timfountain

I'll pass 253k PQM. I guess that is a lot of time in Y.....

mahasamatman

Years as 1K: eight. Total purchased business class tickets: four (including one great mistake fare).

Questionable value (in my opinion).

You get that as Gold, too.

LordHamster

You may be right.

In my case however, I spent YEARS as a 1K even though I was spending ~39k PQM on United (mostly international business class flights), and another 10-20k on other airlines. Once I finally focused my travel to United as much as possible, GS was alot easier to get.

Many 1Ks may just not be flying on UA Metal all the time despite paying for business class tickets.

AugustusM

I actually tried to figure this out a few days ago but then I got depressed when I began to add in the time it takes me to navigate the seven circles of hell that is EWR two times a week.

Hipplewm

sorry, too lazy to quote the whole thing out and Vbull sucks at it....

No one said to assign a value to it (meal choice)

Golds get 2 bags, plat/1K get 3 bags all at 70lbs

Dublin_rfk

And don't forget the +2 hours before and after getting to and from said flight and layover time on connections.
With 1.5K PQM and 110 PQS that's a (w)hole lot of time!

764toHI

I'm going to speculate that two SFO-SIN round trips (33,785 miles total, 60 hours blocked) on a J fare would be the absolute minimum number of flight hours to reach 1K.

laxmillenial

Except you're missing the 4 UA flight minimum

764toHI

SFO-SIN is on UA metal (UA1/2) so you'll hit 4 segments upon conclusion of the second round trip. Unfortunately I don't think trip would be enough to get GS at ~$32K PQD total.

laxmillenial

Oops. Missed the "two" roundtrip. Sorry!

James603

I love data so I started logging everything in Flight Diary. These are true BIS numbers, doesn't even add 500 mile minimums, which I had a few of being SBN/ORD based.

frontierorbital

I enjoyed reading the responses to my post. Most interesting were those that defend the Premier 1K program, despite having to spend over eight days, 24h a day, per year to qualify in economy. Now, if you have time, please put your hand on your heart and answer the following. Have you ever:

(i) felt that airlines do not care that it is excessively cramped in regular economy?
(ii) noticed that airline employees are “obliquely-rude” to economy customers who are in any way assertive, ie use polite words but aggressive tones-of-voice?
(iii) suspected airlines benefit by making the environment “out back” uncomfortable, so that people want business class more?
(iv) felt somewhat superior to someone else because you had a higher frequent flier status?

These things, cost the airlines nothing or actually save them money, and they use them to their advantage to draw people to Premier 1K. Now, have you:

(i) taken a longer or less convenient flight on United, when a more direct but otherwise comparable one was available on another airline?
(ii) bought a more expensive ticket on United when a comparable but cheaper one was available on a different airline?
(iii) bought a more expensive ticket on United at a higher fare basis, to increase the chances of getting an international upgrade (that you may not get anyway)?
(iv) flew somewhere explicitly to meet segment, PQM, or PQD for next year’s status?

After flying 2 million miles on Continental/United, I confess to all these things except (iv), unnecessary flights.
There is a tension between passengers wanting to get the best treatment, and airlines wanting profit. Most frequent fliers indulge in some combination of behaviors like those mentioned above that enable the airlines to make money from “loyalty programs”. Passengers (their employers or sponsors) indirectly pay for these programs; in return, airlines allow passengers to redeem what they has been paid for, but only sometimes, and at their convenience.
Passenger willingness to indirectly pay extra drives up the competition for Premier 1K status so that United can, and have, increased the requirements for segments, PQMs, and PQDs. United can do this to the degree that a person who only just flies 100K miles pa is indirectly paying more for Premier 1K than they get from it. We may have reached that point when United last increased the requirements. If so, Mr or Ms Frequent Flier who only needs to fly around 100K, you (your employer and sponsors) are being taken for a ride.

rankourabu

last 5 years, BIS - time<br />158206 369:21:00<br />187115 424:20:00<br />192591 441:41:00<br />256786 556:29:00<br />161392 341:07:00<br />Works out about 0.0022hrs/BIS mile<br />or 13.6 minutes/100 BIS mile<br /><br />At that rate, its about 100,000 miles in 13600 minutes or 226 hours.<br />Divide by 1.5 if you only fly UA J.

Artpen100

Haven't thought about hours, but the reason I am 1K has been a certain, but not excessive, amount of paid (but discount) international business class, combined with some domestic, half personal, so that I just requalified and will finish the year at about 120K PQM and $14K dollars. UA just has the routes I need, the cheapest business class and a more liberal change policy than many other non-US airlines. I've never paid more just to fly UA internationally. But some of my work meetings, which are typically set far in advance, will cancel, and the ability to basically get a credit less the change fee will cause me to buy UA over another airline where I would basically lose the value of the ticket unless the meeting is rescheduled for the same city before the date I would otherwise fly. GPUs and the other 1K benefits are nice, but I would not fly just to get them.

As to hours, most of mine on planes and in lounges are sleeping or working on wifi, which I would be doing anyway.

Kacee

Undoubtedly true, but it is possible to fly 1K level paid J for <$20K if you pick your flights and fares carefully. In fact, you could do it with 10 ps RTs for $11-13K. Or 4 RTs SFO-BUD for just under $12K.