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UA • CONFIRMS • Status Extension to JAN 2022; PQP Thresholds Reduced by ˝ for 2020

Old Mar 6, 2020, 1:30 pm
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Last edit by: WineCountryUA
05April 2020
MileagePlus Status Extended Until 2022

Throughout these unprecedented times, we remain committed to doing what is right and fair for all of our MileagePlus members and are pleased to share the steps we are taking to reciprocate the trust and loyalty that you have placed in United. These steps include not only Premier status updates, but also an extension of current memberships and subscriptions. The updates will happen automatically over the next few weeks — there's nothing you need to do.

The big news: If you have current 2020 Premier status, it will be extended to January 31, 2022. At a minimum, you will enjoy the same published status next year that you have today, up to Premier 1K®.

We're reducing the 2020 Premier qualifying points (PQP) and flight requirements for all tiers by 50%. You'll still need a minimum of four flight segments on United or United Express®.



We're also doubling PQP for United Explorer cards and quadrupling PQP for the United Club cards.

At the same time that we're decreasing the published program's PQP requirements, via a promotion from May 1 – December 31, 2020, we're doubling (for United Explorer cards) or quadrupling (for United Club cards) the maximum number of PQP that Cardmembers can earn during 2020 to help achieve a higher level of status than you already have.

1K® and Platinum members, we're increasing your ability to upgrade by extending PlusPoints expiration dates by six months and expanding Skip Waitlist.
  • This means a six-month extension of any PlusPoints set to expire on or before January 31, 2021.
  • Last year we introduced Skip Waitlist on select flights as a benefit to 1K members, giving you more opportunities to confirm an upgrade request at the time of booking. This benefit will now be available for the rest of 2020 in a significantly expanded selection of long-haul international regions and will have expanded availability in 2021 as well.
We're extending all annual membership and subscription benefits by six months.
  • We want to make sure your benefits are still there when you're ready to start flying again. That's why we're extending purchased United Club℠ memberships and purchased subscriptions for Economy Plus®, United Wi-Fi℠ and checked bags by six months. You should see this reflected in your MileagePlus account soon.
All electronic travel certificates now have 24 months to be used.
  • If your travel plans have been disrupted, and you have an electronic travel certificate from us for the value of your ticket, you now have two years from the date it was issued to book a new flight, as well as up to an additional 11 months to travel. This includes all currently valid and all new electronic travel certificates issued on or after April 1, 2020.
We have removed some redeposit fees for the rest of the year.
  • We are currently waiving all award redeposit fees for travel through end of May 2020.
  • We are now also waiving all redeposit fees for award ticket cancellations made more than 30 days before departure for the remainder of 2020.
Finally, we'll be making it easier to earn status in 2021 for the 2022 program year. We recognize that getting back to travel will occur at a different pace for different members. Keep an eye out for changes we will make to help you earn status in 2021 for 2022, as we'll share details later this year.

Over the years, you have placed your trust and loyalty in United, and we are honored to do the same for you. We are all in this together.

Status extension to January 31, 2022, applies to all members that met the published criteria of the MileagePlus program in 2019, status associated with the United/Marriott RewardsPlus program and status offered as part of a Sales nomination. Status granted from other programs and policies may not apply.
FAQ
With extended status. will we automatically get additional PlusPoints in 2021 (40 for Plats and 280 for 1KsGS?

No, your existing PlusPoints will be extended 6 months but to get additional 2021 PlusPoints you will need to meet the reduced thresholds for 2020

[5 April 2020] Status extended 1 year - United Hub
- Status extended 1 year (expires 1/31/22)
- Plus Points extended 6 months
- Lower qualifying thresholds to gain 2021 status in 2020 (about 50%)

[5 April 2020] United will extend Premier status for 12 months (SF Gate):
United will announce on Sunday that it is extending elite status to MileagePlus Premier members through 2021 and members will retain their current status through January 2022. This follows a similar move by Delta Air Lines on April 4 to extend SkyMiles Medallion elite status to 2021.

A United spokesperson has confirmed this to SFGATE, adding: "We are also going to help both general members and members who want to reach the next status level by lowering thresholds for Premier Qualifying Points (PQP’s) for the 2021 status year."

In addition to the elite status extension, United will extend all its annual subscription options by six months, including United Club memberships, wi-fi, checked bags and EconomyPlus, according to the spokesperson.
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[7 March 2020] A message to our Premier members (email):
At this time, we are not planning any changes for our 2021 Premier program but we will continue to evaluate our options as we learn more about how the current climate is affecting members' activity. In the interim though, we do plan to give members who are participating in a MileagePlus 2020 Premier Status Match Challenge promotion an additional 30 days to complete their challenge. This extension will automatically be reflected in member accounts within the next week.
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Originally Posted by Sykes
There's a good (but not exhaustive) crowdsourced list of company travel restrictions here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...bWhYFM/preview .....
Originally Posted by Fims
Hey there!

As true loyalty is best tested in challenging times, I did a bit of research on how different airlines and hotel programmes have responded:
  • 74 airline loyalty responses (status, miles expiration extensions) and booking flexibility terms (changes and refunds)
  • 18 hotel loyalty responses (status, points expiration extensions) and booking flexibility terms (changes and refunds)
The full outcome is freely available at https://bit.ly/loyalty-response-covid19

Feel free to comment that Google Sheets file and if you have some better insights, let me know (I used only what was available on English-speaking websites and some blog posts I could find, showing emails from the programmes). ....





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UA • CONFIRMS • Status Extension to JAN 2022; PQP Thresholds Reduced by ˝ for 2020

Old Mar 3, 2020, 11:36 am
  #226  
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1K and MM, Marriot, Hilton
Posts: 804
one random data point. Currently on SFO-IAD on Polaris 777. Economy is empty, premium plus had like 4 empty seats. i got an upgrade to Polaris as a 1K (with PP) which hasn't happened on this route in a while.

SFO was markedly calmer and emptier than my flight at a similar time last Tuesday
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Old Mar 3, 2020, 11:45 am
  #227  
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Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Honolulu Harbor
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 14,988
Originally Posted by BlueHenFlyer
PDX - EWR this AM. No one on the UG list SAs cleared into 1st. PE seating is maybe 10% full....
Comment about PE made me look. You're confusing Premium Economy (PE) from Economy Plus. Completely different seat.
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Old Mar 3, 2020, 11:47 am
  #228  
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Originally Posted by jasonp622
one random data point. Currently on SFO-IAD on Polaris 777. Economy is empty, premium plus had like 4 empty seats. i got an upgrade to Polaris as a 1K (with PP) which hasn't happened on this route in a while.

SFO was markedly calmer and emptier than my flight at a similar time last Tuesday
Strangely I had a PP upgrade into Polaris clear SFO-LHR and plenty of seats wide open still in Polaris. That really hasn't happened in about 2 years for me.
Silver Fox is offline  
Old Mar 3, 2020, 12:14 pm
  #229  
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Programs: UA MM
Posts: 4,101
I talked with one of our corporate travel agents this morning and she said many people have been calling to cancel trips.
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Old Mar 3, 2020, 12:18 pm
  #230  
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: HNL
Programs: UA GS4MM, MR LT Plat, Hilton Gold
Posts: 6,447
Originally Posted by jasonp622
SFO was markedly calmer and emptier than my flight at a similar time last Tuesday
I flew SFO-LAS this past Thursday afternoon, and their literally was nobody in the regular TSA screening line. Had never seen that before.
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Old Mar 3, 2020, 12:22 pm
  #231  
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: CLE/RSW
Programs: Marriot Lifetime Plat
Posts: 206
My company just send out a memo that all worldwide travel everywhere (including US domestic) should stop effective immediately and until further notice. Essential travel needs to be approved by VPs. I'm sure we're not the first and not the last to do this.
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Old Mar 3, 2020, 6:00 pm
  #232  
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: BOS/EAP
Programs: UA 1K, MR LTT, HH Dia, Amex Plat
Posts: 31,952
Originally Posted by mrmoo
My company just send out a memo that all worldwide travel everywhere (including US domestic) should stop effective immediately and until further notice. Essential travel needs to be approved by VPs. I'm sure we're not the first and not the last to do this.
yup, it'll be interesting ... same here.
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Old Mar 3, 2020, 6:01 pm
  #233  
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: BOS, PVG
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Posts: 10,000
Let me make a bold prediction:

Sometime in Q4, United will announce that all elites will have their status extended to Dec.31, 2021 (no upgrade instruments unless you qualify by meeting PQP/PQF requirements).

Their current unused PP will be extended as well.
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Old Mar 3, 2020, 6:16 pm
  #234  
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: SFO / LHR
Programs: UA GS 2.2MM / UC / AS Gold 75K / Bonvoy Plat / Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,025
SFO-LHR last night had 20 open in Polaris on departure, and 12 of the 30 were NRSAs who cleared at gate. My colleague said the earlier flight went out with 13 open in Polaris, and he guessed around 8-10 of them were NRSA. He talked to a family of six flying together, where the Mom was an SFO CS Agent.

My boss canceled his SFO-LHR for this evening after we agreed to tighten our guidance to employee last night, and my Berlin colleague said his early SFO-FRA today was booked at 29/60 at the gate. They then cleared 4 NRSAs.

Bottom line, looking brutal for UA. I'm heading our Emergency Preparedness Team, and the intra-company tracker I can see of Fortune 1000 companies is changing all the time, but at least half have an international travel restriction.
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Old Mar 3, 2020, 6:19 pm
  #235  
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: London
Programs: UA GS
Posts: 2,438
I took advantage of wide open IN space to book a trip EWR-LHR for the weekend. Wanted one last hurrah in case I’m grounded for awhile.

i feel genuinely bad for the front-line employees of United.
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Old Mar 3, 2020, 7:34 pm
  #236  
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 710
I suspect there is a certain amount of FT Schadenfreude going on here with people hoping UA will revisit their recent changes to MP. I would just point out that

- It's way too soon to see any impact from the potential status changes on flyer behavior. Although I will grant that UA knows exactly where people are WRT qualifying today and has best case/worst case forecasts going forward.
- You could make the argument that moving to dynamic pricing of reward seats is working exactly the way UA wanted it to. When demand was high, they priced the seats with very high redemption levels and restricted availability. International demand drops like now, and I'm having no problem finding what used to be seen as saver level seats. Since they can't make schedule changes overnight, it gives them a much finer inventory management tool.
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Old Mar 3, 2020, 8:07 pm
  #237  
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Join Date: Apr 2013
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Originally Posted by glbltvlr
- You could make the argument that moving to dynamic pricing of reward seats is working exactly the way UA wanted it to. When demand was high, they priced the seats with very high redemption levels and restricted availability. International demand drops like now, and I'm having no problem finding what used to be seen as saver level seats. Since they can't make schedule changes overnight, it gives them a much finer inventory management tool.
You could make that argument, but it would be ridiculous. UA didn't change its award structure in anticipation of a catastrophic reduction in demand, it changed it to generate more revenue through the sale of miles.
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Old Mar 3, 2020, 8:31 pm
  #238  
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Clinging to the edifices of a decadent past from the biggest city in America nobody really cares about.
Programs: (ಠ_ಠ)
Posts: 9,077
A notable data point from Hyatt - tier extension for Asia based elites, possible special consideration for guests who frequent Asia.


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Old Mar 3, 2020, 9:13 pm
  #239  
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: IAH / HOU
Programs: UA GS, DL-Plat, Hilton Gold, IHG Platinum, Hyatt Somethingist, Marriott Titanium Lifetime
Posts: 2,853
Based on lots of available International Saver Business seats over the next couple weeks it certainly appears that business travel (at least global travel) is already off significantly. My domestic flight (on what is primarily a leisure route) was full on Monday and I was first on the upgrade list but didn’t clear into F as a GS. I suspect most of the passengers on my flight booked their tickets before the current crisis was much of an issue.

I think some type of bonus promotion is likely later this year. In addition to the just announced waived change fees for tickets bought in March.
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Old Mar 3, 2020, 9:50 pm
  #240  
 
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: SFO/SJC
Programs: UA 1K & 2MM, Bonvoy Titanium & LTP, HH Gold, Accor Silver, Hertz PC, Avis PC
Posts: 2,349
My Monday 9:30am domestic flight out of SFO was full, but the airport (and centurion lounge) were about as empty as I've ever seen them. Seat maps internationally are so full of dark blue and purple. I heard from a 1K that they cleared SFO-EWR.

We haven't got a no travel policy yet - and to be honest, my guess is that being Bay Area based, I've already been exposed to covid-19, and domestic travel is highly unlikely to add risk.
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