You can only get a maximum of 5K EQMs through Choices redemptions (at a cost of 50,000 Choices/RDMs) so I can't imagine this would happen very frequently. If you can get to 95K EQMs, you can probably find a way to fly the remaining 5K.

That's fine if you have money to burn. The cheapest C fare (on any airline) from SFO to FRA is $12,000 N/S or $6,000+ with a stop. Asian destinations are generally around $6,000+ N/S or $4,500+ with a stop. It's far more cost-efficient to make 1K (if you don't have to push your schedule too much).

To be fair, I think that J-H was referring specifically to heavily discounted "Z" fares. However, I don't agree with him that that is an "easy solution" for requalifying for 1K! :eek: I routinely check for Z fares (or rather, for the lowest biz fares) whenever I shop for international flights now. They are only sporadically available, and even when the routes/dates I am shopping for happen to have Z fares, they don't necessarily make economic sense from the "purchase of EQMs" point of view. For example, I recently flew to EZE and found that the Z fare would have cost DOUBLE the lowest SWU-upgradeable fare -- yet it would have yielded only 50% more EQMs. (And yes, I realize that the Z fare also gained the advantage of booking me into biz rather than making me sit on a waitlist for upgrade; past experience had convinced me that my SWU upgrades had an excellent chance of clearing -- and they did. How this will play out in the future, with fewer biz seats on international flights, remains to be seen.)

I for one would not be surprised to see the double EQM promo not offered this year. Last year saw a pretty hefty price increase, somehing like $400, up from around $199 the year before. It seems pretty clear to me that United is looking for fewer elites.

Even though the now announced C and F cabin upgrades are years away for most of us I can see where United would want to limit those seats from upgrades as much as possible. Backing down the number of 1Ks is a beginning, along with fewer (if any) SWU in the future. Think about it, United would rather have a smaller pool of elites fighting over upgrading a smaller pool of seats rather than have a gridlock situation where it is almost impossible for anyone to get upgraded.

I believe that United will pull back and make 1K harder and harder to get, with fewer and fewer perks. How far will it go? I believe as far as the competition will allow.

As has already been posted on this thread, the exact fees were as follows (as found in the e-mail offers from United):

2006: $499
2005: $200
2004: $150
2003: $100

Wirelessly posted (TMobile DASH: BlackBerry7230/4.0.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1)

Well, either they wanted fewer elites or they realized they could make more money from it.

Do you think there is anyone who spends "$5k-7k" to fly "75k miles" on UA just to get SWUs to upgrade "one or two" roundtrip internationals? :confused:

It's more like spending may be $1K in MRs and/or double EQM promo in order to upgrade 3 international roundtrips (including LH) + many domestic upgrades, plus a full range of other benefits.

Please tell me how to buy 3 RT international Z fares (on any carrier) for just $1000 over what 3 coach fares would have cost, and then you will start to have a point.

I always look, but have never found one on any route I've flown, so they're just not an option 99% of the time. They seem to be available either when I don't need them, or just not at all on the route.

Umm, a option could of been that Z fare promo UA had from USA to Europe. For instance NY-Europe is about $500-700 more than a coach ticket is, and since you earn a extra 50% EQM on the ticket, you only would need 2 RT to equal the EQM amount of 3 RT.
so theres about $1K more for the business tickets than coach.......

But those promos are few are far in between, and almost never work for where you want to go when you want to go. The point is being able to fly C (or F) on those long international flights that you take because you have to/want to be somewhere on a given date, not just for the sake of getting more miles.

If you go back and read J-H post, what s/he said is that status doesn't matter at all because you can just buy Z fares when you need to travel instead of Mileage Running or paying for DEQM, etc. My point is that for the vast majority of people posting here that is not the case because the incremental cost to reach 1K is way lower than the difference between coach and business when one needs to travel for just one roundtrip, nevermind three roundtrips (6 SWUs) and all the other benefits of 1K.

Agreed. What both mahasamatman and I said above, in one form or another, is that the Z fares are only sporadically available, they aren't necessarily there when and where you need to fly, and/or they don't always make economic sense (as in my example of paying double the SWU-upgradeable fare SFO-EZE for a Z fare, but getting only 50% more EQMs).

That's true if you want to restrict to UA. But if you didn't care about status, you would be open to flying on any carrier - which opens the possibilities tremendously.

I did a lot of MRs in my 20's and early 30's. At 33 and married with a two year old and three month old baby, it simply isn't fun or practical to do these cross country/continent runs.

And I discovered that the alternatives are not expensive. I paid for two Z fares to Japan ex-JFK for a little under $7k. If could have flown to Europe on paid business for about $1.5k a person - not that much more than what I spent (about 8k/year) to maintain 1K out of my pocket. When you do an intercontinental MR, it is not just the cost of the ticket you have to figure in to the cost. Time is expensive, and it got a lot more expensive for me in the last few years to take a couple of days off from work/family for MR purpose.

The crux of the issue is that I can't afford to not have a SWU clear on a JFK-SFO-Asia trip if I'm travelling with my wife and two young kids. We need confirmed seats in business, not upgrades. And we can afford the once or twice yearly overseas trip, plus a few domestics/Carribean/Florida runs in paid premium cabin. Note: Our tickets on CO's fare to the Costa Rica were only $900/person, about 3x economy tickets, this really is not that expensive. Alternative would have been sitting in the back with a 1 year old on a five hour flight - who wants to deal with that?

I for one hope it comes soon, it would net me 50,000 more eqm by year-end, instead of 25000 more eqm.

With fewer and fewer perks? Hmm, I'm not sure if that makes sense.

I would speculate that the process of making it harder for 1K status to be achieved is in the drawing board. If indeed, the double EQM promotions will not be offered this year, then it would be a good indication that the tightening of the qualification process is in fact taking place.

But I don't see the perks decreasing. For this to make business sense, the process of aligning loyalty with revenue contribution should only further enhance the value of 1K status. In other words, I envision United saying, "Yes, we're rewarding you for achieving 1K, big time, but you're also going to have to pay for it, big time".

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I'm booked to approx 98,200 through end of year. No way to take additional flights as I have the gf until 12/15 and after that, flights are $$$. So I may be redeeming. Ehhh.