Triangle Trip

United has quickly follow through with its EQM offer (see original post) by applying my double and triple Elite Qualifying Miles to my Mileage Plus account in less than four weeks. See my statement from July 7, 2009:

United’s EQM offer ended June 15, 2009, and United stated at the start of the promotion that it will need 4 to 6 weeks to credit everyone’s account. I have seen promotions like this in the past where the airlines or hotels would take the maximum time to apply the bonus credits to you account.

I would have to praise UAL for their swift response to crediting my (hopefully others as well) Mileage Plus account. As a lowly Premier Exec, I guess now I will have to compete against 1,000,000 more 1K and Global Service members trying to board the plane and flight for overhead space.

A follow up to my earlier post, Continental Airlines has succumbed to the pressure from United and American by offering double Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) today. Here’s the link to register if you’re interested. Continental is upping the ante by not requiring a ticket be booked during the promotion period. You just need to be onboard during the promotional period which is now until June 30, 2009.

Since all these EQM promotions wont’ take affect (credited into your frequent flyer account) until after the promotion, we will have a bunch of fliers with “cheater” status come July 1, 2009. For the record, it was USAir (US-Scare) that started all this… For those of you who hasn’t registered for US Air’s double EQM promotion, here’s the link. You’ll have until the end of March to get your double EQM offer.

So … will ghetto Delta be next to join this pack?  I am hoping for a better offer than what I have seen so far. The Sky Team needs to step it.

United announced that they will offer Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) from today to June 15, 2009 (here’s the link to register). With this promotion, you can make Premier Executive on UAL with 5 coast-to-coast trips. United obviously did this promotion in response to American Airline’s recently EQM promotion (here’s the link to register). Had you gone with UAL’s previous offer of paying for EQM or miles to gets status (see my previous post blasting on UAL for being desperate), you’d feel like a total fool.

So … will ghetto Delta be the next airline to offer a similar promotion? Delta did a similar promotion in 2008. It would not surprise me to see them counter UAL and AA in the next day or two.

All airlines have depreciated their mileage programs and offering fast track to obtaining status. What’s the value of earning actual miles and having loyalty to an airline? Hence we recommend you book hotel points with your credit cards (see previous post) and choose the most efficient way to travel as status does not matter on US airlines. The entire industry is heading to a bail out like banks, Detroit, etc.