nottooshabby

A few days ago I spoke with a CSA regarding EQM's earned in 2010 (had barely over 25,000). She told me it was "my lucky day" and that marketing had decided to keep me at Gold for the 2011 year. I only flew 4 revenue RT's in all of 2010. FWIW, I had been CP for a few years before travel dropped dramatically, so the earlier post regarding "folks like those who used to travel a lot and stopped" may certainly have some merit.

Exiled in Express

Hmm, maybe there is till hope for me. Only US PQMs came from the Grand Slam but I flew 5 UA segments last year, credited CO. No I am not expecting anything but waived baggage fees would be nice when I redeem my Grand Slam miles.

DamienG

I just got renewed for silver too having flown just 20K miles last year (7 segments between PHL and SEA).

Last year was my first year with Silver and I only got in because they ran a special promotion in autumn where they dropped the requirements somewhat drastically.

2 of those 7 segments were upgraded to FC which was nice

[)amien

arlingtonFLYER24

It's my lucky day as well...I just got an email saying that I was upgraded to Chairman after having only 67 segments last year. From Gold straight to Chairman. I'll take it!

I had a bunch of segments in Q4, so maybe that was the ticket.

kudzu

Welcome to FlyerTalk, DamienG ^

US apparently considers you a "good enough" flyer to extend status despite being short in EQMs; hope you get to use it again this year!

PS: Do you really want your email address in your public profile?

Edited to add: Welcome too, arlingtonFLYER24!

ramblers63

As a 2010 Silver who qualified the hard way for 2011 Silver (30 segments) - all travel on my own dime - this thread makes me want to barf.

...and not bother flying/crediting to US at all in 2011.

wendyg

FWIW I think all my flights in 2010 were on US.

wg

IzzyL

Well, after reading this thread I was excited to check my email to see if I got a nice bump from Gold to ???. No such luck, I was Gold and continue to be Gold for 2011. Still pretty nice, just that y'all got my hopes up!!

monsterometer

I just got promoted to Gold from Silver, too. I earned Silver off of 5 trips to Europe plus some minor domestic travel. I did not quite earn gold. Maybe their mysterious algorithm took into account already scheduled travel for 2011 to Europe? Dunno, but appreciate the extra status.

jjonesthekid

i didnt fly on either...

dcpatti

I'm in more or less the same boat--- CP with 136k PQM in 2010, almost all of it on my own dime (due to dried up work travel), and while I don't want to actually barf, it does make me feel like I did things the hard way for no reason. In the end I won't let it get me down nor will I start flying someone else just because of this--- mostly because I'd rather worry about my own self than what others are getting, and because US is still the most convenient and practical program for me. But I am a little jealous of folks getting bumped up to higher tiers when I really pushed to get my boyfriend and myself over 100k this year.

Not that it'll change much this year, nor that I regret any of the non-essential trips we took just because there was a promo. They were all fun. But it'd be nice to go back in time and keep some of my money in my pocket, and have a little more sleep.

Tadich

I feel your pain. I am Platinum again with 85k miles, all of them BIS (except for the 500 mile minimums which don't account for much). The routes I take along with my schedule have never allowed me to take advantage of any promotions.

The brightest side of this for me is that with all of my BIS miles, when the Platinum window opens up for upgrades, I'll still be at or near the top of the list. It's just the idea of those that get "bumped up" to CP that will cause me to throw up in my mouth a little.

emma dog

I flew AA and DL exclusively last year... In 2009 I flew 25k +/- between DCA and TPA commuting for work on US. I never paid full fare Y and never paid for F. I didn't step foot on an *A airlines last year and I didn't credit any partner points to UA or US.

The only other "point" for US is I was a club member from 8/09-8/10. I didn't renew.

ramblers63

Well put. I'm thinking back those connections maybe I didn't need to build in, or those early flights (the 5:05am ORD-PHX comes to mind) when i could have flown a different airline for cheaper. Those trips were still enjoyable but I can't believe I altered more convenient plans to acheive status that would have been simply thrown at me regardless.

If those who made it, say, 2/3 of the way to the respective level were granted bumps, I wouldn't feel so disgusted and un-valued. However, granting status to those with 0 miles flown is comical.

apeortdz

Same boat here (already CP) but I guess the consolation is that my PQM miles will help me get the upgrades faster and that is what really counts for me. But then again I did not see any gratis bumps to CP mentioned yet.