European based switch to MileagePlus
 

Hi all,
I`m relatively new to the forum despite flying regularly and a lot.
As I am based in Europe I have previously been with Miles and More (FF status is a farce, never minding the conditions for reaching Senator) before switching to Miles and Bonus (Gold now but they changed tiers).

Anyway, I am unsure whether to switch to MileagePlus seeing that the majority of my travel is within Europe, with about 4-5 inter-continental trips to the US and another 2-3 trips to Asia/ Africa a year. The thing that got me interested was the ability to move up tiers solely through PQS.

Are the benefits worth joining MileagePlus when living outside continental US?

Any feedback welcome.
All the best,
Greg

You must fly four segments per year on UA metal to acquire UA status.

This. Unless you have the UA club credit card (and you'd need to have a US address to get it), you need to hit this minimum. If you won't, or think you might not, crediting to UA probably isn't going to be much better for you.

Each of the FF programs have their specific benefits and drawbacks, but one thing is clear with all carriers - they are all not as rewarding as they used to be, and are moving to try to cut the gaming - through minimum spend requirements, fewer miles (status and/or redeemable) on lower fares and minimum segments on home metal. A3 used to be the place for fliers to go for easier elite status, but now they are requiring segments on their metal to status.

Some primarily UA fliers think going to other *A programs will be better for them. Even with the devaluations, the US FF programs, IMO, do still seem to be a better value than others. Despite that, for most, the home carrier program is very often the better one, since your benefits from a partner program are still more limited if you hardly fly them. YMMV, of course.

Despite all the changes, the US programs generally seem to be more generous for economy class travellers than the European ones, and UA's still has that attribute. However, the equation changes considerably if you largely fly Business Class.

The other thing to be very careful of is fare classes - if it's not a TATL flight, then it's quite tricky finding out whether a flight will qualify for UA miles - I do my best but I still find it quite hit and miss.

I`m hitting at least 10-15 segments on United a year. So that would not be a problem :)
The thing that draws me to UA is that I actually get "rewarded" for hitting between 70 and 100 Segments a year.

All my European Flights tend to Brussels Airways, Lufthansa and Swiss on flight classes that seem to be accruing both PQM and PQS with United (at least according to their website).

It seems UA will follow DL to revise the partner earning charts - earning miles will be harder on UA after 28/2/15 and they won't keep it as easy for partners. That has not been announced, right?

As far as I am aware they have only changed the mile earnings to reflect multipliers of Dollars spend on a ticket. There was a not somewhere regarding a continuity in partner practices beyond the 2015 changes.