United MileagePlus has the most generous million miler program, and it’s a great incentive to stay loyal to the airline. Not only can you earn (ordinarily) invitation-only Global Services status with the program, but you can even nominate a companion to get that status as well.
Continue reading: United Closes Sneaky Million Miler Status Loophole
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
This crackdown certainly makes sense. Too many abuse the system. The benefit should likely be restricted to spouses (since all can marry anyone now).
Excellent. I'm always astonished by the number go GS's that board first ...sometimes twenty-somethings which never made sense (and no they were not traveling with someone else)...a 22 year old with GS status ???
Happy UA is culling the ranks !
Not all GS members are high-net worth individuals above a certain age.
A friend of mine achieved GS at 25 while working at a non-profit making ~50k a year. The nonprofit was based in London and she had to make several last minute trips between IAD and LHR over the course of a year. At the time, corporate travel policy allowed J to all employees on all flights over seven hours. She didn't even know what GS was (let alone the Premier program) until she got the membership kit in the mail. We joke about it now, especially as she never travelled again for work once she hit GS.
How nice for you. You really are prioritising the right things in life and just have it all figured out.
You have to spend how much to earn GS? More than $50K? In the grand scheme of how much people pay for first and business class fares on commercial airlines, that isn't a lot of money.
You are right! This has been discussed on Flyer Talk for a long time. Apparently the author did not pay attention, or he is simply not informed enough to be a travel writer.
A bit OT but UA-related. I’ve been looking for flights from Indonesia to NYC with UA miles for next month and I’ve been seeing 900,000 and 850,000 mile award levels in business class (CGK-JFK). This is insane - I’ve never seen anything like this in UA - is it trying to follow Delta and its SkyPeso program?
Yep, it’s gone from 900k to 250k in two days. Wild fluctuation. Never seen 900k UA awards before though…
"since all can marry anyone now" . . . that is, for now. Certain political factions seek to restrict this ability, including interracial marriage. Besides, some long-term couples don't marry. Alternatively, there might be an adult child who is the obvious choice. Seems best to leave it at the household level.
As a million miler myself who is the CEO of the company, I don’t travel as much as the sales team. My spouse is on the sales team and has been sharing his 1K status with me until this year. I share my status with our daughter so I can no longer benefit from his 1K status. So, as usual, I seem to be in the middle of the now broken conga line even though I’m paying for his flights . My gold status shared with our daughter at least saves us the cost of extra luggage charges.