Santa arrives late: United offering 90-day fast-track to elite status
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Update: From recent comments, it seems that this offer has been pulled. Sorry to those who missed out.
United Airlines is playing Santa a little late. (Or maybe they’re tipping their hat to the Orthodox calendar?) United is making it ridiculously easy to obtain elite status.
For some time, American Airlines has offered their so-called “challenges,” whereby you obtain elite status for a full year by flying a fraction of those miles within 90 days. Most airlines have been loath to offer such shortcuts to elite status. (American’s challenges measure qualifying points, not just miles, so be sure to understand the rules. A basic overview is here. An old but generally still correct primer on the subject of AA challenges is here.)
Now United is following American’s lead and offering a similar program. This is different from United’s earlier “pre-paid” status. Last year, and perhaps earlier, United offered prepaid “gift cards” for $5,000, $10,000, or $20,000, that came with Premier, Premier Executive, or 1K benefits, respectively. But the airline’s adoption of fast-track challenges is new.
According to this thread on FlyerTalk, you’ll need to call the United Mileage Plus (1-800-421-4655) and ask to participate in the challenge. Mention offer code MPP557.
The terms: Pay $100 to participate. Then earn 6,250 elite-qualifying miles within 90 days of registering to earn Premier status. Earn 12,500 elite-qualifying miles on United within 90 days of registering to earn Premier Executive status (which gives Star Alliance Gold status). All paid United tickets qualify, and higher fare classes and premium cabins give a bonus. Only United/United Express/Ted flights count, so no codeshares or alliance flights. If you want to go all the way to 1K, however, there are two caveats: 1) You need to have been 1K in 2006 and failed to requalify for 2007, and 2) only tickets booked in the more expensive fare classes (F, A, P, C, D, Z, Y or B) will count for the challenge.
Status obtained through such a challenge will last through February 2008. Thereafter, you’ll have to earn it the hard way. Unless, of course, another challenge crops up…
If you’re going to be flying anyway, and you don’t already have the elite mojo, this might be worth your while. A mileage run (flying for the sake of miles) might be worth it, too, if the price is right. 12,500 elite-qualifying miles aren’t really that hard to obtain, and this is a really cheap route to elite status.
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January 5th, 2007 at 12:51 am |
Need to get your facts straight!
United says that this is only for 2006 elite members that didn’t requalify, and that 1K is only for 2006 1K members who didnt requalify.
January 5th, 2007 at 9:27 am |
Dan:
That’s not quite right, either, though you are correct re: 1Ks.
A clarification, which I am adding to the main post:
While United tells me that the 1K offer is only for requalification (members who had 1K status in 2006 but didn’t make it for 2007), they tell me you can go from zero status to Premier or Premier Executive with this offer.
January 5th, 2007 at 12:36 pm |
Hmm, the terms and conditions on the web seem rather incomplete as they don’t spell out who can use this offer. And reading the Flyertalk thread, it doesn’t seem that you can go from zero status to 1P or 2P unless you dropped to zero. In other words, my grandma, who never had status anywhere (never set foot on an airplane) couldn’t use this offer to become a UA 2P.
On the other hand, it does seem that I, a 2005/6/7 2P could use this offer to move up to 1P for the rest of the year
January 24th, 2007 at 10:49 pm |
I called United and they said no such offer exists to get status quicker. I am even booked on 8 united cross country flights over the next 2 months and they wouldn’t do anything.
January 29th, 2007 at 4:42 pm |
I too, called United a few times, and each time was told that the offer was only for those with prior Premier (or above) who failed to make requalification. Apparently, they will not allow even members who just missed qualification in 2006 — referring me to either offer of Economy Plus Access with Premier fast track $749 or to purchase the additional segments for qualification from 2006 — neither option close to the $100 to participate in United’s challenge.
January 29th, 2007 at 4:49 pm |
It sounds like United may have changed the terms of this one a number of times since they first unveiled it. Note that they never officially announced anything, per se, but they’ve been shifting the goalposts. Sorry for those who were denied.
April 3rd, 2007 at 12:19 pm |
I just signed up for this program. I had been Premier Exec in 2006, but lost status all the way down to Premier Associate for this year (Didn’t even know they HAD a Premier Associate program…its basically General Member for those people who lost status).
The fee has gone up. It’s now $299 for the fast-track. The mileage numbers are the same.. 6250 for Premier, 12500 for Premier Exec.
I was told on the phone that you can only re-qualify for the status you were the year before (for me, I can only try to re-qualify at Premier Executive, not Premier). This seems very odd to me. it basically says that even if I fly the 6250 miles I won’t get to be Premier…
Hoping they are incorrect, although I will probably be fine in getting the necessary miles for Premier Exec. Already done 5500 miles with another 4600 miles coming up at the end of next month. can anyone say short trip to chicago and back on a saturday to get my status back??
July 26th, 2007 at 2:28 am |
[…] Commuting to the US And you can Fast Track status on United: Santa arrives late: United offering 90-day fast-track to elite status » Upgrade: Travel Better Details on Elite Fast-Track Challenge - MPP557 [Merged Threads] - FlyerTalk […]