Questions about getting Preferred status.
 

Hello all,

I have a few questions...and sorry in advance, I am new.

I travel about 20 times/year. In the past I have always flown with whatever airline was cheapest or had a direct flight. I decided this year to go with Usairways or United with all of my trips in hopes of getting to be a Silver member on Usairways. Questions:

1. Is it possible to get Silver traveling 20 times a year? I fly out of Pittsburgh and most of my flights will have connections.

2. If I do become Silver during the year, am I instantly a Silver member, or does it start the following year. When/if I become Silver, how long does it last?

3. When/if I become silver, are there ways to pick certain/specific flights so that I would have a better chance of being upgraded to first class?(picking early flights, looking at current seat map, etc).

Again, sorry for my ignorance...I appreciate the time.

Depending on where you travel (distance), 20 roundtrips a year could net you Gold or higher.

It's all based on the calendar year. Once you reach either 30 segments or 25,000 miles flown (actual BIS 'butt in seat' miles, not including bonuses) your account will switch to Silver status. If before the end of that same calendar year, you reach 60 segments or 50,000 BIS miles, you'll change to Gold Preferred.

See the US Airways website for more detail with special attention to the TRIAL PREFERRED section. If you know you'll be flying quite a bit, it may be worth your while to sign up for (and pay) for a Trial:

http://www.usairways.com/en-US/divid...toqualify.html

You mean you do 20 separate round trips a year? As you said that you are in PIT and that you connect, 20 separate round trips equals 80 segments which would easily qualify you on segments. (30 for silver). A challenge can often get you status for less than the 30 segments.

If your flights are long enough, you can qualify on miles (25,000 miles), but do be aware that US no longer has minimum segment mileage credit for "scrub" FFers.

Within a day or two of hitting your target, your status will change. If you reached silver on August 1, 2013, your status will be good until February 28, 2015.

All route and day/time dependent.

agreed with what these guys said. Your best upgrade chances are generally at off peak times when there arent a ton of business travelers out there. It's always a crapshoot and depends on the route...

Since it appears that you'll get at least Silver on segments, you might consider signing up for the Silver trial - fly 10 segments (at most 5 round trips, less if connecting) within 90 days. That gets you Silver from the start, which could get you free upgrades and I think the 500 mile minimum per segment (someone will correct me if the latter is wrong). It used to be that you could sign up for the Silver trial but get whatever status you earned in the trial period - 20 segments = Gold, 30 = Platinum, 40 = Chairmans (with mileage equivalents for each level. I don't know whether US has closed that loophole or not.

Jim

Class of service bonuses count though, as do other PQM bonuses (except during the trial).

First post on FT, hooray...

I can confirm the 500-mi minimum mileage credit per segment. I enrolled in Trial Gold in early November (thinking I could achieve Silver and fall back after the challenge; I've since been set straight). Anyway, I live in Tampa and fly to DC 2x/mo. After the 1st 45 days or so of the challenge, I started booking TPA-PHL-DCA instead of connecting in CLT. That short 1-hr jump on the E175 rounds up to 500 miles, giving me 1,427 mi one-way vs. 1,000 going through CLT.

I'll share the story in a separate post, now that I finally got resolution via the EECB, but I wound up in danger of falling short of the 20 segments needed to earn Gold at the end of the challenge. Maximizing that 500-mi minimum (even late in the game) will have me ending up with 23 segments and 15,650 mi.

I've also confirmed that you can earn HIGHER than what you sign up for in the trial, but if you don't meet that minimum requirement, you get nothing... a bit of a risk if you aren't absolutely sure. For me, it wasn't spelled out in the T&C and I was willing to pay to have Gold for the 90 days.

If the OP decides to get status the hard way - just flying as normal without a trial - they wouldn't get min miles, etc until achieving status would they?

Jim

Deleted post since I was clearly in error or, less likely, the minimum segment credit policy changed mid-year.

Clarification for all:

For non-Shuttle flights under 500 miles Non-Preferred members earn actual miles flown while Silver Preferred and higher earn the 500 mile minimum.

Thanks - that what I remembered.

Jim

Hi pb3623
Welcome to flyer talk!
It sounds like your trial is working out for you so congratulations!

Class of service bonuses are PQM's and do count for regular (non-trial) status.