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PQD requirement for foreign members, will it ever happen?

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PQD requirement for foreign members, will it ever happen?

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Old Mar 3, 2019, 12:58 pm
  #76  
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UA has the stats on how many foreign flyers they have in mileage plus, and clearly someone decided if United put a $ value for PQD they would lose customers.
So they have a 0$ PDQ, seems pretty simple to me.
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Old Mar 3, 2019, 1:00 pm
  #77  
 
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Originally Posted by mellon
UA has the stats on how many foreign flyers they have in mileage plus, and clearly someone decided if United put a $ value for PQD they would lose customers.
So they have a 0$ PDQ, seems pretty simple to me.
And I suspect UA is confident they have systems in place to prevent members from claiming to be non-resident (i.e. providing proof of residence when you move out of the US). No doubt that combined with the member's travel patterns and passport information is more than enough for them to establish whether a member is truly a non-resident or merely one on paper

-James
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Old Mar 3, 2019, 1:05 pm
  #78  
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Originally Posted by j2simpso
However, the PQD waiver offered by Chase is pretty weak - only up to Platinum status?! Are you kidding me! At least as a foreigner I get the privilege of earning my 1K status even though I don't have the luxury of logging those 100,000 miles entirely thru UA metal.
why dilute the top published elite level by offering waiver? Or you can just be Delta and allow folks to be DM without flying - at least it raised the top level spend waiver to $250K.

Originally Posted by j2simpso
That doesn't explain AC's érrorPlan. Canadians have to spend so much to qualify for elite status with non-Canadian residents having to spend half that much with AC, making your Yankee érrorPlan Super Elite having to fork out $10,000 CAD per year to AC!

-James
​​​​​​
Apples to apples, us Yankees have to spend 15K USD for similar published top level at AA, DL, and UA. 10K CAD < 15K USD.

​​​​​​

Last edited by Repooc17; Mar 3, 2019 at 1:46 pm
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Old Mar 3, 2019, 5:45 pm
  #79  
 
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Originally Posted by j2simpso
And I suspect UA is confident they have systems in place to prevent members from claiming to be non-resident (i.e. providing proof of residence when you move out of the US). No doubt that combined with the member's travel patterns and passport information is more than enough for them to establish whether a member is truly a non-resident or merely one on paper

-James
Mine was even a bit of work to get them to accept, and I had gov. orders to go along with it... They definitely have a team of real people who verify your information for this.
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Old Mar 4, 2019, 12:00 am
  #80  
 
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Originally Posted by j2simpso
I should also point out that there have been reports on FT of UA wanting to verify that you do in fact live in that address (i.e. with a utility bill). Sometimes this happens when you change your primary address to a "non-US" address on the UA website, other times UA will contact you a few days/weeks after the change.
I had a difficult time sending UA the required documents to change my address to a foreign location, mainly because I do not pay my bills directly and rather I have an apartment broker that does it for me. (Weird, I know ... but hey.) In the end I was able to send a PDF with a copy of a few pages from my lease and that worked. The hardest part was getting a PDF file that was below UA's antiquated file size limit that they would accept!
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Old Aug 14, 2019, 3:38 pm
  #81  
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Originally Posted by j2simpso
And I suspect UA is confident they have systems in place to prevent members from claiming to be non-resident (i.e. providing proof of residence when you move out of the US). No doubt that combined with the member's travel patterns and passport information is more than enough for them to establish whether a member is truly a non-resident or merely one on paper

-James
Any data points about UA figuring that out? I mean, what if someone is going back and forth between US and Mexico? How will UA determine if one is truly a non-resident even if they spend slightly more than half the year in the US, but provides documentation proving they have an address in Mexico or any other country for that matter?
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Old Aug 14, 2019, 3:47 pm
  #82  
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Originally Posted by lsquare
Any data points about UA figuring that out? I mean, what if someone is going back and forth between US and Mexico? How will UA determine if one is truly a non-resident even if they spend slightly more than half the year in the US, but provides documentation proving they have an address in Mexico or any other country for that matter?
For discuss of the address requirements, see -- New change address verification for MP (just non-domestic changes), they are non-trivial for most. Some with long term relationships with a non-USA location could / can take advantage. UA is probably counting on the "leakage" to be small.
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Old Aug 14, 2019, 3:54 pm
  #83  
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Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
For discuss of the address requirements, see -- New change address verification for MP (just non-domestic changes), they are non-trivial for most. Some with long term relationships with a non-USA location could / can take advantage. UA is probably counting on the "leakage" to be small.
Non-trivial? Really? I quickly went through the thread and driver's license is listed as one of the qualifying document. I guess as long as I maintain such documents even if I'm spending a significant amount of time in the US, I doubt UA will catch me or any other individuals.
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Old Aug 14, 2019, 6:01 pm
  #84  
 
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Originally Posted by lsquare
Non-trivial? Really? I quickly went through the thread and driver's license is listed as one of the qualifying document.
Right. ONE of the qualifying documents, but you need to provide TWO documents as proof. In many cases, the second document will be the hard one.
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Old Aug 15, 2019, 5:38 am
  #85  
 
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Originally Posted by lsquare
Non-trivial? Really? I quickly went through the thread and driver's license is listed as one of the qualifying document. I guess as long as I maintain such documents even if I'm spending a significant amount of time in the US, I doubt UA will catch me or any other individuals.
I believe most people who are genuinely non-US based, and hold status due to being a frequent flyer will have travel which originates and terminates outside of the USA.
I mean, I guess if you're doing all domestic flying, you could be flying other airlines in/out of the USA, but I think it would look extremely suspicious if most of your international travel originates from the USA and you "live abroad"
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Old Aug 15, 2019, 11:24 am
  #86  
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Originally Posted by skycrab
I believe most people who are genuinely non-US based, and hold status due to being a frequent flyer will have travel which originates and terminates outside of the USA.
I mean, I guess if you're doing all domestic flying, you could be flying other airlines in/out of the USA, but I think it would look extremely suspicious if most of your international travel originates from the USA and you "live abroad"
UA only serves my home airport of Guadalajara from IAH, so I frequently will take other airlines into LAX, SFO, EWR, and then hop onto UA itineraries; this eliminates an extra connection and saves me $$. So my travel patterns with UA don't always originate or terminate at my home airport of GDL. I've never had a problem, no one at UA has ever said it's suspicious, and I will certainly not alter my flights so that I "look" like a foreign-based MP member.
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Old Aug 15, 2019, 2:38 pm
  #87  
 
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Originally Posted by skycrab
I believe most people who are genuinely non-US based, and hold status due to being a frequent flyer will have travel which originates and terminates outside of the USA.
I mean, I guess if you're doing all domestic flying, you could be flying other airlines in/out of the USA, but I think it would look extremely suspicious if most of your international travel originates from the USA and you "live abroad"

Yeah I have only ever been non US based and 90% of my UA travel (150,000PQM this year) is simply connecting through the USA to somewhere else.

I keep getting asked when I call 1K desk to signup for this darn UA credit card and I have to keep telling them I'm not eligible, which I guess is still why we are exempt
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Old Aug 19, 2019, 3:43 am
  #88  
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Originally Posted by j2simpso
That doesn't explain AC's érrorPlan. Canadians have to spend so much to qualify for elite status with non-Canadian residents having to spend half that much with AC, making your Yankee érrorPlan Super Elite having to fork out $10,000 CAD per year to AC!
There are a lot to do with the airline's own network and customer base. Airlines like AA or AC do not have a strong foreign base. Because of that, these airlines have no incentive to adopt an exemption policy.
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Old Aug 21, 2019, 2:43 pm
  #89  
 
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Personally I'm losing mine this year - going from 1K to general member, because of the spend requirement and I just moved back to the states.

Sucks
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Old Aug 21, 2019, 4:02 pm
  #90  
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Originally Posted by skycrab
I believe most people who are genuinely non-US based, and hold status due to being a frequent flyer will have travel which originates and terminates outside of the USA.
This describes my situation exactly. Obviously I have strong connections with the USA, as, I should imagine, will all UA elites taking advantage of this, but pretty well all my UA (and other *A flights which they will see on my MP Activity) originate outside the USA apart from the occasional domestic hop.
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