Questions and Answers

I have been a Mileage Plus member since the early 1980’s but I have only flown on United about 45000 lifetime miles. That said I, my wife and children have flown many times on United using award miles earned through my Chase Mileage Plus credit card. I just recently started reading blogs about frequent flyer programs and learned about the now closed Mileage Plus Presidential Plus Card. Having read about someone who talked their way into the Card several years after it closed to new card holders, I decided to try myself and after much extremely polite cajoling and repeatedly referencing my long term relationship with Chase Mileage Plus Cards through several layers of supervisors, I was granted a Presidential Card ( yes I know, not the Club Card). I do not expect to fly any paid United miles ( with the exception of using Chase Ultimate Rewards that I will earn when I get the Chase Sapphire Card at some future date). I expect to put $100K on the Presidential Card each year.
What strategies can I employ to maximize the Flexible Premium Qualifying miles (about 20K) I will earn each year ( I don’t necessarily want to go for Silver status as soon as I can if waiting to earn more PQM later ( perhaps with some paid United flights using Chase Ultimate Awards from a Chase Sapphire card) will be a better way to go for higher or sustained premium status? Any ideas would be most appreciated.

If you dont plan on flying many paid United tickets, why go for status with them? I feel that the card’s benefits are really tailored to someone who flies United frequently.

100k spend for 20k United PQMs wont even get you to their lowest elite level – Premier Silver. I don’t think it is worth it. I think it’s more preferable to put the spend on a Chase card where the rewards and flexible and can be transferred to UA when necessary. Even if you “save” the PQMs over 3 years, that’s still just 60k PQMs. taking 3 years to earn Premier Gold is quite ridiculous.

Furthermore, for their top tier 1K status, you need to earn 100k PQMs and the one’s you get via the Presidential card do not count towards this.

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 31060, member: 29″]If you dont plan on flying many paid United tickets, why go for status with them? I feel that the card’s benefits are really tailored to someone who flies United frequently.

100k spend for 20k United PQMs wont even get you to their lowest elite level – Premier Silver. I don’t think it is worth it. I think it’s more preferable to put the spend on a Chase card where the rewards and flexible and can be transferred to UA when necessary. Even if you “save” the PQMs over 3 years, that’s still just 60k PQMs. taking 3 years to earn Premier Gold is quite ridiculous.

Furthermore, for their top tier 1K status, you need to earn 100k PQMs and the one’s you get via the Presidential card do not count towards this.[/QUOTE]

My thinking was that I just spent over $200 on economy plus tickets for me on an award flight. Plus I also like access to the Clubs. It would be nice to get that for free on a long term basis. As I said, I do fly quite a bit on economy award tickets. The two bags for free for me and my wife is also worth a lot to me. I know that the Club Card can get me the bags but not the economy plus. I don’t know, it may be fuzzy thinking, but that is what I was looking at. As I mentioned, I can wait for the gold premium status for a year and a half if I can sustain it.
Thanks for looking at my question and your response. I may have to rethink this.

[USER=3160]@Lucky Tom[/USER], would you mind sharing how much they are charging for the card now?

I believe that it is $450 a year; the same cost of a club membership. Worth it to me for reasons I’ve already stated. The way I look at it, I was using an Explorer card for many years and racking up miles. Now for the same spend I can get the same miles plus FPQM and status perhaps two out of every three years- essentially for free when considering the extra bag fees and the economy plus upgrades when I fly on awards which my wife and I do several times a year. I know she won’t be automatically eligible for upgrades on award tickets but half a loaf…. I know that there other cards with a smaller fee that will get me more miles on some spend but with Mileage Plus Dining, Mileage Plus X and Mileage Plus Shopping I get multiple miles on a lot of my spend anyway. As David W noted above, taking two and a half years to get Gold status is a relatively long time, but spending the same on a card that doesn’t result in any status ever seems to be a wasted opportunity. I believe that United thinks there is real customer value in the Presidential card because they closed it to new applicants.
Is my reasoning off base?

You really have to do the math and see how much you value the benefits. Some people want the club access, others could care less etc. It certainly is a unique proposition so if it works for you, go for it. It’s not like you’re locked in for life. If you change your mind you can always go back.

Thanks Gaurav. Let the experiment commence. I’ll post something when I have some results one way or another. I am still wondering if anyone has suggestions as to how I can maximize the FPQM benefit.
I don’t want to hijack my own question but I wonder why some people don’t find the club access desirable. If nothing else, it makes scheduling layovers a lot less painful and therefore more flexible.

It’s more than that, you also get both PQD waiver and minimum segment waiver without a minimum soend on the CC. [QUOTE=”Lucky Tom, post: 31064, member: 3160″]My thinking was that I just spent over $200 on economy plus tickets for me on an award flight. Plus I also like access to the Clubs. It would be nice to get that for free on a long term basis. As I said, I do fly quite a bit on economy award tickets. The two bags for free for me and my wife is also worth a lot to me. I know that the Club Card can get me the bags but not the economy plus. I don’t know, it may be fuzzy thinking, but that is what I was looking at. As I mentioned, I can wait for the gold premium status for a year and a half if I can sustain it.
Thanks for looking at my question and your response. I may have to rethink this.[/QUOTE]