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Home » United Airlines » United Socks It To MileagePlus Flyers Outside USA With New Earning Cutbacks
United Airlines

United Socks It To MileagePlus Flyers Outside USA With New Earning Cutbacks

Matthew Klint Posted onApril 28, 2020November 14, 2023 9 Comments

United Award Space

Hoping to earn United Airlines MileagePlus elite status by flying partner airlines? It just became much harder. For those outside the USA, the latest move further diminished the value of crediting flights to United.

I wrote about the “loophole” here in great detail. Put simply, by strategically crediting inexpensive partner flights to United, you could earn status by spending much less.


> Read More: An Intriguing Upside To United’s Radical MileagePlus Changes


For example, buy a Singapore Airlines premium economy ticket from Newark to Singapore for $1136.15. It books into R class, which earns 100% of miles flown. That trip is 9,534 miles in each direction, so a total of 19,068 miles round-trip. Divide that by six (again, more details in the link above) and you’d receive 3,178 PQP toward your elite status goal. In a sense, a $1136.15 ticket would be worth $3,178 toward satisfying your minimum spend toward elite status.

a screenshot of a phone

American and Delta have similar policies for partner flights.

Partner Earnings Severely Capped For Flights On Or After July 1, 2020

Recognizing that this loophole disincentivizes flying on United, United has closed the loophole (H/T: The Points Guy). Per United:

For flights on or after July 1, 2020, the maximum Premier qualifying points that can be earned on tickets issued and operated by Star Alliance partners and select MileagePlus partner airlines are as follows:

Class Of Service Preferred Partner PQP MileagePlus Partner PQP
First/Business 1500 1000
Economy/Premium Economy 750 500

A United spokesperson confirmed this is a per-segment limit.

If you book before April 29, 2020 (meaning today is your deadline), you can still earn PQPs uncapped. However, you’ll need to submit receipts:

“MileagePlus members who purchased tickets on eligible partners prior to these new rules may submit receipts showing tickets were issued prior to April 29, 2020, to mileageplus@united.com with the subject line “OA PQP Review” to be considered for PQP earning under the prior rules. Receipts should not be submitted until after travel is completed for flights on or after July 1, 2020.”

Double Whammy For United Overseas Elites

It was just this year that United stopped exempting MileagePlus elites living outside the USA from its minimum spend requirements to secure elite status. The reprieve was that partner flights would now count toward that spending goal. With partner flights capped at absurdly low levels (especially for premium cabins), those living outside the USA will find it much more difficult than ever before to qualify for elite status on United.

CONCLUSION

There is much more to say about this and I will provide further analysis later today. Obviously, this will hurt some U.S flyers as well. But I wanted to start this conversation by pointing out that those outside the United States and more prone to fly United’s worldwide network of partners will be particularly hit hard by this news.

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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9 Comments

  1. SINJim Reply
    April 28, 2020 at 4:37 am

    As someone who lives overseas, United has all but invited me to fly other airlines and credit elsewhere.

  2. Matt Reply
    April 28, 2020 at 9:00 am

    Am assuming your later commentary will be a little bit more negative… given that United has made it virtually impossible to earn elite status if you’re not being paid for by a corporation

    • Matthew Reply
      April 28, 2020 at 9:16 am

      Yes, I will not be charitable.

  3. Arthur Reply
    April 28, 2020 at 9:20 am

    It is sort of hard to care very much when I don’t know when I will be flying again. And also when I suspect I will be burning up miles for awards first to get flexibility when things do reopen. So I doubt I will be buying a substantial number of tickets with cash before 2021, and we will just see what things look like then.

    However, even before this, the UA 1K PQD level had doubled, upgrade space had disappeared, and UA had ceased to have a reliably inexpensive business class. In 2019 I had found myself buying more on other airlines. Status is nice, but if you are buying business class, you already get most of the perks, and if you can save several thousand dollars flying an airline with better service, not worth chasing. Of course, who knows what service and prices will be like next year, too.

  4. Santastico Reply
    April 28, 2020 at 9:23 am

    You misspelled the word in your headline. You said “United socks”. The correct os “United sucks”. What a disgrace of an airline.

  5. Kacee Reply
    April 28, 2020 at 11:16 am

    This “loophole” has existed for years at DL and AA, and neither carrier has seen a need to cap earnings. And then UA makes this change just 5 months in, with no notice at all, with demand dropping into the abyss. What kind of Kool-Aid are they drinking at Willis Tower?

    I feel bad for those who committed to UA this year and just had the rug pulled out from under them. This nine-year 1K is so glad to have moved on.

  6. llihlopf Reply
    April 28, 2020 at 1:17 pm

    They may have updated the wording, by adding PER FLIGHT which IMO, although still a devaluation, makes this SLIGHTLY more palatable.

    Of course it depends on their definition of “per flight”.

    • Matthew Reply
      April 28, 2020 at 1:40 pm

      They did. It is per segment. I’ll provide an updated post later.

  7. Pingback: United Makes Elite Status Harder To Earn When Flying Partner Airlines - View from the Wing

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