Say Vandelay

My version of that site looks slightly different, but if you scroll up you should see Premier Silver and Premier Gold with check marks below them. Mine doesn't shade the bar any differently or in any way separate out the Credit Card PQP vs flying.

jsloan

Supposedly, yes, although I think I’ll reserve judgment until I see it.

rankourabu

I'd like to know that too. It's a difficult trade off. A handful of PQPs vs flying superior partner airlines.

I also assume that any awards booked this year for travel in 2023 will count?

Bummer about them not eligible for lifetime miles.

SPN Lifer

Yes, awards will earn Premier Qualifying Points (PQP), at 1 per 100 Redeemable Miles (RDM) used per segment, based on the scheduled 2023 (or later) departure date.

Repooc17

Only for UA award flights. Yet to be resolved is the handling of UA+partner flights - likely pro-rata but awaiting confirmation.

denver19

Business traveller here. They are useless.

Edit: I would happily trade all my PP for some turbo charged PP that guaranteed an upgrade. Say 10 to 1, 20 to 1, I don't care. Just a small bank of PP that actually produced an immediate upgrade. The hundreds of useless PP I now have are useless.

denver19

There is no 1K desk. You cut to the head of the (phone) line. Some are good, some not so good. It's nice perk. But it takes longer than you think on the "1K line".

hch

I sometimes, do but very rarely. Most of the time the agents seem very nice but incompetent and need to talk to their supervisors even for trivial things and take forever to get anything done.

cfischer

They are far from useless. And you know there are 'skip the waitlist' upgrades for more +Ps? South America sees them quite a bit.

rankourabu

If you are an OPM flyer, you are more likely to be on flights at times that are full of other OPM flyers.

Avoiding those times of day/week and PPlus are far more useful.

acader

I’ve been a 1K for 11 years straight. A lot of it earned on LH flights. This year my luck with applying plus points to upg has been awful. 2/22.

I am now sitting on nearly 800 PP, about 200 applied to waitlists for 2023. The only way for me to qualify in 2023 is the 21.5K PQP, with flight and CC earnings.

is there a way to successfully use the PP and see some actual upgrades?

cfischer

wait, your upgrade rate on LH is 10%? 2/22? How is that possible? Mine is 90% What routes are you flying? I have not heard anything that bad ever from anyone.

frappant

Kirby was on CNBC this morning.

Apparently he said business travel has plateaued. Managed corporate travel is down by at least a third.

So not as many consultants flights.

Then of course, the oncoming recession.

Great time to raise thresholds for elite qualification.

jsloan

I’m almost entirely a leisure traveler. What I’ll say is:

(a) the thresholds, especially for requalification, are much lower than originally published in 2019, taking into account the ability to earn PQP on redemptions
(b) it’s a lot easier to add PQP-boosting promotions if revenue comes in soft than it is to keep the thresholds low if demand does rebound.

UA has been having serious issues trying to balance low corporate demand with an unexpected surge in premium leisure travel, and I don’t think they really know what to expect.

bocastephen

I don't think you need a dime store MBA consultant to figure this out. "Premium leisure travel" is a temporary adjustment to a post-pandemic industry where people are willing to pay up for trips that were denied for 3 years. It's a psychological as well as economic response to being denied certain things. Those trips are mostly one-offs or two-offs - once that demand is exhausted, it's gone. Corporate travel is the meat and potatoes of revenue that can be estimated, projected and reasonably counted on, and the market has made it clear that business travel as it was once known, is gone. Office work as it was once known, is gone. Remote is the new reality, and while it won't replace office work and business travel for everyone, it has, and will continue to depress a significant amount of revenue growth.

The uncertainty of a looming recession, whether or not that recession comes or in what intensity, will further depress business travel and eventually depress the remnants of premium leisure, and all but strangle non-premium leisure.

There is definite turbulence ahead, possibly ugly. United's response is to continue dumbing down the product, and make it harder for loyal customers to justify additional spend as the reality of "it's just not worth it" is becoming the normal thought pattern here, and we are most certainly the canary in the coal mine. Delta takes a different approach by offering a highly desirable product backed by a better service experience - people are willing to direct travel spend to Delta in recognition of this, so Delta feels more comfortable about taking things away from certain customers. American is just United in reverse - making it easier to gain better loyalty tiers, and delivering a better inflight product and experience systemwide but without too many bells and whistles.

Kirby arrogantly thought he knew the market - it will soon become apparent that was not correct.