
listed or B and Y.
You could also go for Flymaster's idea of buying the prepaid 1K card. But
A,D, and Z inventory on LH operated flights will be badly diminished compared
to calling LH directly.
As for GK/GS you have experienced its randomness before. There are strong
hints that it is award with a huge bias to corporate customers. I bumped
into GS - same station SYD as I am - who spent quite a bit less on UA than
I did.
NZ does not have an F anymore and to get I inventory on MP miles proves
to be very, very tricky. I never managed to get a seat for my friend on the
routes which sport the new C class and I find it easy to get SQ C awards
on MP .. (the Tasman features the old C class, so it is much easier to get
a seat).
UA itself I find very hard to do online if you have more than one segment.
But by calling say 2 months ahead, I have been lucky so far.
You can stll use M&L for NZ awards as they generally are a bit easier to redeem
on the Kiwi carrier.

I was wondering if one could use this way to have status in Star Alliance but still travel as one likes.

Can you only pay UA flights with this, or also use it for other airlines from STar alliance?

Salve weero,

apology for not searching: If my memory holds me, at the end of every year M+ offers a fast track to 1K: For paying a (small) fee you don’t need 100K EQM. Maybe this is cheaper than to buy booking class B and up. But please check with the experts!

As a 1K you earn at least six confirmed SWUs good to upgrade from booking class W (??) and you earn 200% award miles. IMO perfect as long as it last!

For everyone who is travelling on a tighter budget IMO it’s not a bad deal to buy the cheapest upgradable coach fare and upgrade either by SWU (if you ran out by miles) or “operational”. I hope in that way you save some money for buying some dirty cheap Biz tickets like SYD-BKK-FRA-MUC-LAX-SYD (2 times/year and your SEN status should be covered).

All the best!!

Bongiorno Ventimiglia

All you say about 1K is correct .. my problem is just that I make 1K too easily,
as I am already have my 1K level for 2007.
Traditionally, I would now switch to collect M&L boni until the SEN requirements
are filled.
But B on UA does not give me the required 150% status miles and Z or D
also credits somewhat less than it used to. Plus for me the M&L miles are nearly
worthless as the awards I used to get now cost so much in taxes that I may
as well pay for them.
You memory does hold and it is cheaper but it is not my problem. I will need
both the 1.5x EQM and the double mileage promo to reach the 300K level.

The second part you suggest, I do however plan to either do in 07 or 08.
Flying 2 Z RTW or North America en lieu of my usual United flying which then
will revive my SEN level.
The decision still open is if I shall let my SEN expire for 2-3 months or not.

I know but I have an old Air NZ membership so I am grandfathered ..

Bongiorno weero,

In M&M elite members earn in booking Class B on UA 175% miles flown. In booking class C, D & Z 225% miles flown. As a 1K in M+ you earn in every booking class in coach and in Biz booking Class Z 200% miles flown.
I agree: If you get decent fares, fuel surcharges and taxes makes coach class M&M awards too expensive. Even if I compare the M+ Saver Award chart to M&M *A chart, out of Australia M&M is not that competitive.

It’s a little bit problematic as you have your reasons to maintain SEN status, please don't blame if I come up with another suggestion: You have time to think about it, look also at BD’s Diamond Club. As I wrote in post # 21, if you redeem an award, you can pay in part with miles and cash (1 miles is approx 1 €cent in cash). A Biz r/t award Australia/Europe is 75K miles + GBP 510 or 150K miles + taxes. But don’t blame me if they are going out of business!
As I am not familiar, what are the perks if you reach 300K EQM in M+?

Buonasera Ventimiglia]

You right, I was wrong - upon 08.04 comminication I read that B and Y
earn 1.5x bonus on LH and its minions but not on UA. That must have changed
and is good to know. Thanks for the elucidation.

Almost: it is a 25% for class of service bonus and 100% 1P/1K/GS bonus.
so MP 1Ks earn 225% redemable miles as well on D fares. Plus about another
20% from expired 500 mile upgrade certificates...
Yes, I keep reading your posts, Rudi's and bertheike's suggetions
regarding BMI's FFP. Very tempting, I must say.
If I did not have bunkered so many M&L miles, I would actually consider a
transfer. For the very reasons you list: getting dirt cheap *A C awards from
Oz to Europe.
No one knows exactly. The publishe perks are that you can nominate 2 people
Premier and one person Premier Associate. You can get some certs or goodies
OR a dinner with a UA executive.
Less well known is that UA flies you to this dinner in F class from anywhere
in the world.
Believed benefits are tier breaker upgrade priority over mortal 1K members.
There are no 3Ks as of today yet, so we will see next year what else comes
with the package...
For me, this is not a happy move as 3K is far beyond my travel needs. Last
year - after abandoning LH - I flew ~260K EQM on UA, so 3K is a strech
for my pattern.

Not true. Trans-tasman flights with NZ are a mixture of A320 (shorthaul business class seat and DVD players), 767 (old mediumhaul business with clunky IFE), 747 (mostly new business class seat and new avod IFE) and 777 (only new business class seat and new avod IFE). Really need to keep an eye on aircraft type as there is a big difference.

I think you misunderstand. Each membership year, if you do not fly at least once on NZ then you get charged (20 airbucks IIRC) - deducted automatically from your account. If your account becomes negative they will close it.

This is separate to any joining fee (yes airpoints has one of those too!).

Weero, as you know, I am not solid on M+, please have a closer look on mileage earnings on Z fares: Maybe it’s only in theory, but award miles in booking class Z should be the same as in every coach class fare.

The good thing is, that you are planning well in advance: Under current conditions your first choice FFP will be M+ (did you have a chance to look at EK/UAs RTW ex Thailand for approx AUD 5.3K in Biz?). IMO you need a second FFP for flights without exec. bonus earning potential in M+. But which one?

I know it’s very difficult to stop maintaining elite status if you bank one million miles in your account. I value this € 10K, which is an awful lot of money for me. You earned it the hard way therefore you should get the most out of it. You can use the miles for yourself or to help others, the latter might be the most efficient way.

If you decide not to maintain SEN you going one step down the ladder to FTL for two more years. Before you do that you should have a look at perks you are losing and how to substitute it. Eg you can gain lounge access through Mastercard Platinum (not in every country) and Priority Pass.

If you like to top up miles, earning in M&M other than flying is not that expensive (eg. Coop & ricardo seems to be a good combination).

True and I was inaccurate. Should have said that on the Tasman there are
still aircraft with old C in service and hence award availability is acceptable,
even though not good.

Greetings Ventimiglia]This is why I write "D class" :D ... for Z you are right.

I am reluctant about switching to BMI. Mainly because I am not sure if BMI,
let alone their FF benefits will be around forever. Second because I do not
fly them. Ok once by mistake last November but that will not happen that
quickly again...
Nope ... mainly because when on promo, I can get the UA/LH restricted RTW
for about 5.8K AUD.

I could easily live without SEN card for a few months but I need to fly LH and
LX at times. My intention is not so much collecting miles as I will do this mainly
on MP but to keep the few privileges I still have aboard LH.
So one plan is to renew my SEN level every 3 years which is fairly easy. That
would leave me with my 1K card alone for about 3 months out of 36.
After 3 cycles, I can still decide if I want to go for lifetime SEN or quit for good.

Thanks for the hint about ricardo (I knew about the Superpunkte offer) but
as stated, mileage earning is of low importance to me.

You can pay for all flights that are bookable on ual.com or at UA reservations, which is basically UA metal and *A codeshares, the latter with the usual restricted fare bucket availability.

Which is no problem for RTW, as he intends to travel 50k BIS miles on UA metal in paid F every year. It's not a problem to spend $20k that way, so in return for providing a $20k prepayment to UA, he'll get immediate 1K status and a "cashback" of 6 fully transferable SWUs ("worth" at least $3,000) that can be used on UA and LH metal. But he'll still be able to credit the miles for all UA metal flights to M&M, getting (as a HON) 350% status/bonus miles (no HON miles, though). Best of both worlds.

Would it be possible - as they are tranferrable - to get a second one of those
prepaid 1K cards for one's little nonexistent friend and then use the other 6
SWUs for him?
That does not even have to be 'illegal' as per MP rules. There was this UA forum
thread where a Cello reached the 1P level. So why should someone's piano not
be a prepaid 1K which then sponsors its owner?

I have split a number of posts off from the original thread since going in a different direction.

I am likely to move this to *A forum which seems a better place for the discussion, with a wider range of views.

Cheers

Kiwi Flyer
LH Moderator

Good idea. Thought the same thing yesterday evening but didn't wanna bother you.

The problem is that UA prepaid cards can only pay for flights of the guy the card is issued to. How could a nonexistent friend get on a plane (if he's not a Cello)?

Otherwise everybody could get a 1K prepaid card and simply pay flights of his family, friends or other FTers with it, or, if everything else fails, sell discounted flights on E-Bay.

It might indeed be possible to issue a prepaid card for a Cello (or a piece of your armored luggage). But this means that your luggage has to travel on a fully paid seat next to you. :D But yes, UA will issue SWUs in the name of "Weero's luggage", and those are fully transferable to Weero or anybody else. As long as the luggage doesn't object. ;)

I honestly did not know that ... and I also do not see what the problem might
be. It's still interest free 20 grand pro anno revenue without any risk involved
for United.
Kiwi Flyer interesting strategy ^ - I also did not know that one (that is moderators)
can split threads. Learnt two new things in a single thread today!

Here we go. Another SPLIT! :p

Indeed ... this is why I did not find it anymore...
Hope we did not misbehave too much :eek: ...