I am seven segments and 9,000 miles short of hitting Gold. No additional travel planned the rest of the month.

Has anyone bought miles to hit the next level? Is is worth it? Anticipating lots of travel next year.

water turkey said:

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I am seven segments and 9,000 miles short of hitting Gold. No additional travel planned the rest of the month.

Has anyone bought miles to hit the next level? Is is worth it? Anticipating lots of travel next year.

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Define lots of travel next year. And when in the year? If early (Jan-Mar) and long haul, you may get to gold pretty quickly anyway.

Not sure there is a huge difference between silver and gold status.

You'll likely find that it is much cheaper to do a mileage run than to buy PQMs. A roundtrip to Hawaii can be had for around $1,000. And there's a huge difference between silver and gold. Silver is basically almost the same as getting a credit card but with gold, incrementally you'll get economy plus at booking, access to star alliance lounges traveling internationally, recognition and access to status for all star alliance partners (no recognition for silver), no fees for 24 hour same day change, group 1 vs group 2 boarding, ~15% more award miles just off the top of my head.

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If early (Jan-Mar) and long haul, you may get to gold pretty quickly anyway.

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It is all thru the year and they are usually shorter flights, so I don't get a lot a miles. I hate to come up just 7 segments short this year.

Recommendation: Do a mileage run to Hawaii, or if you are a little adventurous, Guam. Have fun!

I've done it. One year I was a little short of 1k and bought it. This year I was barely short so I bought the shortest flight I could which offered a small PQM purchase for a few hundred bucks then cancelled the ticket.

Mileage runs work too but the time didn't work out for me. What I mean by that is I didn't feel like doing it. I'm always sick of travel by this time of year and Q1 is travel heavy for me so paying was worth it. I'll cross the Silver threshold by the end of February and that's just trips I know about and already bought tickets for.

If you cancel the flight they still give you the pqm?

Yep. Just did it a couple weeks ago.

Another mileage run to consider is Amsterdam (AMS). Non-stop from Houston every day. About 10,000 PQMs.

I do the AMS run and the Guam (GUM) mileage run every year in January to get a jump start on status.

For those long mileage runs do y'all typically stay a few days or is it a true out and back run? Isn't Guam only once a week or something?

I'm $171 short of PQD to go from Gold to Premier Platinum on United. I have more than enough miles as I took several Lufthansa and ANA business trips this year.

Is it worth it to make a quick run for that status change or just not worry abt it? Or is there any other way to give them PQD to avoid a flight?

I think you have to do the flight. Be really careful when you book it because it's not total dollars, they take out taxes and stuff.

Now that Gold boards with Platinum there's less difference. I will say that having the ability to choose more economy plus seats is a big thing for me because my family travels quite a bit.

The only real differences between gold and platinum now is better chance of upgrades (although still difficult), slightly more award miles, and 2 regional upgrades that can be very difficult to use so really up to you if it makes sense or not. If you think you'll travel a lot again next year, the award miles multiplier difference may make up for the mileage run this run. And when I do mileage runs, I always try to stay a few days just so I feel like I'm getting my money's worth.

Jock 07 said:

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For those long mileage runs do y'all typically stay a few days or is it a true out and back run? Isn't Guam only once a week or something?

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Guam is daily from NRT and Hawaii. Very nice island with great WWII history. Definitely worth a few/several days. Lots of Japanese tourists go there.

I've never understood the reason behind the PQS (segment) requirement to reach levels. It makes it very difficult to get higher status if you take non-stop flights, especially domestically. I live in Houston and only travel domestic. I would have to make 30 round trips (60 segments) in order to reach gold. That is 2.5 round trips per month which is a ton in my opinion, just to reach the 2nd of 4 tiers.

However if you are always connecting somewhere, you would only have to do half this amount of travel. I feel like I traveled a lot this year but only going to have about 45 PQS. Always going to be stuck at silver. The only reason I really want gold is the waived 24 hour flight change fee.

Welcome to the world of down and back to MAF and TUL out of IAH. I'm at 52 segments but over $15k in PQD and only 26k PQM. Its unfortunate they won't allow you to qualify for gold on just PQD.