tapcubed

Given that each mile you have represents 1 PQP when you use it on UA flights, would you use your miles largely on UA (to earn PQPs/PQFs), or do you not care about that and use your miles when you need them or when there are good deals, even if on partner airlines?

My thinking is that it's a lot more valuable to use my miles on UA flights (regardless of their value per mile) than spending them on partner airlines that have great deals (e.g., 80K miles for a business class trip to Asia from the US). The latter nets you 0 PQPs, regardless of how great that deal was.

escapefromphl

It's 1 PQP per 100 miles redeemed. I don't think about that at all. If the flight works for my schedule or plan and is a saver award I book it. If its a saver award it's not that many PQP anyway.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Huh? Doesn't each redeemable mile equal 1/5, 1/7, 1/8, 1/9, or 1/11th of a PQP depending on status? And then complicated if from partner-issued tickets? A redeemable mile does not represent 1 PQP.

tapcubed

Yes, sorry, I did mean to say 1 PQP = 100 miles. I suppose each person has to decide how much PQPs are worth to them. If I have a 100K miles, it represents 1000 PQPs, which makes it that much easier to achieve higher tiers.

No, I'm not talking about accruing miles. This is about using your miles to get PQPs when you fly on an award ticket on UA.

WineCountryUA

Which is more important -- accruing PQPs for status or maximizing your award travels?
Many don't care about status/ Others status is a given due to other travel.
But if you are in that small subset that struggles for status, you might focus on status earning, most do not.

eng3

Sometimes when flights are really cheap, you can earn more PQP booking with miles vs paying money. However this basically means your redemption value for those miles was quite low.
People also calculate redemption value differently. People recommending you book premium intl using miles because paying would cost thousands of dollars. IMO this is only true if you would have been willing to spend those thousands of dollars if you didn't have miles, otherwise, it's only worth however much you would have been willing to pay for the trip (a number far lower for me). So it depends on you.

I'm always worried about not having enough PQP at the end of the year so I'll try to find good deals using miles for end of year trips I know I'm going to make. Thanksgiving Xmas visiting family, etc. I can always cancel if I end up short.
These days, because of all the extra PP I have, I've been buying more intl trips so my total PQP for the year has been quite high. In the past, I'd barely my 1K so I'd pretty much never use my miles.
But maybe I'm not so smart because I have almost 2MM miles saved up. My thought was that there will come a day where I will no longer be able to maintain status and I'd burn my miles then. However, through years of massive devaluation, I'm sure I've lost lots of value. So when you decide whether you want to value status or miles redemption value, don't forget about devaluations.

Repooc17

Only use miles if cash fares are crazy, usually at least 2cpm - e.g. 10,000 miles vs. >$200 cash fare. Also, I am a free agent, so I am not tied down to any one airline, or feel the need to fly one airline just to mint status. My upcoming trip, I am flying three different airlines, one basic economy flight one award flight (positioning), all separate tickets.

ani90

My priority would be to find a way to use a partner airline, especially if business saver award.

mahasamatman

PQP is never a consideration for me. I book award flights I need when I need them. No way would I overpay for a UA flight when a partner offers a better value.

Polytonic

I find it's much easier to acquire PQP on partner carriers (AC/NH) at anywhere from 0.49 to 0.67 CPPQP (cents per PQP). UA revenue fares are closer to 1.18 CPPQP, so you get around 85% of the ticket price for PQP.

UA miles are much more valuable for long haul J redemptions of any kind, often 2-4cpm if you play your cards right. Award tickets earning PQP/PQF are a nice bonus, but only contribute a small fraction towards status requalification. It's basically a rounding error on the way to 1K.

timfountain

I don't get to choose. My employer pays for my travel so they get to set the rules. I'm sure this is true for the majority of people on this website...

WineCountryUA

OP is querying what you do with your award miles.

tapcubed

Thanks for all your responses. Not surprisingly there are various ways of looking at this. All valid, no doubt.

ani90

Not sure that is true. At least if discussions on this forum reflect reality then 1) many people are making choices and 2) There is a lot of non-employer related travel that goes on.

jsloan

To answer the question directly -- I don't optimize for PQPs, but by taking advantage of the Excursionist Perk, I often get them on my redemptions anyway. Last year I would have made 1K even without those PQPs; this year, they might conceivably be a deciding factor, as airfare seems to have dropped in price a bit. But I also think that obsessing over the "best value" for your miles is unhealthy. The worst value you can get from them is $0, by never using them because you're always worried about finding a "better value." It's more important to use them on something -- anything -- than it is to make sure that you're getting the best possible value. (That said, I do routinely get good value as well, because I end up with a lot of one-way awards where the cash price would be unreasonable).

Sort of. For me, for discretionary travel, Y is fine domestically and very much not fine for long-haul flights. So, whereas I am not going to spend $10K on a ticket, that still represents the value of the award redemption because there's no way I'd book Y -- I just wouldn't go. Now, if you have to be there, you have to be there -- that's different.

Incidentally, I think the best redemption value I've ever gotten has been this year, a $2855 Y ticket for 15K miles. But that's a result of UA forgetting to file a fare on that route; not something you could normally take advantage of.

Without comment on the first part <g>, this is a very real reason to use award miles, even for domestic trips. Award redemption prices are skyrocketing, and there's no reason to think that trend is going to reverse itself. UA is printing so much virtual currency that inflation is an absolute guarantee.

I agree with this also, at least to a degree. I still manage to eke out value from 1K but it's getting more challenging. But UA is also the non-LCC low-cost leader for nearly all of my trips after taking extra legroom seats into account. I've doubtlessly paid UA a slightly higher fare on occasion, but anyone who does that regularly for the purpose of attaining status is missing the forest for the trees (and falling into the airlines' trap to boot). I've never bought BE, though -- my plans change too often.

Yes, but -- those levels require discount PE or discount J to attain. The Y flyer is not going to be able to get those earning rates. Neither is the domestic flyer. Also -- and I took advantage of J sales on AC last year and NH this year -- if something goes sideways, you're stuck with AC's nonexistent or NH's polite inflexible customer service.

It depends upon the individual. Somebody who spends $40K on UA every year isn't likely to care. For someone who just barely makes it to their qualification level, it can be a big deal. For me, the 18K 1K level is cheaper to achieve than the 15K PQD level was, in part because of PQPs from award travel.