frontierorbital

100K miles, what does that mean? Planes fly about 550 mph, but call it 500 to allow for time on the tarmac and slow approach to landing. Therefore 100K miles takes 100,000/500 hours, 200 h in aircrafts. To be Premier 1K by flying economy, it is therefore necessary to spend over 8 days per year, 24 h a day, confined in a small tube with lots of other people, breathing recycled bacteria and viruses. Then there would be more time waiting in airports. Customers must spend above a minimum too.

It's possible to earn PQMs at an accelerated rate by paying for a business or first class ticket, but if a customer is going to pay for business class they do not really need Premier 1K. Premier 1K has become a stamp for customers who consistently pay to fly business class. Anyone not doing that would have to endure a lot to reach that status.

aacharya

With respect to breathing in "recycled" bacteria and viruses - assume that was for dramatic effect, and I'll defer the scientific explanation for cabin air for another day. (Or Travel Safety/Security).

Simply put, it's worth it to be 1K - for a myriad of reasons.

steveo

I still remember the first year I got 1K. I think the year before that I was a lowly silver.

Highlights included: Round trip ORD to Taiwan via Narita. This is back when United had direct flights from Taipei to Narita. The 747 is a great plane... in coach not so great, especially a sold out flight!

Doing a big project in Rome. I used to go ORD - PHL - FCO, I did one about 6 times, and ORD - IAD - FCO maybe 4 times. US Airways flight was great since it was always empty and had colorful types on the flights.

Doing a big project in Bahrain - I tried Turkish to Istanbul, and the old IAD-KWI-BAH flight. These were both great experiences, and by the time I got to this point I had GPU's making th travel much, much easier.

And finally my company paid for J for me to go to Shanghai. Of course the comfortable flight was spoiled when I found out I needed a root canal - so tooth aches over the pacific, then to the dentist the next day.

That year I flew something like 135000 on star alliance, and ... in seat was somewhere around 115000 - 120000. The next year as a 1K was great though, the highlight was taking LAX - SYD - MEL on the 747, upper deck all the way. Only person on the SYD - MEL leg on the upper deck... and the best part is my annoying coworker was stuck in coach : )

lhrsfo

I fly between LHR and SFO about 8 or 9 times a year. With a handful of other flights or, if desperate, some creative routing, that puts me at 1K. But it's not all in Y as 6 GPUs makes a huge difference for the overnight flights, plus some RPUs on domestic and even the odd CPU. So, in short, I'm in Y on long haul probably 10 times a year and rarely overnight. A good number of those will be on fairly empty flights and, when it boils down to it, it's fewer than 5 when I will have someone in the next seat to me. All quite tolerable.

fly747first

A myriad, huh? Seriously? It is UA after all.

JHake10

I was actually thinking the other day "how many hours do I spend on planes". Today I learned, it's a lot

Started my consulting job out of college in 2012, and went from zero to ~680K lifetimes miles in 5 years (that doesn't even include award and partner flights). One of these days I'll get a "normal job".

laxmillenial

I think you don't realize that many of us do sit in airplanes for a good proportion of our lives, whether it be for leisure, mileage runs, or work. And I'd wager that MOST 1K's do not pay for business class otherwise they would be GS.

SFOrunner

I am going to qualify for 1K this year on 65 segments, with all but two being in Economy. I flew SFO-GEG-ORD in First, so I earned three segments for that and 150% PQM.

That said, my total flight time for the year (flight time = published duration on United.com) is going to finish at 241 hours. Effectively one full calendar day on the plane per every 10,000 miles. To your point, this does not include time spent at the airport waiting to board, time spent on the plane after boarding, time spent during layovers, and any other delays.

Year End Totals - 100,027 PQM (98,540 if you remove the 150% PQM multiplier) on 241.1 hours. For your typical domestic, economy flier, I have to imagine that this is a good barometer.

sbm12

I did near 400 hours on planes this year. More than 40% of that time was in coach. Part of getting the job done.

SFOrunner

And if you assume 45 minutes for boarding and waiting to board, that total jumps to 291 hours. Just over 12 full calendar days, or 7 40-hour work weeks!

Hipplewm

I spent 24yrs in US Navy on Submarines, recycled air smells good, also, in case you are wondering - airplane food isn't that bad either.

Being 1K has many perks, several of which are a dedicated (I kinda chuckle here, but better than the rest) line to call when stuff goes wonky
Being able to fly a family of 4 to Hawaii and back first class (lie flat seats) all on economy or saver tickets - all upgrades went thru both directions in the SUMMER
First choice on meals when flying United metal
Free checked bags (70ibs each) in economy

That is tons of reasons - some more important to then others depending on what you want from an airline

drew in the air

+1

Richym99

A quick calculation puts me at just short of 200 hours on aircraft, allowing an average of 45 minutes per segment tarmac time. Of course, if I took into account the two hours drive to and from Heathrow each time, and time sitting around waiting for flights that figure would probably double.
)
Total segments 31.
BIS 83649 miles
Premier cabin 56% of all flights but only 1 purchased P fare. All the rest either GPU/RPU/CPU (Only one RPU failed to clear, KOA-SFO, all 5 GPU's applied cleared)

MSPeconomist

I once did a rough calculation comparing the time I spent flying with that of a typical DL FA or purser with lots of seniority (so that they could get the international routes most of the time) and discovered that my hypothetical FA (who of course works much less than 40 hours per week) flew at least about several times more than I did in terms of hours.

rbAA

And, I calcuated the number of 24 hour days I get Thai massage each year: 30. Better than UA coach, then most things are.