After my trip to New York last week, I’m less than 3,000 miles away from 1K status…but still have not made Platinum status.
I already wrote about this a couple weeks ago and received helpful feedback from several of you. Even so, I am still on the fence about how to best handle this.
> Read More: My United 1K Dilemma
You can see I have more than exceeded the PQM for Platinum, but have not met the spending requirement:
And I’m less than 3,000 miles away form 1K status, but far below he $12,000 spending requirement:
Let’s put the spending aside for a moment, though. I’m in Germany through the end of the year and would have to do a mileage run…perhaps back to the States…to secure the final 3K miles. That would severely interrupt my vacation, even though the six GPUs (global premier upgrades) would be used by my family next year for more travel (i.e., it might be worthwhile).
There’s still the issue of the spending waiver by moving my address to Germany. Even though I have a bonafide address in Germany that will withstand all scrutiny, I just wish I would have put an extra $16K in spending on one of my Chase United cards. Platinum is not 1K, but would have been an acceptable compromise. My primary address is my California address. I’d strongly prefer not to change my address, but it seems I don’t have a choice at this point…
I’m currently in the middle of a battle with Aeroplan over a SWISS First Class award ticket. Should that ticket be honored, I will be flying home nonstop on SWISS from Zurich to LA on a non-earning award ticket. If not, however, perhaps the solution will be to fly home on a revenue ticket before the end of the year, cross the 1K threshold, and change my address.
CONCLUSION
I feel stupid…remember that Singapore trip I took a couple weeks ago to Frankfurt? It was booked in a non-earning fare class. Had I paid a few hundred bucks more, I would have already passed the 100K threshold.
image: United
but you don’t get 1K status without spending the $ on UA! doesn’t matter how many miles you have.
For MileagePlus accounts with U.S. addresses…the reason I am considering and write about an address change.
Whatever you do, don’t do a mileage run in the middle of your vacation. That’s precious family time you’ll never get back, which is worth far more than a few GPUs – especially with the increase in time away from home with your new business to begin with. If the address change thing works, I’d say go for that and enjoy Platinum.
If I did a mileage run, we would just stay longer in Europe. That’s the blessing of my flexible work schedule.
If you really want to spend the money, then go on the United website and buy a ticket from FRA to DUB. It will be a United codeshare flight on Lufthansa. Buy the ticket in business (J) class. Look at December 28th. A quick turnaround will net you 4062 PQM and $2690 PQD. Then again do you really want to spend the money for 1K?
RE: Do I want to spend that much?
No way.
I agree 100%. Try the address change for platinum.
I think the 100K miles is the least of your issues…UA is probably on the look-out for very end of year address changes to foreign domiciles (even though in your case it is legit). No guarantee it will get changed by them before EOY.
I’m concerned that you feel putting $16k in spending on “that” card would be wise. There are better places to put spend. Just move your address to Germany. It’s not like you can’t ever move it back.
I thought my own concern of being $216 from Platinum on AA was bad. Of course AA will sell me the next level for a minor $795 which ironically counts toward status or EQD’s.
Don’t mileage run home please. You deserve a vacation, so does your family, and if you want my honest opinion, gold is perfectly sufficient and if I were your son I would want you with me the whole vacation, and would not thank you for the upgrades I might get next year. Please, for yourself, Heidi and the baby, stay with them.
I don’t see how you can get closer AND be with family. I once got w/in 1,500 miles and missed. I called them in early January, got a great person on the phone, after looking at my account etc. said “ok, good enough for me”, and gave me the plat. status. That’s always worth a try.
@ Matthew — No need to “move”. Just charge $16,000 of refundable air tickets on your United Chase card, pay Chase the $16,000, spend $16.000 over the next few months on your Chase card, pay Chase another $16.000, refund the $16,000 air tickets, and finally have Chase send you a check for $16,000.
so an old dog can learn new tricks!
Don’t PQD’s only post after the flight is flown?
They do, but their post date reflects the day of flight.
Why don’t you get their credit card. It will have the need for spending
Never mind. I thought that having a United card is enough
pqd has been around for years. why didnt u change earlier? i changed mine the first of annoucement when UA introduced PQD and it was easy to do online
I’m going on year 4 as a 1K, and all I really value out of Platinum is group 1 privileges, and 1K the GPUs. While it’s a struggle to get the dollars even with all my business travel, I don’t mind slightly overpaying for a flight or two to get over that threshold to get the GPUs.
Considering you’ve been able to fly that much without getting PQM on cheaper flights (meaning you’re going much farther than it first appears) and apparently getting great deals when you do fly United, it seems counterintuitive to spend a lot of money just to catch up, as it negates all the deals you’ve been able to get through the year.
Something to think about though: since you have 1MM Gold status for life, don’t you get to share your status with a spouse? Wouldn’t that mean 12 total GPUs if you hit 1K?
Change your address!
good luck getting your address changed – i hope you write a post about it. i moved from the states to singapore and have sent UA everything possible — drivers license, utility bill, etc. — but they keep asking for government ID (apparently a drivers license doesn’t cut it). i’ve resigned myself to being stuck with an old US address.
Thanks for this helpful data point. I will certainly write a post on it.