findark

There have been a lot of questions in the main thread about the status qualification change regarding how to earn PQP when flying on partner tickets, so I thought I would start a new thread and wiki for that since it's a small piece of the overall change. That is, on pain of laying out too clearly to United how to game the system... (however AA and DL have the same thing).



Partner Earning
Beginning in 2020, if you fly a partner airline (not UA metal) and your ticket is on the stock of another airline (not 016 ticket), you will earn PQP as a fraction of the distance flown. That fraction is determined by your fare class, and can be found in the tables below.

The way to derive this fraction is to go to the United earnings page for your airline and determine the RDM (not PQM) earning rate for your fare class. Then divide this number by 5 for "preferred partners" and 6 otherwise.

Preferred Partner Airlines: AC AD AV CA CM EN EW LH LX NH NZ OS SN VA WK
Other Partner Airlines (status earning): A3 AI BR ET HO LO MS OA OU OZ SA SK SQ TG TK TP ZH
Other Partner Airlines (NO Premier credit): 3M 4B 9K EI HA UK VW

Note that for the third category you will earn RDM but no PQP, regardless of ticket stock (this is no change from before when you would not earn PQM).

Frequently Asked Questions
What if I fly a United-operated segment on a non-United ticket? You will earn PQP equal to the portion of the fare assignable to that segment. This information is transmitted from the ticketing carrier to United, and will be a somewhat arbitrary number between 0 and the full value of the fare component which includes that segment**. (This is the same as earning PQD on such a segment today.)

**Many reports of this not working even this well, and the potential number being outside this range.

What about codeshare segments? As before, codeshares do not matter. Only the operating carrier (metal) of each segment and the stock of the ticket determine your earnings.

How do I get a non-016 ticket? Any ticket purchased directly from another airline will be a partner-issued ticket, even if it has United segments. (Any ticket purchased from United will be an 016 ticket, even if it has no United segments.) Tickets purchased from an agency will usually have a stock of the marketing carrier of the most significant segment ("first long segment" usually).

What's the trick here? Because PQP are earned as a fraction of the distance flown, flying long distances on low-priced fares can earn more PQP than dollars spent. For any given journey, you should consider where you are earning a favorable ratio of PQP to dollars of at least 1.0 when ticketing this way, and consider ticketing with United if you are not.

What about BULK fares? As far as I know, no official word from United, but since they have been PQD-ineligible in the past, they will probably earn PQP as 1/5 of the award miles which are distance based.


Earnings Tables
Last updated in the image on 17-Nov-23.

Note that values >= 20% are rounded to the nearest 1%, and smaller values are rounded to the nearest 0.1%. If precise calculations are needed, you should always use the original source material (United website).

Star Alliance Airlines
Warning: It is strongly recommended that you consult the United earnings page for your airline and confirm the earning rate here, as they have been to known to change without notice and apply retroactively to tickets purchased before the change.
GREEN background is a "preferred" partner.



Other Partner Airlines (not Star Alliance)
Warning: It is strongly recommended that you consult the United earnings page for your airline and confirm the earning rate here, as they have been to known to change without notice and apply retroactively to tickets purchased before the change.
GREEN background is a "preferred" partner.

Mama

Are you saying you don't need the 54 UA segment requirement if you rely on partner flight PQP to qualify for 1K?
I don't think so.

MSPeconomist

NO, it's just the case that meeting the segment requirement or not determines how many PQPs you need for 1K and lower status levels.

The colored chart posted above suggests that the best way to earn UA status might be to fly AC.

SFO_LHR_NRT

There is no segment requirement if you make it to 24,000 PQP.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

If you get earn 24,000 PQPs on partners and the minimum 4 segments on UA, yes,

IAH-OIL-TRASH

There is still the 4 segment minimum on UA metal.

adambadam

Thank you for creating!

fumje

Very nice table.

I had not noticed it before, but with this display I see there is potentially a niche sweet spot for someone flying NH J/C/D to earn upgrades quickly and use them to get into F.

mrt88

This is awesome! Is there a GSheets version you could perhaps share?

lhrsfo

For me, it looks like AC TATL would be the way to go if decent P fares come up. But I'm still inclined to use up my GPUs next year and move on.

TomMM

So using this chart PQP=(Distance Flown * % shown on chart). Correct? And thanks for creating this!

mathgeek1978

OP: Thank you for starting this thread and creating the table. This clearly answers the final question that I have regarding this change.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Yes. Chart #s are RDM multiplier dividedby 5 or 6

Hipplewm

I have been looking at LH E or G and using GPU - same earning, but typically MUCH cheaper
Same for ANA for TPAC - not had quite as much luck with GPU, but still better percentage than UA

Hipplewm

Yeah, he has baked in the RDM class multiplier and the /5 or /6 depending on partner status to give you one single multiplier