Makes sense. Thanks. I

I used Skip the Waitlist (100 PPs) for an international flight that now has PZ space available. Any way to redeposit and re-upgrade to get 60 PPs back net?

STW is advertised as being n:eek:n-refundable, so barring a flight cancellation or other oddity the answer to your question is no.

Are they totally non refundable even if he were to cancels his flight? I was thinking maybe cancel and try to rebook later, I suspect it wouldn't "fly" but curious.

UA s:star:ys this in the T&C:I would presume a voluntary cancellation is an itinerary change.

No. UA very clearly does not want people to have their cake and eat it too. The inflexibility is built into the system as the price you pay for being able to skip the waitlist.

Hello, I have about 60 plus points on a reservation to Japan in November. But it will be unlikely that I will make it. They are set to expire Jan, 2022. Will United be willing to extend those points or this is the definite cut off date?

Currently this is the cutoff date. UA has historically extended 80 +Ps for those you requalified for status. That said, these have already been extended twice.
There may be another 'general' extension of +Ps, hard to tell, I am sure UA will see how 2H is coming together in terms of business travel (so far not so good) and decide in 4Q whether they want to send a bit more 'goodwill'

I appreciate your input.

I'm not expecting a further extension. Even though I've been unable to use most of mine.

I would be surprised if they didn't extend, all PPs, for all MP members. When APAC reopens, you can't fly those long-range routes with sparse J cabins. The cash maximizing strategy feels like:

1. No early PZ availability

2. Or early PZ structured in a way where it requires a minimum two week stay. For example, SFO-SIN PZ available T/W/Th (1st, 2nd, 3rd of month) and SIN-SFO available T/W/Th (15th, 16th, 17th) of month, 2 weeks later -- nothing in between. Repeat that cycle twice a month, and only leisure travelers will use PZ, not business people.

3. Wednesday SWL availability at 3x (so 240PPs RT)

4. Upgrades clear at T-23...so businesses spend on J

5. Some P space on mid-week competitive routes (CN, IN, SIN, HKG)

6. Absurd fares on legalized-collusion routes (JP, NZ, FRA/MUC)

So, if you're unwilling to buy J/P, then burn all your PPs on SWL, or book off-peak days sweating the battlefield upgrade, or plan a 2 week leisure trip while buying a W fare.

Renewing 100% of PPs, for one more year, will put more money in UA's pocket. So far UA has been cash smart. Let's see if that continues as it relates to PPs...

That's all certainly possible (and logical). An alternative strategy, though, might say - don't extend most PP and those with PP remaining next year either earned status (thus you are allowing differentiation for those who re-earned vs. those who couldn't maintain even with all of the extension promos), or were gifted extra PP and are likely higher value flyers that haven't returned to flying yet.

Allows you to manage how many PP are in circulation so folks who re-earned status or flew a lot to earn extra PP don't feel it's a complete waste.

The other assumption is that if you don't renew as many PP more will opt to just pay for business class, a trend domestically with leisure travel they may hope to replicate internationally. I've never paid for international business class on United out of my own pocket before but this year am likely to as I don't want to play upgrade roulette and fares aren't bad (~$2,500 round trip to Europe is within reason for me).

Customer Service Nightmare :

1. Why did my friend get extended but not me...
2. I've been 1K for 20 years, he's been 1K for 1 year...
3. I had health issues preventing me from traveling...
4. My SFO-SIN flight was cancelled, every month, for 12 consecutive months...

UA's better off letting 'em have the PPs and geting W fare dollars from them.

Well the specific example I was referencing is something they've actually already done. Blanket extension for GS but only selected folks (thus far) have received "extra" unearned PP. So most folks in the current scheme who have PP through January 2023 are those who earned them. There are some GS who received PP this year without earning them in any way (as outlined by standard criteria anyway) and those are extended through January 2023.

Not saying they should or would do a mixed extension / non-extension for 1K. I think they'll stick to the current plan and make it exceedingly easy to maintain 1K and if you earn it you get some PP, if you don't, you're out of luck. Among GS you either got lucky with a new batch of PP, you didn't but you hit 1K numbers this year and got PP, or you don't hit anything new but at least get to keep status through 2023. The approach I laid out here for GS is what they are currently actually doing - only part we don't know is if they give all (or some) an additional PP bonus in January or an additional extension.

I agree overall there is not tremendous downside in renewing PP - but the question is will not renewing them cause greater pain for folks not currently traveling enough to earn status (and how much are those fliers worth) vs. will renewing them cause more frustration and perceived dilution for folks who are actually flying a lot and thus earned PP the old fashioned way for next year.

I have a question regarding the use of pluspoints on routes that are CPU eligible. If someone applies pluspoints for a silver member (or even a general member) on a CPU eligible flight, does this silver member then jump ahead of a gold, platinum, 1k or GS who did not apply pluspoints? If this is the case, this is kinda maddening. Granted right now pluspoints are not very useful, but it does almost compel a platinum or 1k to apply pluspoints on CPU eligible flights to even have a shot at an upgrade.