flyguy2

In planning out my travel for the rest of the year, it looks like I'll end up one coast-to-coast flight away from reaching Platinum status. Is it worth making the effort to try to get over the threshold of 75,000 PQM, or should I just be content to stay at Gold? I can't say I've seen too many benefits of Gold status beyond being able to book Premium Economy. I'm not sure I've been upgraded more than once in the 2-3 years I've had Gold status, and never on a coast-to-coast flight. Separately, I'm starting to wonder why I'm even loyal to United. I flew on Lufthansa to Europe this summer and realized their treatment far surpassed what I receive on United. You don't really get much here in the U.S. compared to Europe, I guess.

denuaflier

I think you answered your own question!

Platinum does give you no change fee for award rebooks that may be useful to you.

1kBill

With Platinum, I think you are able to nab E+ seating at booking rather than having to wait until 24 hours before departure. Also, you get 2 regional upgrade certs.

RandomBaritone

So can Golds.

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/cont...r/default.aspx

StingWest

Me too, by the way!

tomsundstrom

It was worth it for me to do a quick mileage run at the end of last year because I travel with my family of four, and we can all get E+ for free; with gold, you only get +1. It also has paid off because I made several free changes on award tickets, and that would have added up for all of us. Plus I was able to use the RPUs on PS flights, which was nice. Supposedly there is more award inventory for Platinums in premium cabins (IN v. I), but I've only seen that once in my flight searches, and it turned out I couldn't use it.

On the other hand, my friend who is married with no kids, usually flies herself, uses her miles for upgrades, and flies almost exclusively international, had no compelling reason to go beyond gold.

flyguy2

This is all very helpful -- thank you. Can the 2 RPUs be used on an LAX-EWR flight?

LaserSailor

I think PLAT is the sweet spot on UA.

You can waive PQD, so you can fly cheap
Miles accumulate at a decent rate. almost the same as 1K
you get enough miles so you can upgrade INTL flights
No fee for award changes makes miles usable close in.

Domestically, 75k BIS is pretty easy to hit without getting tin can syndrome.

You can get all this with some FC transcon flying every other month

restlessinRNO

Yes, if upgrade space is available, which maybe a issue.

Long Zhiren

I'm doing my best to avoid Platinum.
I've got 53k PQM for the year, and I feel the extra 3k were wasted on UA. The upcoming planned 7k PQM on SQ seem like a total waste. I wish they were going to another program which is where the rest of my flying for the year is going. Perhaps I should join SQ's program or something. hm.
Being in the SFO area, Platinum got me very few CPU's for the routes that I fly & the RPU's don't help much. I keep giving the RPU's to wife and other family. Two per year is not very much. Staying Gold makes almost no difference. The GOES reimbursement was nice while it lasted.
Groups 1 & 2 boarding are a joke. Group 8 should board first. That looks like the most exclusive group by far.

Mike Jacoubowsky

• The GMs get treated badly; their voice is being heard.
• The lowly 2P... well, yeah, they don't have it all that bad, all things considered. Getting E+ at check-in, better handling with irrops, and if they have access to the same premiere line I do, much better customer service than the GM.
• The *G/1P... this conversation seems more about preserving lifetime benefits from being a 1MM flyer than anything else.
• 1K- pretty much the focus of the conversation it seems, and deservedly-so. The PQD requirement has heavily filtered out the riff-raff; the 1K should be considered a very valuable customer to United.
• GS- 1K on steroids. Keep 'em happy, pretty much do what you have to do.

So where does the Plat fit in? Seriously. We see virtually zero input from Plats here, and virtually no mention at all from UA. Is a Plat someone who just happens to fly UA a fair amount, but not enough to seriously contribute to the bottom-line? Should Plat even exist at all, proposing instead that you jump from 1P to 1K but have extra benefits that kick in at a given milestone?

Prior to the merger, there was no Plat at United. It was a carryover from the CO side and, for me, a welcome one. 1K is far beyond my means, due to PQD and flying patterns. Plat can be accomplished, if I make travel a priority in my life. Plat has actually caused that to happen. But the only reason Plat makes sense for me are the no-charge change and redeposits on award fees.

Does Plat matter? Should there be something beyond just the award redeposits (and two domestic upgrades that are tough to use)?

Why aren't Plats as vocal as others here?

channa

Remember the plat level came from CO. So they are the group that gained some with the changes. In general, the UA people lost benefits, and the CO people gained them. UA already admitted that.

The Plats gained regionals, E+, and a larger route network to use their regionals on. Free award redeposit and waitlisting across a larger network.

Sure they're a bit lower in upgrade pecking order, but for many Plats, upgrades were already poor at CO.

I remember one year when my op up rate on US as *G was higher than my upgrade rate on CO as CO Plat. It's not much different than today where my upgrade rate on DL as a lowly AS MVPG is comparable to my upgrade rate as 1K on UA.

Plats were already flying CO's dark planes and we're privileged enough to eat a burrito in the rare event their upgrade cleared.

It's all about baseline. The CO Plats were already beaten down. They don't have much to complain about in comparison.

Smisek was hoping the rest of the UA customer base would be as accepting as the Plats were at CO. That didn't happen.

transportprof

Another masterful summary of the sado-masochistic customer relationship that CO had perfected at the elite level. ^@:-)^

sCO Plats knew their place, and it was not among the ranks of over-entitled elites who look to FT to get the most for their money.

Mike Jacoubowsky

You should go back and read over some of my earlier posts when I was the leader of the lowly 2P contingent on UA. It was like herding cats, trying to keep my group in its place. After a year or so we, as a group, we were relatively well-behaved on FT and respectful of those who truly earned their status (and upgrades). CO must have had their version of me as a Plat I guess.

Clearly, I've lost my way, or I wouldn't have made my post above, suggesting that nobody cares about the Plat, rather than pointing out that the silence of the plat is evidence that we're the only elite that appears to know its place in the new world order.

blackllotus

Platinum is a really underwhelming stepping stone from Gold to 1K. My best guess is that UA has *a lot* of Gold and Platinum level travelers so there isn't much space to improve the benefits for Platinum. Perhaps Gold and Platinum should be merged...