WineCountryUA

sorry but while understanding the advice, I found the juxtapositioning of those two statements odd -- spend more to save money

born sleepy

What employers these days allow one to buy Y/B fares? I work for a Fortune 500 (whatever that's worth) and these don't even show up in the travel system (which is outsourced to the hated Carlson/Wagonlit clown-car brigade).

endrond

As a primarily-domestic 1K, there's no way I'd do a long or expensive MR to requalify for 1K.

The past two years I have done minor travel tweaks to qualify for 1K.
1. Flying SFO-BOS-ORD rather than SFO-ORD, for a work trip. That cost me an extra $150, and was very much worth it.
2. Buying a ticket IAD-SAN-IAD for Thanksgiving rather than a 25,000 mile reward ticket. The net cost was probably $350 out of pocket and it was well worth it.

But flying 2x to ANC or 1x to SYD....No way.

astan100

This is a tough question to me because it's hard to gauge how much better the UG chances will be with the new United. I can tell you as someone who stupidly flew 99k miles last year and had to "earn" 1k legit this year, the difference between being Plat. on Continental and Prem Exec on United was NOTICEABLE.

Coming from Denver, being Prem Exec is one step about "riff raff" it seems. I pretty much never got upgrades. On Continental, I sat in the front very very often as a Plat.

So that marginal 25k difference really paid off. That said, I wonder how many people were stuck short of 1k, but would have made 75k on United over this last year like me.

Don't look at 1k as the end all be all, today 1k status meant jack on my LAX to DEN flight. I was #17 on the list!!! I will admit, being 1k has gotten me more upgrades a few days in advance which I never saw other than on CO.

My .02.

Time traveller

I don't think you can compare CO PLT and UA 1P. CO PLT is the highest elite level (besides PP) on CO, whereas UA 1P is the 2nd level (once again not counting GS). If you compared CO GLD vs. UA 1P, then it would be a more relevant comparison. Also being 1P based out of DEN is like being a CO GLD based out of IAH, in terms of looking at upgrades.

Going forward with the new integrated UACO, 1K is definitely going to have higher upgrade priority over the Plat Premier. If you traveling between hub cities, there will probably be sigificant differences in upgrades. If you travel internationally, certainly the 6 SWUs will be helpful. However since we don't know how international upgrades will be like in 2012, the "real" usefulness of SWUs are yet to be seen.

Live4Upgrade

It's difficult enough to score a domestic upgrade hub-to-hub as 1K. I guess Plat has almost no chance in the new system unless flying at off-hours.

As for SWUs, on PMCO my track record is 100% success for the past 4 years on both Asia and EU routes. Although, they don't clear as far in advance as they use to.

dmunz

Have you looked at just buying the EQMS using the mileage purchase option for the tickets you have already? I don't know what they are going for today, but you might be able to get the miles for less than a run or at leaste not have to spend extra BIS time.

FWIW
DLM

5khours

Had lunch with a buddy today who needs a few extra miles. So he found a one day CLE<>NRT RT for $300. He sure thinks it'w worth it.

tmeyer

There is no need to go to a city you don't like just because it offers the best cent per mile ratio. I am sure, if you invest a day more and a few bucks extra you can make 1K and get a short vacation or a sightseeing weekend in Europe or Asia. I would not got 10 times to the boring city in the Midwest, but rather enjoy Rio, Hawaii or Bali. The Mileage Run purist will disagree, but I also value my time and just want to enjoy trip, destination & status...

demosthenes1

I'm primarily a domestic flyer, and I book in advance so I can get the cheapest fares. I'm guessing my UG success will be very different as a 1K than as a Plat under the new regime. Two issues seem important here. First, I think there will be fewer first class seats available given the way PMCO runs things. Second, with the addition of the Plat level and this year's change to require 120 segments, I think there will be fewer 1Ks but lots of Plats. Time will tell.

Madone59

Did anyone else not see this? At .02cpm(ish) your friend is right, do you have more details on that MR? If it sounds too good to be true.......................

weero

Well I never scored a single upgrade during the abominable UDU regime. UA just stole my 500 milers and gave me nothing in return.
I missed out on ugs from high fare classes in the past. I won't buy many UA tickets for the time being until I can judge how likely the intl upgrades will work for me.

Thanks to the brilliant early expiry of UA SWUs, I also must credit much fewer miles to UA in order to procrastinate and not cross the 1K mark before December ... hence I shall I have plenty of time to probe the new system.
It's likely to be terrible like all new features but we shall see.

uastarflyer

It already is terrible v what 1K used to mean just 6 months ago.

They kept the name 1K (which shows they have some fear of this customer class) but downgraded the value on the ground and in the air already. Observant 1Ks see through the sham pretty easily (as see through as blankets)

There is very little reason anymore to toss good cash at CO to try to retain 1K. I did it two years in a row. No more.

astroflyer

As someone who will only maybe the new Platinum level, I would without question go for 1K if I were closer and had the money/time. If anything, there is a giant jump between the benefits. This jump made more sense between the old 1P and 1K, but now makes less sense. In particular I'm talking about platinum getting 2 CR-1's and 1K getting 4 CR-1's plus 6 SWU's. IMHO the upper-middle tier is now undervalued...you don't get much of anything over golds.

In terms of upgrades, my rates have been terrible this year as a 1P. I can barely count the number of people ahead of me at SFO. Going for 1K is absolutely worth it if you can.

texasex95

I'm debating the same issue. Have been 1K for the past three years and don't want to see it go. Thinking about buying a 12K trip and then using my United credit card miles to pay for it. That way I'll use 70K miles but earn 25K for the trip and get 1K for another year. Not sure if this is the most logical thing to do but want one more year of 1K because I'm not sure I'll make it next year. Plus, it would be cool to take my mom to Rome!