bmvaughn

UA has committed to making a one-time adjustment to our UA lifetime mileage to recalculate it based on historical EQM rather than BIS for all activity which occurred in 2011 and prior; this includes activities that occurred on/before 12/31/11 whether credited or not as of that date.
http://hub.united.com/News/LoyaltyPr...r-program.aspx

Felt it was a good idea to have a separate thread for tracking questions/issues specifically related to this one-time adjustment rather than folding them into the larger thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ng-2012-a.html
Please don't use this thread to discuss the overall MM program, just wanted to focus on the one-time adjustment here.

Keep in mind that CO accounts won't change, and the merger of Lifetime miles between CO/UA accounts will happen at a later time. This adjustment only affects your Lifetime UA mileage number.

If you want to calculate how much your bump will be, you'll only be able to do so if you know your annual EQM; you would have had to track this yourself each year, there is no way to get it from the website. While we're on the topic, however, if you haven't already, and assuming you are done with flying for the year, I recommend taking a screenshot of your YTD activity from the UA website.

Sum your annual EQM, subtract your current Lifetime number, and you'll arrive at your adjustment number. Alternatively, if you know the sum of your annual EQM, that should be your Lifetime number after the adjustment.

If you have an issue once the adjustment is made, this is the place to post it and we can try to collectively help solve the issues or at least track them to try to identify patterns.

Open Questions/Known Issues

• No specific date is set for the sweeps to occur for data that had not yet posted by the 12/31/11 sweep. It's generically "a few weeks".
• The new MMer spouse nomination form is working for some but not others.

Resolved Issues

• It was unclear whether partner flights or other EQM activity which occurred in 2011 but did not post by 12/31 would be included in the recalibration.
  This was resolved by UA Insider:
  

  Quote:

  Originally Posted by UA Insider

  The last date we'll use in the recalibration is 12/31/2011, but, you won't see any recalculated balances until later. While we don't yet have an exact date, it will be before we migrate to a single system. Just didn’t want anyone to be surprised on January 1st.
  
  Shannon
• No specific date is set for the recalibration to post other than it will be after 1/1/12 and before the migration to a single system.
  This was resolved when lifetime miles were adjusted on 12/31/2011. UA Insider also posted the following:
  

  Quote:

  Originally Posted by UA Insider

  Hi northpole999,we'll be doing a subsequent recalibration in a few weeks to capture miles that fall into just this category (e.g. miles that post in early 2012 but that actually count toward 2011).
• Unclear whether those reaching 1MM status based on the recalibration will reach it under 2011 rules (and thus receive 2 CR-1s & 3 SWU) or 2012 rules (no CR-1s/SWU). The same question exists for those reaching 2MM/3MM/4MM with the recalibration -whether they would receive 4 SWU under the 2011 rules.
  This was resolved by UA Insider:
  

  Quote:

  Originally Posted by UA Insider

  Hi bmvaughn, thanks for succinctly summarizing the questions on this topic. When it comes to Million Miler status, although the recalibrated Mileage Plus balances became visible on December 31st, the new balances actually take effect January 1st as part of the 2012 MileagePlus program. For those who ended up crossing a Million Miler threshold as a result of the adjustment, benefits of the 2012 Million Miler program will apply.
• Unclear whether flights taken on partners which at the time earned "status miles" (prior to them being called EQM) will be included in the one-time recalibration.
  This was resolved by UA Insider:
  

  Quote:

  Originally Posted by UA Insider

  bmvaughn, just to officially confirm, yes, “status miles” were indeed included.
• Unclear whether flights which earned COS (class of service) RDM bonuses during the time of "status miles" (prior to them being called EQM) will be included in the one-time recalibration.
  This was resolved by UA Insider regarding what does and does not count:
  

  Quote:

  Originally Posted by UA Insider

  Hi LongingForORD, all in all, anything that counted toward elite status in previous years was counted. Anything that did not count toward elite status previously, was not counted. For example, the following count as part of your recalibrated lifetime balance:

  • EQM earned from flights on Star Alliance partners
  • EQM earned from class-of-service / full-fare bonuses (typically 50% for First, Business, and full-fare Economy)
  • EQM earned from activity with specific Chase Credit Cards
  • EQM from certain promotional offers, such as Double EQM or Purchase EQM offers

  Examples that don’t count include:

  • Redeemable/award miles from credit card spend, hotel, car or retail partners
  • Purchase Miles, Gift Miles, Transfer Miles or Reward Miles
  • Redeemable flight bonus award miles, including elite bonus miles (25% for Premier, 100% for Premier Executive and 1K)
  • Redeemable bonus award miles from most promotional offers
  • Flight miles from non-Star Alliance partners
  • Redeemable/award miles earned from class-of-service / full-fare bonuses (in 2011, typically between 25% and 50% for First or Business)

  Shannon

hobo13

If you've ever requested the M+ DataPurge, it seems you could probably calculate the adjustment as well, right?

UA-NYC

Yes, that's how I came up with mine pre-2008 - but we don't know the official dates when they'll start counting *A miles (1997 at *A founding? Whenever that airline you flew joined *A?) or COS bonii (when the EQM concept was started in ~2004?)

bmvaughn

Not sure I understand your question here. Were the *A miles in your EQM total? Was the COS bonii in your EQM total? If so, they will be in your adjustment. If not, they won't be in your adjustment.

NeoOfTheCRS

Question:

On January 1, 2012 will continental one pass members continue to earn lifetime status based on all EQMs and not just BIS miles?

I assume that on January 1, 2012 mileage plus members will continue to only earn lifetime status based on just BIS miles.

If these two statements are true (until the combined systems are rolled out in late Q1) would it not make more sense to accrue under CO One Pass versus mileage plus? I get a lot of EQM bonus miles

bmvaughn

Nope, after 1/1/12, all Lifetime (UA & CO) is based on BIS and only on UA/CO/Copa, not *A partners.

It doesn't matter whether you put flights after 1/1/12 on UA or CO.

That is also true for flights before 1/1/12 with one exception - if it's a partner flight with better earning on UA or CO, credit to the one that has a better earning schedule.

dmodemd

I didn't get the impression they would do this calculation ON 12/31/11, just that they would do it sometime in Q1 AS OF 12/31/11...? I'm not expecting my MM welcome message anytime so soon... :S

bmvaughn

From the link in the OP, from UnitedHub.com:
That does not mean that UA/CO Lifetimes will be merged, just that the UA one-time adjustment will happen on 12/31/11.

JetAway

My impression was that the cut-off date would be 12/31/11 but the actual calculation results could/might be posted later. I'll be really surprised if the calculation results suddenly pop up on everyone's account on 1/1/2012. But maybe that will happen.

UA-NYC

That is true for 2004-onward - but not from 1997-2003, right? Did LH/NH et al flights count for annual UA status then?

dmodemd

Yes, I didn't take them literally on their statement. After all, not all 2011 activity will be posted until about 48 hours after 12/31, so I certainly wouldn't expect much accuracy if they calculate on 12/31/11 11:59:59PM. I would think they meant calculations AS OF 12/31/11 at some unknown date past that.

bmvaughn

Your impression was the same as mine until I read UnitedHub.com. Hence I expect a 12/31 sweep and a 1/31-ish sweep.

I started flying in 2004, so that was my question to you as well

Maybe someone who has a spreadsheet going back that far can comment on whether or not it fed into their EQM numbers.


That's why this is captured as a Known Issue in the OP

buzzsaw999

I went to the UA web site, looking up all activity back to the beginning of 2010 (as far back as it will go), and figured I would get a bump up of > 50K from those two years. But it looks to me like CO flights taken recently have already been counted - I don't really see any way to confirm this, though. That should only reduce my 2010-2011 bust up by a few thousand miles, though.

I tried to figure out what my credit would be for prior years, and quickly gave it up as hopeless. I'll just have to wait and see. I think I should get a bust up of at least 100K, but maybe it will be substantially more. I do not think it will put me over the top, but I should be within spitting distance. 2013 at the latest, I think. If they haven't cancelled the whole thing by then.

I'd be a lot closer in the first half of 2012 if there were a way to get Asia to Europe trips to count. Well, I guess there is, but I'm not desperate enough to go through the US on those routes.

Is that difficult to do?

I am thinking that I might handle some trips in 1Q12 differently, depending on how close I am. But if we don't know the answer until near the end of the quarter, I'll have to ticket the flights before I know the answer.

Baze

I can vouch that *A flights prior to 2004 counted towards status. I have a spreadsheet going back to 1997 when I joined MP and all *A flights counted towards status. Think they were called something else back then but UAInsider did say going back to the beginning of the program, not specifically to the beginning of the term EQM. So I am going on the assumption these will all count in the adjustment. My bump will be about 160K.

bmvaughn

This is correct - CO flights taken and credited to UA for 2011 earned BIS. At least some of those in 2010 (I have one on 10/23/10) did not.