Son just getting started with UA MP
 

I have my thoughts on this question - but wanted to see what you guys suggest....
my son, 26 years/old, just moved to Chicago from Atlanta
- doesnt do a lot of travel and I dont think he will be doing much with his new job
- in ATL he flew DL and now in ORD, he is planning on moving to UA
and was asking about advice about collecting UA miles
- ok, let's start with miles? points? PQP? PQF? BIS?

...also begs the question, these days, for the average traveler of a few flights a year (and mainly in E) - does it even matter?
I guess you have to start somewhere

... and no, I am not giving him my MM companion status....maybe if he remembers to call me once in awhile I will share some extra PP
(he did enjoy ORD-OGG in F on a 787 earlier this year)

Sure get a UA MP account but if not do doing much travel, then elite status, PQPs, ... does not really come into the picture and at even 25,000 BIS miles annually, it will take 40 years assuming it / UA is still around

The game is not for infrequent flyers. Better to get a Explorer card for bag allowance and early boarding.

Wine - yup, and after about 10 years of flying, he gets enough miles for a free trip home... ORD-CLE .... and maybe back

Given miles don’t expire, it cannot hurt to have an account and collect the occasional miles here and there. I wouldn’t even bother getting a credit card if his travels are truly as infrequent as you say. That said, my travel picked up substantially in my mid-20s and has only gone up. If he turns into a frequent flyer, then one can assess the merits of having a UA CC.

Meh, best time to start the BIS counter is at birth, second best time is right now. Agreed with WineCountry the marginal returns are small until 25k-ish BIS a year, but hey, I didn't set up Continental/United accounts until my early 20s, and I can only imagine how much closer I'd be to MM if those first decades of flights had been counted.

Both of my kids had MileagePlus and email accounts before they went home from the hospital when they were born.

My point - just let the miles accrue, and have him fly whatever he flys.

Good-news/bad-news is that any kind of FF benefit, they will sell to you now anyways. E+, bags, BG. Upgrades like CPUs are a thing of the past. It’s the end of an era.

If you fly enough (really pay enough) to get Gold, then it starts to make sense to get a credit card to catalyze that for Platinum or 1K. For domestic, couple flights a year, just pay for E+ or even F and drink the difference. For most domestic flight to/from DEN for me, F is nice, but not really a have to.

Or stick with DL? ORD isn’t too bad with DL and there is a Skyclub where e.g. Amex Plat would give access to.

No doubt about it - setting them up as soon as they are born is the way to go. Even though my daughter has a lot less lifetime miles because I tend to fly her and her mother on award tickets and book myself in paid J for the lifetime BIS, she will still likely end up with probably somewhere around 150k-200k lifetime BIS by the time she is of college age (and potentially more if I start sacrificing my paid tickets once I hit MM status in favor of her lifetime BIS). I regret not getting my Continental OnePass account from my parents when I was younger, as I would have already hit MM status already. Always better to plan ahead for the unknown future is the moral of the story.

Now, I also keep a flight log for my daughter, and I have ZERO idea if that's going to be worth the time investment (or if she will care at all) when I give her the keys to the account at 18. :D

Glad to know I'm not the only person doing this! One of the kids is around 150k actual BIS already, but that includes <2 years as a lap infant and plenty of time on *A partners. But the kids will know the flights, distances, equipment, and seat of every flight taken 😅.

I did the same for both of my kids at birth. They did the typical family trips, college trips etc over the years, and ended up accumulated 400K BIS and 250K BIS by the time they graduated from college with minimum efforts. The balances would be higher if not for all the award bookings I redeemed for them over the years. Now both travel for work and have a head start to get to MM BIS.
Since both Mrs. UA_Flyer and I are MM and GS, my kids are gifted with our status, and they are hooked.