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UA • CONFIRMS • Status Extension to JAN 2022; PQP Thresholds Reduced by ½ for 2020

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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 ½ for 2020

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Old Feb 24, 2020, 12:11 pm
  #61  
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: JAX
Programs: UA Plat MM, AA Gold MM, Marriott LTT, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 3,770
Originally Posted by spin88
on this bubble now, have a trip I can go/skip to a wedding in Europe in early April. I am wondering if the usual fare patterns will continue, or we will see some discounting go one...
I am going to Paris and Barcelona this weekend. Airfare did not go down through January and early Feb. when I was booking my ticket. Once inside 14 days, airfare steadily increased. I would place 21 days out as deadline to buy ticket or else you may see higher fares.

My wife's PP airfare was the lowest when I booked back in September.
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Old Feb 24, 2020, 12:13 pm
  #62  
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: IAH, YYC
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Double PQP’s are already available. You just have to book on partner airlines instead of UA
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Old Feb 24, 2020, 12:43 pm
  #63  
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: SEA
Programs: UA MP (1K, 1MM)
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Originally Posted by david_oz
Double PQP’s are already available. You just have to book on partner airlines instead of UA
But the bonus only really comes in if you find a cheap premium economy fare on that partner, otherwise the cost is too high for the number of award miles you receive that then is divided by 5 or 6.

Example, I could've flown UA SIN-SFO recently in Y on UA for ~$800, J for ~$2600, or premium economy on EVA for ~$1000. The EVA flight returned ~2600 PQPs. No brainer since I was footing the bill.

The idea with the PQP bonus would be for those flying on UA to attract them back once the travel ban is lifted.
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Old Feb 24, 2020, 12:58 pm
  #64  
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Morris County, NJ
Programs: UA 1K/*G, Avis Pres, Marriott Plat
Posts: 2,305
Originally Posted by Dublin_rfk
I've seen an huge increase my PQP due to increased Asian travel as my compatriots don't seem to want to go anywhere near China and because I'm holding off until the last minute purchasing my flights to see it any bonus offers arise.
For us, our entire company currently has a "no international travel" ban in effect.

Domestic is still allowed, but if anything happens here, they'll pull that so fast the air'll crackle. Better to have safe, grounded employees than spread a disease that has a mortality rate orders of magnitude greater than the usual influenza. If I'm reading the numbers right, the mortality rate is worse than even the Spanish flu pandemic.

Last thing I'm worried about is airline status - would rather still be here a year from now to worry about it.
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Old Feb 24, 2020, 1:01 pm
  #65  
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Originally Posted by dmurphynj
For us, our entire company currently has a "no international travel" ban in effect.

Domestic is still allowed, but if anything happens here, they'll pull that so fast the air'll crackle.
Do they think that the virus is transmitted by air travel?

Or are they planning to put employees into plastic bubbles when (not if) it spreads?

Originally Posted by dmurphynj
Better to have safe, grounded employees than spread a disease that has a mortality rate orders of magnitude greater than the usual influenza. If I'm reading the numbers right, the mortality rate is worse than even the Spanish flu pandemic.
It's way too soon for the mortality numbers to be meaningful except directionally. It remains much easier to count deaths than illnesses.
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Old Feb 24, 2020, 1:08 pm
  #66  
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Programs: UA MM
Posts: 4,125
Originally Posted by jsloan
Do they think that the virus is transmitted by air travel?

Or are they planning to put employees into plastic bubbles when (not if) it spreads?


It's way too soon for the mortality numbers to be meaningful except directionally. It remains much easier to count deaths than illnesses.
I work for a large multi-national and we've shut down intercontinental travel except for extraordinary circumstances. One of the reasons given is there's still much unknown about covid-19.
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Old Feb 24, 2020, 1:38 pm
  #67  
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Programs: UA 1K, Hilton ♦ , Hyatt Carbonado, Wyndham ♦, Marriott PE, "Stinking Bum" elsewhere.
Posts: 4,998
Originally Posted by JimInOhio
I work for a large multi-national and we've shut down intercontinental travel except for extraordinary circumstances. One of the reasons given is there's still much unknown about covid-19.
Since the latest evidence shows that it spreads aerosolly as well, just being on a plane with an infected person is a significant risk. Also, I've heard lots of folks here saying that the flu killed 61,000 in the US last year, so why worry. Well, that 61,000 death number was out of a total infected pool of more than 35,000,000. This yields a death rate of .17%. The most conservative estimates for COVID-19 are 2% or ~11.5 times greater. But, even The WHO thinks that the death rate will be higher than 3% in the end, and that is a significant risk. The spread of this disease, as evidenced by the Italian and Korean clusters is definitely being exacerbated by air travel.

Last edited by zombietooth; Feb 24, 2020 at 1:43 pm
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Old Feb 24, 2020, 2:09 pm
  #68  
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Originally Posted by jsloan
Do they think that the virus is transmitted by air travel?
It’s apparently transmitted by people being close to each other. That could be a church with 1000 of your closest friends in South Korea, in a taxi with a cabby in Japan, in a bar with friends in Italy or a workplace meeting/workshop with coworkers in Starnberg, Germany. Do you think a United Airlines sardine can with people crammed into economy seats or even premium classes would somehow be safer if a contagious person were to board it?

On top of that, there is probably also the risk of employees getting stranded abroad due to additional travel bans that corporate travel departments consider.
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Old Feb 24, 2020, 2:16 pm
  #69  
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Programs: 6 year GS, now 2MM Jeff-ugee, *wood LTPlt, SkyPeso PLT
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Originally Posted by jsloan
Do they think that the virus is transmitted by air travel?
.
United Airlines ultra tight slimline seats and micro-mini lavs are specially designed to avoid exposure to aerosolized viruses spreading.... It's a known fact, I found it on the internet somewhere....
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Old Feb 24, 2020, 2:24 pm
  #70  
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Morris County, NJ
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Originally Posted by jsloan
Do they think that the virus is transmitted by air travel?

Or are they planning to put employees into plastic bubbles when (not if) it spreads?


It's way too soon for the mortality numbers to be meaningful except directionally. It remains much easier to count deaths than illnesses.
It's spread by aerosol transmission. Which happens pretty quickly when everyone is stuffed in a flying Tylenol capsule.

That said, I'll take working for management that values employees' lives over business transactions any day of the week.
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Old Feb 24, 2020, 2:38 pm
  #71  
 
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 171
Originally Posted by JimInOhio
I can’t imagine the travel interruption is going to thin the elite herd by all that much. For perspective, UA has more flights to just Heathrow than to all of China.
Route dependent and UA has the data to target this.

Long haul is profitable.

Originally Posted by spin88
United Airlines ultra tight slimline seats and micro-mini lavs are specially designed to avoid exposure to aerosolized viruses spreading.... It's a known fact, I found it on the internet somewhere....
A brit traveler to Singapore for a conference, then to France to ski then back to the UK. They’ve tracked at least a dozen cases back to him already...

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Feb 24, 2020 at 7:40 pm Reason: merged consecutive posts by same member
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Old Feb 24, 2020, 2:42 pm
  #72  
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Originally Posted by notquiteaff
Do you think a United Airlines sardine can with people crammed into economy seats or even premium classes would somehow be safer if a contagious person were to board it?
Of course not. I think it's neither an appreciably higher nor lower risk than just about anything else.

Originally Posted by notquiteaff
On top of that, there is probably also the risk of employees getting stranded abroad due to additional travel bans that corporate travel departments consider.
That at least makes sense, although it's really sad. "Governments are acting out of ignorance, so therefore we need to guard against the possibility that our employees will be detained pointlessly."

Originally Posted by spin88
United Airlines ultra tight slimline seats and micro-mini lavs are specially designed to avoid exposure to aerosolized viruses spreading.... It's a known fact, I found it on the internet somewhere....
Oh, come on. Nowhere did I suggest that a UA plane was any safer than anywhere else.

Originally Posted by dmurphynj
It's spread by aerosol transmission. Which happens pretty quickly when everyone is stuffed in a flying Tylenol capsule.
If being on a plane with an infected person for 12-18 hours were a major risk, we would have had major, worldwide outbreaks months ago.

Originally Posted by dmurphynj
That said, I'll take working for management that values employees' lives over business transactions any day of the week.
I mean, sure, that's great, but I wonder how you're going to feel when the lost revenue trickles down the employee salary or bonus pool.
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Old Feb 24, 2020, 2:47 pm
  #73  
 
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 171
Originally Posted by SFHokie
But the bonus only really comes in if you find a cheap premium economy fare on that partner, otherwise the cost is too high for the number of award miles you receive that then is divided by 5 or 6.

Example, I could've flown UA SIN-SFO recently in Y on UA for ~$800, J for ~$2600, or premium economy on EVA for ~$1000. The EVA flight returned ~2600 PQPs. No brainer since I was footing the bill.

The idea with the PQP bonus would be for those flying on UA to attract them back once the travel ban is lifted.
I fly EVA for my personally funded TPACs in their PE.

UA can pound sand with their crap 787 slim seats for Long haul.
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Old Feb 24, 2020, 2:47 pm
  #74  
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
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Posts: 2,305
Originally Posted by jsloan
I mean, sure, that's great, but I wonder how you're going to feel when the lost revenue trickles down the employee salary or bonus pool.
We're not in manufacturing, so the vast amount of business travel are things that could be done via either teleconference, phone calls, video telepresence, Webex or whatnot.

Besides building "stuff" or putting hands on "stuff" - what REALLY needs to be done in person?

Face-to-face meetings are important, and develop deeper relationships with ones' clients, but - in a global pandemic - I think we can get by with doing those things virtually, without a revenue impact.
wrp96 and east_west like this.
dmurphynj is offline  
Old Feb 24, 2020, 2:49 pm
  #75  
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Programs: united
Posts: 1,636
It's really unfair to United, which has a minimum 31 inch pitch internationally, lots of E+, PP, and even high density J configurations, to blame it for virus transmission. There are A LOT of airlines out there who stuff far more people onto a plane than UA does.
dilanesp is offline  


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