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Delta has been in the news for all the wrong reasons over the past few weeks. First, it made it much more difficult to earn elite status, especially for current elite members with lots of rollover Medallion Qualifying Miles (MQMs). Then, it walked back those changes and made it much easier for those same elite members to earn several years of elite status, especially if they spend like the dickens through the end of the year (a challenge that Greg the Frequent Miler has gleefully accepted).
In the meantime, every other domestic carrier has been circling Delta elite members, hoping to pick some meat off the bone. Alaska, AA and JetBlue all made incredibly generous come-hithers to Delta elites, either matching or increasing their current Medallion status. United said that applications for status matches have increased substantially since Delta’s original announcement.
Today, United also announced minor, positive changes to their elite status requirements in 2024, with the headline effectively being: “we’re not making it more difficult to earn elite status.” Wink-wink, Delta.
United Mileage Plus Changes for 2024
United has made some small changes to their elite program in 2024, outside of just not raising requirements. Here’s what’s happening:
Head Start towards status for current elite members
Starting next year, United will award bonus Premier Qualifying Points (PQPs) to current elite members as a “head start” toward 2025 status. The amount of the head start will change according to your current status:
- Premier Silver – 250 PQPs
- Premier Gold – 500 PQPs
- Premier Platinum – 750 PQPs
- Premier 1K – 1,250 PQPs
United customers earn Premier status through a combination of flying Premier Qualifying Flights (PQFs) and spending with United (PQPs) or through spending alone, in which case the PQP requirement is higher. As a refresher, here’s United’s current status requirements:
As you can see, the bonuses aren’t much of a head start. Each one is 5% of the total PQP needed unless you hit the minimum required Premier Qualifying Flights. But, it’s better than nothing, I suppose.
In addition, United will no longer have a minimum PQF requirement for 1K members, provided they hit 24K PQPs.
Increased PQP earning through credit card spend
United has never been incredibly generous with PQP earning from credit card spend. Currently, if you spend $12K on the United Gateway, Explorer, Quest or Club Infinite cards, you’ll get a whopping 500 PQPs. So, through spending along, you could reach Silver status with only $120K.
Starting in 2024, that earning will be increased, but it’s still not great. Instead of 500 PQP for every $12K in spend, cardholders will earn 25 PQPs for every $500. So, if you spend the same $12,000, you’ll soon earn *gasp* 600 PQP’s. That allows them to say that earnings have gone up 20%, but it’s still a drop in the bucket of the total PQP needed.
There will also be a higher cap on the maximum PQPs that can be earned each year with the the United Club Infinite card. Currently, you can only earn a total of 8,000 PQP/year through spend; in 2024 that will change to 10,000 PQP/year (which would require $200K in spending, for those keeping score). In addition, United will get rid of the current cap of 15,000 PQPs earned across all cards, a change that will probably effect 3 people in the continental US.
Quick Thoughts
Unlike Delta and AA, it seems United is trying to incentivize spending on actual airfare as opposed to engaging folks within the ecosphere of co-branded credit cards and non-airline partners. The changes announced for next year could help someone who needs a few hundred additional PQP to get to another level of status, but it’s hard to see it driving significant spend towards the cards.
On the other hand, Delta has been made their elite members so angry that simply saying, “hey, we’re not making it harder on you,” seems like an improvement. Overall, I don’t think these changes will move the needle much, but I’d be interested from hearing from folks that will be impacted by them.
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Tim—congrats on the title! Started my day with a laugh (and thought immediately of The Onion).
Yeah, well they rolled out enough “enhancements” for a decade in last spring’s mega-devaluation, so they can take a few years off before finally wrecking what little remains.