Nov 8, 2017, 5:41 pm
Last edit by: FlyHighInTheSky
Global Services Qualifying Discussion- 2018
Qualification FormPlease only fill out the above form once you are 100% certain that you have made or not made Global Services for 2018.
Qualification Spreadsheet
This will be a discussion thread, for discussing the needed qualifications and timing of notification.
Use "Global Services 2018 Notifications (ONLY)" to report your actual notification.
For discussion of GS benefits, please use Consolidated Global Services Thread: Benefits, Questions 2017
For 2017 qualifications, see the 2017 thread
To find your PQDs if >than $12K
Go to MileagePlus activity since my last statement and it is in the "Account summary" table at the top of the page.
Note this is not just the UA operated PQDs (which is commonly believed to be what matters for GS) but rather your total PQDs.
Definitions
BIS is actual scheduled flight distance (Great Circle Mileage Distance -- GCM) between airports with 500 mile minimum for elites. This is the standard used for Lifetime miles also. Those flying mostly sub-500 segments sometimes prefer to not use the minimum rule.
The definition for CPM is a bit vaguer, especially since CPM is used in multiple different situations.
Believe for the purpose of this thread, GS qualification, folks are using
PQD CPM = UA PQDs / UA BIS
Note there is no direct evidence UA uses this CPM number for GS Qualification but it is a number FTers like to use.
As for BIS, UA does not report this number your account and it needs to be manually tracked.
One way is to make use that PQMs are based on BIS but there may be a multiplier / bonus for high end fares. If always in 2x PQMs, you could divide by 2 to get BIS.
rwsteelers had a good method for determining UA BIS -- the change in Lifetime Miles from the first of the year.
2018 GS Qualifying Discussion
Jul 15, 2017, 8:44 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Somewhere in EWR
Programs: UA GS, HH Diamond
Posts: 858
2018 GS Qualifying Discussion
Just finished booking nearly the rest of the year's travel, I have two more weeks in Dec I need to do, and I will finish up, once those two weeks are booked, with roughly 275PQM, 170PQS and $48-49,000PQD, 135BIS, .35CPM all on United and all in first with a few exceptions where it was not available. How do you think my chances are coming out of EWR? I reviewed the spread sheet and there are qualifiers with lower spend, miles and segments but also non-qualifiers with more of one of those categories.
Jul 15, 2017, 8:49 am
#2
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: BOS
Programs: UA 1K 1.45MM, Marriott+SPG Plat, Clear, Nexus, Global Entry and MEX Viajero Confiable
Posts: 1,777
Just finished booking nearly the rest of the year's travel, I have two more weeks in Dec I need to do, and I will finish up, once those two weeks are booked, with roughly 275PQM, 170PQS and $48-49,000PQD, 135BIS, .35CPM all on United and all in first with a few exceptions where it was not available. How do you think my chances are coming out of EWR? I reviewed the spread sheet and there are qualifiers with lower spend, miles and segments but also non-qualifiers with more of one of those categories.
Jul 15, 2017, 8:53 am
#3
Join Date: Apr 2015
Programs: United Global Services, Amtrak Select Executive
Posts: 4,098
Just finished booking nearly the rest of the year's travel, I have two more weeks in Dec I need to do, and I will finish up, once those two weeks are booked, with roughly 275PQM, 170PQS and $48-49,000PQD, 135BIS, .35CPM all on United and all in first with a few exceptions where it was not available. How do you think my chances are coming out of EWR? I reviewed the spread sheet and there are qualifiers with lower spend, miles and segments but also non-qualifiers with more of one of those categories.
Jul 15, 2017, 8:56 am
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Somewhere in EWR
Programs: UA GS, HH Diamond
Posts: 858
How did her PQMs and PQSs look compared to mine?
Jul 15, 2017, 10:49 am
#5
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: BOS
Programs: UA 1K 1.45MM, Marriott+SPG Plat, Clear, Nexus, Global Entry and MEX Viajero Confiable
Posts: 1,777
For GS qualification, PQM and PQS don't really matter. Total spend, spend in premium cabin and high CPM seem to be factors. Keep in mind all of our comments are total conjecture because there is no stated qualification requirements for GS. Except for Perks Plus.
Jul 15, 2017, 11:51 am
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Somewhere in EWR
Programs: UA GS, HH Diamond
Posts: 858
Gotcha. How did her CPM compare to my projected final number of .35PM? As I mentioned earlier this was all, with the exception of 3 flights, up front. About 60% A fares, 30% P fares and a mix of the rest.
Jul 15, 2017, 12:14 pm
#7
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Los Angeles
Programs: More than I care to have, but never the ones I need.
Posts: 259
1. The only reports I recall of mid year qualification are for people who were offered a "challenge" for having missed the cut from the previous year
2. That depends on whether you have reason to get status on one of those airlines and how much you value that. Keep in mind that the more UA you fly, the more instruments you'll obtain, and that if you do get GS they'll be more valuable next year. If you get to the next 50K PQM tier that's another 2 GPUs that can be used to upgrade saver economy awards, for example.
So there is still motivation to fly UA other than qualification.
2. That depends on whether you have reason to get status on one of those airlines and how much you value that. Keep in mind that the more UA you fly, the more instruments you'll obtain, and that if you do get GS they'll be more valuable next year. If you get to the next 50K PQM tier that's another 2 GPUs that can be used to upgrade saver economy awards, for example.
So there is still motivation to fly UA other than qualification.
2. I'm in paid business everywhere. The instruments (RPU/GPU) used to have value for upgrades to first, but with UA removing all first, I'm starting to question the value of these instruments. They've been reduced, for me at least, to only being valuable as gifts to friends/family/coworkers or when I'm on a three class LH flight (LAX-FRA). Redeemable miles are useful, but I very rarely fly for personal reasons (vacation for me is sitting at home)... so, again, gifts and whatnot.
Jul 15, 2017, 12:31 pm
#8
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: dark side of the moon
Programs: papa card, UA 1K
Posts: 707
Correct
Nothing I've been told or seen would lead me to that conclusion. Currently the parameter that has 90+ % of the influence of GS qualification is UA Metal PQD (But watch out for LH in the future). Where the real confusion comes in is how much GS history is taken into account when re-qualifying; some people have re-qualified on quite low UA Metal PQDs. Also some regional 'home' airports seem to have marginally lower UA Metal PQD requirements but there really isn't enough accurate data points to be sure on that one.....Additionally, I started to believe the herd poison regarding SFO requiring a higher UA metal PQD but I can't see anything in the data to indicate that.
Nothing I've been told or seen would lead me to that conclusion. Currently the parameter that has 90+ % of the influence of GS qualification is UA Metal PQD (But watch out for LH in the future). Where the real confusion comes in is how much GS history is taken into account when re-qualifying; some people have re-qualified on quite low UA Metal PQDs. Also some regional 'home' airports seem to have marginally lower UA Metal PQD requirements but there really isn't enough accurate data points to be sure on that one.....Additionally, I started to believe the herd poison regarding SFO requiring a higher UA metal PQD but I can't see anything in the data to indicate that.
Jul 15, 2017, 1:50 pm
#9
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: New Orleans, LA
Programs: UA Platinum
Posts: 6
Location
This gets to one of my core questions about GS.
I mainly flew out LAX through April and accrued 50k PQM on Business Class flights to Hawaii, which unfortunately did not result in a lot of PQD because those flights LAX-HNL are pretty reasonable in business though rack up a lot of PQM.
I then relocated long term to New Orleans for business and will be flying out of MSY for the foreseeable future, which isn't the best but on United, is a 45 min flight from IAH so not the worst.
Now, how does United recognize my "home base" and if they see that I'm based out of MSY and flying 150k PQM with 30k in UA spend, how much higher (speculatively) are the chances of getting GS being out of MSY?
I say this as I looked at the GS roll call excel doc and didn't see anyone who is GS who is based out MSY (maybe there was 1.) Obviously all GS aren't on that doc but I think it is a decent reference.
Thanks all for your thoughts/comments..
I mainly flew out LAX through April and accrued 50k PQM on Business Class flights to Hawaii, which unfortunately did not result in a lot of PQD because those flights LAX-HNL are pretty reasonable in business though rack up a lot of PQM.
I then relocated long term to New Orleans for business and will be flying out of MSY for the foreseeable future, which isn't the best but on United, is a 45 min flight from IAH so not the worst.
Now, how does United recognize my "home base" and if they see that I'm based out of MSY and flying 150k PQM with 30k in UA spend, how much higher (speculatively) are the chances of getting GS being out of MSY?
I say this as I looked at the GS roll call excel doc and didn't see anyone who is GS who is based out MSY (maybe there was 1.) Obviously all GS aren't on that doc but I think it is a decent reference.
Thanks all for your thoughts/comments..
Correct
Nothing I've been told or seen would lead me to that conclusion. Currently the parameter that has 90+ % of the influence of GS qualification is UA Metal PQD (But watch out for LH in the future). Where the real confusion comes in is how much GS history is taken into account when re-qualifying; some people have re-qualified on quite low UA Metal PQDs. Also some regional 'home' airports seem to have marginally lower UA Metal PQD requirements but there really isn't enough accurate data points to be sure on that one.....Additionally, I started to believe the herd poison regarding SFO requiring a higher UA metal PQD but I can't see anything in the data to indicate that.
Nothing I've been told or seen would lead me to that conclusion. Currently the parameter that has 90+ % of the influence of GS qualification is UA Metal PQD (But watch out for LH in the future). Where the real confusion comes in is how much GS history is taken into account when re-qualifying; some people have re-qualified on quite low UA Metal PQDs. Also some regional 'home' airports seem to have marginally lower UA Metal PQD requirements but there really isn't enough accurate data points to be sure on that one.....Additionally, I started to believe the herd poison regarding SFO requiring a higher UA metal PQD but I can't see anything in the data to indicate that.
Jul 15, 2017, 2:29 pm
#10
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AS 75K; UA 1MM; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott LTP; Hilton Diamond (Aspire)
Posts: 56,484
PQM do not matter. Spend on UA metal matters. Minimum to have a realistic hope is $40k, and that is just a realistic hope. A few get it lower, but those are outliers. Over $55 or $60k is where you might start to feel confident.
Jul 15, 2017, 2:55 pm
#11
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: New Orleans, LA
Programs: UA Platinum
Posts: 6
Thanks! Hopefully next year
Jul 15, 2017, 2:56 pm
#12
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: dark side of the moon
Programs: papa card, UA 1K
Posts: 707
Jul 15, 2017, 2:58 pm
#13
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: New Orleans, LA
Programs: UA Platinum
Posts: 6
Got it. So theoretically, if I had 50k spend on UA Metal, would flying through a lot of not as heavily trafficked (by elites) airports help qualify ultimately?
Jul 15, 2017, 3:03 pm
#14
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AS 75K; UA 1MM; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott LTP; Hilton Diamond (Aspire)
Posts: 56,484
It's believed that the standards are relaxed for pax based outstations, but the criteria are unpublished. The best predictor (really, the only meaningful predictor) is spend over about $55k. $40k is often thought of as a rough floor, with only a small number qualifying with lower spend.
Jul 15, 2017, 3:41 pm
#15
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: BOS
Programs: UA 1K 1.45MM, Marriott+SPG Plat, Clear, Nexus, Global Entry and MEX Viajero Confiable
Posts: 1,777
Correct
Nothing I've been told or seen would lead me to that conclusion. Currently the parameter that has 90+ % of the influence of GS qualification is UA Metal PQD (But watch out for LH in the future). Where the real confusion comes in is how much GS history is taken into account when re-qualifying; some people have re-qualified on quite low UA Metal PQDs. Also some regional 'home' airports seem to have marginally lower UA Metal PQD requirements but there really isn't enough accurate data points to be sure on that one.....Additionally, I started to believe the herd poison regarding SFO requiring a higher UA metal PQD but I can't see anything in the data to indicate that.
Nothing I've been told or seen would lead me to that conclusion. Currently the parameter that has 90+ % of the influence of GS qualification is UA Metal PQD (But watch out for LH in the future). Where the real confusion comes in is how much GS history is taken into account when re-qualifying; some people have re-qualified on quite low UA Metal PQDs. Also some regional 'home' airports seem to have marginally lower UA Metal PQD requirements but there really isn't enough accurate data points to be sure on that one.....Additionally, I started to believe the herd poison regarding SFO requiring a higher UA metal PQD but I can't see anything in the data to indicate that.