obongo

I regularly made at least gold and have 600K BIS miles accumulated prior to COVID and I need a further 400K miles to make it to MM.

I was heavily following all the benefits of Gold/Plat/1K prior to COVID. Two questions:

1) It 1MM status worth it anymore? Does it materially differ significantly from before COVID. I'm of course asking about actual experience being a 1MM not what's on paper.
2) It seems now the requirements to obtain status are much harder now. Does this mean that the benefits are greater now because there are fewer flyers with status? I should hit Gold fairly regularly.

Thanks

Kacee

But the benefits on paper are exactly the benefits.

1MM is extremely valuable IMO. Free E+ at booking, free baggage, plus all the *G benefits, including lounge access, baggage, and priority check-in/security/boarding. Ability to gift status can also be of great value. Don't know that I'd do 400k miles on present UA just to get there, but the value is really beyond dispute.

Repooc17

How is 1MM different now vs. then?

You are conflating annual status and lifetime status. Annual status requires spend; while lifetime status is still based on distance flown. If you can find cheap UA flights, you could get to 1MM (and Gold for life) without ever getting annual status along the way.

obongo

Good point. But to get the extra 400K miles I'd have to move all my flying to United. I want to get there in the next 5 years.

AnkSFO

I think for many of us, we have a period of time in our lives where we are traveling intensely (the last 10 years for me), but hope and expect that we will will switch to a life when we aren't doing that any more (which I did late year with a job switch). In that common scenario, I think 1MM status has significant value. I'm going to drop from GS soon and will eventually end up as a Silver or Gold maybe. MM status means that I have lifetime gold, lounge access, economy plus, early boarding for me and my wife.

What I will say is that as someone who earns his status heavily via expensive first class domestic travel, hitting MM is tough. I'm one of the few that wish they would make it spend based instead as someone traveling on INTL economy earns a lot more BIS miles than I do, despite me spending way more.

AnkSFO

Whats the alternative? Putting your spend on one airline is always going to be better if you care about status.

notquiteaff

What I will say is that it is a lot easier than flying, mostly, in the back of the bus in the tiny seats… and paying for it with my own money. Yes, you have to fly the same distance, but you are doing it in a lot more comfort and have someone else, presumably, paying for it.

Repooc17

The OP's goal is MM, so prioritizing flown distance would be the requirement. OP has indicated being an annual Gold on a regular basis, in the olden days, Gold was good for 50K. OP needs to knock off around 80K per year, so the best bet would be to find some cheap mileage runs.

OP, I still think you should go with the flow. Don't over do it, such as over-spend, or if you find a good deal, and expecting it would always be there. 80K/year is a good chunk - if you do this already every year, then I would continue with whatever you are currently doing; otherwise, I wouldn't go out of your way.

aCavalierInCoach

OP, don't suffer UA for 80k BIS miles a year if you weren't going to anyway. Who knows what your travel patterns will be in two years, or how UA will move the benefits/goal posts, let alone five or more. I think agree with Repooc17 , optimize your travel how you would anyway.

But if you do get MM, it's got some non-trivial benefits, even if not mind blowing. My last couple years as a GS I was able to extend that to my SO. And now that I'm flying more "platinum" numbers, I free agent much more easily knowing we both have *G (int'l lounges and baggage allowances), access to E+*, and boarding theoretically early enough to get overhead space most of the time.

Is it worth chasing? Not really. Is it nice to have, especially when travel slows down? for sure. Does it factor in to my flying decisions? A bit, but not really needle moving. Next year I'll be across B6, AA, BA, FJ, AS, and AM as much as I am UA even as a "hub captive".

*As I've said elsewhere, I expect E+ and exit rows to disappear as a benefit eventually. UA is in the business of running a credit card rebate program with an airline attached to it, and the latter is in the business of selling real estate - won't give it away for free forever.

AnkSFO

Fair enough. My apologies that my response came off the wrong way. I can see how it would. Business travel is different from personal travel though. Id rather fly coach on my own dime to vacation than Polaris to a week of meetings.

Clemson

Is there an airline out there with a better million mile program than United? Genuinely curious because as far as I know it's the best MM program, though the hardest to earn.

aCavalierInCoach

This is also a good point. Delta offers some gifts but their 1m tier is just silver. American offers gold but no companion benefit extension. But historically they've been much easier to achieve given the scope of what has counted towards the total.

MojaveFlyer

As posted up thread, I'm one of those who routinely got at least Gold when flying a lot for work, and would not be Gold since retirment but for the MM. What it gets me is choice exit row E+ seats most of the time (as long as I book far enough out) and since I carry a lot of gear on my vacations the 75 lb baggage allowance is very useful, lets me use a heavy wheeled suitcase. Premier Access on check in is sometimes useful but actually it is often faster just to use the normal baggage check. Priority baggage return, ha, that's a joke. All in all, these benefits are worth paying a bit more for my flights to go UA, so I usually do, unless a competitor offers a non-stop where UA does not.

ContinentalFan

I don’t believe there is.

ContinentalFan

.

I’ll raise another issue, which is that in the future, the requirements are likely to change: it will likely be harder to get lifetime status. I’d argue that if you are in the search for lifetime status, getting is as quickly as you can makes sense.