jsloan

Please, stop this immediately.

I"m not disputing the value of PlusPoints, but you only get 20 additional PlusPoints for every 3000 PQP. That's an extra $6,000 for one one-way upgrade from R or W to J.

Absolutely nobody should be targeting the extra PlusPoints by making incremental spend, unless you end up within say $200 of a threshold. Keep in mind, Miles + Copay has the exact same clearance behavior as PlusPoints. If you don't have enough PlusPoints, use miles. If you don't have enough miles, buy more with Award Accelerator. But please don't spend $6,000 to get a single one-way upgrade that you could get for ~$500+30K miles.

UnitedHostage

Off topic but does miles + copay clear into PZ (if 1K or below) and PN (if GS) space?

WineCountryUA

PlusPoints and Miles+copay, have the same priority and clear from the same inventory.
If from a GS account, PN, otherwise PZ.
Passenger status is not a factor, source of the upgrade support is the factor.

jsloan

Yes. A miles+copay upgrade is indistinguishable from a PlusPoints upgrade.

UnitedHostage

Thanks. Yes seems incorrect to chase PlusPoints spend bonuses then.

mahzor

United's Asia network and my job flying every week paid dividends because i had status and could get upgrades to China easily before the pandemic. Now i work for another airline and rarely fly so 2024 was the first year since 2019 that i haven't had some kind of United status. Never really chased it, more like a happy coincidence. I imagine WFH probably trimmed their elites roster quite a bit after United stopped extending it and giving people free PQP like candy.

UA_Flyer

No, I am not spending $6K to earn PPs. That would be silly as you described.

I am doing as you pointed out: If I am within one fare class (within economy) and/or a couple of hundred $ away, I would upgrade my fare to earn those points. Typically at end of year.

pseudoswede

Lots of people game the grocery store fuel points discount. Usually can redeem to get a $1/gal discount on gas ($1 per point spent; redeem 100 points for $0.10/gal discount up to 1000 points per fill-up). Typical redemption is limited to 35 gallons per fill-up, so I know stories about people who bring multiple 5 gallon gas cans to hit the 35 gallon mark. When I had three gas cars (now down to two and one EV), I would recruit the household to take all three cars and fill up at one pump. We'd easily hit 35 gallons, and I'd use the "savings" to pick up take-out while the other two cars went directly home.

Get2DaChopper

I don't know if I'm chasing or not, but I suspect I am.
I'm based out of Dubai for work, so my regular travel has me flying EWR-DXB 3-4 times a year, which I do in Polaris. UA has the least expensive biz seats for a non-stop flight back home to the NYC area, with the the two other options being Etihad & Emirates. The price difference is substantial between UA/EY/EK. I'm talking thousands of $$ difference. With two more domestic segments flown once I'm stateside, I move up one status level at the completion of each round trip. I hit Platinum in May with the third trip of the year, got those 40 Plus Points, but have not flown UA since then. I really could put the extra Plus Points to use next year if I hit 1K this year, so I booked one last trip with the remaining 3 days of vacation I have left for the calendar year to be stateside for Thanksgiving weekend. That's 3 days of traveling for 3 days spent with family. Hardly seems worth it time-wise, but being able to purchase a $2200 PE ticket, and using PP to upgrade to Polaris, saving between $2k-$4k in the process, 4 times for 2025 travel should make it worth it.