bocastephen

I wouldn't be so sure about that unless you're also including scores of small and medium size business owners who might be charging the cost of their ticket to their company, but even so, it's a rather specious argument to make without any data - data even United itself is unlikely to have.

chipmaster

I know that when I retire in a few I do hope to travel and can easily see spending 12K on tickets, but with the values out there I doubt it would be all UA

I do know lots of people that business is now the new minimum in the later richer years, doesn't take more than a few flights to meet the PQD on leisure for them

spin88

The only discussions I know from United was the series of discussions regarding losing share with "unmanaged corporate travel" vs. managed corporate travel.

Looked at from a retention based there are probably three groups of travelers, "managed" traffic (big companies with a corporate deal), "unmanaged" traffic which will be either companies without a travel deal and small businesses where some of the travel is not OPM.

These figures are old http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/business/05AIR.html But they suggest that business travel was 36% of travel revenue in 2011, and it was as high as 38% pre-recession. My guess is its up there again (if not higher).

100,000 miles is a LOT of travel, particularly if one also flies other airlines at times. While their are clearly lots of small business, and 10% of people are "self employeed" only about 5M Americans (3.6% of the work force) are (a) self employeed, and (b) are incorporated per BLS. I think that is the set that is most likely to have any kind of travel, and while some of them are clearly going to have nationwide travel (or international travel) I think their numbers are swamped in the top-level of travel by people who travel for work, paid for by their employee.

There is also clearly a large segment of wealthy people who travel not for work, but IMHE, sitting on a lot of airplane seats, it is again swamped by business travel.

So while I know of no hard facts, I think its a reasonable assumption that business travel paid for by others is the greater/vast bulk of those who travel at least 100,000 miles on an airline.

kilo

I also suspect that there are only a small percentage of US based IK earned mainly on personal travel.

The 100,000 miles has always been a bit of a stumbling block, but isn't really the PQD requirement that would have gutted the 1K ranks of this group of travelers?

Jalen500

Common sense.
You really think a majority of 1k are leisure travelers?

Kacee

You're both just guessing.

I've had years making 1K purely on personal spend, and even this year, it's probably 60-70% personal. I think there are a number of us here.

With PQM bonus, I don't find it hard at all to hit 100K miles, nor is the PQD that difficult if you're buying mostly front cabin and expensive (flexible) economy fares.

FlyfromDenver

Mine's a mix but business is domestic with more $ than I would be willing to spend(DEN-EUG in December makes my heart stop) and personal international. After 2017 as 1K, it's seems worth the stretch for one more year and again will end up with a top off to AKL on Dec 29th.

physioprof

PhysioWife will be qualifying for GS 2018 for the third year, this is on 80% personal travel spend, 20% business.

Lori_Q

Yes, agreed. It seems very unlikely that United would share publicly what its analytics are able to derive from frequent travelers' purchase patterns. Valuable marketing info, but not something they'd want to share.

Everyone's story is different, I think. I've been 1K for 15 consecutive years, with ~10 of those years earning 1K with at least 50% business travel. In the years before PQD, I was able to get there with a few international mileage runs and/or domestic trips at about $3-6k per year. If my business travel had not been consistently 70-90% of my spend in the years since the PQD requirement was put in place, I definitely would not make 1K every year.

UA_Flyer

Flying 100k BIS and making 1K on 100K PQM are two different things.

Making 1K with 100 PQM may only needs 50k BIS or less if one pays Y/B fare and above, earns PQM without flying and assume meeting the $12K spent or receive PQD waiver.

100K BIS may not get one the 1K status if PQD requirement is not met.

I would consist 100K BIS a road warrior regardless the 1K status, which is titled towards a revenue based model.

Personally, I track my BIS more closely than PQM because I do treasure my flying activities more than my airlines status (lifetime 1K). The only time I pay attention to PQM is whether I am close to earn additional GPUs.

warrenw

My company hasn't paid for a single ticket for me this year, and I'll requalify for 1K on Thursday.

GoSh4rks

Is your spend >$12k? That's probably the biggest hurdle for a domestic based non-business traveler.

warrenw

This year yes.... well, I will by the end of the year but that's with 135k pqm.

I also use an overseas address so I'm except from PQD.

SFHokie

My typical route now is PVG-SFO-SEA and, as long as it's about 3-4 weeks out or earlier, round trip tickets in Y for ~$650, W fares for ~$1200, and J fares for ~$2600-$3700. It really depends on which days you're flying, including being able to apply GPUs to W fares at time of booking for the upgrades. (Tuesday and Wednesday seem the easiest for that...)

Upgrading to P fares for $1500-$2000 is also typically possible on the same routings. While not great, I'll gladly pay for that once the 777-200 is "upgraded" to the 3-4-3 coach layout if I cannot get on the 787s to SFO or LAX.