Well, if you're considering a $900 E+ subscription, it seems that you think you're going to fly enough for IRROPS support to come into play. :)

Similar to what jsloan says - if you're willing to drop $900 on an E+ subscription, you're probably planning to fly enough in 2019 to make silver again, otherwise why not buy E+ per-flight? I bought the E+ subscription for 2017 and between business travel and using UA for a few of my personal flights was able to squeak over the silver threshold for 2018.

I'll also second the value of IRROPS handling as a silver with another example. A few years ago I was flying DTW-LAX on an award ticket a few days after christmas and due to weather in DEN my aircraft for DTW-ORD was coming in too late to make my connection. I called the premier line from my mom's house as soon as the delay posted (it was obvious on flightaware 30 min before that) where I was staying and got a live person on the first ring (during IRROPS in DEN!). I asked if they had any alternates that evening. I was pretty sure they didn't, but they have better info. They said no, but booked me DTW-IAH-LAX for the next morning and changed the YN ticket to regular Y so I got an instant upgrade in the process. The plane the next morning went MX for over an hour, and while I sat in my comfy F seat drinking endless coffee watched as my chances of making my connection in IAH disappeared. On arrival at IAH, the app had already booked me for the evening, and the terminal was a nightmare of disrupted passengers. I deplaned right near the customer service desk that had a huge line for non-status people and not a single person in the premier line. I walked up, asked if they could put me on standby for a flight leaving in about 30 minutes without dropping me from the confirmed flight. "Sure", and it was done. When I looked at the standby list, I was number 1 out of about 50. I then cleared onto the flight in an E+ aisle seat (having lived a good clean life of niceness and generosity) and flew comfortably home. As a non-silver I'd have still been in the long line, waiting in tears as the flight left with someone else in that seat.

Also, be alert when buying E+ subscriptions online - the UA shopping cart had a very strange behavior last year where you could put E+ into the cart, but it would switch it to a club membership at checkout. It looks like it might finally be fixed, but be wary.

But the subscription provides E+ access at booking vs at check-in. Not sure that is an easy trade-off of the raw irrop support difference.

Yeah, to be clear, I'm not saying that Silver is worth all costs because of the IRROPS handling. But it's definitely one of those things that shows up as a commonly overlooked regret of losing status.

Agreed; my point was just that it takes a lot of E+ purchases -- which can also be made at booking -- to reach $900. So, anyone who is considering that must be planning to fly quite a bit.

Oh really? ;) Just one TATL trip essentially covers the cost. Case in point. I just booked a flight for the missus and me for spring 2019 (when I won't have Premier status anymore). The itinerary is CLE-IAD-FCO/MXP-EWR-CLE. United wants $846 for E+ (exit row) seats for two pax on all four segments. Yeah, it would be a bit less for non-exit rows, but still the subscription is well worth it because I expect to take more than one trip in 2019, but no more than three. (That's all I'm doing this year on UA.) And some of those are non-stops from CLE, so we're still not talking many segments (or connections) in a whole year. Thus, I don't fly enough for IRROPS handling to outweigh E+ at check-in. YMMV.

RNE, surprised E+ subscriptions are so inexpensive.

Domestic E+ seats seem to run $10-20 per hour of flight, depending on when you buy, and it takes about 50 hours of flight to get enough miles to make silver, at which point there's much less incentive to buy an E+ subscription. I think the only time I haven't gotten an E+ aisle or window seat as a silver was when the flight was being booked while I was driving to the airport. If the E+ subscription was priced at the high end there would be no real advantage over per-flight E+ purchases and some disadvantage, because the outlay is large and your travel patterns could change in a way that leaves you flying a lot less. So they sort of have to price it at the low end of what you'd pay if you just bought E+ seats on your way to silver.

:eek: OK, yeah, I take it back. I knew E+ pricing had increased over the years but I hadn't realized it had gotten that bad. I've seen discount Y fares that aren't much more than that, so you're talking about a 100% premium for E+ in some cases. That's crazy.

$150 per segment is even pretty common on transcons. At that point I'm not really sure why you don't buy F, but to each their own.

Amen. I religiously check FC fares whenever I book economy flights. But the spread is often much more than a buck fifty.

+1 on IRROPS help...I've found much value in that over the years

500 PQM minimum on short segments...may not be big in the grand scheme but I've found it helpful for short connecting flights

Some travel policies only allow you to purchase Y cabin. Depending on how much I'm flying, I'll buy up to first afterward if it's on the order of $60/hour for flights over 3 hours. Shorter flights it matters a lot less.

If the Y->F differential on a transcon is only $150, I will absolutely purchase. My routes/times have fares that are significantly higher.

It makes you wonder, though. United will accept a ton of $99ish+ ToD upgrades. If they had loyal customers like me that would consistently pay $150, I would cover 1.5 ToD upgrades AND consistently purchase the fare throughout the entire year.

The fare differential is $299. My perspective is that if I'm willing to offer up $150 for 4" more legroom, I'm sure willing to pay twice that to actually fly F. Obviously not everyone agrees, but I'm also driven by the fact that I find well over half the value in F to be the seat width as you're not rubbing shoulders with a stranger for six hours.

also remember in the next year or two when all UA long hauls been converted to Polaris and Premium Plus, the E+ section will be much smaller than before (roughly 50% of previous size). Having a subscription probably will help you getting a good E+ seat, however, i don't think silver and even gold will have a good shot at E+ anymore on international long haul (at least decent seats). but again, there will be times where you might be op-uped to PP directly at gate if they over sell regular economy.