Some United Airlines loyalty members have noticed that their elite status has been extended until January 2023. It’s not clear why some members have had their status extended and others have not. According to Live and Lets Fly there will also be reduced requirements for earning elite status:
- Silver – 3,000 PQP/8 PQF or 3,500 PQP
- Gold – 6,000 PQP/16 PQF or 7,000 PQP
- Platinum – 9,000 PQP/24 PQF or 10,000 PQP
- 1K – 13,500 PQP/36 PQF or 15,000 PQP
I was near qualifying again for 1k. And they sent the email before I did. I’ve flown intl and business class this year. And my normal route (China) is effectively closed.
Happy to have it, though I was busting my $#% and spent more money in Q4 already trying to qualify. That’s sucks.
I got the extension, email didn’t say anything about business travel. I had flown enough to requal for silver and would have needed an additional ~1k PQP to hit the Fly to the Finish goal. I also recently opened a United business card and put about $23k spend on it, and have a PerksPlus account.
got extended, just made platinum with 10K pqd fwiw
At least they’re doing something, even if it isn’t for everyone. I’ve left AA behind because their attitude has been “nope, no status for you, no reduced requirements, all that matters is spend”
By the way, if you weren’t targeted, call United, it worked for me.
Didn’t get the email but did see an expiration of Feb 1st 2022 on my account.
I’m one of the people who was extended, and the language in my email specifically references my business travel: “we recognize that with business travel being limited, you couldn’t be in the skies as much as usual.” That plus the fact that I got extra PQP as part of Fly to the Finish because I was identified as a corporate customer (having booked through a corporate portal code in the past) makes me think at least part of the targeting criteria for extension was these business code customers who made an effort this year but didn’t get all the way.
I understand why it’s disappointing for many, but personally I’m thrilled because I had just started to fight it out with United CS over ambiguity in the terms of their Fly to the Finish status offer, which included credit card spending as a way to earn PQF as part of the offer, but PQP earned the same way didn’t count (meaning I put a lot of spend on my Explorer card to earn 500 PQP that should have qualified me but didn’t).
I’m a courier, job books through a 3rd party, exact same notations as yours.
I also received an extension, which I earned mostly with a business portal-booked RT business class flight to the Middle East in 2019. My email said, “we recognize that with so many countries restricting travelers, you couldn’t be in the skies as much as usual.”
So they seem to have a few different buckets to identify business travelers, in hopes to retain that patronage for those who resume business travel in 2022. I guess they are not targeting those who earned it via domestic travel, flights not booked through business travel portals, or some other combination of factors.
(I also opened a United Quest this summer, just to supplement the datapoint.)
This kind of action just leaves a bad taste no matter if you have been targeted for status extension. I for one, will fly Delta as much I can and avoid United next year.
Weird they haven’t done any marketing around this. I think Delta’s extension caught them flat footed. The 3k PQP per status tier requirement is clearly matching Delta, making their initial 4K PQP per status tier thresholds from 2019 rollout look clownish.
The extension is poorly executed because it betrays flyers who were active this year for the benefit of road warriors who could end up being long-term Zoom warriors. At least DL is prioritising “real” elites for upgrades
Yea, this last second “surprise, some of you!” is… odd at best. Wonder how they’re gonna walk it back.