small ring

I received the same form letter ... which, rubbed me the wrong way given I have been GS since the first year and flew >80k FF miles last year.

Two things that they did not make clear are:
- $15k since Jan 1 or Feb 1?
- How is the 15k counted? total price paid or net of taxes.

Part of me wants to get the GS monkey off my back so that I can fly other airlines :-)

-sr

twebst

Be glad you got an email. I have been GS for 10 years, >65K FF last year,,, similiar spend as always and nothing but "go to the website".

Guess since I already have >$15K book thru March, they don't need to entice me to "FLY UNITED"

P.S. that phrase is taking a new conotation for me.

patk

I fly ~10-14 TPAC's/TATL's in FF C each year, usually DEN-ORD-(FRA/LHR), or DEN-SFO-(HKG/TPE/NRT). I've only been op-up'd once, DEN-ORD-FRA. It actually was worthless to me as my SWU had cleared, and I lost the SWU because my F upgrade cleared on DEN-ORD in a 3-class 777, and they wouldn't swap my SWU for a CR-1 on that when my op-up came in ORD (I was wait-listed at the time).

What I do is save my SWU's for the 777's, as you may get a swap to an old config 777, and old C is the suck. I've never missed an F upgrade on a 777, and so far (cross-fingers), I've never had to sit in old-config C...

I have a MP signature visa and charge all my travel on that (3 miles/$), so after I burn the SWU's, I have more than enough miles to cover mileage upgrades to F on my 777 C flights.

bowhi

Very familiar with the ORD to FRA route and do the same thing...always use SWU as they are still swapping new and old configuration 777 on that route all the time...agree that old configuration is in fact the suck. Now that they are back to 747 on ORD to NRT, I am more likely to buy C, sit upstairs and hope for the opup on that route.

wxguy

Datapoint:
Flying AAA-BBB-CCC next week, CR-1 applied at ticketing but only AAA-BBB had NF, so BBB-CCC was waitlisted. At the 120 hour window, still no NF on BBB-CCC, but showed F9 and 12 of 24 seats unassigned on the seat map. I called GS, and the agent was able to open NF and extend the CR-1 across from AAA-BBB-CCC. It took all of one minute to do. Groovy!

Shigernafy

That's one of the major benefits, and the one I probably use most - confirming upgrades within the upgrade window. It's usually the rule of fives: less than five days, more than five seats, and you can upgrade.

sfisher64

So I've never achieved GS status before and after flying 79K miles last year I thought I was going to be Premier Exec, which in fact is what united.com said I was until a couple of weeks ago, when it changed to say I was 1K. I thought that was nice but strange, so I sent an email to united asking what happened. Well, they wrote me back saying not only was I 1K, but in fact I'm GS.

"Congratulations! You are not only 1K but also Global Services for 2012, the highest level that we have. Our records show that you qualified through revenue."

Very exciting! Except united.com still says 1K, when I check to see what I'll be in March when the 2012 year kicks in it says 1K, and I've received nothing via email or at home saying anything about GS. Is this typical? How do people usually get notified? Is there a membership card and official description of benefits that gets sent at some point?

Ari

I would be a little wary until the status shows up on the website, but the email seems pretty clear. How much did you spend last year? Are you in the ballpark, or is this a total error?

blueman2

Although many are reporting that the 5 seats rule is not longer in effect for some aircraft. Always has worked for me in the past, however! I love it!

Shigernafy

Ah, that's right - I remember seeing that in regards to the 777s, since they swap airframes often enough to make inventory management trickier. But I usually try to fly on 747s (I like the upper deck), so I haven't had any issues with it.

maddie1004

Just took advantage of the award miles benefits- what a breeze. Flying ORD-LAS and was able to get NF>XF on the outbound and upgraded from saver economy to F with my regionals.

I didn't even have to ask about converting the NF to XF. She told me that F was available on the spot (even though I was seeing XF=0, NF=2 online).

Very nice process and such a relief to not have to beg for stuff like when I was a 1K...

pdx1M

It's a great benefit (hope it persists after 3/1!). Did it yesterday to get saver RT to Europe. Nothing at all available in Biz so that would have been 250K but NF space available. Converted that to XF and got first class RT for 135K. So first instead of biz for about half the miles. Plus, once the space was converted it allowed the LH tags from FRA to be included so really I got an open jaw Star award when otherwise it wouldn't have been possible. Agent was great, it was a complicated itinerary for some other reasons and she handled everything terrifically.

^^^

1015-1k

So I have an issue with a ridiculous policy regarding GS benefits.

One of the perks I most highly value is the ability to upgrade award travel, using SWUs or CR1s/UDU. I have been told by many agents that it is not permissable to be added to the upgrade waitlist if upgrades aren't immediately available. This is a policy rather than a system limitation (as I find the occasional agent that lets the rule slide). Even within the 5-day window for UDU, if XF/NF=0, they will not add a GS to the waitlist. I do not understand the purpose of this rule. Either UA wants to allow GS award flight upgrades or not. To suggest that in a tight inventory management situation GS should be lower priority than other elites seems abitrary and ridiculous.

Any thoughts or experiences with this issue?

iluv2fly

I found that to be policy a few years ago, but I have been put on the upgrade list within the past year by GS phone agents.

1015-1k

Yeah, I'm wondering if it is a carry-over policy from pre-merger. However, after several call-back attempts recently where several agents shot me down, I feel that the policy is alive and well somewhere. Even after I pointed out an award itinerary in my account that had a waitlisted upgrade from another agent, I was still shot down. I find myself doing the 'hang up and call back' strategy which seems ridiculous for a GS to be doing given I'm only asking for the benefits advertised to me.

I'll save a couple more rants for later that will help to illustrate to non-GS that GS is not always fun and games with agents bending over backwards to help. There are still the occasional snarky, difficult GS agents out there. (Many fantastic ones, to be fair, as well).