United MileagePlus has announced changes to its Premier status program for 2024. This is actually good news on balance — elite requirements aren’t changing, and there are more ways to qualify for status. United is following the industry trend here, and is obviously trying to get members to spend more on co-branded credit cards, and these changes are a reflection of that.
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MileagePlus maintains elite requirements for 2024
United MileagePlus is maintaining the same elite requirements for the upcoming program year (where you qualify in 2024, for status valid throughout 2025). Just as we’ve seen in 2023, here are the elite requirements for 2024 (as a reminder, one PQP is equal to one dollar spent on United airfare):
- Premier Silver requires 12 PQF and 4,000 PQP, OR just 5,000 PQP
- Premier Gold requires 24 PQF and 8,000 PQP, OR just 10,000 PQP
- Premier Platinum requires 36 PQF and 12,000 PQP, OR just 15,000 PQP
- Premier 1K requires 54 PQF and 18,000 PQP, OR just 24,000 PQP
United claims that it’s maintaining the same elite requirements because “we’re staying loyal to MileagePlus members the same way they’ve remained loyal to us.” Lol, really? So when United increased elite requirements in the past, was it because United wasn’t being loyal to members, or because members weren’t being loyal to United? When MileagePlus devalued miles multiple times in recent years, was that also related to loyalty?
The logic here is obvious — airlines aren’t in quite as good of a position as they were a year ago. Business travel hasn’t recovered to pre-pandemic levels, and leisure demand growth is slowing down. Regardless of the justification, this is great news, especially compared to Delta SkyMiles.
MileagePlus elite members get elite status jumpstart
Existing MileagePlus elite members are getting an elite status jumpstart in 2024. In early 2024, United will automatically deposit PQPs into MileagePlus accounts based on status earned in 2023. This applies to anyone who earned status, with the exception of those on a trial or status challenge.
Specifically, this MileagePlus jumpstart for 2024 will be as follows:
- Premier Silver members will get a jumpstart of 250 PQPs
- Premier Gold members will get a jumpstart of 500 PQPs
- Premier Platinum members will get a jumpstart of 750 PQPs
- Premier 1K members will get a jumpstart of 1,250 PQPs
These jumpstarts are smaller than in the previous year, but that’s still better than nothing.
MileagePlus elite status easier to earn with credit cards
All of the major US carriers are trying to increase the amount that people spend on co-branded credit cards. While United isn’t going quite as far as American or Delta in this regard, United is making several changes that make it easier to earn status with Chase co-branded credit card spending in 2024 and beyond:
- Cardmembers will earn 25 PQPs for every $500 in qualifying credit card purchases; previously cardmembers earned 500 PQPs for every $12,000 spent, so you can earn PQPs 20% faster than before, and in smaller increments
- PQPs earned through credit card spending will count toward all elite tiers, including Premier 1K, while previously there were restrictions on credit card PQPs counting toward Premier 1K
- You’ll be able to earn up to 10,000 PQPs annually with the United Club Infinite Card, up from the current limit of 8,000 PQPs in 2023
- There will be no more cap on how many total PQPs you can earn across cards, while currently you’re limited to earning a total of 15,000 PQPs across all co-branded United cards
My take on these United MileagePlus changes
Hey, it’s nice to see an airline announcing some program changes that aren’t negative, for once. But as I said above, United isn’t doing this out of the kindness of its heart, but rather is doing this because there’s no justification for increasing requirements, given the state of travel.
These changes regarding earning PQPs for credit card spending are a step in the right direction, though frankly I find United’s system for spending counting toward elite status to still be unnecessarily complex, and to not maximize revenue for the airline.
I think it’s highly likely that for the 2025 program year, United makes some radical changes to how status is earned, to more closely follow the American AAdvantage and Delta SkyMiles changes. After all, credit card spending is where the money is for airlines.
Bottom line
United MileagePlus has announced elite status changes for 2024, and they’re mostly good news. Elite requirements aren’t increasing in 2024, and United will still offer an elite status jumpstart for next year, though it’ll be smaller than in 2023.
The most significant adjustments relate to credit card spending, and how it’ll be easier to earn PQPs with credit cards. These changes make sense, given that airlines have a strong incentive to get people to spend on cards. I imagine this is just the beginning of United playing catch-up with American (and now Delta) on encouraging co-brand card spending.
What do you make of these MileagePlus changes?
I was solicited to take the Quest Card from Chase/United after having the Explorer card for 5 years with nothing much to notice. I signed up for the Quest and was accepted and then decided I didn't need 2 cards from the same bank and airline and since then, for some strange reason, Chase has cancelled 3 United cards (Quest, Business and Club Card) and a bank account. I am not in the drug or...
I was solicited to take the Quest Card from Chase/United after having the Explorer card for 5 years with nothing much to notice. I signed up for the Quest and was accepted and then decided I didn't need 2 cards from the same bank and airline and since then, for some strange reason, Chase has cancelled 3 United cards (Quest, Business and Club Card) and a bank account. I am not in the drug or weapons business or anything. I have a credit score around 790 and paid the bills in full. I am United 1K for the past 3 years from actual flying and am getting more frustrated with United as they ONLY use Chase and for some reason I cannot figure out, I am on the bad list with Chase. I have not had any Chase cards other than United for years. It would be nice to have even the old explorer card again as I have tons of United miles, over 1 million and I know there are better redemption options if you have a Chase card. Chase's customer service has no idea what is wrong and the local banker does not know why either.
Earning a FF Status by spending money on a credit card?
This industry has gone a long way towards stupidity....
Jm2c
So, if my math is correct: You’ll earn the equivalent of 1 PQP for every $20 spent, up to a cap of 10,000 PQPs. So that’s $200,000 in spend to get Premier Gold!? Crazy.
One of the best things about being a Million Miler is not having to chase status every year. United has the best MM program, because my spouse also gets my status, for life.
As I posted on another forum ,I find it quite ironic that there is a positive spin on these changes compared to delta. I’m no delta fanboy (most of my flying recently has been with AA )but if you compare delta silver to united silver it’s the same 5000 “points “ to achieve status vis cc spend alone. So if one compares the delta reserve to united club infinite card it will take $100k in...
As I posted on another forum ,I find it quite ironic that there is a positive spin on these changes compared to delta. I’m no delta fanboy (most of my flying recently has been with AA )but if you compare delta silver to united silver it’s the same 5000 “points “ to achieve status vis cc spend alone. So if one compares the delta reserve to united club infinite card it will take $100k in spend to achieve silver on UA but on reserve it will take only 25k to get delta silver since you get a $2500 mqd head start. United is de facto the worst of the big 3 but somehow no backlash. I guess some of it is psychological since pdq is a little easier to earn now.
Totally agree. Also DL got ripped for the Platinum MQD earning ratio being 20:1 where UA's top card only earns at a 20:1 ratio; and you have to hit the full threshold to even get rewarded with the PQPs. A DL Reserve card gets you double the earnings than every single UA card.
United is USA's only real international Airline, and yet any international customer, has NO credit card option.
Have United decided to give up, on it's international customers?
you mean that United flies more international capacity and more planes, whether they have the most state of the art fleet or not (they don't) to more foreign destinations than any other US airline but they don't make any more money on their international network than Delta. in fact, just the opposite is true.
United 1) has a better hard, soft and lounge product than Delta and 2) has nearly as old an average fleet age.
Only on Polaris. For domestic every time I fly United domestic I find myself on a plane that looks like it’s from the 1980s. At least DL upgrades its domestic cabins. And regardless of route you still get treated like sh*t by UA’s FAs.
And please don’t construe this response as piling on with TD… different point. I agree that UA has a better international and premium transcon product. But it’s not with being treated badly to experience it.
First, a fraction of the traveling public flies business class and not one of Delta's widebody aircraft has seats as narrow as United or American have in economy on its 777s in 10 abreast or 787s in 9 abreast.
Second, Polaris is not industry-leading. It is consistent across UA's fleet but the Delta One Suite is a verifiably more advanced product with doors - which not a single Polaris seat has.
Third, United...
First, a fraction of the traveling public flies business class and not one of Delta's widebody aircraft has seats as narrow as United or American have in economy on its 777s in 10 abreast or 787s in 9 abreast.
Second, Polaris is not industry-leading. It is consistent across UA's fleet but the Delta One Suite is a verifiably more advanced product with doors - which not a single Polaris seat has.
Third, United is fairly unique among global airlines in trying to have a consistent product in business class across multiple aircraft types of varying ages. Delta is the norm, not the exception, in having varied business class products and most airlines including Delta prove they know where to deploy each type of product.
Finally, soft product is subjective but the vast majority of surveys rate Delta higher for onboard service due to its flight attendants and Delta consistently receives better scores for customer service than United across its entire network.
Based in Europe Mileage Plus was a fair program for more than a decade.
Now it's the same "revenue" requirements as US-based flyers, when at least some (if not a fiar bit) of flying has to be with partners. On top of that for partner tickets within Europe or to Asia I am only earning a fraction of the actual cost of that ticket.
Does anybody know if the cap by specific credit card type will remain? For example, with the United Explorer card you're capped at 1,000 PQP earned in a year no matter how much you spend.
All cards, including the business Club card, retain their 1,000 PQP cap. The only exceptions are Quest and Club Infinite (and no annual fee cards, which don’t earn PQP).
Quest is pretty close to Explorer in terms of effective annual fee and value once you’re in its second year, so probably a better card if you want more than 1,000 PQP through spending.
So 125k in spending on UA CC gets me to Silver.. not even Gold? That sucks
Sigh, yes. And that is assuming the caps have been lifted across credit card types. The United Explorer card caps PQP earnings at 1,000 regardless of spend. This is why I asked to the forum if anybody knew if they were rescinding this. The wording around the credit card cap is confusing.
For clarification - "There will be no more cap on how many total PQPs you can earn across cards" - there are per card limits but no limit if you have multiple cards?
That is exactly what I want to know! The wording is so vague.
Yes. Exactly that. There used to be a 15K cap across all cards total. Now there is no cap. But individual cards still have a cap. They are obviously trying to drive status seekers to higher annual fee cards. I don’t know if they actually think people will open more than one card just to increase the cap; I’m guessing they’re just ambivalent, as they’ve been all along, as to whether they want elites who...
Yes. Exactly that. There used to be a 15K cap across all cards total. Now there is no cap. But individual cards still have a cap. They are obviously trying to drive status seekers to higher annual fee cards. I don’t know if they actually think people will open more than one card just to increase the cap; I’m guessing they’re just ambivalent, as they’ve been all along, as to whether they want elites who spend more than they fly.
They’ve never really marketed their cards as status earners; more as status perkers, and even the current scheme is really just a direct descendent of the old perk where spending $25,000 would waive PQD requirements, with math that followed from the old Presidential Plus card, which was the only card where you could earn PQM by spending with it.
They’re creeping towards where AA and Delta have gone with these changes, where they’re fine with credit card based elites, and I agree with Ben that something more straightforward may emerge in the future.
One of the airlines’ biggest revenue streams is through co-branded credit cards. But now that they’ve devalued their points base so much trying to get just one long-haul business class ticket even one-way is nearly unattainable for the average person (even when taking advantage of signup bonuses and points-transfers). I’ve already dumped 6 of my airline specific cards this year and have no plans to reapply. Bye bye guys, it was a good ride but now I’m just done.
"United claims that it’s maintaining the same elite requirements because “we’re staying loyal to MileagePlus members the same way they’ve remained loyal to us.” Lol, really? So when United increased elite requirements in the past, was it because United wasn’t being loyal to members, or because members weren’t being loyal to United? When MileagePlus devalued miles multiple times in recent years, was that also related to loyalty?"
Amazing snark and I'm here for it.
What will be the cap in PQP you can earn from a Chase United Explorer card?
Does MileagePlus Select Credit Card spend count towards PQD earning?
Oops, I mean PQP, not PQD
United is copying DL’s $20 per MQM ratio, plain and simple.
They’re also reneging on promise from last year to keep the program the same by reducing the starter bonuses, which effectively increases the tier requirements 7% for Silver, Gold, Plat who requalify through PQF. Increase is 5.5% for requalifying without PQF
Can you review the United Club Business Card?
I’ll review it: if you value a United Club membership, it’s the cheapest way ($450) to get it, and if you value up to 1,000 extra PQP, it has the least opportunity cost since it earns an extra 50% on unbonused spend (1.5x). If you’re not an elite, it offers some useful Silver-like perks (Premier Access, mainly useful
if you check bags, or don’t have PreCheck). That’s really the whole story. I have one,...
I’ll review it: if you value a United Club membership, it’s the cheapest way ($450) to get it, and if you value up to 1,000 extra PQP, it has the least opportunity cost since it earns an extra 50% on unbonused spend (1.5x). If you’re not an elite, it offers some useful Silver-like perks (Premier Access, mainly useful
if you check bags, or don’t have PreCheck). That’s really the whole story. I have one, I like it, those are the things it does.
Club Infinite has much broader bonus categories (but worse unbonused spend), TSA/GE credit, higher annual fee ($525), the same Premier Access, and the opportunity to earn many more PQP (up to 10,000) by spending.
I prefer the lower annual fee and the higher unbonused earning of the business version, but I hate the cap.
UA and MileagePlus are smart in managing the expectations. They did increase the dollar requirement (PQPs) but over the past two years they added jumpstart to bridge the gap between "old" and "new" criteria. That lever helped them adjust to the market demand. For 2024, the jumpstart deposits would actually be much lower than previous years while the overall PQPs remain largely unchanged.
So for the sake of clarity, the PQPs earned through credit card spend will count toward 1K status at either the 18K+54 segment path or the 24K PQP path, correct?
UA's email expressly states it.
Citi and AA have really set a standard with the Executive Card, which is the card that grants access to AA's Admirals Clubs as well as Alaska's lounges and a range of international partner lounges (many of which are Priority Pass lounges). 4X on AA purchases. 10X on hotels and car rentals booked via AA's platform. A range of statement credits. And, no single-card cap on earning tier status points. United and Delta are sorely noncompetitive in this area.
United is pushing credit card requirements and not touching elite qualification for the simple reason that United Next requires adding a bunch of capacity to domestic markets by upgauging to larger aircraft.
They are not going to stimulate a low more local demand and already said that they will rely on increasing the amount of basic economy fares to help fill planes.
Maintaining credit card and elite requirements is simply an attempt to...
United is pushing credit card requirements and not touching elite qualification for the simple reason that United Next requires adding a bunch of capacity to domestic markets by upgauging to larger aircraft.
They are not going to stimulate a low more local demand and already said that they will rely on increasing the amount of basic economy fares to help fill planes.
Maintaining credit card and elite requirements is simply an attempt to maintain and try to gain a few higher value customers.
United and Delta need a comprehensive reassessment of their credit cards. I don't say this from a gimme-gimme-gimme perspective. Collectively, the recent changes to the Citi AA Executive Card are a game-changer. Of course, United and Delta are going to do what they're going to do. But, as we know, every credit card ultimately goes through a refresh and it seems that now is the time for United and Delta.
In other words, Delta pushing credit card requirements and touching elite qualification (to make status harder to obtain) is a better way to go, right?
Delta isn't going to stimulate a low more local demand and already said that they will rely on increasing the amount of basic economy fares to help fill planes. Maintaining credit card and worsening elite requirements is simply an attempt to maintain and try to gain a few higher value customers.
Delta has the advantage of a much larger domestic route system and share and also a much revenue contribution from its loyalty program.
Loyalty program and elite benefits have less benefit on the international system where a percentage of the passengers on those flights are not US-based.
AA has a relatively smaller international route system, less success in competitive premium travel markets but a strong domestic system.
Each airline has their challenges but...
Delta has the advantage of a much larger domestic route system and share and also a much revenue contribution from its loyalty program.
Loyalty program and elite benefits have less benefit on the international system where a percentage of the passengers on those flights are not US-based.
AA has a relatively smaller international route system, less success in competitive premium travel markets but a strong domestic system.
Each airline has their challenges but DL is leading the way because they have the financial strength to do so.
Elite qualification via anything other than purchased tickets will decline; doing it during covid and early post-covid was a revenue generating tool for survival and cash build.
Versus delta who has to sacrifice chick fil a and sweet daily daily to the amex altar?