Triangle Trip

Having Preferred status on US Airways does not yield any real benefits. If you’re a USAir Silver or Gold Preferred customer, you’ll still get charged for picking an aisle or a window seat located in front of the plane – which USAir calls the “Choice Seats.” Not sure if Platinum or Chairman members have to deal with this issue as they are generally upgraded on every flight.

Unlike United’s Economy Plus seats, USAir’s Choice Seats do not have extra leg room. Furthermore, you cannot purchase an exit row seat as a Choice Seat. Depending on when you purchase your ticket with USAir, you may be assigned to a middle seat. To get out of the middle seat, USAir will want to charge you US$20 to $40 extra for a Choice Seat depending on availability.

Star Alliance Gold members also face the same problem (see my previous post), as status does not give preferential seating on US Airways. However, you may want to call USAir’s reservations line to request an exit row seat – it has worked for me in the past.

I’ve been flying coast to coast on Delta and United this year. I made Delta Gold Medallion without Double Medallion Qualification Miles (MQM) because I was flying Delta from January to March for their free upgrades as a Gold member from 2008. I was able to reach Premiere Executive status with United in just nine weeks, thanks to their generous Double Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) promotion.

With all the Double Elite Qualifying Miles programs going on at the moment, I wanted to help explain which program to choose. Here’s a summary of current promotions:

*  American Airlines is offering Double EQM (previous post)
*  Delta is offering Double MQM AND Rollover miles (previous post)
*  United is offering Double EQM and Elite Qualifying Segments (previous post)
*  USAir is offering 7,500 flight miles for Silver status (previous post)

So if you’re not loyal to any particular airline, like me, nor do you live in a hub city, which one should you pick?

Here’s what I am going to do; I recommend that those in a similar boat to do the same:

1.  USAir isn’t really offering anything for its customers with status. If you don’t have status with any airline, I suggest you give them a shot. Seventy five hundred (7,500)miles is two round trips from New York to Vegas!

2.  With status on both Delta and United, I will pass on American this year; I’ll show some love next year. If you have status on one of the above airlines, I strongly suggest you stay with them (see Statusmonger – he can’t quit United).

3.  As for me, I will evaluate the rest of my 2009 travel schedule to see if I can make 1K on United. Holding 1K status is the only way to get decent service on United. I have decided to register for double EQM instead of EQS since I am typically on coast to coast flights. The segments would not help me to 1k – I probably have 15 to date.

4.  For those dealing with the dilemma of having to choose between doubling EQM or EQS, the simple guideline is:  take Double Qualifying Segments if you fly weekly, and you’re earning less than 1,000 airline miles each way. It will take you either 30 one way trip segments or 25,000 airline miles to get entry level status (Premiere on United, Gold on American, or Silver on Delta). Based on the requirements to qualify for airline status, 1,000 airline miles per flight should be the deciding factor when choosing between EQM or EQS. The precise number is actually 834 miles (30 segments times 834 miles = 25,020).

5.  Since I have 55,000 MQM on Delta, and they are allowing me to rollover extra airline miles earned in 2009 to 2010 (in this case, 5,000 miles if I don’t fly any more this year), I will most likely book my next trip on Delta. I will stick with Delta unless I know I can get 25,000 flight miles on United for the rest of the year, as double EQM will give me 50,000 miles, making me a 1K on United.

In order to stay competitive with American, United and Delta’s double elite qualifying (EQM) miles offers, USAir is offering a super fast track to Preferred status. All you need to do is fly 7,500 miles (or 10 segments) between October 1 and December 25, 2009 to get Silver Preferred status. The normal way to qualify for Silver Preferred is the airline industry standard 25,000 flight miles or 30 segments.

This USAir promotion is the best fast track program out there! Assuming you haven’t flown a single mile in 2009, all the Double EQM programs require you to fly 12,500 miles to get Silver (vs. USAir’s 7,500). FYI, here are links to the other three promotions:

*  American’s Double Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM)

*  Delta’s Double Medallion Qualifying Miles (MQM) + Delta MQM Rollover

*  United’s Double Elite Qualifying Miles or Elite Qualifying Segments

This is USAir’s way of saying: “we screwed you and thank you for being loyal all year round” to its most loyal customers like the Coach who has been flying on USAir all year. To soften the blow, this is what USAir posted on their website:

Don’t worry, the miles you fly will also count towards the total miles you flew for the year – you’ll be awarded the highest status between the two. So if you fly 55,000 Preferred miles for the year but only end up flying 8,000 Preferred miles during the promotion period, you’ll still earn Gold status for the year.

The Coach definitely has enough actual miles or segments to qualify for Platinum Preferred in 2010 but probably won’t have enough flight miles between October 1 to December 25, 2009 to get 30,000 miles to qualify for Chairman. The end result:  Coach won’t benefit from this promotion but someone else may trump him and get Chairman Preferred status with much lesser flight miles. Coach will probably have 92,000 flight miles at the end of the year and 23,000 flight miles during the promotion period which means he’ll be stuck at Platinum.  I should take six (6) coast to coast round trips and make Chairman just to piss off the Coach.

Here’s how the rest of the fast track to Preferred status promotion works:

• Fly 7,500 miles or 10 segments and earn Silver Preferred status
• Fly 15,000 miles or 20 segments and earn Gold Preferred status
• Fly 22,500 miles or 30 segments and earn Platinum Preferred status
• Fly 30,000 miles or 40 segments and earn Chairman’s Preferred status

FYI, below is a chart showing the USAir Preferred status benefits: