United Airlines offered to sell me an upgrade from its MileagePlus Premier Silver status to Premier Gold for $5,000.
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United Mileage Plus Premier Silver And Gold Status Comparison
The two lowest tiers in United’s MileagePlus Premier status program are fairly similar on the surface. Here’s where they are unique and how they compare.
Premier Silver Benefits
- Complimentary Economy Plus Seating at Check-In – Enjoy extra legroom by accessing Economy Plus seats at time of check-in, though availability can be more limited compared to higher statuses.
- Premier Access – Benefit from designated check-in lanes, priority security lanes (where available), and early boarding. This can help you settle in quickly before general boarding begins.
- A Complimentary Checked Bag (70 lbs.) – Waived baggage fees for one standard-sized bag up to 70 pounds, making it easier to handle longer trips without additional fees.
- Preferred Security Lane Access – Participate in faster security queues at select airports, allowing you to pass more quickly through TSA checkpoints.
- Clear Path to Upgrades – Automatically added to upgrade waitlists for first class or Economy Plus, though Silver members are last in priority among elite tiers.
- Increased Mileage earning – Flyers will earn 7x points per dollar of airfare (excluding taxes and fees)
Compare that to Gold status.
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Complimentary Economy Plus Seating at Booking – Reserve Economy Plus seats immediately after your ticket purchase rather than waiting until check-in, improving your odds of securing highly coveted extra-legroom seats.
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(2) Complimentary Checked Bags (70 lbs. Each) – Travel with extra luggage at no cost, a valuable perk for extended trips or those who prefer checking multiple pieces of baggage.
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Increased Seat Upgrade Priority – Gain a higher position on upgrade waitlists for first class, Polaris business class (on select flights), or Economy Plus seats. This means a greater chance of flying in a premium cabin compared to lower-tier members.
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Star Alliance Gold Status – Receive broader benefits when flying with Star Alliance partners, including extra baggage allowances and priority boarding on partnering airlines worldwide.
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Reduced or Waived Fees – Enjoy waived same-day change fees on many tickets and other lower fees that can save you money if your travel plans shift unexpectedly.
- Increased Mileage earning – Flyers will earn 8x points per dollar of airfare (excluding taxes and fees)
The differences between the two are limited:
- Silver can get preferred seating including Economy Plus at check-in vs in advance with Gold.
- The higher status also adds one additional free checked bag up to 70 lbs.
- Gold status holders have a better chance at an upgrade to first though in practice will still be miles behind because of Global Services, Premier 1K, Premier Platinum, and buy-ups.
- Golds receive same-day standby benefits which could be valuable for some road warriors, along with reduced fees on changing tickets.
- Star Alliance Gold status is probably the most valuable on its face for those who travel internationally on coach tickets for which they receive lounge access (but not domestically.)
While the value will be unique to every traveler, even four international trips abroad only really saves $200-300 if one were to purchase lounge entry because they don’t hold Gold status. An extra checked bag could come in handy, but again, you’re only replacing $25-100/trip that you need a second bag checked. The upgrades to first class will be rare, maybe 1-2/year unless the flyer is based in a very small market with E-170/175 service. Earning one more MileagePlus award miles per airfare dollar could matter a lot in aggregate, but at the lowest two tiers with such a minimal distinction isn’t a noticeable benefit.
In total, an active flyer could see a few hundred in benefits from the elevation, maybe over $1,000 if they really maximized their opportunities.
The Offer To Upgrade
United Airlines, in a marketing communication within the app, proves either it thinks its customers are stupid, or it works so often proving that some really are. I barely qualified for Premier Silver status last year as I wasn’t focused on earning status with the carrier at all, but found myself qualifying due to circumstance.
An offer to upgrade to Gold was waiting.
Then United gave me the pricing and a deadline to decide.
Who is spending this kind of money on moving up from Silver to Gold? Does United actually want to sell it or is it trying to build value to drive customers to fly more this year? How many customers are really buying up from Silver to Gold worth maybe 20% of the price they are charging?
Those most likely to benefit would probably already have Gold or would be (presumably) closer to achieving it based on increased flying activity.
Conclusion
While it was no doubt software and not people who set the rate for the upgrade from Premier Silver to Premier Gold, the concept that a United MileagePlus member could spend $5,000 to move to Gold is beyond me.
What do you think? Are you taking the offer? Is there value I didn’t assess that makes this less crazy?
Anyone who falls for this , would likely miss a trivia question about Camel-a .
Anyone who wastes money on this , is likely dumber than “Dr.” Jill Brandon .
Dude, move on. Trump won (I voted for him & live in Chicago). Act like a f’n grown up and either add to the article in question’s conversation or stfu. No one likes a sore winner and no one gives a f about Biden anymore. He’s has as much power at this point as Jimmy Carter.
The political morons from both sides of the aisle in this blog’s comment section just makes me shake my head. We know the 10 or so commenters who continue to make “cleaver” comments…then sit there and jerk themselves thinking how cleaver they are….and the rest of us just see their comments and think what pathetic turds they are.
So keep being cleaver people.
Don’t look now , but
Thank you for your reply to the poster. I was just SMH at his comments
Thank you for you clever and thorough thoughts on the article. I agree with the other poster. STFU
The same thinking goes for those who spend $70K (or more) on a branded credit card to get status when if they put it on a cash rewards card, they’d likely get a lot more bang for their buck.
People pay $3000 for a designer handbag that costs about $400 to make. There are simply people out there who want that status and are willing to pay for it.
By the logic of the bean counters, flooding millions of flyers such as yourself with an ad you’ll review and skip is worth it if there are about 200 or so newbies who bring in a million dollars of revenue.
@Polish … +1 .
United offered me the opportunity to buy up to 1K status from Platinum for EITHER $11,000 OR 1,100,000 points. I didn’t have enough points, so using points wasn’t a real option for me. $11,000 for 1 year of status was too rich for my blood.
My offer from United was $12,000 or 1,200,000 miles to go from platinum to 1K. And I was only 1800 Pqps away. No way I am paying that.
Think about it. Id they did t charge more then everyone would go for a lower status during the year figuring they can buy the higher status for cheap…
This makes sense even though at the same time it’s appalling …I could see a 1 year discount to maintain current status vs it dropping. But even then as a limited opportunity.
I just got an offer to upgrade from platinum to 1K for “only” $6700 or 678k miles! I missed by a small number of PQP last year, and could have made the grade by putting $12k on my credit card (nope) o r buying a $3k ticket I didn’t need ((nope). I realized I could make it on segments by hopping around the northeast for about 160k miles, up the. I realized I’d have to spend a week on planes. With plus points almost unusable, free upgrades non existent (I do get upgrade every time I go EWR to BTV, and used to for EWR-SRQ), the main tangible benefit is preboarding. While I do really like that, as I like to get settled early, it’s plainly not worth it.
You should see how much they want from me to upgrade from premier platinum to 1K – and I just barely missed the requirements.
Only $11,409. Only.
That’s literal robbery. My offer was $3800 and I was only 2300 PQP away from 1k at the end of the year.
Ok so I’m not the only one that got a ridiculous offer. This one almost looks like robbery. I got an upgrade offer to go from platinum to 1k for $3800 if purchased before 2/1 and $4200 if purchased after 2/1.
I was only 2300 PQP’s (or $2300 in spend) away from 1k at the end of 2024. The worst part is if you were to buy it, the spend wouldn’t count towards elite status the following year. After being 1k for the last 3 years, Im pretty sure im not going to get $3800 in benefits for the next 11 months so im declining.
They don’t WANT to make an offer, but they did. They are TRYING to maintain the privileges of earning the status with a high cost to buy up. Would you rather this, or no offer at all? It’s most likely looking for those who are using an expense report to buy status
My offer from silver to gold was half of yours. Maybe it’s prorated since you said you barely made silver.
@MN Henderson – Without a doubt, but I completed 10 segments with the carrier last year, how much could I possibly value these benefits? Make it more attractive, maybe at $1500 or $2000 I’d start to do some math and dream a little.
I think it’s behavioural economics at play, trying to showcase just how valuable their status is.
You could argue that *G is worth more than $1000, but $5k is obviously not a serious attempt at selling it, unless they’re hoping to find the odd person who’s got an underspend on their corporate travel budget which can’t be used for anything else or something to that effect.
It is pretty ridiculous, but I think these kind of status buy-up offer emails have been going on for decades. So pretty automated, and it only takes one person to buy one to make a profit. (In the mid 2010’s I seem to recall buying up from plat to 1K for about $1K, mainly to get the GPUs.). But ever since GPUs and then PPs became worthless and upgrades practically nonexistent, it has not remotely been worth it. *G lounges was the best perk, but if you are buying J, you will get good lounges anyway.
This is the kind of thing that made me decide to go free agent. I knew I wasn’t going to make 1K next year, so I used my current 1K status to match to ExP on AA and broaden my options.