IMO you are severely undervaluing the SWUs.

Huh? Why would you drive to SEA and leave your car there now that the bus tunnel reopened? :-) Not to mention the hotel stay; that's why you fly over night and figure ways around that Saturday stay requirement. :)

I'm going to be roughly 18,000 miles short of 1K w/o the DEQM promo. 13,000 if I use the RDM -> EQM transfer that's available. That means a trip to NRT or LHR and back with the DEQM promo with total costs approaching $2,000. Is it worth it for me? I'm not sure. Guess it all depends on when I can get that MR in to meet up with the mileage requirement. I sure hope I make 1K though. (Maybe I can swing a few trips for work to NYC or ROA/RDU...)

Last year, in the couple weeks previous to the official announcement there were already a few rumors on the double EQM promo. This year there's (almost?) nothing. I'm not feeling very optimistic, especially considering that this year there have been no generous MP offers at all.

Agreed.

Considering that int'l F/C seats will be reduced in the near future due to new configuration, UG space will be cut and there is not much need to do double EQMs to create more 1Ks.

Yes, there were more rumors last year. But I still wonder if United will pass up the opportunity for more revenue, both from the program cost as well as the additional flights people would take. Wait and see.

Given the tiny number of people who frequent FT relative to all UA flyers, the lack of rumors doesn't mean that much.

FWIW, I asked M+ if the promo would be repeated: After insisting that M+ is the "last to know" (:rolleyes:), the CSR I spoke with said "keep checking the 1K website..." and was rather coy when I pressed her what this meant.

Does this count as a rumor? ;)

IMO, it counts as her way of getting you off the phone. ;) :D
Best, Dave

Deqm
 

We are obviously on the same page. Cheers

wwbgd

But c'mon guys! You shouldda heard her tone! You shouldda been there! She knows! She knows!! The promo is coming!!! :D

I don't think UA was running DEQM because they "needed" to create 1Ks to fill the F/C seats. They were runnign DEQM solely for the extra revenue I think, and 1Ks filling the F/C seats was just a side effect. Actually, one might even say that UA should run DEQM to make 1K upgrades even more hard to fight for, thus encourage people to at least buy Z fares if they want to try out the new seats?

Or maybe the announcement will be "To ensure the best possible experience for our cherished 1K members, there will be no DEQM promo this year."

OMG! I just spit Diet Coke all over my keyboard from LOLing so hard when I read this! :D

I asked a mileage plus agent a few weeks ago, before the end of the call when I called in for an unrelated issue if there would be any EQM promotions this year. She said wait around October 15th. It is really hard to say if UA will offer any EQM promotions this year, until we see a promotion but her tone sounded like it was going to happen.
If UA does offer a double EQM promotion this year, I may consider flying more on UA and try for 1K. UA will get an extra 15-20K miles of extra business from me if there will be a double EQM promotion this year as I already hit my 50K EQMs this month. If I already know there will not be an double EQM promotion, most if not all of my leisure trips will be award tickets and my other trips may go to other airlines as there isn't much incentives for me to buy any revenue tickets from United this year as I already understand I would not be able to fly 100,000 miles of EQMs until the end of the year. I am sure there are a lot of other Mileage plus members in a similar situation as mine and a double EQM promotion will help UA in the short term.

I hope UA charges $1500 or doesn't offer it at all. Devalues the program for those of us that buy $500+ IAD-BDL/PVD fares and qualify on segments.

Although I hope United won't offer the DEQM offer this year, I can't think of one good reason why they wouldn't do it. This is pure profit to them and if it was offered at the same price, every 2000 people who sign up will mean an extra million in the bank. There's no extra liability and judging by the extra promotions lately, it's a slower time of the year. If the cost was raised to $599 or $699, there will still be people signing up. Why would they turn down a scenario of people paying them extra money and then buying tickets to fill the empty seats? It seems a win-win situation for United.