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From: PTravel on 14 Mar 2007 15:02

"Louis Krupp" <lkrupp(a)pssw.nospam.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:12vggue46069hc5(a)corp.supernews.com...
> PTravel wrote:
>>
>> "Louis Krupp" <lkrupp(a)pssw.nospam.com.invalid> wrote in message
>> news:12vf4c6ntsu5j96(a)corp.supernews.com...
>>> and if you book early enough, you can sit in Economy Plus so you get a
>>> few inches more room.
>>
>> Five inches more room. You also get middle-seat blocking. You don't
>> have to book early -- access to E+ is reserved for elites, for non-elites
>> who pay $299 a year for E+ access, and for non-elites who do electronic
>> check-in (either on-line or at a kiosk) and are selected by the computer
>> to be offered an opportunity to purchase an upgrade to E+.
>
> If you book too late, you run the risk of having all the good seats taken
> by other E+ passengers. (It could happen.)

That's quite true.

>
>>
>>> You have to eat the same food as the rest of steerage; you could say
>>> that you get the best of the worst.
>>
>>> If after a year or two as a Premier member you don't fly enough to
>>> maintain your status, you get busted back to peon.
>>
>> That's incorrect. You must requalify every year by flying the threshold
>> mileage. Even if you're a 1K, if you only fly 24,000 miles, you're
>> dropped back to general member the next year. There is no soft landing.
>> If you're within a few hundred miles of a threshold, you can usually call
>> UA and beg successfully for threshold level status.
>
> After my first year in the Premier Club, when I didn't fly nearly enough
> to qualify for another year, UAL gave me "Premier Emeritus" status. The
> following year, I was busted back to full peon. This was about 15 years
> ago. I would be willing to believe that "Premier Emeritus" has been
> discontinued; I certainly didn't get it the second time I achieved
> Premier and then fell from grace. But I don't know that, and that's why I
> qualified it as "a year or two."

UA doesn't do this anymore. The subject of "soft landings" comes up quite a
bit on FlyerTalk.

>
>>
>> The only exception to this is UGS (United Global Services) status, which
>> is afforded to, roughly, the top 2% (in terms of dollars spent on UA
>> tickets) in each market. UGS has no minimum mileage requirements, and
>> fall above 1K (and, sometimes, above First Class) in terms of the
>> priority order.
>>
>>> On your next flight, they'll hold a special ceremony where you board
>>> last and the gate agent tears up your Premier Mileage Plus card in front
>>> of the entire coach cabin and then marches you to your seat at the back
>>> of the plane while everyone points and laughs.
>>>
>>> The Premier Club is kind of fun while it lasts, though.
>>
>> For anyone who flies more than a couple of times a year, there are all
>> sorts of ways to engineer enough miles to requalify. I've had no trouble
>> maintaining Premier Exec (1P) status just by concentrating my travel on
>> UA (which, of course, is the whole motivation behind these programs).
>
> Thanks for the info. That's the most complete description of United's
> elite program I've ever read.

I fly a fair bit and almost all of it on UA, so I'm fairly familiar with
their program. Again, I'd recommend FlyerTalk (www.flyertalk.com) to anyone
interested in frequently flying issues -- there's a wealth of information
there, including ways to maximize the likelihood that you'll requalify for
elite status.

>
> Louis

From: veg_all on 14 Mar 2007 15:13
PTravel wrote:
> You are, apparently, a casual flier (and a rude one at that) and
for you, > you're right -- don't bother with the UA program. I
always find it amusing > when ignorance and arrogance are so closely
allied. >
Thanks for answering my question, "Since when does a mile become an
EQM and why should it matter what segment I fly on."? I do see your
point that these things do have meaning for frequent travellers, i.e
fly every week the same airline. But for the rest of us it is Greek.
So the UA website should make it more clear what these things are at
least.

From: Mike Hunt on 14 Mar 2007 16:48
veg_all(a)yahoo.com wrote:

> PTravel wrote:
>
>>You are, apparently, a casual flier (and a rude one at that) and
>
> for you, > you're right -- don't bother with the UA program. I
> always find it amusing > when ignorance and arrogance are so closely
> allied. >
> Thanks for answering my question, "Since when does a mile become an
> EQM and why should it matter what segment I fly on."? I do see your
> point that these things do have meaning for frequent travellers, i.e
> fly every week the same airline. But for the rest of us it is Greek.
> So the UA website should make it more clear what these things are at
> least.
>

You don't need to fly every week on the same airline for it to matter.
Some airlines have challenges that get you to elite status sooner.
A transcontinental roundtrip in certain fare codes (and not the highest)
will get you Gold status on AA. You could also get Platinum status by
flying a roundtrip from the west coast of the US to Europe.
If your challenge starts after June 15, you would get status to Feb 28,
2009. Even normal qualification isn't that difficult for some casual
flyers. A roundtrip flight from JFK-LAX-SYD would get you nearly 20000
EQMs (on AA.. I don't fly UA). A single transcontinental would get you
the other 5K. So, 2 trips in one year would get you Gold status, without
even doing a challenge. You don't have to fly weekly on the same
carrier to get elite status.
From: John L on 14 Mar 2007 20:09
>Elite Qualifying Miles
>Elite Qualifying Segments

It's basically miles and segments from flights on United and Star
Alliance partners. A few arcane fares are excluded, but they're not
likely to affect you. If you fly in first class or on very expensive
fares they may credit you with more segments or miles than you
actually flew.

See http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,1177,00.html

>Lifetime United flight miles: ( i know what this refers too, but what
>use is it for )?

Not much.

R's,
John
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