WineCountryUA

yep that works

this is a new twist the UA has introduce this year, elites tend to get offers 2-3x the base miles rounded to the nearest 1K.

Best I can suggest is anticipate this multiple and find a shorter itin.

exerda

Or even rounded to larger figures for longer itins. I've gone one whose base PQM is ~20.8k, and am offered 50k and 75k PQM for purchase.

DENflyer3

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but it looks like buying EQM's is now a flat distance of miles as opposed to double or triple miles. If I am using the wrong terminology sorry. I checked last week as I have a flight of 4,000+ miles, was hoping the price would drop because triple miles will get me to platinum for next year and that will be a huge difference for my travel. Now it just shows I can buy 4,000 or 6,000. At the prices offered it a real bad deal.

Jiatong

Join the club!

yep.

TrinaLC

Checking into a flight on United, I was offered the chance to buy additional miles with the teaser "achieve premier status quicker" (or something to that effect).

I know that buying miles is typically not a good financial deal, but I may be a bit short to achieve the next level (gold), and am not crazy about doing a mileage run.

I thought that buying miles would never count towards premier status, and indeed that seems the case when i google that question - including a link to United's own website which indicates that purchased miles do not qualify.

But the United offer is clear on the purchase achieving premier status quicker, and therefore these would seem to qualify.

Advice from United pros? And if they do qualify, is it 1:1?

Michilander

Your itinerary should be offering you Award Accelerator miles (last rate I saw was around $0.02 per mile). These are good for awards, but not for achieving status. If you select one of the offers, however, you should get a pop-up offering you the same number of Premier Accelerator miles for a much higher rate (last I saw reported was about $0.11 per mile). The Premier Accelerator miles will count toward status, including 1K.

The rates, by the way, appear to vary based on how many PQMs you have so far this year, so you may get offered rates different than the ones I mentioned above.

Bonehead

You initially must buy RDMs (I think they are called) and then an offer appears to buy PQMs at a much higher price/mile. The RDMs don't apply toward elite status (they are "regular" FF miles that you can use toward awards and upgrades, etc), but the PQMs certainly do. The PQMs do not accrue as additional RDMs, by the way...they are totally separate.

TrinaLC

Total neophyte - is this a decent deal?

Buy 8,133 miles for $169. Premium Accelerator for $651 more. (Would I get 8,133 EQMs from that? I suppose whether it is a good deal or not depends on how many I need to get to next level.... which I'm not sure about yet.)

exerda

Not a bad deal; that's 2.1 cpm for the RDM, plus another 8 cpm for the PQM. Yes, you'd get 8,133 PQM (and 8,133 RDM), for a total price of about 10 cpm. The rates will likely only get worse as the year advances.

EmailKid

PQM/EQM prices have already gone up over a month ago, are slowly going to creep up, and in late December are likely to become obscene if the pattern of last two years is repeated @:-)

EmailKid

Michilander

The rate for the award miles is about what everyone is getting. The rate for the EQMs is actually lower than most of the rates I've seen reported, and less than I paid for the miles I bought to top off my 1K for next year.

The real question, however, is whether it is worth $820 to you to be gold for next year.

markdboucher

On a separate but related question, is it possible to purchase Elite Maximizer for only half of a round-trip itinerary?

I am flying EWR-AUS-EWR on a single ticket next week. The only option currently offered on the website is to purchase 3,040 RDMs/PQMs, i.e., covering the entire round trip mileage. However, I need only ~1,200 miles for Premier Gold and would prefer not to waste money on the extra 1,500 PQMs.

Will it be possible to only purchase the EQMs for the 1,500 mile EWR-AUS leg? Will I get an offer like that at check-in time?

BangkokTraveler

No, as far as I know, you can't. The way to get only the miles you need is to book a ticket that gives you a lower offer, take the offer for the extra miles and EQMs, then cancel the ticket later. If you book a refundable ticket, it won't be an issue, and the two transactions (ticket purchase and miles/EQM purchase) are unrelated.

Plan ahead, and be careful of these wise words from my friend ...

Say Vandelay

What if the OP selects the buy EQM option when checking it for the return?

TrinaLC

Thanks for running this out for me - I hadn't figured out how to do the math. Now i just need to figure out whether I'll need that many PQMs...

Again, I appreciate your help.