daria_buffy

Hi,

I have a conundrum I am hoping you can help with. I had silver status last year but only reached upto 22k odd miles and was relegated to regular member status this year. I have the option to buy Silver status for the year for $699. I have an upcoming Asia trip, couple of domestic trips and possibly another international trip later in the year and would like to atleast be able to choose eco plus seats during checkin.

For my upcoming Asia trip, i will fly SA LAX-ICN-MAA premium economy outbound ($1500 one way). For inbound, i have two choices -
Option 1 - either come back by SA MAA-NRT-LAX premium economy. Looks like i should get 100% miles and PQM counted in United for this. Total $2400 RT
Or
Option 2 - use 85K award miles and get business saver MAA-DEL-ICN-LAX (business class throughout) via Air India/Asiana. Should i do this and spend the money on the silver status instead?
I have never flown through ICN and haven't flown SA premium economy either.

dvs7310

Welcome to Flyertalk. First Singapore airlines is SQ. SA is South African Airways.

Second, it would be silly to buy Silver status with United when you have that trip planned already. If you use option 1 then you'll be fairly close to silver status anyway. Silver on United gets you next to nothing. If you decide on option 2 and just want Economy Plus the rest of the year, it would be cheaper to buy either the Economy Plus annual subscription or buy it trip by trip as you go until you get back to 25k. BTW, assume on both itineraries you're also connecting in SIN, right? That makes a bit of difference in the mileage earning.

daria_buffy

Thanks! I used to post here previously but forgot my username and hence reset to a new one. :P
Sorry about that, I should have known it is SQ,
The annual Eco Plus actually comes to the same price in my case, $699.
Option 1 inbound and outbound connects through SIN.
Option 2 inbound does, outbound does not. I would only be close to Silver with this trip if i choose Option 1. With Option 2, i am flying award miles, so won't be earning anything.

Sorry another quick question - if i qualify for Silver, say around May, will it only be valid until Jan 2019? Or a year to May 2019?

aacharya

If you qualify for silver in May 2018, status is good until Jan 2020.

Echo others here. Just focus on getting silver early this year. It is not worth close to $699.

Also consider if through all these flights, you are within reach of gold, to do mileage runs earlier to get there.

jsloan

In my opinion, the Economy Plus subscription is more valuable than Silver status because it allows you to select seats at booking rather than check-in. However, you may not even need the subscription; it may well be cheaper just to buy E+ seats on the flights that you take before you get to Silver, especially if you go with Option 1.

Have you priced the trip using round-trip fares instead of one-way? It's often (not always) cheaper on international itineraries, and I think it would make your decision easier.

Also, keep in mind that you will not earn PQDs for flights operated by partner airlines on non-United tickets. To reach Silver status, you'd need 25K miles and $3K PQD (or a PQD waiver). PQDs are waived if you have a non-US address or spend $25K during the year on United-branded Chase credit cards.

prestonh

To the OP, what is more valuable, seat width or seat pitch? PE gives you more pitch than E+ will give you particularly UA's narrow 17.3" configuration on many of their TPAC fleet. I don't fly UA anymore TPAC because of this. I would also consider PE via EVA then maybe scoot in Biz to MAA.