rankourabu

How many 1Ks systemwide are there that do not have $10k spend behind them?

Almost always, to be 1K, one has to be flying for work, and this comes with >10cpm fares in most cases, no?

"Normal" people very rarely fly over 100,000 miles in a year, especially on one airline. How many of those 'not for work' 1Ks are there? A couple thousand? and I think thats being generous. And how many of those will not have <10cpm spend - what are we looking at here - a reduction of a couple thousand 1K, how is that going to impact upgrades, when UA is handing out GS like candy to attract corporate contracts?


Now, it is very possible for a "normal" person to fly 25,000 miles, and not spend $2500. There were numbers published somewhere and there were 10x more Silvers than 1Ks

PDXPremier

+1...It was usually pretty easy to find 2-3cpm runs on UA metal from PDX...just last year we had the 2cpm PDX-DTW fares and earlier that year the 3cpm PDX-WAS fares....I always felt like a "big spender" if I even considered buying a UA ticket above 4cpm Before the PQD announcement, I was thinking it would be nice to try to go for Gold for around $1500 in spending (which would work if you keep it at 3cpm x 50,000) and then the big "announcement" last June about PQD stopped those plans.

SEA777GUY

I think that this is the way that UAL is going to go, at least for this year. Those that have made the PQM but not the PQD spend, will be offered a buy up. It may be offered sometime in late November but I am sure that they will hold out until late December. UAL would be foolish to pass up the ancillary cash cow this would be for them.

kmfdm91

I think you just helped UA out with another way to grab a few bucks from elites @:-) or 'near-elites' who really love that status! But seriously, you are right - if they dangle the level of status that they almost achieved with a few dollars, i'm sure some folks would at least buy it...AA has been doing that with me for a few months now!

Right - this largely affects either the International flying crowd (obviously based in the US) or some ultra-cheap domestic MRs, but they largely know about PQD by now!

That is A solution, but one that I definitely will not be doing. UA already gets enough of my money and come 1K (and it's SWUs) winding down, there goes my flights with UA - there is no reason to *want* to fly them anymore. She'll get Silver, if that (and I hope she DOESN'T, because if she did, it would mean I gave UA more than $2,5k in BASE FARES!), and that would be plenty good enough.

If you are a 'normal' (as in W/V/Q/H,etc) fare flying Plat, the change won't affect you at all. However, for folks like me (N or G flying ONLY) it WILL affect my upgrade chances, since i'll be behind all the other Plats who purchase expensive fares instead of my cheapskates, whereas before i'd clear before all the Plats on Q/H/M fares...

Cheers to you - you are smart! I'm doing the same, but with a slightly different strategy - get 75k EQMs as fast as possible on airlines NOT named UA and learn a lot about MS and spend US$25k on a card. Enjoy platinum status for the year while seeing where the airlines and their FFPs fall over the coming year :-) Then blow all the RDM (from MS of course) on Premium *A flights booked right before the deadline or on flights that have actually lowered with the new chart!

By the way - I too enjoyed those WAS-PDX fares and wish there were more of them floating around (even to NYC/ZFV/PHL, i'd love it), I took 4 WAS-PDX flights last year and some more NYC/ZFV flights to PDX to get a ton of miles...

I'm running low on salami, cheese, donuts (all gone) and especially beer from the great state of Oregon

-jeremy

LHCVG

That's how I see it going as well, simply because I don't think even SMI/J is dumb enough to think that going to a $2,200 PQD spender and saying "sorry, you didn't spend $300 more, so no status for you" is going to work. Heck, the buy-up offer would be simplicity itself -- just offer them instant status for the remainder of their PQD requirement (obviously the crafty would then buy a quick MR ticket for as close to that as they could get and just get some extra BIS credit along the way).

But yeah in short I see this as more of a threat/cudgel than a truly iron-clad policy they hold fliers to the letter on.

farnorthtrader

I am a regular domestic flyer (not international and not a mileage runner) and I won't come close to the PQD requirement. So far, a little over 10,000 PQM and less than $700 PQD (all K fares, I think). Will definitely have to spend the $25K to keep my silver. Might be worth it, because I have a 50% upgrade rate on the route I usually fly. And the CC spend will get me 35,000 RDM.

TexasMatthew

What routes are you flying that you are silver and getting 50% upgrades? ... I fly 35-40k miles/year and have only been upgraded ONCE on a UA Express 50 minute flight ... in 4 years of silver with UA ... silver on DL, I used to get 30% upgrades

relangford

I thought only the primary card holder counted.