Their are many more types of awards that you can avoid surcharges with which makes United very attractive program at times. In addition, you will also have to meet the requirement for premier qualifying dollars PQD. You should note that there is also an invitation only elite status called United Global Services. To obtain Global Services, you typically need to spend a lot on United airfare.
You can find out more about that status below. Once you obtain elite status with United, you will be able to enjoy all of the following benefits:. Also, it is possible to purchase United Premier Access for a modest amount of money. Thus, you may always want to think about alternative methods for getting these benefits.
The most notable benefit from United Premier Silver is probably the complementary upgrades to economy plus. In many instances, those are virtually guaranteed which means that most of the time when you fly economy on United you will be able to enjoy more legroom.
You can also get premier upgrades to business class on occasion but those are much more rare as a silver member. Typically, you will need to be flying on a mostly leisure route to expect an upgrade to business class. United Premier Gold offers a lot of the same benefits that United Premier Silver offers but it comes with the addition of granting lounge access when traveling internationally.
You can read more about the status here. United Premier Platinum offers economy plus upgrades for up to eight individuals which is a big step up from the only one additional companion offered by the lower tiers. You can also receive confirmation about your Premier upgrades as early as 72 hours before departure. This tier also offers Regional Premier Upgrades eligibility and the ability to check three bags in for free even when flying economy.
United Premier 1K offers the same benefits that Platinum receives but allows you to receive confirmation about your Premier upgrades as early as 96 hours before departure. Additional perks include: instant upgrades on M-class economy tickets and Global Premier Upgrades eligibility. Global Services is a little bit mysterious because United does not publish a whole lot about it. Global Services recognizes the extraordinary dedication of our top flyers.
At this point, it was clear that frequent flyer miles had a monetary value. So, in , the IRS released a statement that it would not pursue taxes on the personal use of frequent flyer miles. This move essentially left mileage programs in the Wild West of regulation and oversight.
Since they were not considered financial instruments, airlines were allowed to institute draconian terms and conditions that largely left consumers at the mercy of airlines. One of the most significant developments in frequent flyer programs was the introduction of airline credit cards that earned miles on everyday spending.
This single evolution shifted the entire landscape of mileage programs and expanded their scope to the public at large, whether they were already frequent flyers or not.
The first U. Around this time, Chase and TWA also partnered on a mileage card. American Express and Delta began issuing cobranded cards in — the beginning of a fruitful, decades-long collaboration. Since then, major airlines and their issuers have developed multiple tiers of credit cards ranging from no-annual-fee basic ones to premium products that include plenty of value-added benefits such as airport lounge access or the ability to earn companion tickets.
Related: Are airline credit cards worth it anymore? Besides airline cobranded cards, several issuers created proprietary points programs of their own where members could transfer the points to a number of airline and hotel partners. Diners Club introduced the first credit card with points you could transfer to airline mileage programs in Each program partners with over a dozen airline and hotel programs.
All four programs issue multiple credit cards ranging from basic to premium. While this has largely been to the benefit of consumers — who have seen their options for earning and redeeming points multiply many times over thanks to exciting new credit cards — it also makes deciding which cards to get and how to use them that much more complicated.
Overall, though, the more choices we have, the better off we are. With the formation and expansion of airline alliances in the s and s, flyers saw their opportunities to earn and redeem miles across different carriers dramatically increase as well. Star Alliance , of which United is a member, became the first of these organizations when it was formed in May All this means that flyers should be able to earn miles in their two or three target programs on nearly every major flight they take.
On the redemption side, it means being able to use their miles to fly to hundreds, if not thousands, of destinations that might otherwise have been inaccessible. Airline mergers have occurred since almost the beginning of commercial aviation.
But in the last 18 years or so, the number of mergers and the size of the airlines participating have resulted in unprecedented consolidation within the industry and further standardization of frequent flyer programs into the forms we know today.
Each of these mergers has represented both benefits and costs to consumers. On the positive side, mergers included the integration of mileage programs so people could combine their various accounts. In some cases, this opened up new awards to flyers as their miles became part of new programs and usable on new alliances. On the negative side, mergers produced a lot of uncertainty mile-wise. Airlines could switch alliances. Those shifts meant that flyers who had diligently accrued miles in a certain mileage program in the hopes of redeeming awards on specific partners either had to book their awards within a very limited time frame or rethink their entire strategy.
Not only that, but flyers had to learn new award rules and charts based on those of the mileage program that remained standing after a merger. With each consolidation came a frenzy of mileage activity that also sent award space into a tailspin, which probably created some of the increasing scarcity of saver-level awards at least pre-pandemic. The disappearance of an airline and its mileage program also usually meant the changeover or outright cancellation of associated credit card products.
The Virgin America family of cobranded cards was closed in January Although fewer choices generally mean worse options for consumers, the offerings have remained fairly competitive and consistent in the case of airline credit cards.
We still see some great bonuses and benefits being offered. In , America West established a mileage program called FlightFund , which issued miles based on fare price rather than miles flown. FlightFund went the way of the dodo in after the airline merged with US Airways.
However, its FlightFund formula was the one that both JetBlue and Southwest replicated with their mileage programs in the s. In , the U. Rocky started blogging on his own website When Doublewides Fly to share information about flying around the world on a dime. By maximizing miles and points, cheap deals, sales, backpacking, and couchsurfing Rocky has traveled to 75 countries and still counting.
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