mehitabel

Mine is 1 trip @$175 for 4,700 miles. As it happens a qualifying trip came up after registering, so I guess I'll be reaping the (modest) rewards. Still curious about the algorithm behind these wildly variable offers.

VWang1111

It could be worth it if you take in to account all the PQM you would get as well. Even just for award miles if you booked exactly the lowest fare as a 1k, it would still be a 300% bonus on top of the 1k award miles. I might consider it if I had the free cash and wanted/needed the PQM/PQD/award miles.

flying_q

Can someone clarify the definition of trip? I understand the promotion indicates "Trip is defined as each unique travel itinerary as documented by United with a confirmation number".

Let's say I fly BOS-EWR-ZRH all on UA, returning ZRH-BOS on LX, booked in D. Does the UA portion still count as a trip if ticketed on 016 stock?

I received a 36k offer for 1 J trip >$2000.

chermorg

There is no stipulation I've seen (and no data here to suggest) that a "trip" must be a roundtrip. That being said, there is some data to suggest that you may run into issues if part or all of your ticket is on another airline. If you can book that as two OW trips, and the UA trip has base fare of 2k or greater, then you should be fine - if you have the partner flights on the same ticket and/or if your UA ticket is less than 2k you may run into issues.

flying_q

That's what I figured. Obviously, booking two OWs in paid J will quickly offset the incremental award from the promotion. The UA portion is >$2k. I'll fly it as is and report back.

Thanks.

renebt

Mine was take two trips with a minimum of $225 for each trip and get 14,000 award miles.

Here's the catch about the "trip": that $225 minimum is fare only. Fare is defined as base fare plus carrier imposed surcharges, exclusive of any government taxes and surcharges. Stupid me booked a ~$250 OW trip from SFO-IAD and of that, about $40 was in taxes and other fees. I was shy of the $225 minimum by $12! I think UA is in the clear on this one though...

I have a trip coming up this weekend and I am running into the same issue. Any tips, readers?

jjmoore

Try going into advanced booking options and increasing the fare class by one level... often times that will add $20-30 to the base fare and will get you over the threshold.

saltydog75

Mine was an 18k mile bonus for booking one trip in a premium cabin with at least a $450 fare.

I'm pretty sure I've nailed down at least one aspect of the algorithm behind these offers. I got a similar offer (17k miles instead of 18k) on the first go-round. This was after I had booked exclusively Y fares for a long time, then switched to booking mostly J/F fares, then shortly before the promotion switched to a mix of Y and J/F fares. It's pretty clear to me I was targeted as someone who might be "slipping away" from booking premium cabins; thus, by incentivizing me to book a premium cabin, they could try and entice me to switch back to my previous behavior of all premium fares.

I suspect the algorithm in general is looking mostly at changes in behavior. If you went from booking two fares every month to one every other month, they might offer you something with multiple smaller Y fares to encourage you to get back to your previous rate. If you went from premium fares to coach, you'll get something with a premium fare. The whole idea being: let's try and nip this change in the bud so we can keep this flyer doing what she was doing before that was making us more money.

jjmoore

I think there are many of us too that are in exactly the situation you are in but without an offer. For instance, I had a very quick start last year, but it fizzled towards the end of the year... though I easily qualified for 1K, my premium cabin spend dramatically decreased.... but no offer for me. Based on what I read in this thread, I don't see any correlations.

saltydog75

I bet there's a class where they say "this one's so far gone we're not going to bother". Clearly you were a frequent and valuable flyer who fell off their map. Conclusion? You had some very good reason to switch airlines and they didn't feel it was worth it to try and lure you back.

My guess is 3 basic categories:

Good offer: UA has observed a recent decline in activity and thinks the targeted offer will bring you back
Mediocre offer: No decline in activity but a regular customer and thus a bone being thrown to give you something
No offer: Activity has declined so far that you're declared off the radar and they're not going to bother you

The monkey-throwing-darts possibility could very well be right, however.

Xyzzy

ne more category:

No offer: Lots of UA activity - we know we have your business so we don't have to offer you anything additional to continue getting it.

bbison

Was mine the worst? 3 trips > $600 each premium cabin for a lousy 5400 miles. Add a zero and I'll think about it.

Vulcan

Just received an offer in my account on my phone APP

Fly 2 times in a premium cabin with a BASE fare at least $450 before March 12 and receive 12,000 bonus miles. All travel A,C,D,F,J,P,Z classes. Not valid on government fares.

Targeted. Promo code T001MA

11 days to qualify? Tight promotion.

Apparently, UA considers this a 'game'.

StuckinITH

I called mine the loser's version. One trip, get 2500 miles. But, obviously, yours is way worse. You are the winner!!!

Vulcan

My wife received the following in her app today:

Buy and Fly one time on a ticket worth at least $200 by March 11 and receive 3400 miles.

we are both lifetime Gold.