LordTentacle

Also... the BOM flights have lots of actual paid C traffic and are thus hard upgrades in general

weero

That is also the rationalisation for anything ex and to SFO, IAH, or ORD.

But given that I too get the TOD offers before failing an upgrade, I do not really buy into the general claim of elite-heavy routes or business traffic routes.

LordTentacle

I've got no issues clearing out of IAH or ORD, SFO and EWR are my bad luck hubs

I'm looking to be 8 for 8 for ex SYD GPU's this year
Cash value of them vs paid C is easily >$20k and >8k vs the cheapest TOD I have ever seen on the flight ($1169)

Being in Syd 1k is easily worth it for the moment

weero

Hmmm .. EWR was always dead easy in the past.
Should be worth even more in your metric as you'd upgrade C=>F ...

dcaflyer979

I am incredibly conflicted. I have a fair amount of biz travel coming in 2015 and right now stand $1,400 short in PQD for 1K. I have over 100,000 PQM. Based at SFO and only can travel Dec 30 and 31. I guess I would want to maximize miles earned if I do a PQD run to lessen the pain of a straight donation to UA.

Anyone in same situation? Debating whether this is worth it. The GPUs are nice to have but R space is so hit or miss.

Will take any advice from the experts.

kmfdm91

You might not want to hear my advice coming from a big cheapskate 1K (past ~8 years), but here it is anyways:

Simplistically, if you feel that the status is US$1,400 - RDM accrued from said PQD MR, then you should go on the trip.

With less 1Ks next year, your upgrades should be higher, considering everything else stays equal (although with UA, you never know with ToD upgrades, etc). I have had issues finding R space , in the past, but I used 6 SWUs this year on FRA-IAD (2 pax, plus lap infant) and EWR-NRT and HKG-EWR (2 pax, plus lap infant) successfully, so they were very nice to me this year. That said, the W fare was of course more expensive than the cheapest ticket, and for me (others aren't in the same boat) - I will not buy a ticket unless the R space is available and I can confirm immediately.

But, if you fly a lot domestically, the sheer CPU chance and 100% compared with 75% RDM bonus should be a nice factor to consider.

Me - I'm leaving UA entirely, but have secured Plat for the year (with CC spend waiver) to ensure that I can use up all of my UA RDMs with no cancellation/change fees. The good thing that UA helped me out with this year is the space they provided me, showing that MS is actually much more cost effective than MRs, which is sad, but true. I'll be learning a new game (SPG/Chase Ultimate Rewards transfers to specific programs) and be taking my premium travel to carriers that actually are nice to fly. Even after the C trips in UA this year, they left me down thinking how crummy they were, even though I was upgraded. However, this may be personal, but on NH, TG, SQ, LH, TK and AC for me this year, I actually felt like a real premium traveler, even with wife and baby.

-jeremy

CO_Nonrev_elite

While I agree with the majority of what you said re learning GPU at purchase or forget etc, I still have my doubt that a) there will be less 1K's next year and b) that it will have any affect on upgrades.

United is looking to sell those upgrades for pretty much whatever they can get for them before giving them away free. I see no reason for that to change to allow for more comp upgrades.

dank0014

Agreed. I doubt any increase or decrease is 1K will be significant. I personally know 3 new 1Ks from my work next year and everyone who was 1K last year has obtained it for next year that I know. Yes small sample size, but think PQDs will have some, but very limited impact. Given this, upgrade rates I don't believe will increase as if there are more F seats they will be TOD.

Xyzzy

I completely agree with you. I don't see the upgrade situation changing much either. United is letting people know what their (meager) chances at CPU are. When checking in for a domestic flight recently I saw this message along with an offer to upgrade for $69:That says to all comers, "Someone is going to frk over $69. If you want to sit at the pointy end of the plane you'd better be the first to fork over some cash."

azzurro

And they have the right to do so, and should do so for their shareholders. The real issue is when $69 is offered to someone with no status and an elite is offered the same last F seat for much much more. I'd usually pay the $69 if offered to me, but I rarely pay the $299 that I am most often offered.

As to OP - I would value the upgrade certs at more than $1400 and would do the MR because I buy tickets enough in advance to get some R space on occasion, but only the OP can answer whether they can get use out of them given their own advance purchase timeframe and R space...

why fly

its paid business class because its so cheap!
Its $2500 for P class from YYZ, on promotion a lot this year.

teeceedee

The requirements only increased, so the logical thing would be to assume it will decrease the numbers.

I don't think it will materially impact any of our experiences though

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Logical only if you are comparing the exact same 1Ks from 2/1/14 to 2/1/15 and ignore newly-minted 1Ks who earned it this year, or those who have been conferred status w/o $ and mile goal requirements - eg MM matches, status buy-ups, corporate giftees, etc

iamchik

Hello,
New to Flyer Talk and have a Premier status questions:
I'm Premier Platinum and I've collected ~98,000 status miles in 2014.
Is it worthwhile to spend the $1K to fly an East/West coast round to push beyond 100K... and get the Premier 1K status?

aacharya

It will not cost $1K to get you 2K status miles - and a transcon is almost too many miles.

But yes, do it. Check out Mileage Run Deals for suggestions, or the sticky thread on the top of this forum for suggestions.