Right, but you can book and NOT fly -- by booking a ticket, buying the PQMs you need, and then cancelling the ticket within 24 hours.

I just logged on... and it seems that it matters on what ticket I look at for EQM. On one ticket, I'm being offered 5000 EQM for $1115 / 10,000 EQM for $2,230!! That is crazy!! Interesting though... for my flights that take place next year.... It is still the inflated price, but not as crazy as this year's flight.

Remember, you'll get the purchased miles right away even if the flight is next year. So if you want the cheaper offer, you can buy it now. :)

Yikes, that shows how crazy UA is in pricing these miles. Just a week or so ago I got 5000 PQM's for $400 ($515 total including the 5000 RDM)

Hi all, I would need 32 total miles to get to Gold. I have bought a couple one ways for short distance but I only get option for 5000 PQMs (smh).
I do have old United Mileage Plus Visa (I have maxed out 10,000 PQMs from that).
I cant find the Choices option that would allow them to convert to PQMs. Looks like that might be gone?
Any chance that UA would round 49,968 up?
I had a codeshare LX flight that was "K" on UA but earned nothing on UA..I know rookie mistake, I should have checked.

The Choices option went away last year IIRC. At this point, your best bet if you have any remaining travel this year would be to try to same-day-change to include an extra segment (and thus earn an extra 500 miles). As a Silver, you'd pay the SDC fee, but it will be less than what it will cost to buy 5000 via Premier Accelerator.

Just make sure if you go that route that there are options you can SDC onto (e.g. if you're flying IAD-CHO, a silly example, there's no alternate routing available), and that the updated routing actually earns you enough miles (e.g. SFO-ORD vs. SFO-DEN-ORD isn't a big enough difference IIRC).

Otherwise, you're stuck with paying the Premier Accelerator prices for more miles than you need.

And no, I wouldn't count on UA comping you if you're close. Probably (though not guaranteed), what they'd do is offer you next year the chance to buy those miles, in a 1000 mile chunk at $1/mile, or something as otherwise unattractive; they'd have you over a barrel.

While agreeing not to count on UA generosity if short of status, your $1/mile number is probably a bit high based on Jan 2014 offers.

Buy Up Offers to Reclaim 2014 MileagePlus Elite Status?
Exclusive Premier Status Offer Splash Screen
Reload this Page Email from UA - "It's not too late to reach Premier Silver (or Gold/Plat/1K) status"

And yes the ChoicePoint option for miles is gone, when away nearly 2 years ago
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-annually.html

Anyone have any recent experience with this. Looking at how I am going to hit 1k this year and I'm staring into an abyss right now.

The process / capability to purchase PQMs for 1K or other earned status levels still exists, for recent pricing see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...es-2015-a.html

Fast-tracking to silver?
 

Hello, everyone!

I'm an avid FT reader. However, this is my first post :)

I was wondering if any of you have found out a way to fast-track to Silver. I'm currently in Peru, which means no credit card offers available. I'm currently at 8938 PQMs, and I'll be flying another 7463 PQMs soon. Still, I won't make it to the 25kPQMs.

Maybe there's a way to change award miles for PQMs? (Nope, buying them is not an option, I'm not going to spend $1k for 7500 PQMs).

Thanks!

EDIT: Oh, I thought it was worth noting. I have 26k award miles right now. I know it's not much, but maybe it can turn into something?

Sounds like you are out of luck. Status is only by BIS (butt in seat) miles unless you are willing to pay for them (or have older CC which give PQM). Silver is not that great so no reason to chase it unless you actually fly UA a lot, and you would get it by flying in that case.

If you don't have status on another airline, it will take flying or purchasing PQMs. Purchasing PQMs is not cheap -- probably will run 10-12 cp PQM -- so you will be talking >$1K -- a little pricy for Silver status.

Getting PQM without flying
 

I have about 32k PQM this year and wont be doing a whole lot more traveling for work. Because of family (2 little kids) and other obligations, mileage runs aren't an option for me.

Is there any way for me to get 12-15k PQM without getting on an airplane? I'm well over the PQD and nowhere near the PQS, so PQM is really my only way of getting to Gold.

I know the Marriott Credit Card offer gives you bonus night towards status, but I haven't seen anything comparable for UA.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

You could buy a dummy ticket and purchase premier accelerator, but that would be VERY expensive.

Those exist for UA BUT they are not available to new customers (for a couple of years now).