We’ve got a chock full episode this week featuring Scott Mayerowitz of The Associated Press and host of the Getta Outta Here podcast, chating with Ed about what it’s like to transition from being a business traveler to a family traveler! Matthew Klint from Live and Let’s Fly joins us in bemoaning the recent changes United has made for it’s Premier 1k top tier passengers. Jen Yellin from Deals We Like is back this week with the latest low down on Amex offers.
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Timestamps
- 03:13 – Changes to United’s Premier 1k Status
- 06:00 – How Premier Qualifying Dollars differ on United vs. American
- 10:30 – Impacting how you earn Premier Qualifying Dollars on Discounted First Tickets
- 14:30 – Swapping Regional Premier Upgrades vs. Global Premier Upgrades
- 22:20 – It’s a Big Deal with Jen from Deals We Like
- 27:30 – Chatting with Scott Mayerowitz from the AP
- 29:17 – Changing Phases of Family Travel
- 33:30 – How Family Travel Will Impact How You Book Hotels
- 43:18 – TF2P
Show Notes & Links
Matt’s blog post on United Premier 1k Changes
Jen’s blog post on recent Amex Offers
Scott’s podcast: Get Outta Here
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The post United 1k Pain, Amex Offers & Transitioning To Family Travel – M2G 033 was first published on Miles to Go.
This is my opportunity to step away from United. They will probably lose $10k+ of the $12k+ I have been spending in them each year. I was originally annoyed by this but am now finding it freeing. Rather than spending $1,600 on a transatlantic and hoping for an upgrade, they often came through. I will by the >$500 flights at times and cheap P class business fares at others, Looking forward to trying the Alaska program and their partners,
Levy Flight, will you switch your business mainly to one program, or do you think you’ll be a free agent?
Such a valuable guest (Matthew Klint) to have on – he is so knowledgeable on all things UA and has a fair perspective and info that matters to offer and discuss. The W class requirement to use GPUs is absolutely something UA should consider dropping with the new RPU>GPU change. It would make a huge difference in both elite customer satisfaction. I’m a new UA Plat and will now likely never meet the new 15k PQD spend for 1k. Disappointing change. Thanks for the informative podcast this week Ed (and Matthew)!
Nancy, I agree that Matthew is a valuable guest! I always enjoy catching up with him. We actually ran into each other last year quite by accident at the Lufthansa F terminal in Frankfurt last year. He has an exceptional perspective on United.
And, I couldn’t agree more on removing the W class restriction on GPUs.
Also..keep in mind..Scott Kirby NOT Oscar Munoz runs this place. Scott doesn’t like the big spenders. He obviously thinks they are a PITA and doesn’t want to deal with making them happy. He can drive away some 1K flyers and replace them with people who will sit in any seat and not care about anything in the world
Ryan, Kirby is also the one that says over 80% of the customers only fly the airline once a year. I think Scott likes big spenders, especially when he doesn’t have to give them upgrades.
I listened… good Podcast.. why aren’t you happy? 1K is almost pointless. I booked full fare coach last minute, never any upgrades…too many 1Ks.. way too many. The only think I think United needs to tweak is making sure TOD upgrades are limited a little more since they are making 1K more exclusive. For the sake of 1Ks like me who are at 10% upgrades, this is our only hope. There has to be something exclusive that is attainable
Ryan, I think it’s highly unlikely they’ll tweak the upgrade formula to give 1Ks more. Rather, I think they’ll tweak it DOWN when the new changes roll out. They enjoy the money they collect from customers wishing to upgrade. Doubt they want to forego that.