note that while UAV does sell bulk fares, not all the fares they sell are bulk. It’s been a while since I went looking, but they tell you in the search results which fares are published or not. IIRC, there is a link to the side which lists whether it is published or bulk, but it’s been a while since I’ve gone through a search there. When I was out of CVG and looking, bulk fares were few and far between.

note that despite the name, UAV is not owned by United, they are just a travel agency that licenses out the UA names and sells UA fares only/primarily (there may be some partner flights available).

I have some upcoming flights in Europe and crediting to United seems like a decent option - especially since LH didn't reduce qualification requirements at all.
Did United waive the 4 UA flight requirement for 2021? Or otherwise, is there any exemption to the rule for non-US based members?

There is a waiver for non-US residents

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...residents.html

True but they are giving double status miles for LH flights.

Not a general waiver, but those with an international address (I think as of a certain date) are waived. If so, you should see the requirement as met in your account.

Seems to me whatever programming they did for this was not done correctly or done randomly. I have had a US-based address again as my primary since about 2015 (it might have ben 2016), but still have a Canadian address on my account from a couple of years prior to that - I somehow got the 4-segment waiver, including an email to let me know. My wife, who made changes at the same time, and also still had the Canadian address on file, but not as primary, didn't receive the waiver. Not sure why I got it and she didn't (to be clear - neither of us should have).

Plus a current promotion in which you could potentially earn 7000 status miles (M&M) in one round trip.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luft...tus-miles.html

Thanks for the quick responses and inputs everyone.
Seems like I missed the waiver since I was too lazy to update my address even though I left the US 2 years ago. Oops I guess.

I expect most of my flying to be shorthaul in Europe and unless you get to expensive booking classes, you barely get any miles. With 35k status miles needed even for lowest status... It's a lot of miles. 30 segments isn't actually that hard to do but the few miles that you get along the way are kinda useless. I was at 15 segments and 8k status miles before COVID last year.

United's award chart seemed a better value proposition for me (intra-Europe with little competition and w/o LCCs) due to significantly lower both taxes and mileage requirements.

Chase UR -> Copa -> United Miles Question
 

UA metal segments will credit according to the allocated fare, unless you have a BULK ticket.

Are segments on UA-operated bulk tickets subject to the same maximums as partner flights (750 / 1500 PQP depending on class of service)?