IAH-OIL-TRASH

All the (former) GSs I know are in Houston and still fly UA due to �favored carrier� corporate discounts. They have to justify non-016 tickets, plus life can be much tougher outside of UA out of Houston if one travels extensively.

There are others who don�t qualify anymore just due to reduced flying (think �Zoom�).

jonisflying

I think Virtual Meetings (e.g. Zoom) are one thing, another, which is changing behavior at my company are Carbon Credits. We have published sustainability targets. Each department gets a certain amount of carbon, so in order to travel you have to be within the departments financial budget as well as the departments carbon budget... the latter is impacting the travel far more than the former. TATL and TPAC are MUCH more difficult to book than intercontinental / domestic trips because of the "cost".

ytjk

Although I am largely an �OPM� flyer (generally Newark based) I have total discretion over my carriers and routes and cities that I want to fly out of. I have been basically United exclusive for 12 years or so�.

Coming out of Covid my travel was still relatively down and I dropped from GS to 1k I think in 2022. So I was not given a challenge this year.

Given the fact that United will no longer even give me a shot at GS (by the end of May I will sit about $27,000, 1k secured and on track for about $55 by year end with an Asia pac trip second half)�- what�s the thinking?

personally I think AA Status match and head down to Philly (equidistant for me relative to Newark) and get AA�s 1k equivalent as well. Why not have options and competition when it comes to spending all these miles if I don�t get GS anyway?

Appreciate any thoughts

YTJK

FlyingBeanCounter

I have 1k and diamond on DL. Honestly, the ability to pick and choose is pretty nice. Sometimes UA is better, sometimes DL. The last time I flew through EWR I connected to the EWR-DEL flight. every single flight on that itinerary was delayed. I even got kicked off a flight because the 1K desk "helped" me and rebooked me later. Instead of stewing about nonsense like that, I just book DL the next time. When DL inevitably screws up I go back. I fly 50k a year out of DEN. That probably wouldn't get me GS but it might get me 360. If I could get guaranteed invite status I might concentrate my flying.

Absent that, no way would I concentrate any business on one vendor. The risk is too great.

scubadu

The risk of what? It's a frequent flyer program not surgery....

So basically your strategy is to be perennially annoyed, at all times, by one of the two carriers you use and just ping pong back and forth between them? Ummm... ok...

Regards

SPN Lifer

You are a perfect example of a non-captive OPM former GS. Why not take advantage of alternatives if they make sense?

Before switching to AA, weigh your UA multi-MM status, and whether it might still be worthwhile to "tough it out" as a 1K, depending on how long you anticipate flying on OPM (other people's money).

Rock214

I have found being a 1K equivalent in two major alliances to be better than GS in one. Especially since I don�t have to worry about spending money on UA metal to maintain GS. I fly on whatever carrier makes sense and apply miles to either American or United. I�ve flown quite a bit on British Airways the last 6 months. Their A350s and newer versions of 777s and 787s are excellent. Their older version 787s are probably the worst business class product I�ve ever flown. I used to fly United out Singapore. Now I fly Singapore Airlines. In short, I pick the air carrier that will have the most comfortable service instead of making United work. United made that decision much easier by refusing to grant me GS. But the only thing I miss at this point is being able to upgrade award tickets with plus points. Aside from that, I�m actually much better off.

ytjk

Thanks exactly what I am thinking. I�ve been 1k or GS for the last 12? years� but some of that from back in the day when I was making 1k as a 100 segment domestic guy. So I don�t have that many BIS miles.

I�m over a million but barely and at this point in my career probably won�t see 2 MM

I�m 90% committed to going back to American �. I flew out of Philly when USAir was in Star Alliance and then basically flipped to United. Star alliance works well for me

But $50k consecutive years that didn�t yield GS = I�m going to split my spend. And it will give me better options � if I can�t upgrade a miles ticket anyways then at least I can shop around.

thanks for the thoughts�- it confirmed what was in my head basically.

YTJK

Dyce

+1

I think United underestimates the amount of OPM flyers that have discretion in their spend.

I am at $100K/year� 5 years ago that was all United�s. Now due to Kirby�s GS �enhancements� my United spend is $50K. And on my long haul flights the experience in business on say Air France with no status is as good (or better) than in Polarless. The second I drop from GS it will be $24,001.

becoming a semi free agent has enhanced my flying experience. It�s the bell curve of status chasing� once you get to the top you realize it�s not that great (today) and then you start the slide back down the right side of the curve.

united don�t compete (very well) on price. Certainly not on service. One of the worst on food. Bedding is probably their best feature at the moment and they even managed to make that slightly worse (IMO). And despite being a leader in seats 8 years ago they get more uncomfortable the older I get and more used the product is.

if your spend allows it I think the best approach in the modern transactional FF world is to be ok with getting status on 2 (or more) airlines versus blindly giving everything to one.

lifetime status? I�ll hit 2MM which gives me platinum� not sure how that�s different or better than a solid credit card strategy� 3MM? If I stayed exclusively on United it might be possible, but I�m not willing to inflict that pain on myself.

lower levels of spend may entail a different approach�.

LaserSailor

[T]o think your N=1 example is better than UAs aggregate,complete data set of spend habits.

the vast majority of high spenders don’t give a rats about food, faux benefits, status - we have jobs to get to without taking three legs to fill fake mile accounts with ReichsPfennigs.

most of the GS members aren’t here on FT, so the views here are distorted.

jonisflying

I'm in that "lower levels of spend"... other than my $60K+ spend in 2019, I regularly spend in the $35K - $40K range, way more than 1K by PQP alone, not enough for GS.

In this new world where $50K isn't enough, I've been thinking of targeting 1K on United, and taking the rest of my spend elsewhere... but haven't done it yet because I'm probably not going to end up with anything more than Platinum like status anywhere else... and from the little I've read, there isn't a lot of benefit when you fall below the top tier statuses on any of the major carriers. I've also got GS status for the rest of the year, which I'd like to enjoy while I have it!

I ended last year with ~$38,000 PQP, fell to 1K but was offered a challenge, which I met in April. I'm at $23,000 PQP right now, and have a trip to DXB booked in June ($7K PQP) that will put me at $30K PQP already for 2024 by mid-June. Other than a few domestic trips, the rest of my international flying will be at my expense (roughly than half of my existing $30K PQP is my money). I'm looking at two trips right now, one cash, one Award... putting me again in the high $30's, low $40's from a spend perspective. So I will not make GS (unless something miraculous happens).

Being TPA based means I have great flexibility in carriers - there are probably just as many Delta & AA flights each day (if not more) than UA.

I flew to DXB on Air Canada in business class about 6 / 7 months before UA started flying that route (Sep 2022) and the experience was quite pleasant - this was even at the tail end of the pandemic with all the issues at YYZ, I had a few segments last year on Thai Airways (which I loved) so I've gotten a little taste of no / low status flying (*G on those carriers)...

One reason to keep my spend at UA is that I'll keep accruing miles. Even as they're being devalued, it's something like 1 free intentional RT for every 5 flown... so I spend ~$35k, get about 400,000 miles which gives me 1 RT in Business (assuming I can't find any saver space). I did Asia last year for ~200,000 miles RT! I'm also at just over 915,000 lifetime BIS miles, and was hoping to make 1MM....

The other thing is that my main domestic trip is IAD... and there are two TPA-IAD flights a day. UA has the only direct TPA-IAD route. So even if I'm a free agent, I'm booking UA for that recurring trip.

Very selfishly, I wish they'd raise the bar for 1K like they are doing with GS but make the benefits more meaningful. I don't think I'd miss GS if I could regularly find PZ space, get a handful of club passes each year and there weren't tons of 1Ks that I'd need to compete with to use that PZ space!

LaserSailor

When I was crazy domestic heavy I found this to be true as well. UA and DL split my directs which held me at top published level on both. IIROPS for both were excellent. Now that I�ve delegated the America�s to young peons I�m more International heavy from EWR, but luckily crossed 4M a few years back

The one perk of GS I would miss would be the 45 seconds through EWR TSA , especially on Mondays when I have to come in from the beach

ytjk

Anyway �

so to answer the topic more specifically

no. I do not think consecutive $55k years will get me GS out of EWR cause of the OPM

just cancelled my next Polaris to Zurich and I�ll be going out of Philly for all my over the waters for the rest of the year.

what the hell let�s try it

YTJK

limey1K

I'd like to see 1K rebranded entirely. GA last week announced 1K as "my 100,000 miles flyers'.1K is a vestige of times past, so rebrand it and reset the qualifications.75 PQF and $35K PQD or $50K PQD only.

Make GS $100K spend, end of story,

PanAmOneTwo

Last year I went out of my way to stick on UA metal, closed with ~$60k on 50 segments of UA metal out of a non-hub, and still didn�t make GS. This year hit $24k last month, of which 2/3 was on UA metal and the rest on LH 016 tickets so good enough for 1K already. Plan to fly *A where convenient, will not go out of my way for UA metal anymore, and spend the rest on AA where I�m also ExecPlat. That�s probably $40k I would have spent on UA metal this year going to LH and AA/BA. Assuming others in the same boat are equally rational, I have to guess those marginal $40k losses add up. But what do I know, UA has all their vaunted big data and will make up those $40ks somewhere