Should I BUY PQMs with United?
 

Here is the situation. I will be just short of my 1K statues by year end unless I pay for a ticket from Ohare to Bangkok and back (which earns roughly 17000 miles). The ticket price is over 2k for an upgradeable fare (which may or may not get an upgrade... altho my per centage is about 95%). I can BUY 20,000 PQMs (the elite miles) for $2200. I have enough miles to do the Bangkok trip in first class.

What would you do??????????

I don't think the miles bought or 'earned' through credit cards count towards th 1k.

I'm a AA flyer, and it doesn't work that way on AA.

Why don't you take a mileage trip or two?

Find a cheap round trip or two before your flight to put you in the 1k status. It will be cheaper than your alternative.

To keep my Platinum status on AA, one year I flew 2 RTs from SFO-JFK. Red eye to JFK, turn around and fly right back.

Another year I've flown a SFO-LHR and back without leaving the airport. They were nice enough to upgrade me to biz class during my trips.

Rastaguy, they DO count on UA. These are not regular FF miles I'm buying. They are elite qualifying miles. My thinking is that for about $2100 I 'might' get to sit in business class on the ORD-BKK trip, after buying a 'w' fare and using GPUs to upgrade (fingers crossed it clears). For $2200 I can ride in first class on frequent flier miles (of which I have plenty) and 'buy' 20k Premium Qualifying Miles. The actual flight for almost the same price only earns about 17,000 miles, give or take.

Booked flights that I already have scheduled between now and the end of the year will earn me just over 81,000 PQMs at this point. I still have a Europe trip to factor in, and that will get me about 9k miles. Buying 20k PQMs will be about 10k 'overkill' but I like the idea of being assured of 1st class for almost the same price as upgradeable economy ticket (plus the miles, of course).

The PQMs cost me 11 cents per mile. The paid trip option would cost me more like 13 cents per mile.

The only thing I'm giving up is some FF miles... that is not a problem.

Seems like you've already figured out the best option; buy the PQMs.

I agree!! Thanks Femi!

You can buy anything from United these days. It's the way they are profitable.

You are pretty much right on that one, Kathie. But I'm not going to feel like I'm cheating on making 1K. Up to now, all of my miles have been the BIS variety (b*** in seat). I've earned all of them!

Oh, you aren't cheating, Carol, you are addicted to being 1K. United has you right where they want you - lol.

Kathie: +1

:)) I suppose so..... heh heh heh

(but, hey, I'm NOT one of these people who gripes about UA!!)

I don't want to rain on your parade; just want to think it through a bit more.

The miles you are giving up are the 120,000 miles for a business class ticket (considering the extra 20,000 for your actual first class award being an "upgrade" from that) plus the 36,000 redeemable miles that you won't earn by flying on the revenue ticket.

For that 156,000 miles you will go from Platinum to 1K. But, you should get some of those back by next year's flying.

As a 1K will get 100% bonus RDMs instead of 75% as Platinum, though the RDMs don't matter much to you. If you fly 80,000 miles next year then the bonus difference will be +20,000 miles as a 1K. So your decision to buy PQMs will cost you about 136,000 miles but also save you $360 (2 cpm times 18,000 miles).

That 95% is the upgrade success for waitlisting on domestic flights? That number would drop some as a Platinum. A big bonus of 1K is the 6 GPUs. Consider that they have lost value. In the past you likely would have seen SWU upgrade seats available, bought a W fare, and got upgraded immediately after booking, and earn those PQM by flying. Now, you are concerned that your GPUs won't clear and so the GPUs may go unused. Those unused GPUs would have to be counted against your GPU success rate.

But guaranteeing your 1K status is worth it to you. I would just look for a way to not end up with 10K overkill. I think that the cost of the 20K PQMs will go up as the year goes on. Are you going to buy that Europe ticket soon? Maybe you can buy fewer PQMs with that ticket but still get to your goal.

Bill, DH and I are looking at the Europe tickets at the moment. There is R availability if we fly into Munich and then on to ZRH, which is always our final destination.

I had not considered the pros and cons you have mentioned. Thanks for that input. I sort of understand what you are saying (but not completely).

My 95% has been on int'l flights, w fare basis. I have been using RDUs for domestic travel (which I still do a lot of). I have not yet needed a UDU offered, but will hope for some between now and end of the year, as I have 3 domestic trips, with all RDUs having been used up already.

I still have 2 GPUs left, which DH and I will use on the Europe trip IF I use miles to go back to BKK in October, which I am thinking I will do.

The offer of the 20,000 GPUs comes with a trip for HNL that I will be using the last week of this month. That is why I need to be making a choice, because once I've taken that trip, the offer disappears. My other booked flights do not offer that many miles. Not sure what the offer will be for ZRH flights.

It's a dilemma...

I think you mean that you would be buying the 20,000 PQMs from an add-on offer to your award ticket to BKK. Am thinking the offer on your Europe ticket would be half the miles at half the cost.

I've read about people making award reservations and then buying the PQMs offered with that ticket. The PQMs post to their account and then they cancel/refund the award ticket. I don't know if that can still be done, but it might give you the opportunity to buy the miles you need now instead of buying them later with the Europe ticket.

Oh, buying the 20,000 PQMs gets you the same amount of RDMs too, doesn't it. Subtract that from your Platinum to 1K cost and it is now 116,000 miles minus the $360.

The offer to buy miles/GPUs is on a HNL ticket, which is a paid ticket. I did a BKK/SYD ticket in July that was with FF miles (in first... it was GREAT). There was an offer, but I do not recall how much it cost to buy miles.

And yes, I buy 20k regular miles, plus 20k GPUs for that $2200, which is about the same cost as a w fare, which may or may not be upgraded to biz from economy. At least with the FF ticket, I'm assured 1st class for that l-o-o-o-n-g trip. I really like the routing from ORD-HKG-BKK the best. Right now it is available on my date!! The return is the tough one right now. And yes, I've got a number of paid flights between now and end of the year, not counting Europe, that will start earning me more miles for flights next year.

So.... I'm still thinking this through, but I'll probably buy the miles after I make my NYC trip this weekend.

Ooops... that 20k GPUs should say 20k PQMs..... :))

I just took a look at the accelerator offer on an award trip that I have booked.

It shows two options. At first, the one on the right offers 39,946 award miles for $840. When I add my MP number the page reloads and the offer changes. It shows the same number of miles but the offer jumps 50% to $1260.

Click on the checkbox and the premier accelerator offer is $3600. The button down below now says "Get more miles for $4860".

Click on that button and the Payment Information page shows that I will get 60,000 award miles and 60,000 PQMs. That is a 50% jump in miles and rounded up. The price is still $4860.

Considering that I would only be interested in buying the PQMs, that comes out to 8.1 cents per PQM. The 60,000 award miles are "for free".

That nice round number of 20,000 that you mentioned makes it sound like you have clicked through from the offer page to the Payment Information page. If you haven't done that then you ought to try it - it might show a higher number of miles.

I just saw your first reply to me. So, you will be using up all of your GPUs and 95% success rate is for GPUs on international itineraries.

Now I understand that your 20K EQM offer is for the Hawaii trip and NOT for the BKK award trip. In that case, there is no need to see what the offer will be with the ZRH trip because it is about he same distance as HNL - the offer for ZRH should be about the same as HNL (both less than a BKK offer).

The bottom line with the offer is that, as you mentioned, you would be giving up some miles - 116,000 miles as I figure it. But you would also save $360.

What is the accelerator offer (on the Payment Information page) for your upcoming NYC trip? Can you get 11,000 PQMs with that?

I over-explained again, I think. To me your plan is a good deal for you.

It's 4k and 6k for 11.5 cents for 4kRDM plus 4KPQMs or the 6k offer is same pricing.

That is interesting about the pricing on the BKK trip, and how it changes as you scroll through the buying process. Hmmm... wonder what I'd be offered for my free October trip (which is not yet booked).

I do expect ZRH to be a very similar offer to HNL.

I really wish i knew what you guys were talking about :)

If you selected the 6K offer and it still showed 6K on the Payment Information page then that is not enough, obviously. One thing about the 10K "overkill" is that it is something of an insurance policy, insuring against your not taking the ZRH trip for some reason, for example, or an unlikely arithmetic error.

True! It is insurance!

Smeagol, it's all 'airline speak'... haha

Or I can buy 9k for $1035. That is the offer for a flight to MCO in September (booked in at 1st class).

Smeagol, it is a high stakes frequent flyer game and we are strategizing to minimize the amount of money given to the airline while maximizing both her frequent flyer status and award miles balance (and riding in front as much as possible).

Carol, you could do that MCO offer and it would get you very close, if not nail it, if you are confident in your computations. But might require a MR.

Or maybe the MCO offer plus the NYC offer, if they allow you to take both. I would expect, but not assume, so.

So the MCO offer is one way to get what you want but has some risk. The other way is to just bring the hammer down and on that 20,000 offer. Just depends on how you want to play the game.

It IS a game, isn't it!!! I hadn't looked at it that way. I'm still thinking. There's no huge rush to do something just yet.

UPDATE: I bit the bullet and purchased my October BKK ticket rather than using miles for it. I won't need to buy EQMs this year, and will make 1K by about 10k miles over. I will, however, consider buying the FF miles offered with my various tickets, as DH and I will be going back to BKK for the holidays on FF tickets. The extra miles will come in handy!

Now I'll just have to hope that my October BKK ticket upgrade(s) clear so I'm not flying in economy all the way there and back. Fingers crossed.

BTW, DH and I have our RETURN (from BKK holiday trip) tickets for early January, first class, Thai A380 BKK-FRA and FRA-ORD on UA 777 first class. Now I just need to GET US TO BKK sometime in mid-December! haha No worries. I'll find seats for us... no rush yet.

I booked SFO to SGN in Vietnam in W class for $1,427.10. I've already been upgraded for the mid September flight. I'm flying to Hong Kong on a 747 and switching to a 737 for the run down to SGN. SGN was cheaper than Bangkok.

You got a great deal, Wally. Usually, the flight to HCMC is much more expensive than the flight to Bangkok.

$1427 is a great deal! Good for you! You're a bit closer to SE Asia, as I have to fly from Chicago, which adds to my price. Lucky you for the upgrades. I like flying to HKG!

Wow, lucky you, carol. FC on a 380' and tg!

The best I ever got was bc on an sq 380. Fabulous!

Looking at buying award miles for 2 cents per mile. Not a bad deal! I'm going to make 1K so don't need to buy PQMs anymore. Flyertalkers say 2cpm is a good deal... I agree.