United Mileage Plus was applauded for adding an option to earn status via spending-only this week and not raising qualification rates, but taking a closer look, it might be impossible to do.
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United Airlines Mileage Plus Adds Earning Premier Status Via Credit Card Spending
This week, United announced that it would make some changes to its loyalty program, Mileage Plus. While travelers and bloggers braced for ramped-up requirements like Delta recently announced, United surprised the world by only adding a new way to earn Premier status. Like American Airlines’ transition to Loyalty Points and incentivize those who put a lot of money on United co-brand credit cards.
I agree that it’s great to not see an announcement for increased requirements. And it’s always great to have another way to earn status outright or supplement less flying with more spending as American and Spirit have done.
But the math on this is crazy, maybe impossible.
How Much Spending to Reach Premier Status?
Matthew covered the changes, so I am going to include what those are from his post here:
| PREMIER STATUS | PQF + PQP | OR PQP ONLY |
|---|---|---|
| Premier Silver | 12 PQF and 4,000 PQP | 5,000 PQP |
| Premier Gold | 24 PQF and 8,000 PQP | 10,000 PQP |
| Premier Platinum | 36 PQF and 12,000 PQP | 15,000 PQP |
| Premier 1K | 54 PQF and 18,000 PQP | 24,000 PQP |
In another post, Matthew explains how PQPs will be earned on credit card spend in the new system:
- Cardmembers will now earn 25 PQP for every $500 in qualifying card spend on eligible MileagePlus credit cards. At this new rate, Cardmembers can earn PQP faster and more frequently through qualifying purchases on their card
- This amounts to 600 PQPs for every $12,000 in spending versus the current 500, an increase of 20%
- All card-earned PQP will now count toward each status level, including the PQP-only requirement for Premier 1K status
- Increasing the total PQP amount you can earn annually with the United Club Infinite Card. In 2024, you can earn up to 10,000 PQP from qualifying purchases on your United Club Infinite Card (versus 8,000 PQP in 2023)
- Other caps include:
- United Explorer Card – 1,000 PQPs
- United Business Card -1,000 PQPs
- United Quest Card – 6,000 PQPs
- Removing the annual cap of 15,000 PQP that you can earn from qualifying spend across multiple eligible United MileagePlus credit cards issued by Chase
- Each card will still have PQP caps (for now…)
Let’s work that math backward. If one were to only spend through PQP via credit card spending this is what the tiers would require:
- Premier Silver – $100,000
- Premier Gold – $200,000
- Premier Platinum – $300,000
- Premier 1K – $480,000
United is most likely assuming that those earning on PQPs only will still earn via flying on partners or on United reducing this spend requirement, but on its face… that’s an awful lot of spending for 1K.
Is It Even Possible?
A question remains as to whether this is even possible. According to the above, United removes the 15,000 PQP annual cap from earning via multiple cards, that gets us to Premier Platinum and above. However, if the per-card limit remains in place as it’s been stated, then each of the four products could be maxed out at a total of 18,000 PQPs, well short of Premier 1K status.
It’s possible that one could hold two versions of the same card though that would serve limited utility if it’s even allowed. If one held two United Club Infinite Cards ($525 each) they could potentially reach 20,000 PQPs on those two cards and a United Quest card to hit the remaining 4,000 PQPs required (6,000 allowed.)
The question isn’t whether or not United would allow a consumer to hold two versions of the same card. The question is whether it will award PQPs in excess of the product max on each of those cards. For many cards, this too wouldn’t be a problem. However, given the rigid requirements with PQPs, first on all products, and now remaining on per product, it’s possible that earnings would be recognized on a per-product limit basis making it impossible to actually qualify for 1K solely on PQPs through credit card spend.
How Does United Mileage Plus Compare?
I already mentioned that American Airlines and Spirit Airlines allow earning solely from credit card spending for its elite tiers. Here’s how others stack up at the top tiers:
- American Airlines Advantage Executive Platinum Status – $200,000
- Spirit Airlines Free Spirit Gold (comparable to United Premier Gold) – $50,000
- Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards A-List Preferred – $233,334
- JetBlue TrueBlue Mosaic 4 – $250,000
- Delta Air Lines Diamond Medallion – $255,000
Spending $255,000/year on a credit card will earn top-tier status on every other carrier but on United, sorry, that doesn’t even achieve Premier Platinum status.
Conclusion
It’s good news that United flyers can augment their PQP requirements with regular credit spending and that they did not raise the requirements this year. But American Airlines now looks like the best value for money for those putting a lot of spend on credit cards (especially when using its shopping portal.) United would require dramatically more spend ($480,000), across several cards, using some creativity and moving spending around, if it’s even possible. I can appreciate that it adds an option, but it’s not a competitive option and adds a lot of hoops. For business owners or super spenders, it seems odd that they would want to make United this disadvantaged for those clients.
What do you think?
On AA now, I pretty much only earn EXP thru CC spend and mainly on bonus months like this month. My buddy with a larger business earns CK thru CC spend. I burn all miles on flights unless they value is less than 1.5c a mile, but I still like the flexibility of canceling anytime with miles. To earn enough miles, I was dumping about a few million in Bask, but now with payouts at 5% plus, AA miles makes less sense (although not terrible on a post tax adjusted basis)
United seems to value flying more than AA.
Why don’t people just fly the airline to earn status like normal people?
@Matthew – I think the requirements have become too high at some (I’m looking at you, Delta) and in other cases, it’s just not incentivized any more (American.) I think the best approach is more of what you’re suggesting, fly some and augment with credit card spend. The best at this is actually Spirit, but I think these requirements for United are just way to high respective of the rest of the market.
I would wager it’s easier to earn Platinum Medallion and lower on DL than Platinum Pro and lower on UA.
I think both AA and UA are simply waiting to see if the changes Delta made will blow up in their face in 2024. If it doesn’t and Delta’s gamble pays off as you can see from this article United is already taking steps to put into place the same system as Delta. Although there will be no changes to Mileage Plus in 2024 if Delta’s move proves profitable UA will for sure make huge changes come 2025.
Because the profit-maximizing airlines seem more interested in courting big spenders than frequent flyers when it comes to the frequent flyer programs, I’m seeing some way less frequent flying relatives and friends ending up with more and higher frequent flyer status levels than I can get from just flying around a lot. All courtesy of running up the charges on airline-affiliated bank cards. But for me, it means I can kiss goodbye to what little chance I had for comp upgrades when flying with such relatives and friends. Add in premium cabin monetization, and it’s now more a game of “want business/first, buy business/first”.
I do agree the sending requirements are nuts. But I can’t imagine people putting a significant amount of spend on an airline credit card and never flying the airline.
What would be interesting to see is if we add in a moderate amount of flying how does credit card spend impact status and which airline becomes the best bet for that use case. Obviously my “moderate amount of flying” is a simply massive variable and I’ve no idea what that actually is to be fair. Those who live the frequent Flyer world will have to tell me.
Good. I don’t know another MileagePlus 1K who wants someone to earn that status on spending alone. MileagePlus is still a frequent flyer program. That being said, I just applied for and was approved for a Club Infinite card, which I will use to supplement my mileage earnings. Also saves me 80K miles when I pay for my United Club membership.
So we get the PlusPoints and cant use it. So why bother flying on United to earn them. Keep your $$ in your pockets and buy or pay for a first class seat when you need it.
Exactly this…along with free agency…
I forfeited Plus Points this summer and will likely be forced to do the same again in January 2024. They’re pretty much a waste.
I think if you have to spend a Lamborghini Huracan type of money using a credit card just to achieve status that you can’t somehow gain organically by, I don’t know, booking flights, I have to question why you would need top tier status anyway.
@Jan – Business owners can easily put hundreds of thousands of dollars on a card, but this kind of precision, transferring to personal cards, it’s a mess. Why not just fly American on those business expenses with a better status level earlier?
Sorry if being slow… but how can you have “2 United Club infinite cards” as Kyle suggests? Surely you can’t have more than 1?!
This doesn’t seem like a meaningful question. If you rarely or never fly an airline, status is meaningless, and your spending to earn it is foolish. Secondarily, the opportunity cost of putting a quarter of a million dollars spend on a crappy airline card vs the much more rewarding options available make the cost of that status astronomically high. Credit card spend might make sense for someone who flies almost enough to make Gold or 1K and needs just a bit to get them over the top, but otherwise there is no logical case for this.
I have been EXP with AA for almost 20 years, some of which I had chased status like a cat going after the laser. I am sure the following applies to all 3 airlines though. But the way I see it now. If you have clients that are paying for your weekly trips or reimbursing you and you qualify on mileage spent good for you. Otherwise – just buy biz/first class ticket on most convenient or cheapest airline whenever you have to fly. Status is otherwise useless. As a life time platinum I value it now as two free bags per flight. And as far as CC spend goes – if you spend 1/2 million dollars a year, I am pretty sure you fly private domestically and with that kind of money I’d never fly North American airlines internationally anyway. Plenty of premium class Asian and ME airlines to choose from.
US Airlines are just crazy at this point. AF/KLM, BA, to name just two international airlines (there are so many more) are so much more reasonable when it comes to earning status. The only reason I would fly a US airline is if they had the best price and then I would take into account the quality of service and food on board. So I’m willing to pay a premium not to have to fly a US airline whenever possible.
And who needs a frequent flyer program with “who knows what the mile is worth today” points and upgrades when you just buy the least expensive business class ticket?
I’ve stopped caring about frequent flyer programs for these reasons.
I’m confused by the premise of this article.
Spend $24k on travel on United. Earn 1K status.
Why would someone spend $480k to earn 1k status? And then you still need to spend $6k on flights. Just. Buy. A. Few. Expensive. Tickets.
And go out and enjoy life a little bit. That’s kind of the point of a frequent flyer program. Frequent. Flying. On infrequent, expensive flying.
Bon voyage
United was making the point that you could now earn status by credit card spend vs flying the carrier. Many others (as cited in the post have done this.) Small business owners or those who put an awful lot on their credit cards can choose from a number of airlines with which to earn status without flying (or in addition to the flying they do.) However, United’s offer, seen as generous and welcomed by many, is incredibly inferior to the rest on the market to the point that many are asking, why would anyone do this?
The point of the article is that if you’re going to introduce something as a benefit it should be 1) possible (this post shows that it might not be) to achieve, 2) realistic (others are qualifying at $200,000-280,000 in spend and while small, it does happen); and 3) competitive. This is potentially neither of the three.