SS255

And P fares on the route I fly the most have dropped from about $1,200 R/T pre-COVID to $700-$800. I thought that between the vaccine rollout by summer and the lower qualification requirements, I’d have a shot at 1K for next year. But, the combination of cheaper fares and the new COVID variants may prevent me from hitting the spend and/or segment requirements.

kangarooflyer88

And that's the point I've been trying to make on this thread. Us foreign Premier members have it much different than domestic UA travellers. It would be one thing if we had a choice to fly UA, but we frankly don't. Current travel restrictions as they are in many regions make it impossible for us to even fly UA nevermind other alliance partners. How UA could be insistent that we must follow their reduced earning rules when accruing any status is frankly impossible beggars belief, and is why I think there will be another extension this year, at least for foreign Premier members. And look, there is a clear precedent for this. UA has in the past removed certain requirements (e.g. PQD earning) for its international customers recognizing that it would be difficult for us to hit those targets solely flying UA.

And that IMHO would make me want to abandon UA completely. What UA is effectively saying if that's the case is, you can earn status with us but we won't honour the status if a pandemic or other unforeseen event happens. Many of us international Premier members on this forum worked our tails off in 2019 to meet the full requirements for earning Premier status for 2020 but never got a chance to use any of the benefits of such status due to the pandemic.

UA must realize that for us international members, UA isn't the only fish in the sea. Domestically in Australia, there is not a single Star partner I can fly to accumulate status. If anything, it would be far easier for me to give up on UA entirely and just accumulate status with QF with the current status match offers they have along with the fact that I know I can reach status with them on domestic trips alone. Indeed, the only way I can reach status is by flying long haul international flights, and that market is packed with many carriers who often offer cheaper fares and better routing. For instance, flying to LHR from SYD, the most logical airlines to take would be BA or SQ (via SIN) or QF (via PER). However, I chose to fly UA via LAX and have to deal with customs, the long layovers and longer flight time. The only reason I did that was because of how well I have been treated as a Premier member in terms of upgrades, lounge access and baggage policy. Although it's true that I do have business interests in the US and Canada, making UA a logical choice, again it's hard to see how QF,AA, DL, or AC couldn't satisfy that itch.

-'Roo Flyer

kevflyer

Upfare to Z?? Just kidding. Or not. I have the same issue with the low prices (looking at Q4). I usually book K fares and may have to go up to L or T.

IMO AC definitely can't satisfy that itch. Why do you think so many Canadians prefer UA over AC?

Kacee

You're always free to vote with your wallet.

They haven't really said anything. None of the major US airlines have announced a 2022 waiver at this point, and it's pure speculation whether any eventually will or not.

Personally, I'm not losing any sleep over it. I'm making zero effort to requalify on UA; haven't decided how hard to try on AS and/or AA. If I have to spend a year re-earning top tier on one or more carriers, that's fine. I'll just be happy to be back traveling international again.

garykung

Agree. It is way too early to speculate whether UA will do something. Only time will tell.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

This USA citizen thinks AC’s customer phone service is the worst of any North American airline. By far.

That being said, I’m looking forward to my cheap lie-flat journey HNL-YYZ-LHR-YYZ-HNL on AC in December.

drewguy

For a good number of people they haven't gotten any benefit for the past year from elite status.

HNLbasedFlyer

I'm personally skeptical that international travelers with Gold and higher are a statistically significant number not only for UA for US airlines in general. I just don't think losing them moves the bar much in either direction.

zombietooth

The only benefit that I have been able to use during the pandemic as a 1K is the 3x70lb bag allowance. I haven't gotten any CPUs and I wasn't able to use any PlusPoints to UG last year. I have 700 PlusPoints now that are essentially worthless unless international opens up, and I am no longer optimistic about that happening this year.

The value of status above Gold has shrunk immensely thanks to the pandemic.

Repooc17

If I am ex-SYD, I would have done that from day 1. UA offers nothing other competitors cannot satisfy.

For a while, I had dual status between AC and UA. While I could continue to maintain both, there are little to no marginal benefit for having status with both programs.

I would go step further - if I am based in anywhere outside of the US, I would move my FF program out of UA and into something where I have more convenient earning potential.

Don't think for a second this is a problem only for international members. I can give you my background with AS, but that's not the purpose of the thread.

tcdtcd

I was just about to post a similar thought! Why hitch to a US FF program from AU? QF is your program, or maybe ANZ, or an Asian one?

I did try this once from the US as a UA GS by signing on to LH. Just not practical, even pre-covid. Dropped it within a year.

kevflyer

Reminds me of a conversation I had with a 1K seatmate on my last trip pre-covid. He's from Germany and told me he much prefers UA over LH. It all depends on your routing and destinations, benefits, etc, to see if having status with UA or your home carrier makes more sense. Personally, UA wins over AC (even though AC has, IMO, much better award flight redemption) in almost every aspect.

Doppy

Aren't you still just as close now?

drewguy

I haven't used any of the benefits because I haven't flown since last March. Well, I suppose I got 1K benefits on a couple of domestic flights I took in the first couple of months of the year, but it's not as if extending my benefits would give me "two years of benefits". Yeah, I get it - the benefit is for the year following the one in which you earned it . . . in normal times.

UA_Flyer

Why are we talking about this in Jan (now Feb)?

I have been preaching this since I joined this forum. I got a lot of push backs.

Now sitting at lifetime GS, I am stress free.