Triangle Trip

Most United Premier members from 2008 who didn’t qualified for 2009 Premier levels probably received an email from United asking for the following:

• $350 to be a Premier Associate (a sellout scheme created by United)
• If you fly 7,000 actual miles within 90 days, UAL will promote you to Premier
• If you fly 15,000 actual miles within 90 days, UAL will promote you to Premier Exec

As a frequent flyer, I believe you can achieve status if you just go about your business. Paying for status is not a best practice. If you read enough of our posts, you will see tons of ways to get status quick and tips to improve your travel experience.

I have the following gripes with UAL’s most recent pitch to pimp out status:

1. Premier Associate is purely a desparation to get more money from passengers. $350 for 90 days is not a good deal. I believe you can get a Premier Associate membership for $400 that can last a calendar year.
2. The latest pitch to extract $350 from 2008 Premier members devalues the Premier status. It is a kick in the face to the 2009 Premier members who have truly earned their status by flying on UAL in 2008. Essentially what UAL is saying is:  15,000 miles + $350 in present terms = flying 50,000 in 2008 which could have been worth $10,000 as you were on the plane at least 25 times at around $400 a ticket.
3. United also tries to sell you seats in the Premier zone when you check-in which is a “sell out” move. Now they are trying to make you pay for “bonus” miles when you check-in to speed up your qualification.

I have over 700,000 actual flight miles on UAL. The recent tactics  implemented by UAL not only devalues everyone’s status, it also makes me ashamed to be affiliated with them.

What’s next for UAL?  … charging me for the floatation cushion on a 1970s aircraft?

If you’re flying in the US, always check-in online as soon as you can.

Here are the reasons why:

1. For Southwest, you can get a better seat and avoid boarding towards the end of the plane.
2. For most carriers, you can pick an Exit row seat which is reserved for same day check-in if you don’t have status.
3. As I have recently experienced on (ghetto) Delta, they actually give up your seat if you do not check-in 31 minutes before the actual flight. Delta is actually treating their Medallion Gold members this way, image when you do not have status.

Most airlines also have mobile sites that allows you to check-in via your phone. However most do not work too well. I actually tried to check-in via ghetto Delta’s online site and it failed me. The recent experience will definitely prompt a letter to management,

I received an email from Delta today telling me that I can link my Delta and Northworst (NWA) account. I clicked on the link and it took me to a page where I can enter my Skymiles and WorldPerks accounts with my PINs. After entering the information, I received instant confirmation that the accounts have been linked.

The Delta site brought to my attention that my emails were different between the two accounts and asked me to select my preferred email address. I also got an opportunity to transfer miles between my Skymiles and WorldPerks accounts. You will receive an extra 500 miles from Delta if you perform a transfer before March 15. I took advantage of this perk and emptied out my NWA account to focus on earning Delta miles.

The Delta Skymiles/NWA WordPerks accounts merger has been awesome experience compared to the US-scare (USAir) and AmericaWorst (AWA) merger. For US-scare, I’d to enter my personal information on both sites and had to make sure they were identical — as the two systems weren’t sophisticated enough to rationalize accounts based on first and last names plus address.

Huge kudos to Delta as it’s their system that is managing the process!

After merging these two accounts, I have successfully consolidated all my alliances with Delta (SkyTeam), United (Star), and American (OneWorld).