OpenSky

I was 1K for over 10 years, and earned MM as a result.

I left United largely because United left me. The flights that I would take the most was Dulles to Dubai ( eneded, now restarting) and Dulles to Moscow ( from a different era, ended )

I used to take the United ps flights ( do they even call that anymore) between New York JFK and California almost monthly for years. When United left JFK and ended that service, I switched to EWR but hated the whole experience, so I stopped and moved on to other things. United lost a lot of tech and entertainment people when they left JFK, I also moved to Europe and my travel patterns changed.

I also used to to fly all over the world with United. Nothing is forever, you should stick to a relationship that works for you.

SeamusSA

There's an old adage that I believe pertains here: If you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes. Rationale: especially at a hub, if you are not top tier elite you are always second best. I'd stick with UA to get whatever your MM or earned status can get you.

Artpen100

Even if I did not fly business class, I still doubt I would purchase UA for TATL right now. Maybe other *A if flying direct. When I first started flying internationally for work, I usually flew AF for its better service in economy, and PE is very good on both AF and BA. Even today, I am often not purchasing J - I can still regularly find upgrades at booking for miles on AF and BA, and it is easy even without status to transfer miles from a credit card to get what is essentially a really discounted business class deal. Gold on UA and also gold on BA (free seat selection) would probably be the sweet spot.

iker

I gave up trying to maintain loyalty to United. I don't think that United is deserving. I invariably travel with a day or two's notice by which time there is often little chance to upgrade. And on the longer routes to Boston and New York where I am able to travel in business or first class, I've encountered difficulty getting a ticket in a premium cabin because United's given upgrades away, so I book seats in first class either on JetBlue or Delta. I'm SFO-based, but I've never felt so liberated as to travel in business class on other carriers. Singapore, ANA, Lufthansa, SWISS, SAS, Air France, Virgin, Qantas -- these airlines have far superior soft products, and in all but one case (with Lufthansa) better hard products. This is clearly my opinion though I don't feel I'm in the minority expressing this opinion. I collect miles and use them, but I'm not beholden to any airline. I choose based on schedule and quality of service vs. mileage and status accrual, and I am much happier for it.

TBD

I'm in a similar situation, although not in a hub city. My challenge is the $. United is significantly more expensive than AA and, to a lesser degree, DL, these days. And I'm not talking about a 2-3% difference.

I'd love to fly United more, but can't justify paying 2x the fare.

Weyland Yutani Corp

This year was one of the easiest to qualify, with an early year bonus + all the cc opportunities and continued pandemic approach. I feel like if you can't get it done this year, especially at IAD...your future of qualifying does not look too hot, which maybe will affect your decision? I can't imagine it getting any easier for 2024 1K. I am expecting UA to creep it up a little towards what was their original 2020 qual.

izzik

Get a United Club credit card so that you can get faster service in person when there's IRROPS.
Credit card earnings will supplement your flight earnings if you want more points.
Plus, obviously, you'll now have full lounge access whenever you fly.

If you want the upgrades, buy the premium domestic ticket or upgrade for cash at check-in.

If service and IRROPS handling is what you are after, United mileage plus is the only place you'll get it.. and the only preference is based on United status.. not Turkish status or anyone else.

jpezaris

For me, as a 1MM on UA, one of the highly valuable intangibles is knowing the system --- schedule patterns, airframe features, airport layouts, lounge options, etc. That knowledge allows me to avoid a lot of mistakes, helps recover quickly with IRROPS, and ultimately ensures smooth and often enjoyable travel. But here's the catch: I don't fly enough to earn that deep knowledge without paring down the options from all available airlines and alliances. For my travel patterns, *A makes the most sense, and so have concentrated on its member airlines, and even then, mostly UA, LH and LX. While I get recognized for that loyalty with status, I also get the benefits from knowing the system.

If the OP is in the same situation where there are realistically limited numbers of hours to spend on travel planning and funds to spend on the travel itself, then Option 1 seems to be the best, especially with a challenge request.

acr113

I will also lose 1K after 18 years, some of them as a GS and I am 1MM and not far from 2MM. Since I am fly much less, I am considering going for 2MM and Platinum for life.

weero

Is this universally true?

At the approximate same cost, I got higher credits on MP for LH PE flights than for UA PE flights.

WineCountryUA

Middle fares like the lowest discount PremEcon tend fares to do well on partners but watch out for the caps on longer flights. Higher fares on partners are regularly capped out,
And due to very weak multipliers, lower fares may be better on UA.

There are exceptions all over the place.

nomad420

I sit exactly in the same situation with about the same past hx of 1K and GS experience. I am currently at about 1.75 million LT miles and would love to hit LT Plat but that will take longer than I would probably like as my business travel has been cut back over the last several years. Probably would be at 2mil LT miles but I had about a 3 years love/hate relationship with AS and flew well over 100K with them during that time. Since AS pulled back service in the Bay Area I came back to UA more recently. I will probably still stick with UA for the present time as I will have at least Gold (probably will make Plat this year) and since SFO is a UA hub they fly pretty much everywhere I need to be. While not crazy about many issues with UA it currently is the "devil that I know".

ffI

We flew DCA-YYZ-GRU recently and got 1500 +100 PQP on each way on a C class ticket for $6k = 3k total PQP
UA was $7k - if I had got the UA ticket, I would have 7k PQP from the flights and would be at 13k PQP for the year instead of 9k
That was a $1K difference in price for each of us but that cost me 4k PQP - likely between difference between PP and 1k for next year
However, the AC flights were much better in soft and hard product and the royal Highness will prefer AC to UA in future, thank you very much!
The devil is in the details and there are a lot of details .....

marks88

I value Plat for access to IN. There are plenty of examples recently where PN=IN, and no PZ, so in some respects Plat is the new GS Given how easy it is to accumulate Chase points (which transfer to UA, AF, SQ, etc.), I am more than happy to shoot for Plat and be done with it.

I also did the DL Plat status match and will be getting that thru Jan 2024 on the basis of 3 flights (AM, KL). Enough time to see how the various airlines respond to the post-Covid business travel landscape.

That's my master plan, FWIW

weero

But 2MM isn't worth anything, only 1MM and 3MM are.

Platinum is indistinguishable from Gold in my experience. 1K is considerably less bad than Plat/Gold.