JetAway

I don't think UA would want to make a charitable donation that through poor wording and confusion turned out to be less useful than either the charity or the winning bidder expected. That would be counter productive and poor PR. Plus, I suspect a UA executive has children at the school which is the reason behind the donation. So I'm pretty confident there will no disappointments on the part of either the charity or the bidder.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Most UA employees (and probably a higher percentage of UA execs) are unlikely to understand, or be able to explain, how CPUs really work in the real world of a 1K traveler. The jobs of a huge majority of UA employess do not require them to know how the frequent flyer program works. If someone doesn't understand how CPUs work, the wording of the bidding site can be 100% misconstrued. I'd hardly be "confident" that a bidder w/o first-hand knowledge of how CPUs work will not be disappointed if CPUs are one of the main reason he/she bids on this. Winner and companion might soon find themselves days from boarding their first flight post-bid, wondering where their upgrades are. The 1K will be happy for the free food and alcoholic beverage items in coach (assuming FA offers them gratis or they know about it).

eeflyer

It looks like it closed for $5,600 to ddc4c6cd3. It would be nice if they were a member and could enlighten us on what was actually included, "for science" of course.

elCheapoDeluxe

Reading about some of the $4000+ "buy-up" offers presented to Plats after Jan 1, I'm surprised UA listed the face value at only $8000. They sure seem to think it's worth more - or more likely, they know its not but are willing to rape and pillage at the end of the qualification period

cfischer

I wonder how much GS would go for? $10k?

sgfood

Happy to enlighten!

To explain why I entered the auction;

After being a 1k for many years I retired over three years ago and my travel dropped me to Platinum. As a PP cardholder for my years I was exempt from the 9k spend and just needed the miles plus FQM each year. My spend each year was $5k to $6k and my miles around 50 PQM

I did this not just for myself but for my wife who is still working and despite a lot of flying short legs only managed around 60k PQM a year on about $6k spend.

My wife is my nominated 1MM partner and so it benefited her, even though she made MM last year. To make me her companion would still take a $4k + taxes spend to reach Platinum.

The amount spent was around the same as I would do the rest of the year but now we will be 1K, as will my eldest daughter who my wife made her companion. I can save my FQM for 2019 requalifying for 2020.

People commentated on RPU and GPU's being included. That didn't bother me as I only take one or two international flights a year and use mileage awards. W fares are always about $450 more than disc. economy and so that resulted in around $650 plus 40k award miles a trip, plus the fact they were refundable as the W fare difference was not. My wife and I have over 1.3 million award miles, more than we will ever need for awards.

Finally, but by no means least, it was a charity auction for a school to build two new classrooms and more. My thanks to schley for alerting me to this!

Now to the question "what was included". Everything with regular 1k status.I will not redeem the certificate until July 1 of this year and so I will receive the appropriate RPU and GPU's for both 2018 and 2019. Confirmed by United

JetAway

Looks like it was a great deal all around-for both the successful bidder and the charity.

schley

Outstanding! I'm so glad it worked out for you as I certainly was expecting it to. Doesn't it feel great to help out a charity and also get something cool? Well done.

To the pitchfork brigade who love to pick apart everything and assume the worst..... why? Have faith that people are good, to assume the worst when not really warranted..... brings down the forum to the least common denominator. Many posters just love to do drive by one line digs and bail..... don't let that be who you are here for I give you the benefit of the doubt you aren't that way in real life. Let's make this forum a little bit more congenial and supportive.........^

No i'm not running in 2020!

FlyngSvyr

Now that is cool. i did not know you could "chain" MM status like that. MM Family member #1 gets 1K status (or whatever), then nominates their MM SO to share the 1K, then SO nominates son/daughter to share 1K status.

VWang1111

I don't believe that works. More details are in the MM companion thread but you can either nominate someone else or be nominated as a companion. You can't do both.

sgfood

Yes you can. I became 1MM, nominated my wife. Later she became 1MM in her own right so she could nominate someone. If it didn't work then United would not state the same level on our accounts , plus send us the membership cards. The one difference is that they don't get RPU's , GPU's or drink vouchers until they reach the mileage/$ levels. It's been noted on the board many times that you don;t even need the same surname or address to nominate someone anymore. My daughter lives 300 miles away.

mr8

Congrats on the win!
I'd be interested to know if you will earn those additional RPUs and GPUs for each 25k PQM you fly after redeeming the certificate.

btw, anyone know if it is common for UA to give out redeemable status that they have a whole certificate system set up?

cerealmarketer

True FT spirit. One 1K buy turns into 1K for three.

sgfood

I don't feel guilty about it. !'ve flown almost 1.5 MM with united, was 1k for 10 years and paid for almost all of it out of my own pocket. Well in excess of $90k over 19 years. I think myself and my family earned it. What is the jealousy factor about some members of this site?

onthesam

Context is necessary - that's a household with more than 2MM including two members 1MM+. What possible good would be served for UA to make rules to limit that kind of privilege? I think this 'chain 1K' is not a big deal and it probably would not be good business to take it away. Probably not too prevalent either.