Strategy for Snagging International First Class
 

I've read the forum and I need a little help honing my strategy for gaining first class seats on international flights. I have the United Club card and spend 100K per year on the card. I also have an AMEX for my business and spend about 100K per year on that card. I travel by myself to SE Asia or NZ/AU 2 times per year, Europe 4 times per year, and the Caribbean 2 times per year. I usually snag Silver or Gold elite status on United each year. My goal is to get upgrades or free First Class tickets for my Pacific and European trips. I don't care about the club (and I get Club entrance with the card anyhow). I don't care about early boarding or getting free upgrades on domestic flights or Caribbean flights or any other perks of elite status. All I want is first class on 6 overnight flights a year.

What would you recommend? Should I buy Economy Plus tickets and try to upgrade with miles? Or buy a few first class tickets and redeem miles for the rest? With 200k of spend a year, what would you do?

AMEX does nothing for you at UA. Your claimed flying habits should be earning you Platinum, unless those are your flying plans. 25K more miles would get you to 1K this year which gives you increased award availability, plus 6 Global Premier upgrades. Those, plus the miles you earn should get you your forward cabin seating (assuming you have travel flexibility) without having to cough up for GF or Bf fares. If you do buy BF fares, they do have summer specials.

Thanks for your quick reply! This year so far, I rode to SE Asia twice on award tickets. My paid tickets so far this year are Europe twice and Caribbean once. That means I've only earned about 22K in EQM. Counting 2 more trips to Europe and one more to the Caribbean, I'll likely get less than 75K in EQM this year. I'm starting to think that flying on award tickets to SE Asia was a big mistake. I used a bunch of miles, and didn't earn any EQM for those trips.

Maybe that answers my question: I should only use my award miles for upgrades, not award tickets, so I earn more status... Does that sound right?

A few questions/ clarifications:

1) are you wanting first or business? To upgrade to first, you need to have purchased business.

2) Upgrades to business do not require the purchase of economy plus.

3) How many miles do you have? If you want true first, use the miles for one way first and purchase an upgradable (to business) one way for the other flight.

If you can, start by moving your business expenses to a Mileage Plus business card. Your $100k could earn you over 200,000 miles, which in itself pays for more than one international first class round trip (or close to two business class round trips.)

Then, look into acquiring 1K status, as you'll earn 6 GPUs a year, which allow you to fly your 6 trips in business class if you buy economy, or first class if you buy business. In some cases, you may get double upgrades by paying a fee in addition to using a certificate, but it's a crapshoot.

Now, to set expectations.... whatever you do, it's going to take some effort and adjustments. As you put it yourself, "All I want is first class on 6 overnight flights a year" -- that is quite a lot to ask, if I may say, coming from someone who typically only makes Silver or Gold :)

If flying more is not an option, then there's always other tricks to earn miles (credit card churns etc.) but it's going to take a lot to fund that much free travel. (Oh, and after next year, forget 1K without a significant increase in spend.)

Zapple,

IMO the best value is to use your miles for upgrades and use your cash to acquire EQMs. Your target is 1K status. Gold and Platinum are nice, but really do very little for getting you upgraded from Economy, especially on international routes and those with heavy 1K membership (i.e. ORD, IAH, IAD, EWR). You can boost your EQMs by actually buying them. This is however very expensive. There is a FT post that explains how to boost your EQMs with cash.

Another reason for using cash to buy all of your tickets, on United, is the possibility of getting Global Services Status (GS). This is the absolute best way to regularly get complimentary upgrades to Business and First Class. GS status is based on how much you spend on United, not credit card spend. It is widely believed that $50K of actual United and *A purchases is the floor for such consideration.

As a 1K for instance, this year I have upgraded to FC free on 100% of all my domestic flights. My flights have been ORD-SRQ, a route with few regular 1Ks. If on the other hand I was flying ORD-SFO, IAD-SFO or other routes where half the plane are 1Ks, my upgrade sucess would be significantly diminished.

In the end however, there is no way to NOT spend and get regularly upgraded.

Good Luck on your future endeavors.

That's totally up to you and how much out of pocket you are willing to spend (because upgrades are not "free"; in addition to the miles there is a "fee" that can be as large as half the value of an economy ticket...)

FWIW I spend my miles on TATL/TPAC C or F tickets for personal trips.

This is terribly erroneous and misleading advice.
The 6 GPUs give you the opportunity to apply for an upgrade Y>C or C>F.
There is no guarantee.
Sometimes your upgrades clear, sometimes they don't (look at the GPU successes and failures threads).

Thanks for all of the helpful replies! I seems like a bit of a catch-22: if I earn a ton of miles with my personal and business cards by switching to all United cards, and I earn 1-2 rides in the front of the plane with award tickets, then I won't earn enough PQM to reach 1K. If I buy all economy tickets, and snag 1K, with the hope of upgrading to business (or buy all business with the hope of upgrading to first), there is no guarantee of an upgrade... even with 1k and the 6 bonus upgrades. Business would be fine, as long as I can lie flat or close to it. Really, that is my only goal: a good night's sleep.

I really appreciate the help. I'm new to the world of business/first. I've finally succeeded enough in my profession to stop using miles for free economy seats. I think my strategy will be to buy all of my tickets and use miles for upgrades, with perhaps buying economy on the European legs and business on the Asian legs. That way if I don't snag an upgrade, it won't be too painful!

A lie-flat on 6 overnight flights a year (if only burning miles) would be burning something north of 300,000 K a year. Your spending patterns get you pretty close to that. The thing is declaring fealty to UA means you end with UA's products- there are honestly better C/F cabins out there you can redeem with miles.

I would be strongly inclined to see if AA works for your travel patterns if I was you, especially going to shoot for top tier. Some things to note:

- AMEX transfers to BA (very often with bonuses), BA Y+ ->C costs less miles (and you're in Y+ if the upgrade fails), and there's no copay.

- AA EXP, if you can hit it, is a better status than UA 1K on the free upgrade front: 8 instruments, not restricted by fare class. The downside is AA's coverage in Asia is weak (and a lot of their fleet is slanty seat C, not full-flat), and you're flying QF going to AU/NZ (or burning miles). The upside is CX premium class award availability to SE Asia is very good (much easier to get than SQ and every bit as good), and it's a really nice ride. (You also get JL and MH too.)