I believe they are. Previously, my understanding was CC PQP wont help from Plat to 1k. After the promotion i got PQPs from CC spend that bumped me to 1k.

In 2021, CC PQPs from all cards can be used for 1K

If someone doesn’t have “access” to FT (and I think you mean those who don’t know about it or don’t care), I’m sure there are other ways to have it explained to them. I don’t know, because FT is my Go-To source, but perhaps The Points Guy or one of those bloggers? Perhaps they could call or email United? So what you’re really saying is they are too lazy or don’t think it’s worth the trouble.
Why should I care about them?

I think UA did a great job putting this together. It’s overly complicated because they tried to have something for everyone depending on their situation.
The only thing they don’t have is something for people who refuse to get on a plane at all. Why should they? I think Delta is stupid for doing that. It makes them look desperate IMO. And AA is not doing it, so I’m not sure what you mean by “all the competitors”. Who are they?

How would I feel if UA extends status to everyone after I’ve spent $3000? I would be slightly annoyed for about 2 seconds, and hope they gave me something extra (same as I hope for anyone who spent money this year). I’m guessing if they do decide to do that, those people won’t get PPs. (Have a look at what AA is doing)
I already had a KEF trip booked before the promo was announced, so for me this is just gravy. I was going for it anyway. How could I resist going for status with all the promos and bonuses they’ve had already? I flew 3 OWs btwn DFW+DEN, costing less than 300 bucks total, and they gave me 3750 points for that.
If people want status, they gotta play the game. If the rules keep getting more and more complicated? Good. Keeps out the slackers : )

Smart promo. Complicated but that's good for those of us who pay attention. As noted above, upgrades have been harder IMO. I'm not spending more on flights but am on CCs since they now count for up to 1K. Would be nice if they could make it 500 PQP for every $10,000 or so instead of $12,000, though, since that seems to be the only qualification factor that hasn't been made easier.

UMP Gold, quickest way to retian Gold status
 

Hi! I'm Kim, I'm trying to retain my Gold Status i attained in 2019 while i'm still gold, by the end of this year. I am trying to find out the smartest way to do it. Preferably i would like to travel, but i can also use my United Club card, and typically i dont really stay in hotels but am open to good deals, any direction or insight would be greatly appreciated. I'm flying out of either LAX, CUN or CLT. Can do almost anything anytime, but prefer warmer weather. Doesnt have to just be a milage run with no stay over. I'm happy to do a trip for a few weeks etc. Please help :)

Because we are in a pandemic. Because people with kids under 12 may not be comfortable traveling now with no vaccination options for the kids. Because many companies are keeping business travel to an absolute minimum. But what happens if things get better next year and kids get vaccinated? Then you have people who were historically high spenders left with no status and essentially a "free agent". If the competitors are offering something to this group of people to keep their status and UA doesn't, isnt that a disadvantage? And by competitors I mean Delta who did a blanket extension and AA who are including a non flying option to extend status - see here.

So better to offer something to people who aren't comfortable traveling now vs risking them become a free agent and losing to a competitor. And the options can be options that still put $ into UA's pocket now (Buy up, PQD purchase, etc.). If things remain bad next year and these people are still uncomfortable flying, then no harm, no foul. But if things do get better, then its UA who will lose out since the others addressed this group.

I know your answer to all this will be to let such people walk as it means more upgrades for you, but I think UA would think differently :-)

1K status isn't worth $3K.

And my stance hasn't changed. There's no place that I need to go badly enough to wear a mask to do it.

If I lose my status, fine. If I don't lose my status, fine. There are much more important things to worry about.

There is new promo, as an existing UA Premier Gold, you need to fly between August 6 and end of November

6 UA segments and 1,200 PQPs or just 1,400 PQPs.
Previous booked flights qualify.
PQPs must be UA/UX flight PQPs (it is believe credit card / premier accelerator / ... PQPs do not qualify for the promo terms)

Your prior flight history does not matter

Goto https://promo.united.com/offers/flytothefinish for more detials or see this thread's wiki

if you aren't flying this year, and won't next year if conditions remain the same, I'm sure UA won't mind you losing status.
The threat of becoming a free agent is often thrown around on FT, but most people aren't really free, unless they like inconvenience.

I planned to became a free agent when they announced the “price” of 1K status would be $24K.
But then Covid came and bit them in the arse.

There have always been reasons people can’t / won’t / don’t want to travel.
Work, kids, money,…now there are some new reasons like fear of getting sick, not wanting to be vaccinated or wear a mask.
It is what it is.

AA’s easy path doesn’t give them SWUs. I’m not sure how Delta works.
There is no other competition.

So, here is something I don't quite get about Fly To The Finish: it's possible that you can qualify for it, but still require fewer miles to attain status than the target for the promotion. For example, you could have, say, 2,000 PQP still to go to make 1K, and that would qualify you (since the threshold is 1,500) for Fly To The Finish...which would then require you earn 3,000 PQP (or 2700 PQP + 10 PQF) to attain 1K. After you've earned 2,000 PQP, you've made 1K, and then you shift over to Breakout bonus because Fly To The Finish doesn't do anything for you at that point.

Why wouldn't the eligibility threshold be at least the promo earning requirement? Am I missing something?

^ No. for some number of elites, requalifying “naturally” took fewer PQP than the FttF promo required (my spouse was <50 miles away from silver requal). For that group, they miss out on BoB extra PQP, which for some would mean getting closer to a higher status.

United’s main goal here was to make it easier to requalify not to attain higher status. If it were then the promo would have enrolled anyone who was “inside” the FttF range of requalifying in the BoB promo and let the chips fall where they may.

One of the pros of being a free agent is convenience. You would not tied down to one airline, but instead, can pick the airline of your choosing based on priorities of importance - e.g. if Delta has a nonstop over United's connecting flights, which ticket is the more inconvenient one?

The one which gives me no status. No upgrades, No preferred seating, No extra bag allowance, No pre-boarding…..

With the amount of flying most FTers describe, you can leverage multiple status without making it a primary objective. This is the quintessential benefit with being a free agent, because you are not tied down to one airline, you are in control without having to play the rules of airline marketing schemes.

those doing enough flying to maintain multiple statuses are a fringe group, even on FT. The reality is most people are best served by a single airline, and maintain one status on that airline only. Take me at IAD....sure I could fly AA or DL but I'll be connecting every time, and there's nothing convenient about that at all. I realize folks have varying priorities but I'd wager the majority of us value non-stop flights/as little time in the air and in airports as possible.

Eligibility gap and the 1st flight of BreakOut Bonus are the same, so perhaps the thinking was those close enough that one trip bonus would be the cut-off.

Absolutely true. Maintaining one top-tier status > multiple mid-tier status. The numbers of flyers who can afford to maintain multiple top-tier statuses are rare and they can probably afford their own private planes.

Whilst that sounds great, spare a thought for us International Premier members who would love to travel but currently cannot due to ongoing restrictions. In my case, as a Premier Gold based in Sydney, it is presently illegal for me to leave my city nevermind my state or country due to current stay-at-home orders. Even before this, the only Star Alliance option I had was Air New Zealand but that bubble only lasted about 2 months. Throughout 2021 it was extremely challenging to say the least to do international travel here in Australia, you needed to apply for a permit and get approved by the government before you can set foot in the international terminal. Oh and you better be darned sure you've got your return travel arranged too since there are only about 1000 Australians allowed to return to Sydney every week from abroad. During this time, Qantas reached out to me and offered me a Status Match challenge based on my UA Premier Gold status. They gave me QF Gold for essentially making one trip in the year (Sydney to Darwin) and I've got that status through November 2022.

A similar story is now playing out for Premier members based in other regions, not only in the Asia Pacific but in Europe. At present, it is illegal if you're European to fly United to the US thanks to the ongoing travel restrictions imposed by the CBP. Whilst travel within Europe is certainly possible, it is not without it's own big issues when it comes to mandatory testing and the potential of the rules changing forcing you into a 14 day quarantine at your expense.

I've flown United for many years and have enjoyed the service offered and the benefits of being Premier. I understand the changing international travel situation is completely outside your control. But it is also outside my control too. I can assure you that I'm more than seriously annoyed by these restrictions having had my last international flight with United back at the end of January 2020 to Sydney from Heathrow. All we're asking United to do for its international Premiers is to recognize that the situation abroad is quite different than the situation in the US where there are virtually no restrictions on domestic air travel throughout the pandemic. If you want to fire us International Premiers, feel free but realize too that many of us have been approached by other airlines already (including some US Domestics that may or may not be named after a variant of COVID) and have been given status right now, in some cases no questions asked. I'd hate to be a free agent right now, but if United is enforcing a requirement that is impossible to meet, then I suppose we have no other options.

Your Trusty,

KangarooFlyer88

what originally attracted you to United over Qantas? When normality returns, will UA remain as attractive? Is Qantas just as viable? Presumably UA had something unique that drew you to them. UA probably assumes that whatever the original attraction to them was still exists even if they "fire" you. People talk as if status is the only thing that glues them to an airline. UA knows otherwise.

Just got this email this morning. I only changed my name. The rest of the email including the funny "this is disappoint" are cut and paste.Dear FrustratedFarmer:







Thanks for your reply.



I apologize you question was not answered correctly.



In the Fly to the Finish offer, you may qualify with United or United Express flights that acquire PQP. You may not qualify for the promotion via PQP from Accelerators, PQP from upgrades or from Chase spend or Corporate affiliation bonus points.



I understand this is disappoint and I am sorry.



Regards,



MileagePlus® Service Center

Great, more dilution of the 1K pool.

I realize this has been beaten to death, but it is still frustrating that UA hasn't changed this on the Fly To The Finish landing page:

Meet these goals by Nov. 30, 2021, to requalify for Premier® 1K status through Jan. 2023 and earn +280 PlusPoints

• Complete 10 Premier qualifying flights (PQF) on United or United Express®
• Earn 2,700 Premier qualifying points (PQP) on United or United Express flights

OR

• Earn a total of 3,000 PQP only

By excluding the United flight requirement in the second point, it's 100% reasonable for anyone to assume that PQP earned through partner flights would also be eligible. As hidden in the fine print and apparently confirmed here, this isn't true. But I can see a lot of frustrated non-US members who think they have qualified only to be told that they haven't (I would have been included in that had I not gone through this thread)

While I'm happy that UA has waived the 4 UA flight minimum for non-US members, they are going to have to do better if they want to keep us from becoming free-agents next year, because most will not have the opportunity/desire to fly into the US in 2021.

Did you ever hear back from 1Kvoice about this and, if yes, what did they say?

how so? The rules force flights at least, so the 1k pool will go down.

+1.

The only "dilution" is from the lowered thresholds for 2021 for new qualifiers. The FttF promo doesn't do that at all. BoB may help a few people achieve higher status after they requalified.

I never got a response from 1kvoice *or* MP.

You also need to earn 1,800 PQP in addition to 8 flights.

How do new, incredibly loose rules dilute status? Not sure I understand your question. It's obvious that this new promo is dilutive. Are you saying it's less dilutive than UA just extending everyone for free again?

Correct - this isn’t available to anyone who isn’t currently a 1k, so that brings the population down, and this forces existing 1ks to spend ~$3k on a series of flights, so that will also bring the population down.

Yes, rules are looser, but still in a pandemic, requiring masks, requiring actual flights- there are enough hoops to jump through that not everyone will qualify/take advantage.

Dilution is something of a imprecise point.

United "diluted" status by reducing the requirements last year and this year from what they were pre-COVID.
United further "diluted" status by making those reduced requirements easier to achieve through various bonus PQP promotions.
United even further "diluted" status with FttF making it easier to requalify to one's earned 2020 status.

It would be helpful for those complaining about dilution to explain which type of dilution they're referring to . . . but really anyone who hasn't met the original 2020 (and presumptive 2021) requirements is benefiting from one of these dilutive approaches.

It does not bring the population down from where 2022 status numbers would be if this new program didn't exist. It adds to it.

The bonus is for 2022 status so it makes no sense to compare it to 2021 status numbers.

Everything you're mentioning is dilutive. So is this new program. So I agree with you, which is why my original post said "great, more dilution"... why do we need to specify which type, does it really matter?

I would of course agree nonstops over connecting, and I had pointed that out in an earlier post. UA doesn't fly everywhere nonstop, so I am not going out of my way to fly UA.

Not as difficult nor expensive as you may think. There are still mileage based programs out there (AS, for example; and you can back door into AA/OW); most mileage programs also allow their members to earn on partners based on distance flown.

this is why people should actually read the fine print. It contains important info. That people should know, but don’t because it is hidden.

I do think it’s a bit deceptive given the PQP combined with PQF requirements list the need for UA/UAX flights, but PQP only doesn’t. That said, UA wouldn’t be the first to hide important info. in the terms. Add this to the list of items we fault airlines for, but not other companies that do the same thing.

Actually, I fault all companies on this. And certainly mistakes happen and promotions may be initially ambiguously worded, but once the issue is pointed out (and for sure someone at United reads these threads) spend the 10 minutes to get someone to update the landing page for the promo on the website to make it clearer instead of continuing to keep a very important piece of information buried in the terms and conditions.

Do you think it was intentional?
Or just neglect?
I'm not sure.

Thanks. Hopefully they're also wrong about that. See mod comment below:

wrong about what? That you need to earn the PQP on UA/UAX flights only?

while it was certainly not clear for the first few hours, the terms were quickly updated to reflect PQP from UA/UAX flights are all that count for the promo. It’s not written as clear as possible (but historically, can we say UAs Comms have been - often not) - with it being in the T&Cs and not in the PQP only bullet in the main section. Whether it’s ‘fair’ or not to a particular person/group of people or not, this is UAs offer.
Clearly, they are looking to retain status for a group of people that are doing a minimal amount of flying - specifically on UA metal. That’s their choice of the customers they want to retain status for, because they think it will help them. Only time will tell whether this is the right move in the short and/or longer run.

The good news is that United isn't extending 1K PlusPennies so perhaps they will be easier to use next year. Seems unlikely though.