unitedmiles

I've been participating in United's bug bounty recently and given how easy it has been so far I imagine I will be doing a lot of award travel on United in the long-term. I am still getting used to United's award program, as I fly out of DTW and have never really had a reason to fly United.

One issue is that I cannot achieve any status at all via award travel. Is there a potential "workaround" here? Can I use some miles to make award travel suck less? Excluding doing first/business fares, which I certainly intend to.

Credit card suggestions are useful but my credit is too undeveloped for any of them at the moment.

mduell

Get the MP Explorer credit card for better economy saver availability.

jsloan

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

You won't be able to achieve status without paid flights. If you're flying in F or J, it won't matter as much, as you'll be treated about as well as a premier traveler. If you think you'll earn enough miles to fly everywhere you want to go in J or F anyway, I can't think of any status benefit worth paying for.

The one advantage of status in DTW specifically is that if you get Star Alliance Gold status -- requires 50K PQM and $6K PQD on UA -- you'd get access to the Lufthansa lounge before trips -- whenever it happens to be open. But since you can buy a United Club membership for under $600 -- or one-time passes on eBay for as little as $20 -- that seems like overkill. (If you're flying internationally in J/F, you'd get lounge access as part of the fare)

WineCountryUA

What particular benefits are you looking for? As others have mentioned, status will require paid travel or very significant pre-purchase cash outlay, however, many individual benefits can be had via other means and more modest cash investment. And some can be purchased with just miles
UC annual membership 70,000 miles
In flight wifi access

LondonElite

You could buy economy fares and upgrade with miles (and 'co-pay'). This way you earn miles on your flights, but sit at the front.

jsloan

You can do this, but the co-pay often makes it unprofitable.

laxmillenial

Question: Will being an authorized user on the Mileageplus Explorer card give the OP BG2 and Premier access? Or is that for the cardholder only?

WineCountryUA

Primary cardholder has to be traveling

LondonElite

t1c

I fly out of DTW also usually Delta, have you looked in to Marriott status and the MP Credit Card?

StuckinITH

Did you discover any high severity security bugs? Will you get to travel international?

prometa

Can't you pay for UA tickets purchased on a UA Explorer card with UA Miles? It's 1 CPM, so a pretty bad redemption rate, but, on the other hand, if OP is earning > 1MM miles, he/she could nearly get to 1K that way.

Or use the PQD waiver at $25k spend plus some mileage runs put on the Explorer card to get to platinum.

Do award seats count as BIS for the million miler program? With enough award travel, OP could also qualify for status that way.

laxmillenial

Given the OP's post, i believe it is yes to both questions (and in premium class) in case he didn't give that hint out enough

threeoh

Yup. Also group 2 boarding = spot for your carry-on. And pay the taxes with it for the Trip Delay protection for forced WX overnights.

I know people on this board complain about the CCs a lot (and maybe they're right), but if you travel on United in Y a lot and have no status, it's a no-brainer (and well worth the $95). With the exception of BG2, the benefits don't really erode any benefits for actual elites.

PTahCha

Presumably you received a boatload of miles from the bug bounty program, why not look for saver awards for first or business class? You'll get Premier Access, group 1 lane, 2 checked bags for free with priority tag, United Club access if traveling internationally, and guaranteed seating in first/business class without dealing with the upgrade lottery.