What strategy did you use last year to increase PQMs or PQS? Did it work for you?
 

Several persons reported having enough PQD or had the credit card waiver last year, but did not qualify with PQM or PQS for the Premier level that they sought.

So I was thinking it may be an interesting thread where persons reported what strategy they used last year to increase PQMs or PQS, and did it work for you? Did you earn the Premier level you wanted?

I hit 2MM last year, and decided the race to spend $12K per year to go from Plat to 1K no longer mattered, when it has become so difficult to wrestle upgrades from others offered upgraded for TOD's. Plus, spending $12K would only net me about half the RDM I used to make.

So, I decided to cut back my spending and fly only what I wanted to. Needless to say, without the incentive, I didn't - and won't - fly as much as I used to.

I now fly a lot more on Delta, American, Southwest and lots of foreign carriers. Not so much on United. Plus, at least where I live, they seem to really have cut back on the number of flights per day to all the hubs from my home city of CHS. In order to get where I have to go, I have been unable to fly United for my business travel. Last two business trips were American and Delta strictly because of lack of flight/timing of United flights (well, and price).

Billy

I bought more (and primarily!) premium cabin fares. Even at that, I was right at the PQD ratio (12cpm) had I flown only 100k PQM.

This year, I'm going to have to work at PQD (!) as by mid-February, I'll have 33k PQM (on 13k BIS) but a bit less than $3k PQD. That's with all paid premium cabin fares and the new PQM earning rules.

Although I am a lifetime 1K and GS, I do try to maximize my PQM to earn additional GPUs whenever I have the opportunites. I need to GPUs for personal travels and family use.

Because I only fly UA 60% of the time, I do exclusively fly *A carriers whenever I can. I try to fly those *A carriers that grant additional PQM for premium fares paid whenever possible with the exception of SQ. I fly SQ to earn PPS each year. That qualification is a higer priority than earning additional fare based PQMs.

On UA, I do try to fly the routes that would give me the greatest PQM if I am able. For example, NRT-SFO-EWR versus NRT-EWR.

Hmmm, having trouble finding anywhere in your post an answer to what the thread is about and what the OP was looking for. Just another I don't like UA post as far as I can tell.

Edit to add, I try for 2 segments each way instead of non-stops. But 90% of my destinations require a connection anyways so it works out.

My main strategy is to add an extra short segment on each leg (which, for my route, makes the principal flight 110 miles longer and gives the 500 mile minimum for the short hop). It has the added advantage of putting me on a longer flight which is much easier to upgrade, which is why I started doing this. But, without the extra 5000 miles last year , I would not have requalified.

So you are saying instead of flying AAA-CCC or CCC-AAA, on 10 occasions you flew AAA-BBB or BBB-AAA, which in distance is 110 miles longer than flying between AAA-CCC direct? Then on 10 occasions you flew between BBB-CCC, which gave you a 500 PQM minimum each time?

If this is the case, would you also have earned 10 X 110 (1100) extra PQMs besides the 5,000 PQMs from the 10 500 mile minimum PQM segments between BBB-CCC ?

How much extra time did this typically add to your trips between AAA-CCC ?

Yes, they are published routings, which come up immediately after the non-stop alternative (but, on the rare occasion they don't, you can construct it with multi-city). The whole process adds about 3hr 30min onto what would be an 11hr non-stop. I take the view that the day is ruined anyways and the ability to upgrade to C on the eastbound overnighter with reasonable reliability makes it worthwhile. When in Y on the westbound, it's often less crowded so a free middle seat is a good expectation. All of these factors make it worthwhile.

I don't have the problem for yearly status but when I wanted to get to 1MM quicker, I used SDC to get the extra miles.

I've had some luck recently with TOD upgrades booking into A class.

For example, I flew EWR-IAH in December, booked in E class. Outbound was 1400 PQM's. On the return was offered an $89 upgrade 2 hours before flight time and took it. Result was 2100 PQM's.

For 2016, this works even better with 200% earnings on A class. Did the same EWR-IAH run first week of January, again booked in E class. Took the $89 upgrade on the return and got 2800 PQM's.

This is another reason no one expects CPU's on hub to hub travel. Even as a Platinum I'd be in the double digits on the CPU list.

I place a pretty high value on Platinum because I use miles for family travel (and with Plat, those miles can be used to buy refundable tickets at the same mileage cost).

Accordingly, I did 2 pure mileage runs, 2 other trips that I would not have taken if I did not need PQM's (but where I did something other than fly on the trip), and bought some PQM's.

This year, I will buy exclusively premium cabin tickets for my non-work travel, and will do a couple mileage runs. Just got back from Detroit on a MR. Booked a non-stop IAH-DTW in A class and was able to SDC to IAH-DEN-DTW on the way there.

Same here. I have found that some direct tickets have SDC limitations aside from the posted rules, as some do not allow connections that are not part of an existing connecting city ticket - so you can SDC from direct to connecting flights only if the connecting flight is one offered as a connection on .com. Otherwise, attempting to make up your own longer connecting flight(s) from segments not part of a connecting itinerary on .com will not be eligible for SDC. YMMV

That is why it is important to make a copy of the ticketing restrictions.

My status is reached via segments. I flew just over 40K domestic miles last year, but had over 60 segments. Nearly all of my itineraries call for at least two segments each way. I try to boost those to 3 or 4 segments at minimal incremental cost per segment. (Sometimes, adding segments actually decreases the cost of the ticket.)

I don't worry too much about PQD since I generally achieve the $25K MPE card PQD waiver by mid July.

at the start of '15 I didn't even think about it.. lots of travel early in the year .. hit 35,000 pqm in Q1 and then got let go. Spent summer off .. started new job then travel increased early Q3. Hit gold easily enough.. but had a high spend on the 1st quarter travel so had pqd for Plat. Purchased additional 2k pqm via accelerator to put me at 76,xxx and qual for Plat. This year.. I'll probably rely on chase spend waiver for Plat again. With the travel booked I should easily hit plat PQM. Don't think 1K is possible due to $12K spend requirement and no chase waiver.