United waiving flight segment requirement for 2022 Premier status (non-US residents)

[SYD]

Just received an email telling me that United is waiving the 4x United flight segment requirement for 2022 Premier status for non-US residents. ie you could in theory qualify on other *A activity. Albeit still somewhat academic for Oz based UA FF unless you’re doing a lot of NZ J flying across the ditch. Although they have already lowered the bar for PQF/PQPs also.

Dear SYD, ​

​

We know international travel continues to be particularly difficult as a result of COVID-19, making it harder for you to fly on our network as much as you have in the past. For this reason, we are crediting your account with the United® flight segments you need to meet the 4 segment minimum required for 2022 Premier® status. This effectively waives that requirement for members like you, who had an account address outside of the United States as of January 1, 2021.* You'll see this credit in your MileagePlus® account in the next 2‑3 days.​

​

Keep in mind that this does not change the requirement to earn Premier qualifying flights (PQF). You reach Premier status through a combination of PQF and Premier qualifying points (PQP) or by meeting a higher PQP goal, and you can earn PQF and PQP by flying on United, a Star Alliance™ partner carrier, or other eligible partners.​

​

We appreciate you and your loyalty as a MileagePlus® member, and we hope this credit toward the 4‑segment minimum requirement for 2022 Premier status gives you some peace of mind. ​

We're looking forward to seeing you on board again. ​

​

Your United MileagePlus Team​

​

Besides all that, UA redemptions where enhanced to point of being useless in some cases I read just the other day. Pity, their booking engine is quite good and the award taxes are still low. Also, UA points no longer expire. Fortunately, I ran down most of my points balance a while ago.

For the occasional *A user, the UA Status Challenge (*A Gold if you have status elsewhere) is a handy 90 day uplift but a member can only do it every 5yrs.

 

[Mattg]

I got the email as well as Premier Gold. It’s something, but still quite useless as there is very little chance I’ll be able to requalify this year even without having to fly the 4 UA sectors.

Perhaps I should look at trying to qualify on PQFs flying domestic NZ. But isn’t there also a spend requirement which is no longer being waived? (I’ve stopped keeping track, it’s been so long...)

I suspect later in the year, one of the “big 3” US carriers will announce another outright status extension for all members and the other airlines will then follow within 24 hours.

 

[SYD]

I got the email as well as Premier Gold. It’s something, but still quite useless as there is very little chance I’ll be able to requalify this year even without having to fly the 4 UA sectors.

Perhaps I should look at trying to qualify on PQFs flying domestic NZ. But isn’t there also a spend requirement which is no longer being waived? (I’ve stopped keeping track, it’s been so long...)

I suspect later that in the year, one of the “big 3” US carriers will announce another outright status extension for all members and the other airlines will then follow within 24 hours.

Yes, I stopped following the program in detail a while ago but the “spend” (PQDs) seems to have gone in yet another enhancement. Anyway, it was waived for non-US residents previously but you still needed four sectors. Even with 4 squiggles waived, the new program is probably still very hard to requalify without flying on UA....

MileagePlus Updates

mileageplusupdates.com

If you login, you’ll see that you could requalify Gold with a combo of eligible flights (PQFs) and points (PQPs) or PQDs alone (but higher target). If a partner airline flight credits then it ought to count towards PQFs. I thought that NZ cheap fares don’t credit but it looks like UA might be one of the few *A airlines that do accept them (looking at Where to Credit | How Many Miles | Every Frequent Flyer Program).

 

[Mattg]

United has launched more new status fast-track offers, "Fly to the finish" and "breakout bonus".

United Promotions

promo.united.com

Most of these offers require you to fly on United metal, and there is still no way I'll be able to reach the targets they've set. They are going to have to do more for their overseas members.

Delta has already come out and said they're going to extend everyone's status for 2022. I'm surprised United hasn't (yet) followed.