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[Consolidated] "I need XXX UA PQPs/PQFs in 2022 for Elite Status in 2023"

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Old Jun 7, 2022, 11:17 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: WineCountryUA
Generally PQPs are earned flying
  • Paid flights -- Base fare + surcharge (remove taxes and non-airline fees)
  • Including flights ticketed and operated by must be *A or MP partner (earning depends on ticketing carrier)
  • Economy Plus® seating or subscriptions (100% PQPs)
  • Preferred seat purchases (100% PQPs)
  • MileagePlus Upgrade Award co-pays (100% PQPs)
  • Paid upgrades on flights operated by United and United Express (100% PQPs)
Purchase not eligible for PQPs: In-flight purchases, wifi for a single flight or subscription. UC membership or day pass, check bag fees / subscriptions, farelocks, ...

but there are two additional methods for earning them
1. Some Chase UA Branded credit will earn PQPs
and there is a bonus promo Bonus PQP Promo for MP Chase Cardholders - Q2 2022 -- targeted & variable bonus
Earning is 500 PQPs per $12K spend in a calendar year, cards have different annual PQP caps.
Chase MP credit card PQPs can be used to achieve all earned status levels but for 1K you also need to meet the PQF requirement. The PresidentialPlus cards PQPs can be used to meet the PQP only 1K requirement

2. You can purchase PQPs via Premier Accelerator
Consolidated Award / Premier Accelerator questions
United Airlines Award/Premier Accelerator Rates [2022]
Note prices tend to increase significantly at the end of the year
Note the Accelerator purchase costs do not earn PQPs but can count for the credit card spend.

UA has normally offered a status buy-up program in January, tends to run on the expensive side. No details are announced until mid-January
Last year's program - 2022 UA MP elite status buy-up offers(for higher status than earned in 2021)


For reference but not topic of this thread
MileagePlus Status Easier to Earn for 2022: ↓ PQP Levels, PQP Grant, Q1-21 PQP Bonus

Resource threads
UA/Star Alliance: 2022 Consolidated Mileage/Status/Challenge Runs help needed
Mileage Run Discussion
Mileage Run Deals
Premium Fare Deals

Poor man's PQP run planner
Google Flights enter a starting airport, leave the destination blank, select airlines - Star Alliance, set travel days and max cost and view the Map for options. Try multiple dates.
kayak.com/explore has similar functionality
And now UA's Explore destinations

Related
Will UA Grant 2023 Elite Status if I am XXX PQM/PQS/PQD Short of Qualifying in 2022?

Previous years' thread - "I need XXX UA PQPs/PQFs in 2021 for Elite Status in 2022"
[Consolidated] "I need XXX UA PQPs/PQFs in 2020 for Elite Status in 2021"
[Consolidated] "I need XXX UA PQDs/PQMs/PQSs in 2019 for Elite Status in 2020"
[Consolidated] "I need XXX UA PQD's/PQMs/PQSs in 2018 for Elite Status in 2019"
[Consolidated] "I need XXX UA PQD's/PQMs/PQSs in 2017 for Elite Status in 2018
[Consolidated] "I need XXX UA PQD's/PQMs in 2016 for Elite Status in 2017
[Consolidated] "I need XXX UA PQD's/PQMs in 2015 for Elite Status in 2016
& [Consolidated] "I need XXX UA PQD's/PQMs in 2014 for Elite Status in 2015


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[Consolidated] "I need XXX UA PQPs/PQFs in 2022 for Elite Status in 2023"

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Old Oct 13, 2022, 11:56 am
  #76  
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: MEX
Programs: TK G,UA *S
Posts: 1,137
Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
That plan may work, the Premier Accelerator PQP purchases can be variable, but you have summarized past observations.
And alternative would be to upgrade / upfare your present planned flight.
WineCountryUA thanks for the upfare option idea. I missed it...Have to make the comparison and see what would be cheaper to do.
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Old Oct 13, 2022, 3:55 pm
  #77  
 
Join Date: May 2018
Location: Latin America and USA
Programs: UA 1K, Marriott Gold
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Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
That plan may work, the Premier Accelerator PQP purchases can be variable, but you have summarized past observations.
And alternative would be to upgrade / upfare your present planned flight.
This was my approach. I was going to miss 1K by about 4000 PQP and figured not worth even trying. Then I picked up a bunch of unexpected business and personal travel, leaving me about 500 PQP short of assuring 1K. So, I upfared one of my tickets to the tune of about $600. Now, 1K assured.

I've flown 13 legs on United in the last 12 days. Would have been 12 UA legs and 1 DL leg, but DL delayed then cancelled my flight, and couldn't/wouldn't rebook me on the only flight that would suffice to get me to where I needed to go on time (a UA flight the next morning). UA opened up a seat on an oversold flight for me, at a reasonable price, and I still made it to my meeting early enough to contribute. Things like that make it well worth upfaring for 500 PQP!
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Old Oct 13, 2022, 5:47 pm
  #78  
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Or take an extra flight or two instead of upfaring
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Old Oct 13, 2022, 6:46 pm
  #79  
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Originally Posted by IMissThe747
I've flown 13 legs on United in the last 12 days. Would have been 12 UA legs and 1 DL leg, but DL delayed then cancelled my flight, and couldn't/wouldn't rebook me on the only flight that would suffice to get me to where I needed to go on time (a UA flight the next morning). UA opened up a seat on an oversold flight for me, at a reasonable price, and I still made it to my meeting early enough to contribute. Things like that make it well worth upfaring for 500 PQP!
If the UA flight were oversold, it makes sense that DL couldn't put you on it… but it definitely doesn't make sense that UA was willing to open a seat on an oversold flight "at a reasonable price." 1K members are allowed to open a seat on most sold-out flights 90+ minutes prior to departure, but only on an unrestricted Y or B fare. (I'm not sure if YCA -- government -- fares would qualify or not). Generally, those tickets aren't what would would term "reasonably priced" For example: AUS-SFO, for departure tomorrow, the only unrestricted fare I see is the Y fare, which is $5,822.60 all-in. Everything else, even the fare I get if I do a search for fare class Y (BAA0ADEN) is restricted. There's a discount Y fare at $1,598.60 that's refundable but is still coded as ECONOMY RESTRICTED, so...

Anyway, I guess the takeaway is, either it wasn't really oversold or you got really great service that might not be repeated.
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Old Oct 14, 2022, 8:01 am
  #80  
 
Join Date: May 2018
Location: Latin America and USA
Programs: UA 1K, Marriott Gold
Posts: 456
Originally Posted by jsloan
If the UA flight were oversold, it makes sense that DL couldn't put you on it… but it definitely doesn't make sense that UA was willing to open a seat on an oversold flight "at a reasonable price." 1K members are allowed to open a seat on most sold-out flights 90+ minutes prior to departure, but only on an unrestricted Y or B fare. (I'm not sure if YCA -- government -- fares would qualify or not). Generally, those tickets aren't what would would term "reasonably priced" For example: AUS-SFO, for departure tomorrow, the only unrestricted fare I see is the Y fare, which is $5,822.60 all-in. Everything else, even the fare I get if I do a search for fare class Y (BAA0ADEN) is restricted. There's a discount Y fare at $1,598.60 that's refundable but is still coded as ECONOMY RESTRICTED, so...

Anyway, I guess the takeaway is, either it wasn't really oversold or you got really great service that might not be repeated.
Yeah, I had the same thought/understanding as you described... only unrestricted Y/B fares available for 1Ks to purchase on sold-out UA flights. I was surprised myself, and it didn't make sense to me either. Here's what happened that led me to think that I got a seat on an oversold flight at a reasonable price:

When logged into my account on united.com, the flight was available for purchase. It looked completely normal. However, if I logged out on united.com and looked for the flight, it did not appear. Further, seats did not show as available on Google Flights, and three separate Delta agents also said it was full (yes, I HUCA Delta 3x trying to get them to put me on the UA flight because of DL's cancellation of my DL flight, before just buying the UA flight myself and choosing to deal with a DL refund later).

So, reflecting more on it, I went back and looked at the ticket. It is indeed a 'U' fare, not Y/B, which explains the reasonable price. What isn't clear is why I could only see/buy the U-fared flight directly from United when logged into my MP account, but it did not appear when not logged in, nor on Google Flights, nor on Delta. I do have 'expert mode' enabled, but I didn't check fare buckets. It was the middle of the night, I was tired, and really just wanted to make sure I was confirmed on the first UA flight in the morning.

Maybe it was a lucky middle-of-the-night tech glitch? Yeah, I should probably just be grateful and not count on it again.

Still, I feel good about stretching a bit for 1K!
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Old Oct 14, 2022, 8:05 am
  #81  
 
Join Date: May 2018
Location: Latin America and USA
Programs: UA 1K, Marriott Gold
Posts: 456
Originally Posted by Repooc17
Or take an extra flight or two instead of upfaring
I like that approach too! Have done it in previous years.

In this case, I have a pretty constrained scheduled through the end of the year, and also spend most of my time in a country that is served reliably by only one *A airline (two *A airlines, but I'm not counting Avianca as reliable). So, for the purpose of securing 1K for 2023, upfaring a UA flight while I was already back in the USA was a sure shot, whereas taking an extra UA/*A flight was a 'maybe.'
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Old Oct 14, 2022, 2:17 pm
  #82  
 
Join Date: Sep 2022
Location: ORD
Programs: UA Silver, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriot Gold
Posts: 47
So I should be short 333 PQP to reach gold including all future planned flights. If I change one of my future flights to one that is more expensive, will the PQP earned be the difference of the reported PQP earnings of the two flights?
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Old Oct 14, 2022, 2:23 pm
  #83  
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Originally Posted by wh333
So I should be short 333 PQP to reach gold including all future planned flights. If I change one of my future flights to one that is more expensive, will the PQP earned be the difference of the reported PQP earnings of the two flights?
If you change to a more expensive flight, the higher fare will be reported when the flight is taken.
Fare or upgrade PQPs are not posted until post-flight
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Old Oct 16, 2022, 9:02 am
  #84  
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Just to double check, because I can't find the info on the websiste, does the $450 annual fee for the retired Presidential Plus card count toward PQP?

I'm about 400 short for this year.
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Old Oct 16, 2022, 10:42 am
  #85  
Moderator: United Airlines
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
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Posts: 66,822
Originally Posted by Mary2e
Just to double check, because I can't find the info on the websiste, does the $450 annual fee for the retired Presidential Plus card count toward PQP? ....
Annual Fee Payments to Chase do not qualify for UA PQPs nor does it contribute to the $12,000 Purchase PQP credit
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Old Oct 16, 2022, 10:47 am
  #86  
FlyerTalk Evangelist, Ambassador: World of Hyatt
 
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Programs: Hyatt Globalist, Fairmont Lifetime Plat, UA Silver, dirt elsewhere
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Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
Annual Fee Payments to Chase do not qualify for UA PQPs nor does it contribute to the $12,000 Purchase PQP credit
Thank you. I suspected as much.

Now I have to figure out how to earn 400 PQPs to have silver next year. I may be prepaying my property taxes
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Old Oct 16, 2022, 11:39 am
  #87  
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Posts: 10,000
I only earned 1500 PQP for the year and have no intention to spend another dollar
kb1992 is offline  
Old Oct 16, 2022, 2:36 pm
  #88  
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Join Date: Jun 2010
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Originally Posted by kb1992
I only earned 1500 PQP for the year and have no intention to spend another dollar
Unfortunately or not, collecting PQPs is not earning - just more spending. Let's see if UA ever posts what it will require for earning status going forward. DL's already said what it takes.

David
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Old Oct 16, 2022, 2:41 pm
  #89  
Moderator: United Airlines
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.995MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 66,822
Originally Posted by DELee
...Let's see if UA ever posts what it will require for earning status going forward. ..
Are you concerned UA will not post requirements?
UA has waited to November many times before. yes later than some.

And as the subject of this thread is "Needing PQPs/PQFs in 2022 for Elite Status in 2023", we clearly know those requirements
WineCountryUA is offline  
Old Oct 16, 2022, 3:02 pm
  #90  
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Posts: 20,061
Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
Are you concerned UA will not post requirements?
UA has waited to November many times before. yes later than some.

And as the subject of this thread is "Needing PQPs/PQFs in 2022 for Elite Status in 2023", we clearly know those requirements
Agreed with the thread focus/topic of needing PQPs/PQFs - just reacting to the comment about "earning" PQPs.

I do expect UA to post 2023 requirements eventually. However, it is "clear" that their crystal ball is really foggy right now and, rather than deal with limited info out of Wacker Drive, others are "investing" their spend elsewhere.

So, while I officially need 7395 PQPs and two PQFs to get back to 1K for 2023, I've moved my 2022 travel elsewhere since UA's unconcerned about letting me know what's next.

David
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