FlyWorld

But, have you ever flown 100K domestically? Who, in their right mind, would actually *want* to take a "few" international trips after having endured 100K on domestic flights? Also, to get these 2 cpm flights, wouldn't you have to be doing red-eye flights more often than not? Doesn't that just add to the pain and suffering of the 100K at 2 cpm domestic only proposition?

I don't doubt that these things are possible, but I question the point of it. Does this lead to happiness? To health? To anything valuable?

CPU priority is a red herring. Those days are over.

I don't want to question the credibility of others here, but I've got to say, it seems highly improbable to me. More importantly, though, it seems self-destructive. Even if it's possible - it begs the question - why?

My argument is that 1K is only worth having for GPUs that get you out of hell on long flights. These days, with TODs and HODs and X-UPs, there are plenty of cheap and easy ways to get into F. And, fee waivers are given to all tiers, so assuming one would naturally be at the 50K or 75K level, I'm not sure how much incremental value there is from the fee waivers compared with the cost of acquiring the status to get the waivers in the first place.

And, as for you, "4 figure" means anything from 1,000 to 9,999. That's a big range. I'm questioning some of these $3-4K numbers. If you told me you were at $8-9K, it would be easier to for me to comprehend.

WineCountryUA

others see it as a trophy / hobby / status symbol and others see as a way to general significant RDMs for premium cabin international travel

personally, I try to minimze my time in a airplane others enjoy --- each to their won.

yes, if you dig in the archives you can find the documentation on this. Much of it depends on the use of certs from VDBs (and things like double / triple VDBs) and certs from irrops. Also the use of pricing mistakes / anomalies / .... and use of a great deal of free time (really strangle routings).
Yes it can be done but I can understand you not understanding why any sane person would do this --- I would not.

aacharya

A lot of factors let me do it. Many vacation days. I sleep easily on planes. I always search out low tcons and visit wine regions. I scour the mr forum. And this year was a banner year.

Why...well thats my own business. And the spend is accuarate with 10k from Y irrops. I answered the ops question. I wasnt boasting.

waxearwings

I'm solidly in the $12-15k per 100k sweet spot. One interesting thing I noticed when I looked back at my flying this year was that my cpm were about 15% higher on UA metal vs other *A carriers.

Interesting thread.

tapeguy

My next trip this month will push me over to 1K. I had 3 TATL trips and the rest domestic. Spent about $11K. First time I ever got this high in status. Business has been good this year. I usually only hit gold.

QBK

Nope! 85K EQM last year, 100,300 this year (cross fingers). Roughly half domestic. However, all of my international flights are in Y, whereas most of the domestic is upgraded. So, frankly, domestic is substantially more comfortable for me -- the only advantage to international is that the EQM/hours-on-plane ratio is better.

I think you have to just plain enjoy flying. Seat2A is a great exemplar of this -- afaict, he just loves being up in the air.

As for the redeye thing -- I spend far more time searching for MR fares (purely for the fun of it) than I do flying them, and most of the ones I find are in the middle of the day. They just tend to be mid-week, which is a problem if you work a regular job. But if I had weekdays free, I could have flown back and forth on ABQ-IAH-SFO-LAS all year for 2.3cpm and slept in a bed every night.

Health? Definitely not. Value? Depends on what you value. Happiness? Well, that depends on what makes you happy. I think it's 100% clear that you have to be a little weird to hang out on FT, and a lot weird to engage in serious mileage running!

Personally, I probably wouldn't do 100K of mileage runs now, but... I want to. I just can't because I have a family.

The things I've done for fun in the past include marathons, competitive swimming, mountaineering, long-distance hiking, and triathlon. It's not precisely that I enjoy pain, but at some level the idea that enlightenment and success come from brutal self-abuse is ingrained in me. To me, the mileage game is an charmingly stupid and pointless hobby (sort of like video games, but more destructive to the environment). I'm sure I'll get over it at some point, but as long as I'm having fun, the whole MR thing is weirdly compelling.

I'm not sure what you mean here, but I'm assuming you mean "Even as a 1K, you won't clear CPUs". As a Plat this year, I've cleared 32 out of 37 eligible flights. I assume my odds won't go down if I hit 1K.

GeoMedic

I'll contribute a data point... I'm at 175K so far and $42k so I average out at $24k (too many GPUs used this year)
Last year I was 240k for $74k or about $31k.
Year before that 238k for $40k so $17k for 1K

Over the three years it is about $23k

craz

you are forgetting about being to play with Award tkts, since I fly to a popular Intl destination the best seats in Saver usually open at the last min, so I grab what I can when I can and hope something better opens later and simply switch. A few months ago a few hrs before departing out of PHL what I really wanted opened up on LX out of JFK, Bingo made the switch and it cost $0 and drove to JFK instead of PHL My return I switched as well from XXX-ZRH-GVA-JFK to XXX-ZRH-JFK. Now I have 500k with US but w/o status with them I can only grab the exact routing I want unless I want to keep paying all sorts of fees

Thats besides getting to visit many places.

But I can even understand a MRer who turns right around. eg NY-ONT was $160 say you do 10 of them so you spent $1600 earned (the way I fly) 123000 RDMs and now fly to my reg destination in C , while $1600 may just cover an ElCheapo tkt in Y and earn 22k RDMs and are 62% of the way to 1K instead of 11% That C tkt is usually $4500+

Each person has their own reasons . Ideally COdbaUA would love it if we simply purchased Refundable tkts at top $$$, and is well aware what goes on, they need to walk a fine line where they dont turn off everyone who isnt a Full Fare person. BA did that when they started giving only 25% EQMs & RDMs to those on ElCheapos they switched back. Every Carrier needs both types of flyers.

Maybe CO should start giving out more GPUs and RPUs as a persons spend hits certain amounts. I do agree they should be giving more to those with the good spend, how to do that w/o turning off the others is the hard part

Akulashark

I made 1K in June with $18k in spend, I will finish the year at around $28-$30k.

Beerman92

There are people who like to fly. I like to fly quite a bit. Not as much as many on here but 100k domestic isn't that much flying. Its a midcon/transcon every other week. My flying is mostly work related but I still enjoy most of it. Or try to any way so I can see if someone wanted to do this for sport or hobby or any other reason other than work its not really any different. Now when you have folks who start to do 150-200k domestic bis for any reason work or not then for me I would start to get pretty sick of flying.

schley

Or rephrased, remain loyal to book UA and play by their generous rules at times.

No cents? $5,273 even?

Or perhaps some things have improved and people don't realize those since they are so consumed by you and others stating "it will never be like the old days." ??? Both of us can come up with numerous "improvements" that have been made in the last 2 years to UA.

So you can spend more time posting on FT no doubt!

John Thacker

Yeah, but I suspect UA doesn't really care about "loyalty" except insofar as that loyalty gets you to book flights on UA even when they're more expensive than some competitor (and that that revenue difference is less than the cost to them of the benefits that they give you.)

These days, flights aren't exactly going out with lots of empty seats (except in Essential Air Service airports, naturally); the pricing algorithms are too sophisticated. So it's not "UA wouldn't have my revenue at all if I didn't buy" but "how much lower would UA have to have priced this to get someone who didn't have loyalty and book UA to earn or use his elite benefits."

Under any system, people are going to find a way to beat the system. But really, UA isn't trying to reward you for being "loyal," they're rewarding elites because they think it's profitable to do so.

rwsteelers

132k EQM, about 120 on UA metal - $55k spend - the difference between 1k and GS

craz

Not somethings alot of things did. eg no more *NetBlocking = actually being able to use my Miles for award tkts ^.

What I meant was alot of folks who had been with PMUA for yrs and yrs all of a sudden woke up and found a new set of facts on the ground , which meant they would no longer be able to play the Game as they were used to playing it and now it was a very good chance if they still purchased a Coach tkt thats exactly where they will end up sitting. And that meant War! and take Jeff down.

I saw it as a new owner and if you dont like the way things are then move on. I honestly believe if most of those who curse Jeff were the CEO they would most likely have done pretty much what Jeff has.

For myself I said I will be too close to 1MM to switch now, after 12/26 I will need apx 76k. After I hit that I will revisit where things stand and decide what if anything Id do, and posted many a time this is what each and every person needs to do. If COdbaUA doesnt work for you any longer move onto to which ever Carrier does, its very simple.

QBK

Wow. $55K for 132 EQM equates to...

...let me get my calculator...

...41666.67cpm! Folks, we have a winner!

(Update: I think that is possible. SBA-LAX one-way in full Y/F is 88 miles, or 132EQM with the bonus. And if you started with no status, and managed to find a mistake fare that charged $55K, then you could end up with 132 EQM and GS. Doing it with only 120 EQM on UA metal would be harder -- I'm sure there's an 80-mile route out there, but then you'd have to get the other 12 EQM on a partner, and that's tough).