[2015] Version: Survey of plans you have in 2015 for earning 2016 Premier status.
 

PLEASE READ THE WIKI AND ALL OF POST #1 BEFORE POSTING IN THIS SURVEY. THANKS.

UA monitors these threads. They will not release their statistics on MP membership changes, so let us work together to compile our own data.

Since the PQD requirements have increased in 2015 for earning 2016 Premier Status for all Premier levels
($3,000/$6,000/$9,000/$12,000)
AND since the requirements for earning Reward Mileage is changing on March 1, 2015,

this is a brief survey of ALL FTers who belong to MileagePlus about plans for achieving 2016 status throughout 2015. THANKS FOR TAKING PART IN THIS SURVEY.

The goal of this SURVEY to see if any trends are established in the coming weeks and months among MileagePlus members who post in Flyertalk in regards to attaining 2016 Premier Status through 2015 earnings activity.

There has been speculation in this Forum that increases in PQDs for earning in 2015 MP status for 2016 and the changes in earning Reward miles beginning March 1 may significantly reduce those seeking certain levels of Premier status for 2016.

Many other reasons have also been cited why persons may be reducing their flying on UA and/or also their status with MileagePlus. This survey will determine percentages of respondants who are decreasing, maintaining or increasing their MileagePlus status for 2016 through their 2015 planned earnings activity. Respondants are requested to expound upon reasons for seeking certain status levels. We will see if any trends emerge in regards to reasons.

YOU MAY NOT YET KNOW YOUR SPECIFIC PLANS FOR flying on UA in 2015, ie, number of flights within the USA or number of TATL flights you plan to take, etc., but please at least post your general plans...POST THE MINIMUM STATUS YOU KNOW YOU WILL LIKELY ACHIEVE...like, "I am Platinum but plan to reduce to Gold for 2016." OR, "I am Gold and plan to keep Gold status." Then expound on how you plan to do that and your reasons. Later in the year when you have a better idea of your travel plans, you can come back and post again to amend your original plans in this thread, referring back to your original post.

(There is a separate thread that is asking if persons' status decreased, stayed the same, or increased between 2014-2015. Please also respond to that short survey. Thanks.)
[Survey] From 2014-15 Did your MP Status Increase, Decrease, or remain the same?


After enough data points are received from enough posters for this thread, the WIKI will be periodically updated throughout the year, to summarize statistics from this survey.

Please keep answers short and simple. This is a SURVEY. Please do not get into long debates with other posters about UA policies, IRROPS, WiFi, food, etc. . There are plenty of other threads where you have opportunities to do that. Thanks for keeping this thread simple.

Please expound in detail for your top several reasons in question #3...you can make short statements just please do not write several long paragraphs in a long essay .....see example reasons later
Feel free to come back and edit if you think of something else later. THANKS FOR TAKING PART.

PLEASE ANSWER CONCISELY:

(1) What is your MP Status on UA right now?
(General Member, Silver Premier, etc.)

(2) What are your plans for earning certain MP Premier status for 2016 AND how will you achieve that status?

(EXAMPLES: I plan to stay GM; I plan on jumping from GM to 1K; I plan on staying Plat.; I plan to drop from 1K to Plat; I plan to increase from Silver to Gold,etc. ..... I plan to do this by: NO SPECIFIC TRIPS PLANNED-BUT WILL BE TAKING ENOUGH USA/INTERNATIONAL to earn PQD/PQM; taking xxx flights on UA from USA to _____,
xxx flights on UA to USA from _____, xxx flights on UA within the USA, xxx flights on UA from ____ to ______, etc.,...these trips should earn my PQDs, PQMs,....; I plan to purchase PQMs; I am exempt from PQD requirements...BECAUSE, etc. )


(3) What are your reasons for seeking or not seeking certain Premier Status in 2015 for 2016 with UA?

( please expound by citing your several reasons..., (there may be more reasons specific to you not suggested here) EXAMPLE REASONS:..., I don't fly enough to qualify for Premier Silver; I earn MileagePlus miles mostly from credit cards, hotel stays, car rentals; I am a Platinum but cannot qualify for 1K...PQDs increase now too high for you; you have a credit card waiver for PQD requirements; you have an address waiver for PQD requirements; company policies regarding certain fare purchases or flying on specific carriers do OR do not limit you to UA; plans to increase flying on other carriers; UA meets your needs better for routes you need to fly; you live in a "Captive UA Hub" and do not have many choices; you find food, service, reliability, better on other specific carriers; you have experienced upgrade rate better on other specific carriers compared to UA; MileagePlus new policies for Reward mileage making you seek other carriers for more of your flying; MileagePlus new Reward mileage policy works out better for you...BECAUSE...;
after you reach "X" status on UA, you plan on flying other specific carriers...BECAUSE...; you want to earn *Gold for using with partner carriers/lounges; you plan on now earning reward mileage on other specific carriers because of changes in MileagePlus Reward mileage earnings requirements; you plan on using partner airlines of UA or other specific carriers; you plan on flying UA for business and other carriers for leisure, etc.)

THANKS AGAIN FOR TAKING PART IN THIS SURVEY, AND PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COME BACK AND EDIT YOUR POST IF YOU THINK OF SOMETHING ELSE. WIKI will be updated approximately after every 100 posts to keep my poor brain focused (I do not even know how to find Boarding Line #1).

PLEASE PM YOUR MP FTer FRIENDS TO INFORM THEM ABOUT THIS SURVEY. THANKS.

Happy Flying and the best to you in 2015.

(1) Gold
(2) Two trips to Asia. Two trips to Europe. One trip to east coast. One or two to LA area. Own UA Club Visa card to get PQD waiver. I guess I could still be Gold in 2016.
(3) UA takes me safely from point A to point B. I also prefer using SFO as the entry point when I fly back from a foreign country. No strong reason for me to go with AA or DL at this point.

(1) Hopefully only temporary drop from GS --> 1K. GS Challenge for re-invite to go back to GS in 2015.
(2) Travel every week, spend every week, meet the criteria. 1K at least. Ultimately, get re-invited to GS.
(3) GS rules and I have many years invested in UAL. Goal is 4MM and only need 1.7MM more BIS to get there :)

(1) Gold (via MM status)
(2) None, I'm about 85K from 2MM, will fly UA if its direct and cheaper and no good options on OAL, will hit 2MM someday, but no interest in flying 75K (or 100K miles) on the current version of United. :D
(3) United is a bottom feeder airline, and I get better treatment and product flying DL, AS, VX, and foreign carriers. I just buy A/P fares, or get "Delta Comfort" or MCS from my status.

1. 1k

2. 1k but I am buying the PQD now and working on flying other airlines including Emrates who I'm interested in trying out. Buying the PQD seems like a win-win for me and UA in the short term. Maybe a loss for UA in the long term.

3. Generally happy with UA but given all I spend in the air I'm going to use their new policy of buying PQD to sample the competition. The flexibility to do this is one change that I actually like.

1K

Gold, Plt or 1K...but I will not go out of my way to requalify for 1K.

$12k PQD is too much...2 years ago I spent about $7500. Last year about $11000. With the higher taxes and fees it would be $14000 to requalify...nearly doubling of spend within 2 years.

spin, come on. =) I know you hate UA more than the next guy, but lifetime plat? That you can "gift" to somebody else <that lives at your house....>?

silver...going on nothing

mostly just not flying that much this year, and much of it is award tix-I don't think I'll hit 20k BIS on paid tix

1) Gold

2) I'll be either Gold or Silver next year.

3) The post-3.1 changes really impact me as a Presidential Plus credit card holder who pays for my own tickets. I'm exempt from PQMs, but under the new rules it will be very hard for me to make even Silver despite 50k+ BIS miles.
•One immediate change: all international travel after 3/1 will be booked on Star Alliance partner airlines. Even 50% RDMs sure beats 5%; plus service must be better, even on whatever the second worst Star Alliance airline might be. (EgyptAir? Air India?)
•In a credit card + TOD world, with very few upgrades as a Gold since the merger, I'm grateful for this change because it ultimately means I no longer have any reason to be loyal to UA.
•I will do a status match to AA early next year to preserve mid-level elite for another year; then I'll get AA + VX + DL credit cards for the free bags.
•I look forward to not being tethered to UA for nothing else if not free beer over oceans.

The net/net/net: By devaluing both elite status and miles, United no longer differentiates itself to keep this customer.

1. GS Now till next jan was a 1K in 2014

2.I will do my best to Achieve GS for 2016 but most likely will be 1K the biggest problem that my company has me working out of Spain most of this year and United don't have the best service to Spain other *S alliance have better service that is fine but I don't get those dollars that I spend there to count towards my GS consideration. Also the new was to earn miles I don't like it because adding this to my issue with Spanish connection and AA offering a better service and program to Spain my be it would be better for me

3. Loyalty but I don't know for how long because United goes out of its way to make their program worst , UA has made their best effort to make in worst 2014 the devaluation of our Miles and PQD will really I don't mid but the way they devalued the award charts that I do and now with new method to earn miles since I don't live in the USA I can take benefit of all the offers of none airlines partners. Like I said before has my looking at new options like AA

(1) Now Silver until 1/31/16, was 1K, headed to Pa Kettle by 2/1/2016
(2) do not expect to fly UA this year for revenue travel other than the one RT already flown
(3) have found other carriers that i find to be a better value proposition, from the perspective of RDMs earned, upgrades received, on-board hard and soft product, and customer service. one of these airlines has similar PQ$ requirements (DL) and the others do not (B6, AS).

1. 1K

2. 1K

3. Loyalty, convenience to EWR, PHL, LGA. While retired and flying on my own dime for the past two years, PQD is not a problem at least through 2015.

1. Gold
2. 4 or 5 TATL trips and 2 or 3 transcons on UA, maybe some other *A
3. working on MM status, travel mostly in Y on my dime and E+ is very important

1K

Gold

A combination of less business flying in 2015 and the realization that going out of my way for higher status on an airline that didn't appreciate my loyalty was a fool's errand.

Before the merger, I would fly United even when it was inconvenient and not the cheapest option. I did this because elite status actually meant something. Today, it still offers benefits over being a general member, but the value proposition has shifted drastically.

Before March 2012, UA CSRs would actually call me to ask if they could change a departure flight the next day because they foresaw a problem with my planned flight. Before March 2012, I had direct access to 1K agents who were empowered to solve problems. Before March 2012, I trusted that the upgrade system worked fairly. Before March 2012, the boarding process was simple, efficient, and didn't require one to become gate lice in order to ensure there was overhead storage. Before March 2012, IROPS protection was industry-leading.

I have no doubt that elite members of pmUA probably received benefits that the airline couldn't afford over the long run, and that some of these benefits had to be cut back. Which is what I meant when I said above that the value proposition has changed. I still fly United, and will for the foreseeable future. I just won't fly them with the near exclusivity that I once did, because I'm no longer receiving the same benefit I used to receive for my loyalty.

No anger here, just sadness for what used to be - especially for the hard-working front line employees of UA I've enjoyed interacting with over the years.

(1) 1K
(2) I have only 20K to make it to MM status, thus Gold, at that point I'll only fly United if it's a non-stop
(3) Reduced service (both in-flight everywhere and schedule-wise from Seattle). They've done everything except shut off the lights. Time to switch to Alaska.