Yes. I did. Which is precisely why I am kicking myself for dedicating so much focus to one airline. And exactly why I won’t be dumping $130k into ANY single airline in the future. That’s the whole point. Business is business. That applies to both ends of the transaction. It’s not personal. United didn’t dump me because they don’t like me. They made a business decision. Their business decision forced me to get off my lazy butt and look at other options. And what do you know? It turns out I benefit more from spreading my business around. Turns out it isn’t smart to commit all your “loyalty” to one business. It’s actually kind of stupid, because ultimately, you are at their mercy for how they choose to run their business.
So like I said, shame on me. But I am trainable. And I do learn from my mistakes. I’ll let others manage their own lives. But based on my experience, I’d suggest they not do what I did over the last few years sticking to a single airline. Flexibility is a wonderful thing. My only regret is that I didn’t remember that sooner.

This is the pattern for the GS in my household: first earned it in (I think) 2016 on $40K spend, and has had it since, with spend fluctuating between just under 50K & just under 60K (except for pandemic years). All trips are out of EWR, fully-refundable business/first, 90% transcon or TATL.

Looking at the spreadsheet, seeing some very low first yer qualifying numbers as well this year - 40k on the nose, but high yield with low PQF. The type of flyer that works well for this model.

Are there any others affected by the Corporate program culling that happened this year that received a Challenge? Per above, my friend at a big consulting firm was told he was not eligible. Interested in other reports.

Actually, it looks like there’s some surprise culling at Delta right now. They’re threatening to stomp off to UA and AA now :)

I think that’s part of the airlines calculation - UA will lose some, gain some.. Net effect is to get some of the OPMers to put more personal skin in the game. No more easy upgrades from economy into TATL Polaris or PremTranscon Business for pals or kin. Get ‘em to buy OAR for a chance.

Probably better to have top published tier benefits on multiple airlines than just 1K on United with $50-100k spend is how I would look at it

The challenge is live on my status page, and it does say within 120 day period. So the email was incorrect.

Sorry, but United just proved that last year means absolutely nothing to them as they culled a huge pool of GS fliers. All of them are literally the same equivalent of 1K that I am (earned by spending the $18K+ segments or $24K/year). Albeit those who were GS last year and spent the $50-150K have a boat ton more (useless) PlusPoints than I do.

But my semi-rhetorical question remains...why isn't the $18K challenge open to anyone at this point? If UA is willing to accept $18K in spend as a qualifier to renew your GS then it should be open to everyone. Because at the end of the day United has not said anything other than that gets you GS *for this year only*. Absolutely nothing is said about 2025. So they are saying "Pay us $18K "now"" and you can have your coveted GS back. If a 1K wants to spend $18K now why can't they have GS for 2024 as well? Again, last year's spend is irrelevant as United has already proven that.

Back to my last opinion...I think this $18K challenge is an absurdly bad business proposition for most people. Maybe mostly out of principle. It's like the upgrade lotto game a lot of people play on United. Why chase bad money with even more bad money?

I do not deny that some of the GS perks (e.g. upgrading award tickets, having inventory opened in certain situations) can be hugely valuable. But is it valuable when the airline no longer values your huge spend and would rather grab another $18K in short term revenue out of you?

-RM

Also live here. Didn’t request. 7 year GS dropped after only getting around 30K PQP on United metal out of LHR. Have enough travel in the next few months that I may just make it. But torn about whether I care.

It feels like you are just trying to be a bit argumentative. Given that GS is an invite only program, without any published criteria, frankly, they can do whatever the heck they want and they aren't required to provide an explanation that satisfies you (or really an explanation at all) :idea:

If they want to give former GS members a challenge, they can. Their game, their rules. We don't even know if they are offering it to all. Certainly, many in this thread are getting it, but on the same token, contrary to what people on FT think, its a much smaller sample size than we think (but certainly a loud one). Many of the posts in this thread are multiples of the same posters. Its really a pretty small dataset.

Finally, this situation isn't really any different than how UA handles the status match program at the top(ish) tier. Officially, in the published criteria for the UA status match, they do not offer 1K to top tier members of competing programs. For example, an AA EXP (1K equivalent) is only supposed to be matched to Platinum. Yet we see reports of some (but not all) AA EXPs indeed getting matched to 1K. Why does UA do that? Why don't all AA EXPs get matched to 1K? Why some, but not others? Because they can, that is all...

Regards

P.S. We are in complete agreement on the value of the program, relative to $ spent. It's refreshing to see that the fog is lifting for some, like, Rock214

Too soon! 😉

GS 2024 challenge
 

Invited to meet the GS 2024 challenge today. Here's the terms and conditions: $18000 spend on UA or UA express and completed travel in 120 day window between January 1, 2024 and June 30, 2024. The counter did already count the flights that I already have flown this year. I had flown in 2023 56k PQP, 85 segments, no corporate travel, 85% domestic travel, 15% international. Used all my Plus Points upgrading mostly international flights for myself and family members.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...902b043a5f.jpg

I got the challenge in mystatus and called in to GS/MS with two questions - sharing in case anyone else had the same. These may seem obvious but I am not feeling very trusting at the moment that the fact that something makes no sense means they wouldn’t do it.

First, while elsewhere it talks about travel dates, the first bullet in the challenge says you have to *spend* $18k in the 120 days, suggesting it might matter when you buy the ticket (as possibly noticed by some agents up-thread). The MP agent seemed to tell me after checking with a supervisor that it did not matter when you buy the ticket, just when you travel. Although she used the word “should” a bunch so it didn’t instill 100% confidence.

Second, #9 of the T’s & C’s suggests that on 1/31/25 you *will* be placed in the highest published level you qualified for. I asked whether this meant (as it might sound) that one would not even have the opportunity to earn GS for 2025. The MP agent said - again after checking with a supervisor - that it was not guaranteed (of course) but no, completing the challenge would not make one ineligible for GS in 2025.

Would be interested in whether anyone else has confirmed (esp on #1).

A ticket I bought months ago but travelled on post Jan/1 is counted in the tracker FYI.

Also important to note: in previous years, buy-ups don't count towards the total spend on the tracker.

GS is unpublished, so no. A status challenge is only for in-year.

#1 is a real bummer.