The longest I’ve waited on the GS line was 5 minutes when EWR SFO 1630 scratched and I was rebooked on the 1800

I’ve never qualified for GS status before but have been a 1k for many years. This year, I will end the year with just under 53k of PQP and approx 3.95MM. I should hit the 4MM plateau by late April 2025. I am Hawai’i based so I fly out of HNL for all my travel. There are only a handful of Hawai’i based GS members from what I know. What are my chances for an GS invite for 2025 in December 2024 or January 2024?

It looks like you're asking about qualifying, not about getting it via 4MM which will only happen when you hit that marker.

re: qualifying based on this year 53k, assuming it's ALL United metal is a strong maybe. Is there a corporate travel contract in play? Based on this year there's a theory that may disqualify you but short answer is: you have a chance.

Yes, I am referring to qualifying. I am NOT a part of any corporate contract and all spend is on UA metal. I’ll keep my fingers crossed at the end of the year.

I wouldn't spend too much energy sweating the 3-4 months more of 1k before you're GS for life.

My gut feeling is that the days of securing a GS invitation with $50K UA metal spend are indeed in the rear view mirror. I suspect the new requirement will be closer to $75K in the near future. Again, just a gut feeling.

I think you could be right. Just based on what happened earlier this year, a lot of people happily spending $50k may be disappointed.

I'm also convinced that total spend is going to count for GS eg ticket revenue and card spend. I have no evidence to support this but we know that every airline on the planet is far more interested in your total spend now versus BIS miles.

UA clearly counts ticket spend and not BIS but including credit card spend would be new and a pretty major departure from the past based on my experience and discussions with GS over the years

Credit card spend still generates revenue for United. Just look at the credit card marketing pitches we endure on every flight. Now whether or not United factors this type of revenue generation into the GS selection criteria is yet to be confirmed.

I just think UA will factor card spend (gradually) across all tier qualification levels. Otherwise why push the PQP angle so much. I've maxed out PQP this year (at 17,000 across 3 cards) and I think I am at 58K PQP via revenue. We will see.

This may be coming but I would be surprized if it is a significant factor for any level without some heads up from UA.

I believe United already signaled this last year when they included credit card spend in the personalized GS year summary videos (as opposed to partner spend, which wasn't included). It would be nice if we could have an explicit set of GS selection criteria, let alone thresholds, but I'm not holding my breath.

In terms of "significant" factor -- it's not Delta, and clearly card spend won't give anyone GS or any other status by itself. We are talking about pretty marginal impact relative to ticket spend. But as someone who hasn't broken $50k annual spend since the pandemic, the message was clear enough to cause me to get a UA credit card.

I guess I missed the personalized GS year-end summary video last year? I had no UA CC spend so the message wasn’t “clear” to me.

Really? I think were giving UA too much credit here. UA certainly didn't give any of those large corporate clients last year, who had multiple GS members and who's spend was well north of the implied $50K threshold, that they wouldn't requalify. This strategy still has me scratching my head.

When it comes to GS, about the only certainty is the uncertainty - especially when it comes to qualification/requal.