Program Year : Until when?
 

1. UA states in their Premier Status page that : "Upon qualification, Premier status is valid through the end of the program year in which you qualified, as well as the entire following year. For example, if you complete 25,000 Premier qualifying miles (PQM) between January 1, 2013, and June 1, 2013, you will earn Premier Silver membership for the remainder of 2013 and for 2014." I interpret "remainder" as until Dec 31 of each particular year.
2. In their Premier Accelerator rules it states : "Upon qualification, Premier status is valid through the end of the program year in which you qualified, as well as the entire following program year. For example, if you earn Premier status anytime in 2013, your status will remain in effect through February 2015."
3. The Premier Benefits states : "Effective February 1, 2013, through January 31, 2014."
I understand the difference in the years, just putting it out as examples. So, is it Dec 31, Jan 31 or the last day of February? What's the correct answer?

The program year ends January 31st. That allows people who complete their status renewal late in December from dropping down a status level while the activity posts. So, if you earn an elite status during calendar year 2013, it will be good through January 31, 2015 -- the final day of the 2014 program year.

But as far as earning status, If I am at 49K miles on December 31st, 2013, but i earn 1K miles on Jan 1, 2014, am I Gold or still Silver for the 2014 program year?

49,000 PQMs = Silver. Though, if you buy premium fares, UA may nudge you over the top or be more open to counting the 1,000 from Jan 1, which technically counts the next year.

Earning year is strictly calendar year, status privileges continue to Jan 31.
Flights credit into the year of scheduled departure based on local time.

Program Year : Until when?
 

Thanks for the info.

Basically:

1. Qualifying time: January 1-December 31

2. Benefit time: February 1-January 31

3. You are always earning next year's status. So 2013 qualifying year will earn you a status for February 1, 2014-January 31, 2015.

4. UA allows early recognition - so if you are new elite or a higher level status, you will get the status earlier as soon as you qualify. For newly qualified Platinum/1K, you will get upgrade instruments for both years.

This isn't quite accurate--benefits start upon hitting the relevant threshold, and assuming reasonably timely mileage posting should begin no later than early January, ending January 31 of the following year. You don't have to wait until Feb. 1 to get benefits.

BTW, United needs to update its website - That "through February" description sounds left over from the transition in 2012, where benefits went through 3/2/12.

Is this true? So if I make Plat now, do I get two RPU's expiring in Feb 2014 and two expiring in Feb 2015?

"newly qualified" - what if I am already 1K, and I re-qualify for 1K today and of course for the remainder of 2014, will I get the upgrade instruments for this year 2013 and 2014?

Not true, you get RPUs/GPUs upon making a threshold level but no more
you will get upgrade instrument (good until Jan 2015) upon achieving the threshold level and no more until you achieve another threshold level.

.

Not all. garykung is incorrect here. One only gets the upgrade instruments once for one qualification.

Okay, that's what I thought.

See #4 - I did explain that UA allows early recognition.

My bad - I was under that impression.