First Flight as Premier
 

Yesterday was the first flight for my wife and I as Premiers, SMF-SFO-SAN. We had passed 25K EQM the day before on SAN-SFO-SMF. I know it won't be too long before the shine wears off and I become blase' about it, but it really was a great feeling, and I thought I'd share it before I get complacent.

A nice UA Reservations CSR had already some weeks ago put us in E+ SFO-SAN, wife window, me aisle, middle seat blocked. Kind of an advance anticipatory perk. ^

I called Reservations yesterday morning after the outbound flights posted, to have our MP#s removed and then re-inserted on the PNR, as per advice from this forum, but it would not accept our new status, even though the agent could see Premier on our record. The BPs did not say Premier either.
:(

But, who cares? Small potatoes! We got to board in the first group of pax! We know the Premier desk number! We get to reserve E+ seating! We get the middle seat blocked! We earn 125% mileage! We have status! We are elites! :D


. . . Now if only United would stop making it so easy, and quit diluting the meaning of elite status and stop the glut of newly minted 2Ps from diminishing our experience! ;)

Economy Plus and Early Boarding are two wonderful benefits, but I applaud UA for giving us Premier Executives the 100% mileage bonus. If it was 50%, I probably would not gun for it (Exit Row is nice, but generally doesn't affect me as I prefer bulkhead on most plane's Economy cabins), but that 100% is addicting. :)

Congrats and welcome to the club.

I also had that lag on MP. It took an additonal 24hrs after the MP 2P status was posted to append to my reservations. I now get E+ without having to ask. My next flight will take me to 1P.

congrats!! I'm just sad that the incentives to reach 1P and 1K on United has greatly dimished since the arrival of TED.

Happy flying!

Those of us who live in RJ cities would be delighted to get TED service.

Anyhow, contratulations on your new status. As the other posters advise, go for 1P, it's worth it.http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newre...ply&p=2875107#

Congrats to a fellow San Diegan! It's delightful for my jaded eyes to be reminded of the pleasures of status. Keep flying - and join us on one of our international runs, such as Singapore in January. That will make getting 1P really easy besides being a heck of a fun way to meet a lot of FTers.

Congrats!

Be careful about those joking about mileage runs to Singapore. I recall posting here once as a joke that I'd probably be roaming the concourses of SIN at 3am within a year as my addiction progressed. At the time, this seemed ridiculous and I thought yeah, right, but a mere 9 months later there as I was trying to find my way to the SIN taxi line in the middle of the night!

It's not that you become jaded, it's just that the game changes now. Instead of chasing the E+ or exit row seat, now you'll be chasing the upgrade. Instead of chasing Premier status, it's PremEx status you'll be chasing (and by clearing 2P before June 30th, I note that you're already on a run rate to clear 1P this year!).

It is amazing how quickly you forget those hours early trips to the airport to score that good seat you weren't allowed to book in advance, so enjoy the glow and make it last!

UA Primier on LH
 

Congrats!

Are there any significant benefits for 2P flying LH? (or other *A)

Also, let's say I'm 2P and my spouse is not. Can we both get E+?

Thanks!

Yes. You must both be on the same PNR and you will be seated adjoining (so not Seats xA and xC with xB between you kept open. It would be xA/xB or xB/xC - where "x" is a number between 1 and whatever).

That's exactly what I thought, and I called Reservations today to change seats to E+ for my wife, the new Premier, and her mom, on a previously booked flight in June LAX-ORD-MSP-ORD-LAX with just that in mind.

I wanted an aisle for Mom, with Mrs hiyosilverwings in the middle seat. The reservations agent said as a Premier, she could bring a non-status companion into E+, AND have a seat blocked. I said, if you say so, she said, well I'll try, and it worked! Mrs hiyo in the window seat, middle blocked, and Mom on the aisle. All four legs, two on 744s. ^

On a somewhat related topic, a gate agent in San Diego Saturday said that very soon there will be no Economy Plus seating unless one has status, buys a full fare ticket, or pays a premium at the gate. (I have learned that there is sometimes misinformation floating around, even from those who should know, so I am not saying it's so, just passing on what that one GA said.)

One advantage of booking on United.com is the fact that you can book a window and an aisle and have the middle seat blocked.

With regards to your boarding passes not showing Premier - if you booked the ticket before you qualify for an elite level, the boarding passes will show what status you had when you booked the trip.

A trick is to ask the CRS/agent to remove the MP number from your ticket and then re-enter it... bada boom bada bing your status will then be reflected on your boarding pass.

The original poster stated they had made Premier the day before the flight and tried to remove and reinsert the MP number but reservations could not get it to enter as Premier. Though you will be Premier right away, it takes 2-3 days for it to show up in the reservations system. Once it does show up, removing and reinserting your MP number is the correct thing to do. At least having reservations remove and reinsert it that is. But it does take a few days for the two systems to coordinate.

E+ Upgrade Correction
 

Actually that is correct. As a Premier, with 2 people on the same PNR, you can sit Window/Aisle with the middle seat blocked. You can only upgrade one non-premier person to E+ per Premier member on the PNR. (i.e. 2 Premier members can upgrade 2 additional non-Premier members if all are on the same PNR)

Further, if you are upgrading a non-Premier companion from a different PNR, they will seat them in the blocked seat next to yours. No way around this from what I've found... and I've tried several times. So if you want to bump your companion (on their own PNR) up to E+, hope you're planning on sitting next to them. :)

No doubt, as that would be an upgrade. But how often has that happened, as opposed to regular mainline UAL destinations that have been downgraded to TED?