Richym99

I'm one of those who got this offer, and will probably take them up on it, since I have to otherwise fly 35000 miles if I want to keep Gold for next year, (I have drastically cut down on my TATL travel this year, but still fly in Europe so Gold status is worth it).

My take on the requirements is that as long as you fly two segments in Polaris between EWR and LHR in any direction, and not necessarily on the same itin then you qualify for Gold status through 2020. So if you want to do a couple of mixed class, mixed carrier journeys with connections either end just flying LHR-EWR in one direction both times, then that is fine, as long as the London to Newark is flown in Polaris.

I'll probably do LHR-EWR-MCO as it's a couple of hundred pound cheaper @£2265 than LHR-EWR and I have friends in Florida I can visi for a few days.

narvik

First they increase the eligibility requirement to achieve 1K, then they offer this shortcut?
The mind boggles...

JetAway

My "mind" tells me they are probably not meeting their goals for the various status levels.

fumje

Assuming the earlier speculation is correct that EWR-LHR-x qualifies, EWR-(LHR-)IST looks pretty good.

narvik

Maybe.
Although being that this is United we are talking about, a much more likely scenario is: They currently are projecting that they're not meeting their goals for the various status levels, but once mid December comes around, they suddenly realize that they were completely wrong in their previous assessment, and will overshoot the goals by a huge margin, and subsequently make earning status for 2021 even harder by increasing -for instance- 1K requirements to 150K miles & $20K spend.

cfischer

let's face it. 4 r/ts to LHR to get 1K ... that's $10k if you buy it very cheaply and >40k PQMs. UA isn't really letting you have it easily here either assuming those targeted already spend a good amount this year.

StuckinITH

I don't know about that since post #16 mentions that 35,000 miles are still needed for Gold. Maybe they are targeting people who had not flown up to their normal level.

ani90

I think more likely they are struggling to fill those high J 763s on the ewr-lhr route. They probably targeting people who have been known to fly similar route.

WineCountryUA

My thoughts also, this is essentially a publicity move to increase awareness / purchases on this new option.

cfischer

agreed. I am seeing a lot of half-empty planes this summer with 10+ OPUPs. Now, this promo is post summer season so if UA doesn't think they can fill the C cabin then, that's concerning.

Aussienarelle

I fly TATL a few times each year, enough to make 1K on PQMs, and use my GPUs but even if there is PZ availability I avoid EWR at all costs. I will fly from any other hub but EWR is the worst for delays.

Very much to my regret in July I chose to route through EWR to PUC rather than IAH due to the schedule from IAH. Delayed so party I was meeting for further travel had to hang around PUC (not a place you want to spend a couple of hours).

Hopefully United decides there are too many EWR-LHR/LHR-EWR flights since they cannot fill Polaris and bring back the LHR-LAX morning departure flight as I now avoid returning from LHR through LAX and will often take the NZ flight since it leaves earlier than the UA flight to LAX. Always near full flights when I have caught those flights. And now that LAX has a Polaris lounge hopefully we can see the return of the morning LHR-LAX flight.

I would fly United LHR-LAX morning flight. I will never fly LHR-EWR ( or EWR-LHR).

Suspect this may be why I did not receive the targeted offer. 😱

kale73

Aussienarelle

Oops. Sorry that should be PUJ (Punta Cana). ☺️

kale73

WineCountryUA

We are getting a bit way from the discussion of the status promo, let's return to it.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator