dubsheep

Hi guys, first post here, let me know if I need to ask somewhere else.

I travel to New Zealand regularly from Houston for work and I'm allowed to book Premium Economy class. I am already at 1K status with United this year, so I have been booking my flights on Air New Zealand's website so I can book Premium Economy. I don't earn PQDs with these flights because I book on Air New Zealand, and so next year I'm not sure how I can hit status without booking through United's website. Currently, I don't think I can book Premium Economy on United's website. I have tried calling ANZ after I booked a flight on United's website, and they aren't able to upgrade United booked tickets to Premium Economy.

Anyone have familiarity with this situation? Any loop holes I'm missing?

mahasamatman

Welcome to FT, dubsheep!

Have you tried calling? They can sometimes book things over the phone that you can't do online.

WineCountryUA

You are correct you can not book NZ Premium Economy on the website today. That is likely to change once UA starts formally offering its Premium Plus / Premium Economy in 2019Q1.

In the meantime you can try booking with a UA phone agent and specifying the NZ fare class -- but NZ may be blocking UA from the cheapest fare classes.

dubsheep

I will try calling, when I called last time I had already booked the flight. So I might be able to have them book the correct class. Hopefully Q1 they add the option on the website. It's frustrating because my coworkers who fly Delta and American to New Zealand are able to book on their respective websites. And I lose LOADS of miles by not being able to book on United. Thanks for the quick responses.

findark

NZ does not permit the off-plating of their fares, so calling will not help unfortunately. You should be able to book the UA codeshare fairly soon once they are selling own-metal PE. In the mean time, given your travel load it sounds like you can manage a few more zero-PQD segments. Also consider watching SFO-AKL for R PZ space and flying UA with a GPU (if reasonable for you).

SFOrunner

Just booked a multi-city itinerary through my employer's travel site (TripActions), and am noticing a few weird things.

The ORD-BOS leg is an M fare, and the BOS-SFO leg is a K fare. Both legs are on the same PNR, and United.com shows Ticketed and Confirmed.

When I click the "View ticket receipt" on the My Trips page, the receipt only shows the details from the ORD-BOS leg. There is no mention of my BOS-SFO leg at all. The ticket price, PQM's, etc are all specific to the outbound leg. Furthermore, on the Trip Details page, the miles earned, PQM, PQD and PDS all show "--". The Trip Details page does show both legs and I have selected seats for both of them. I called the 1K desk and the representative confirmed that everything looks good on their end....

Is this just an IT glitch or should I be concerned about the return?

fumje

It is an odd glitch, but I wouldn't be too worried.

The return of 'view ticket receipt' is static from the first ticket issuance, so it just means there was a glitch at some point, but it doesn't mean that anything is wrong now.

For peace of mind, I might call and ask to have the receipt re-emailed. (Of course, in my experience, half the time that email never comes, but that's another question.)

giblet

Apologies because I know this is a simple question but I'm not sure where to find the answer. For the first time I have qualified for Premier Silver. In my account it says "Congratulations, you’ve already qualified for Premier Silver level for 2019. And keep flying to reach Premier Gold for 2019." It shows that I need to fly 24,000 miles for Premier Gold. I am understanding correctly that I can fly those 24,000 anytime between now and the end of 2019 to reach gold? Or do I need to fly them by the end of this year? Thanks for helping a United newbie out.

fumje

It has to be end of this year. Your 2018-flying qualified status from flying this year counts through 31-Jan-2020, but you'll start over at 0 on 1-Jan-2019 (for achieving status extending to 31-Jan-2021).

Enjoy the new status!

giblet

Thanks! That makes more sense. Hoping I can get to Gold next year.

fumje

Gold is much better than Silver. Here's to it.

EmailKid

Silver isn't useless by any means, but unless you fly on Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day, don't expect those complimentary upgrades

For those of us who don't even aspire for GS, Gold and 1K are the sweet spots, especially if you fly Int'l.

These days, I don't even aspire for 1K anymore, though I appreciated GS / 1K preboarding on my handful of flights this year.

Sadly the goalpost has been moved even further back with increased PQD starting January 1. Suppose that should increase value of 1K, methinks Gold not so much (but still way more valuable than Silver) @:-)

giblet

The last few flights I have been on have had quite a few empty economy plus seats, so I assume those would be available for upgrade? Anyway, getting to silver was sort of accidental, but I will probably be flying LHR-EWR regularly, and I would appreciate the extra baggage allowance because I love hauling things back and forth.

EmailKid

As Silver you can select within 24 hours of the flight, i.e. at checkin and later. While not considered an upgrade, you do get a few extra inches for your legs and an extra inch of recline.

If you will fly a few trips to LHR, you may well qualify for Gold - one benefit I really like is access to United Club on Int'l trips

net222

One more question regarding silver/gold. If my Thursday's flight push me over the gold, when I will get gold status on UA web site?