PV_Premier

depends on your home city, IMO.

OP, you show your home cities as PHL, SFO, LAX, and DEN -- IME, those (excepting LAX) represent some of the hardest upgrade cities in the system.

as I primarily transit ORD and IAD, to somewhat more obscure destinations in general, my success even as a gold is pretty decent. i'm expecting to hit it out of the park next year as a 1K, we'll see.

my most frequent routes are SMF-ORD/IAD/IAH, ORD/IAD-RDU/GSO, RSW-ORD/IAH, EWR/PHL-ORD/IAD/IAH

for me, the GPUs are a consideration as well. technically i am allowed to buy intl C fares but my travel budget is fixed, so if if I can buy Y and upgrade it with a GPU, that allows me to take two trips to visit my collaborators in EU on the same spend that a single ticket in paid C would cost.

aacharya

I can't believe $29 TODs comes up again. It is proof that the arguments against being a 1K are so weak that we start making up numbers and imply that there enough of these to significantly impact the upgrades.

As for "what counts" in PQM - it's painfully easy for normal ticket purchases. Taxes and airport fees don't - all others do. And don't factor in upgrade costs, award accelerator, change fees. If somehow they factor in, change the math slightly - but none of these costs are part of "buying a ticket". (except perhaps Y-> C upgrades if the company only pays for international coach).

The real number on purchased tickets then is $12,500 to $13,000 (assuming 20% of a ticket cost is tax, which is a very high estimate), not this hyper-inflated $20K garbage.

I am a domestic 1K out of EWR. Upgrades are at 65% this year, on low-ish fares. No fees on upgrades, tons of baggage allowance, guaranteed E+ and a 100% bonus on miles. That's enough for me.

Indelaware

Yes, 1K is a real plus regardless of city. One receives a 100% bonus rather than a 75% of Platinum and less for lower statuses. Upgrades are, IMO, a distraction to the real value of FF programs: free travel. That is a significant value. However, that doesn't mean that one should spend more than one would on competitive airlines. FF programs should decide one's choice other things being equal, not when prices are unequal.

FLYDCA

If upgrades are the most important thing you seek you can just buy them.

kranabargar

I too have contemplated this question as well. I have 1.5M miles and have been 1k most years for the last 5-6, but really question the value after the experience since the merger with Continental. The whole TOD concept is terrible, at least in its current implementation. I frankly don't mind paying something for an upgrade, but it needs to be reasonable (which based on my experience it hasn't) AND needs to be offered based on status - offering some bozo who only flies a few times a year the opportunity to buy-up at the expense of a 1k isn't the right strategy in my opinion.

My sense is the upgrade percentage is quite a bit better on AA and Delta, but the downside of those programs, especially Delta is award redemption is VERY difficult (unlike UA).

I'll make 1k again this year, but I will be looking at alternatives again closely as soon as I hit the 100k miles...

Often1

Only an individual knows what's important to him. For instance, M-UP exists only for 1K's. If that's important, 1K is important. If you fly in paid F, who cares?

UA-NYC

Wait - do they exist, or do they not exist then?

IMO they exist (plenty of reports of them), and due to our lack of visibility, we just don't know to what extent. Other factors contribute to lower UG percentages (downsized fleet, cheaper -UP fares, etc.). But since non-elites seem to get the best TOD offers (breaking all UA's published fare rules, even as dozens of elites languish on the WL), tough to think that it's NOT having an impact.

aacharya

TODS exist? Yes.

$29 TODs? No. (I can't find a one in the last year.)

Enough to make a marked difference, where "kettles are laughing at us in F"?

No.

goalie

Lots of good discussion over here

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...3-edition.html

Kacee

+1

Might as well end the thread with this one.

SittingUpFront

1K got me to the top of the standby list last week (40 people in the list, I was on a G fare). I cleared, nobody else did.

tegelad

I don't mind the TODs or upgrades as much, but what bothers the hell out of me is the Gov't flyers getting full fare type of flights given the state of our economy and spending patterns ...

I forgot the last time I got to book Y/J for the companies I have worked for, because of LLF ...

Sigh ... (sorry for the rant) ... I just keep picturing how the upgrade situation would be if govt flyers were getting fares below W ....

+-ADT

cepheid

Gov't "full fare" prices are negotiated to be significantly below actual (retail) full fare prices, and can be even cheaper than lower fare classes. As just one example, IAD-SFO on a federal YCA fare is $168 one-way, or $336 round-trip. This is well below the cost of most retail W+ fares. The state of our economy really has nothing to do with this... federal gov't fares are often (though certainly not always, see below) cheaper than much-lower-fare-class retail fares, so they're usually saving money by booking even a "full fare" gov't fare, and (per below) there are also "less than full fare" gov't fares. (Plus, gov't tickets are fully refundable, which means if plans change, the money doesn't get wasted.)

Many times, gov't flyers do get fares below W. There are *CA fares in nearly every class. For the IAD-SFO example I gave above, a *CA (where * is anything below Y, but is typically V or Q) is $129 one-way, or $258 round-trip. *CA is capacity-controlled, so it's not always available, but many agencies do require booking *CA when available. So, there are many gov't flyers on fare classes below W.

That said... state gov't fares (e.g. for California) are much more expensive, and retail fares are often cheaper. But, many state institutions also require the purchase of retail fares unless the state-negotiated rate is needed, e.g. for flexibility. That was certainly the case when I worked for UC.

* Of course, the federal negotiated rates are not always cheaper than retail. Another example would be IAD-DEN, for which a federal YCA is $495 one-way, and *CA is $436 one-way... these are definitely more expensive than lower-class retail fares. though still cheaper than retail Y/B. (On the other hand, BWI-DEN is only $242 one-way for YCA, $161 one-way for *CA. DCA-DEN is similarly cheap, although Frontier is the contract carrier for that route, so it's not directly comparable.)

Just in case you're curious, federal city-pair negotiated rates and contract carriers can be looked up here: http://apps.fas.gsa.gov/citypairs/search/index.cfm?ft

Duke787

From my perspective as a business traveler it definitely is. I'd still rather be at the top in 1 program than in the middle in a couple (say UA Gold DL Gold).

I liken it to hotels where due to my locations this year my stays are split across SPG, Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt. I get treated well at each of them, but I'm never getting the major suite upgrade. While the top has been devalued, it is still the top and there are enough times where 1k makes a difference (either in IRROPS, upgrades, free bags, and award travel) that in my opinion it's not worth it to split your business.

tegelad

Thanks CEPHEID for the information! ... that at least deals with the irrational moment I was feeling ... I scanned through past flights and I saw multiple years where I achieved Platinum on CO; however, due to the silly 0.5 earning rate, I had to fly "alot" ... to deal with it I changed to CMI for about 5 years when it was just Delta/AA.

Now fast forward to 11/2012 when I found out AA doesn't fly where I need to and then having to scrape buy into Silver in two months and ground pound it (using 9,991 FEQM to make Gold), getting shafted 3x in 3 months with IRROPS (thank god for Travel Delay on Pres Plus card), and having delays like you wouldn't believe across the board [losing 6-8 hours when you are only home for 36-48 hours has an impact].

For me the big thing about 1K is about being able to say GG AMENITY please when stuck and when you get the EWR attitude, and a dedicated line (versus the crap that I was having to deal with (pre-Silver and Silver).

+-ADT