RN221321

How do I achieve 1K staus as a government flyer? in 2018 to date I have 109,000 miles traveled and will probably get another 10 to 15K more. All domestic.
However, since it will be on government fares, I will be not reach the $12,000 PQD. 2019 it will be $15,000 PQD. I can't control the fare price without sticking it to the taxpayer. (Which I won't do!)

So how do I get to 1K? I wonder if the corporate traveler pays out of their pocket the achieve 1K...

WineCountryUA

Welcome to FT!, RN221321

- Additional personal trips
- upfare out of your pocket
- fly even more on the job

PQDs are intended to prevent the discount flyer from getting high status easily. -- It is about the spend. No exceptions for 1K.
Some do, many don't need to.

CIT85

I thought government fares are rather high, so domestic travels over 100K PQM should easily exceed $12K PQD..

What is your PDQ? I don't know if government fares may somehow be classified as non-qualified fares for PDQ.

Corporate travelers do not need to pay out of pocket if their business travel takes them over 100K PQM and >$12K PQD. If corporate travelers fall somewhat short, then they may take personal travels to reach the minimum requirements of PQM and PQD.

My business travels alone are not enough, but combined with personal travels I have no trouble exceeding 100K PQM and $12K PQD.

Often1

There is no real distinction between those paying out of pocket or where the tickets are paid for or reimbursed by a third-party, e.g. a private or government employer. All UA cares about is the cold hard cash paid. That is the entire purpose of PQD.

Some government fares may seem expensive, but those are usually fully flexible and fully refundable, but less costly than the non-government Y fare equivalent. In other situations, there may be cheaper non-government fares for any one given ticket, but just as with typical corporate contracts, the government is looking at a broader savings than any one ticket.

sannmann

drewguy

IT totally varies. They have some wildly cheap fares, especially domestically (e.g., DCA-LGA for $49 o/w on American) and some really expensive fares, mostly internationally (granted, as noted those fares are fully refundable, so compared to a comparable commercial ticket they're reasonable).

OP - Just be glad you can get status on any airline - the contract carrier limitation means you're usually ending up with miles on many carriers and status on none. Being platinum is pretty good.

kyanar

You could also change your home country in MileagePlus to somewhere outside the US, where the PQD requirement is waived.

Weirdly it's the opposite in some places - status points only, no frequent flyer points (in Australia and NZ, FF points are considered a fringe benefit so forbidden on Government fares - status points still accrue though)

jcamp028

Switch to a department that offers more international travel, and fly in J.

Hipplewm

Some of us are the inverse. I typically spend 15-20K before I reach 100K PQM - I am certainly not alone
I know quite a few of us next year will spend 15K on UA and get our 1K PQD, then fly LH, LX and BR to rack up the PQM and not have to deal with god awful planes and service (which seemed to plummet as of a few days ago)

sannmann

drewguy

Also authorized by rule for flights >14 hours, but agencies don't have to provide it. State did for years, and senior officials avail themselves of it. Pruitt's issue was doing it on a 45 minute flight from DCA to LGA.

drewguy

Yes. Used to be true in US too, but that rule was changed about 20 years ago.

threeoh

What's the point of being 1K on United if you don't plan to fly United? Why not just achieve *G and then bail?

therossinator

How many PQD short are you?
Are you in the military? Use an APO/FPO. Even units in garrison/homeport stateside can have one of these. United will wave the PQD if you have one and submit extra verification (orders, copy of ID, etc.). Aside from that, being a government flyer provides you no additioanl benefit to meeting the PQD requirement beyond if you were a non-government flyer.
You are ultimately limited to the lowest rates available and city pair contracts.

If you need PQM and travel internationally, it's a bit of a different story.
Despite being in Guam (also exempt from PQD), the spending requirement was never an issue for me. I have around $21,000 PQD projected out to the end of the year and maybe $2000 of that was for my own personal travel, otherwise, SATO issued tickets. It helps that I usually fly internationally and United is the only U.S. flagged carries that operates flights to Guam. Usually I fly full fare Y and get 150% PDM. When I'm on a city pair ticket, United always issues an S fare ticket (100% PQM). I will typically call United's Government desk, pay the fare difference to upgrade one of my legs (cost is often minimal upgrading to P fares, 200% PQD). This re-tickets all legs to the commercially available fare and often bumps my economy leg from an S to a W (or better) allowing me to use a GPU. Additionally, it's often cheaper than the unrestricted tickets that SATO sells, which is $ back to Uncle Sam. I understand that I'm on the hook to pay for changes, but my travel seldom changes. But again, this strategy is only useful for those who are PQD rich and PQM poor.

Let me start off by saying that from my reading, the JTR is not very helpful at communicating what are the appropriate methods to get a business/first seat. Below are my observations from flying 150,000 PQM on mostly gov't fares over the past year.
99% of the time SATO will only ticket you in the economy cabin. The government is obligated to purchase you an unrestricted economy fare, whether that be commercially available, government rate, or city pair contracted rate. That doesn't mean that you can't upgrade or can only do so at check in. At least on United, the government desk is more than happy to take the value of the ticket that SATO purchased you and apply that (plus the fare difference out of your pocket), for a ticket in J under the same locator but they caution that you will have to pay a change fee should you need to adjust your ticket. If you need to change your ticket and you're not able to pay that change fee, you are absolutely screwed. The government desk are the only agents within UA that are cable of adjusting a government issued ticket like this.

My understanding was that Pruit was initially ticketed into a premium cabin (not upgraded from economy, not re-ticketed from a Y to a J under the same booking). Like everyone else, he's entitled to an economy ticket and can do what he wants after it gets issued.

Again, this is based solely off my experience/observations. If anyone can point me to somewhere in the JTR that contradicts this I would love to know it. I have no intention of breaking the law, just traveling better without additional cost to the government.

halls120

Most agencies no longer allow the >14 hours option. Instead, we are told to leave a day earlier.

I was 1K for several years flying on a mix of government and personal business. It isn't hard to make status if you have a high-travel portfolio.

This. The UA government desk agents are outstanding. Once I book a flight and the ticket is issued, they become my best friends.