Ways to Determine # of Flight Segments flow?
 

my united account tells me how many year-to-date premier segments I've flown, but since some segments don't count I'm curious if there is another way to determine how many segments I've flown this year.

United segments? All should count I believe, but perhaps I'm missing something? Are you referring to one stop, same flight number flights? If so, those only count as one for all intents and purposes.

some of my "United" flights have been on carriers like Philippines Air which I believe doesn't count. Another question (which I believe to be related). I have XX.5 segments. What drives the .5?

Full Fare bookings and some higher classes, like A fares give 1.5x

A B or Y fare, which credits 1.5 segments.

Philippines Air? How is that a "United" flight at all?

Premium Fares. B fares and above earn 1.5 segments per flight.

Starting from this year, in order to gain (any) Premier status one must fly at least four UA/CM segments in a calendar year.

Exempt if you have one of the club Mastercards.

Exempt for you have a Club or PresPlus card (either Mastercard or VISA).

No, there's not a good way to figure out how many segments you've flown with your UA frequent flyer number inputted on the reservation.

You've already highlighted one scenario where "elite qualifying segments" wouldn't go up even though UA knew about the trip (partner carriers such as Island Air, who offer a flat 500 redeemable miles for certain interisland segments). Another scenario is award travel -- if you buy a trip with frequent-flyer miles, you won't have a great record of having taken it.

If you'd like to know how many airplane trips you've taken, this is really something you'll have to keep track of yourself. There's probably a very, very small untapped market for "automatically record my flights and show them to me later", like an auto-populating FlightMemory, but I don't think that product exists yet.

@aacharya it isn't uncommon to buy a UA ticket through UA and end-up on a flight from someone like Philippines Air for a segment and not be credited miles even though you bought the ticket through UA.

@mherdeg thanks. answered my Q. I had some of the same thoughts you did. Tripit might do something (or presumably could) and that would capture award travel as well.