I work to maintain Silver - for access to E+ seating (and it has never failed over all of these years). As of 7/27, I was at 8 PQF and 2578 PQP. As of today, I am at 11 PQF and 3038 PQP. When I checked my eligibility for the 'Fly to the Finish' offer, it states I need 4 PQF and 600 PQP before November 30. Is my assumption correct that I only actually need 1 PQF (since I have earned 3 since July 27) and 140 PQP (since I have earned 460 since July 27) to maintain Silver?

Under the promotion, what would I need to do to get to Gold (primarily access to E+ seating + *A Gold status)? This may be a worthy goal as I have at least another 14 PQF to pricey midwest locales between now and November 30?

Thanks experts!

Assuming you are going to 'naturally' requal for silver on your own (without the need for the TffT promotion), you will not get any of the bonus from that, and will instead get the Breakout Bonus (assuming you meet the qualifications for that, which it seems you will do). The breakout bonus will add 550 bonus PQP to your actual PQP, so take your total PQP you've earned, add 550, and subtract from the requirements from gold in order to determine what all you would need in order to obtain gold.

It's definitely a lame incentive to 1K's who have already qualified or will qualify without the promo, who will have little to gain.

However, it is huge for silver, gold, and platinum members as the extra breakout points will help them achieve the next elite level. The promo is definitely targeting those of us who have been flying and incentivizing us to fly even more.

Thanks.

Two other points of clarification. The maximum of 550 will not post until after November 30, correct? And a trip is defined as an end to end (i.e. IND-ORD-IAD); not each segment, correct?

And you made this very simple to understand - UA should hire you and WineCountryUA to write documentation!

I’m in the same boat. The promo started on 8/6 so if you flew on or after that date it counts. I’ll leave the rest to the experts in here.

I suspect this would be the exception rather than the rule. I find it hard to see how elite members who just flew or spent enough in 2019 to make silver or gold would suddenly be flying and spending substantially during the pandemic to qualify for a higher elite level, even with the various promotions in place. Remember there was always going to be a cull of elite ranks in 2021 because of new PQP requirements so many would not have even maintained their elite level with existing level of spend without pandemic. While things are easier with reduced PQP requirements this year, for most right now, it still remains about maintaining existing elite status. It is unlikely that any promotion will be huge enough to see masses of silver and gold elites climbing in status, even with the bonus PQPs. Of course, there are those who increased their spending through the pandemic, but that is a minority.

You could get 2,250 PQPs (from taking 3 trips) toward more PlusPoints

ok, so if a 1K does not get the required PQP for the promo (almost impossible for intl elites), do you still get the 2250PQP for breakout bonus for 3 United trips?

I totally agree on your last point.
I re-read your first post and I don’t think you re-qualified before 7/27 since you had less than 3000 PQPs, so you are in the FttF promo.

Breakout Bonus: As far as what I read in the rules the 350 (first), 100 (second) and 100 (third) will post as follows:

• PQP will be earned upon completion of the first United or United Express flight segment in a Trip but may take up to 10 days to post to the MileagePlus account.
  
  I think you are referring to this (FttF promo):
  
• Members who are eligible for the Fly to the Finish offer but who do not satisfy the offer requirements during the Promotion Period will be eligible to instead earn PQP pursuant to the terms of the “Breakout Bonus” offer, which will be granted no later than 12/21/2021. Members who earn status in connection with the Fly to the Finish offer are not eligible for the Breakout Bonus offer.
  

Believe me, there are PLENTY of elites flying. In my several recent hub to hub flights, group one was almost like half the plane.

With all the promotions you don't need to spend substantially or increase your spending at all. I will already have enough PQP to requalify for gold after my TATL trip next week. If I just spend the same amount this year as I did in 2019, I will qualify at least for platinum, perhaps even making 1K for the first time ever.

Sorry if this is a dumb question but (as I understand it) only PQPs earned on UA metal will count. So, if I book through United,com and fly to Europe and some of the flight is on Lufthansa then I have to figure out how many of the PQPs are United and how many aren't to see if I'll hit my target to keep my 1K?

Correct.

I concur. My wife and I are the only members of our extended family (numbering 50 or so) that flew at all during the pandemic. Several members of our family were 1Ks/Plats/Golds and haven't taken even one flight since FEB 2020. My brother-in-law owns a house in Hawaii and hasn't been there once during the pandemic. He still has no plans to fly and will not benefit from this promo. Small sample, I know, but I'd bet this attitude about personal travel is not rare. Business travel will likely suffer permanent demand destruction due to corporate liability fears and technological innovation making in-person travel less necessary. It would seem that UA would, therefore, want to reward those of us who continued to travel through the pandemic and actually would've qualified for 1K under the old criteria. I guess not.

Not a dumb question at all. It took me a while to figure it out too. As I understand it, for the challenge and breakouts, only PQP's on UA metal will count. However, if you qualify naturally, then all PQP's even on partner airlines will still count.

So it depends on what happens first. For example, you can requalify naturally with all the partner flights first, then for the breakout part, only flights on UA metal will count. Make sense?

https://mileageplusupdates.com/milea...h/cardmembers/ . According to this Mileage plus announcement the PFQ is waived for 2021 for the legacy card holders .

My wife (1K) is flying this itenerary during the promotion period.

1. Standard UA ticket
2. All UA flights except #2 on TAP
3. Would she get 1202 PQP?
4. Or would TAP leg be excluded, yielding 1104?
5. If TAP excluded, I'm assuming PQF=3, correct?

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...654a8c6907.jpg

Thank you jsloan and mathgeek1978. I hope this rule (only PQPs earned on United planes count!) doesn't trip up anyone.

I haven't been on a plane since March 2020. No way will I make it without this promotion, luckily I have something in Europe that I hope to attend (Covid-permitting) in November, my only chance of actually retaining and enjoying the 1K I finally managed to attain at the end of 2019.

Just for use of credit card PQPs to earn 1K -- not for other status levels
The trip will earn the full 1202 PQPs but for the promo Fly to the Finish requirement, the TAP leg will be excluded (assuming the rest are UA operated.
PQF for traditional thresholds will be 4 but for the promo Fly to the Finish requirement, the TAP leg will be excluded

The traditional earning rules are unchanged, the Fly to the Finish promo requirements (what earnings qualify) are only for UA-operated flights.

And believe me there are much much more plenty not flying. Sure as a proportion of those flying right now elite levels may still be high but what is the denominator?

In prepandemic times there were, for example at least 11 daily flights from Japan to US and probably up to over 20 between UK and US - at times in pandemic those have been down to 2 or 3 daily. All those flights were very elite heavy. Where are all those elites who were helping fill up the cabins of multiple daily flights to LHR and NRT now? At home largely. Unless we now think it was just non-elites in those planes (we know that is not the case). And all the wide bodies parked in the desert or being used on domestic routes - they too used to be filled with elites who are certainly not flying. If one adds popular elite destinations in China, EU, India, Israel, Oceania etc where UA is only running a fraction of flights it becomes clearer that a lot of elites can't be traveling much, at least not on UA. And remember too there are many international elite (non-US citizens) who largely haven't flown United in 18 months by definition.

There are 1/2 million fewer clearing airport security daily in the USA versus 2 years ago and it is not leisure passengers that are down. The phenomenon you are experiencing is greatly reduced frequencies --- fewer business/elites in fewer planes feels busy. Most reports put business travela at below 50% of normal. Come Labor Day and leisure drops .......

Hence UA feels the need to prime the pump

Only if the trip began then. If it was the return or continuation of a trip that began before, it will not count as a "trip" for this promotion.

There has been much discussion in this thread on whether or not the:

• Earn a total of 3,000 PQP only

Applies only to United / United Express flights or any Star Alliance.

This is highly relevant to me as a non-US based on 1K who has no flights under my belt this so far in 2021 and is very unlikely to fly on UA metal this year.

Unless I missed a post, the discussion has mainly been focused on interpretation of the confusing grouping between the bullet points above for:

• 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

Where the "On United or United Express flights" qualifier is absent in the "Earn a total of 3,000 PQP only" bullet.

I think we have basically resolved this based by interpretations from several key FT members. However, I don't believe any interpretation or speculation is necessary, as the Terms and Conditions section for Fly to the Finish has a bullet point that states:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7cdf182c7a.png

This is unfortunate for any non-US based UA elites. But I think that at least this offers certainty and closure on the question.

I would be very very happy if someone could provide evidence to the contrary, though! :)

No, it doesn't say that at all. WineCountryUA already responded, but at the risk of being somewhat repetitious, because this point confused some people when the rules were first announced:

For Platinum and below, all passengers need to meet either the PQF + PQP rules, or the (higher) PQP-only rule. A certain fraction of that PQP may be earned from flying on qualifying Chase credit cards.

For 1K: all passengers need to meet either the PQF + PQP rules, or the (higher) PQP-only rule. Most customers can only use PQP earned from Chase to qualify via the PQF + PQP path; if they do not achieve the PQFs, then their Chase PQP are ignored. Presidential Plus card holders have a special exception: those PQPs are never ignored, and they can qualify via either the PQF + PQP path or the (higher) PQP-only path, counting their Presidential Plus PQPs in either case.

There is no group of passengers who are allowed to qualify at the lower PQP threshold without also meeting the PQF threshold.

I could easily be wrong, but I think that means that you can (for 1k) now use those pqp to hit the 15k spend benchmark and you can’t use it to hit the lower threshold without flights.

Not to shoot the messenger. :)

So, I requalified for Silver on August 4th.

Now I have to obtain Gold the 'normal' way, which I really have no chance of in PQPs between now and November 30th or even December 31st unless I have some 1st class mileage runs? Am I interpreting FttF correctly?

United added that bullet point only after dozens of posters here asked UA Insider for clarification if other airline partners, CC spending, or PQP accelerator purchases would count for that requirement. UA Insider has not responded to those questions, but the added bullet point appears to be the final answer.

On July 27, my status was Gold and I had not re-qualified to retain that status, so I'm "enrolled" in FLY TO THE FINISH.
If I accumulate 8 PQF and 1800 PQP by November 30, will my status be Platinum?

No. UA is allowing you to shortcut the requalification of your original status (e.g. Gold); beyond that, you would have to qualify under the normal (albeit reduced) thresholds.

repooc17. Thanks.
For a moment, I had big dreams.

So to clarify: for the 3,000 PQD only option for 1k, I really only need 2,600 because of the 400 corporate bonus correct? Just want to make sure I am not missing something...

Me also! Missed by 6 days!

So in other words other promotions and benefits (Credit Card PQP spending bonus, etc.) doesn't seem to count towards this. If true, then this motivates me to shift spending to other cards (Hilton Amex, Alaska Air, etc.) and put my UA credit card in a sock drawer until the end of the year, maybe more... At least they could offer a partial PQP bonus if a person hits for each $12K of spending on the card.

I know this comment won't be taken well but the only positive part of this promo is that there is a hurdle to get status vs. extending outright and adding to the elite masses, especially those who haven't flown.

on the second question, UA has been treating a “trip” as a single booking, whether one way or round trip. So if you book two one ways that’s two “trips”.

The standard PQP earning on cards still add to your earnings, just not for the Fly to the Finish promo. Additionally, for those needing PQFs, the card spend can earn up to 2.

Those may not work for you ... hard to have a promo that works for every set of circumstances while there seems to be a concern that UA covered too many different set of circumstances (too complex).

Are you automatically entered into this, or is there a registration process? When I go to the website, it gives me a "Book Flight" button, but no confirmation of my enrollment. I have flights booked already that will be in the timeframe, so I want to make sure I get credit for them.

Yes, no registration is necessary.

The exclusion of cc spending from this promo is especially surprising given that it would take $72K of UA cc spend to earn the 3K PQP for 1K, while AA will extend my EXP status for a mere $15K in AA cc spending.

Does anyone know if Premier Accelerator PQP purchases qualify for the Fly to the Finish path?

depends on the motive.

seems like UA doesn’t want people just to earn PQPs - they want them to earn it from flying. The promotion seems to primarily incentivize flying to earn. And flying on UA/UAX metal. With that in mind, probably not that surprising.

if UA didn’t care about that, why even bother with CC spending - they could have just extended status like DL did.

I suppose there is the slight incentive for credit card spend with the PQF bonus from. For me, I don’t need it and it actually is going to discourage me from spending on my card - I was going to need 500 PQM to requalify (for silver) the regular way. But with my planned fall flying, I’ll get it via the promotion, and go back to using the UA card where it earns the same/more than my other cards.

It is believed they don't -- the T&Cs states "Fly to the Finish" applies to only UA / UX-operated flights.