Like Southwest, US Airways is also holding a promotion for flyers interested in retaining or obtaining status.
Promotion Details:
Get ready for the fastest, easiest way ever to get (or keep) Preferred status. Just fly between October 1 and December 25, 2009 on any US Airways or US Airways Express flight, and you’ll earn Preferred status faster than ever before. The more you fly, the more you’ll earn. Think of it as an end-of-the-year shortcut.
Here’s how it 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
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.
We’ll determine and award your Preferred status on January 10, 2010. You don’t need to register (we’ll keep track of your flights). We told you it was easy!
Something to think about if you live in a city where US Airways is a hub.
Here’s another promotion from a fellow roadwarrior for USAirways. After signing up for the promotion, you will receive Silver preferred status and all the associated benefits for a limited amount of time. If you meet the travel requirements, you will then get to keep the status going forward.
Here are the details:
Try Preferred status on for size. See how you like it. At the end of your 90-day trial, you may want to keep it! Once you register, you’ll be Preferred within 14 days. And, if you qualify during your 90-day trial, you’ll keep your Silver Preferred status for the program year*.
All you have to do is register and we’ll give you Silver Preferred status for 90 days (a $200 value!). You’ll travel Preferred and enjoy the best upgrades in the industry, waived baggage fees, bonus miles and more!
Just register between May 15 and August 31, 2009. Then, check your Dividend Miles profile to make sure we have your contact information so we can send you an email with your new status.
Not a Dividend Miles member already? Not a problem. Join now and then come back to register.
It doesn’t hurt to sign up if you are planning to fly USAirways for the first time.
Fellow road warrior, *josh*, received the following email from Delta, introducing a new status level above the current Platinum level:
As Delta and Northwest Airlines® merge into one airline, we are committed to delivering the best-in-class loyalty program in the industry. Over the next nine months, not only will we roll out an improved SkyMiles Medallion® program that retains all of the features of the existing program, but we will also introduce new features that no other airline offers.
We heard you loud and clear and have retained all of the Medallion benefits you have asked for, and made the Systemwide Upgrade Certificates redeemable on the day of departure. As a Medallion, you will continue to be offered:
- Unlimited complimentary upgrades
- The ability to earn one elite qualifying mile per mile flown regardless of booking channel
- A 100% mileage bonus
- Preferred security access, priority boarding and seating, and waived checked baggage fees for everyone in your itinerary
- A 500-mile minimum on all flights for all customers
- No co-pays on any mileage upgrades
In addition, we will roll out new industry-leading benefits for our very best and most valuable customers like you, including:
- A new Diamond Medallion tier - for those who earn 125,000 MQMs or 140 segments in a calendar year - that will provide the richest set of benefits of any airline, including a complimentary Delta Sky Club™ membership, an industry-leading 125% mileage bonus, and waivers for all Award and baggage fees. Should you achieve the Diamond threshold during 2009, you will be recognized as a Diamond Medallion when the program launches in early 2010
- "Rollover MQMs" - an industry-first that allows you to now roll over any Medallion Qualification Miles (MQMs) above a Medallion threshold. For example, if you earn 150,000 MQMs this year - 25,000 MQMs higher than the Diamond Medallion requirement - those 25,000 MQMs will automatically roll over and count toward your 2010 MQM balance
- Choice Benefits - you will be able to choose from a selection of benefits to suit your needs, including new Systemwide Upgrade Certificates now redeemable on the day of departure, bonus miles, the ability to gift Medallion status and Delta Sky Club One-Day passes
- Unlimited complimentary upgrades on Award Tickets
- Waived direct ticketing charges when purchasing tickets or Award Tickets via our reservation or airport agents
This is a classic business school marketing strategy, whereby a new “premium” product is used differentiate without competing directly on price (or in this case, points). As josh noted in his email to me, it will be interesting to see if other airlines follow this strategy as this new level clearly provides benefits not available at the highest status level for other airlines.
Every so often, I’ll introduce a new feature available through the More Than Points Personal Travel Assistant. This post introduces the flight status command. Using this command, you can see if you’ll be home on time. It also displays FAA-provided gate information in case you have an unexpected gate change. Since the MTP PTA lets you send commands through any jabber-compatible client (e.g. Google Talk) or any email client (like your BlackBerry), you can use it anywhere you have data service.
The flight command only requires the the two-digit airline code followed by the flight number:
Remember: To use the MTP PTA just send an instant message to morethanpoints@gmail.com OR send an email with NO SUBJECT and the command in the body of the email to the same email address. Why bother with pulling up a website when a simple email or IM will do the trick.
More Than Points is all about saving you time so you can spend it on yourself and your family. Enjoy the rest of your week.
A helpful reader recently visited a dated link on a previous More Than Points article and discovered this promotion at Starwood!
Once he signed up, he was given immediate Gold Preferred status with a simple requirement! Unfortunately, it looks like the date just passed, but see if it still works for you.
The sign-up message, our reader received is as follows:
Experience the difference Gold makes.
We’re delighted you’re accepting the offer to sample elite status with a Gold Preferred Guest® trial membership. Here’s how to take advantage of the exclusive benefits and preferential treatment of Gold status soon — and how to extend the experience for as long as possible:
Register by January 15, 2008.
Stay just once between December 1, 2007, and February 29, 2008, and you’ll instantly achieve Gold status through February 28, 2009.
Register today and the sooner you stay, the sooner you’ll take advantage of all that Gold status has to offer.
Thanks, Derek and good luck!
A reader recently sent me an email asking what he could do to fulfill the requirement for 1K status on United. He was just 5k away and looking for ideas before it was too late.
If you’re relatively close to the next status level, there are a few things you can try.
5 Tips for Making Status
- Call the Premier/Premier Executive 1-800 phone number and explain your situation (maybe you’ll get someone sympathetic)
- Re-route an existing flight through a United hub airport (to keep the price low) for additional mileage
- Check out the United promotions page for segments which qualify for double mileage points and book accordingly
- Sign up for a airline-sponsored credit card for bonus mileage points or convert credit card points to miles (e.g. 10k Chase card points for 1000 EQM)
- Read this Flyertalk message thread for other options
Don’t wait until the last minute to find out you were 100 miles away from the next status level.
According to this Wall Street Journal article, FlightStats.com had the most accurate and up-to-date information. For those of you with a web-enabled cell phone, they also have a mobile-friendly website here. I’ve used FlightStats in the past and found the information very accurate – they even provide the gate number of your flight if it’s available.
I recommend skipping the airline websites, as their updates are flaky at best, and see if FlightStats.com works for you.
Happy flying and may you (almost) always get home on time.
UPDATE: It appears the promotion code may only be valid for the specific email recipient!
I’m not entirely sure why United is asking for this information, but I assume it’s to determine what the competition looks like.
The bottom line is you receive 2000 bonus qualifying miles for every frequent flyer statement you fax to United. Although these bonus miles are not redeemable for air travel, they count towards elite status. That’s pretty cool if you’re willing to overlook why they want this information (I can only guess…)
Here’s the lowdown:
Please note that although EQMs are not redeemable for air travel, they do count toward 2008 elite status. Register today and you’ll be that much closer to enjoying all the benefits and exclusive privileges of elevated elite status in 2008. Hurry — this special offer ends July 31, 2007.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Simply register before July 31, 2007, by entering promo code DT0OMKUU.
- Print the personalized fax cover sheet.
- Fax it to United’s toll-free number, along with any recent statement(s) showing flight activity in another airline’s program* dated between December 2006 and July 2007.
- Earn 2,000 EQMs per statement. You may submit up to three statements from three different eligible airlines and earn a total of up to 6,000 EQMs
Check it out because, hey, free qualifying miles!
Outside of the documented differences between the various levels of elite status, I was able to find, through the miracle of technology, a subtle, but important difference that isn’t well-documented.
Look at the following picture:
This screenshot was taken about 2 hours before flight departure and illustrates the available seating chart for those with a status of Premier Executive. Notice that every blue seat is available, including the exit seats.
The Premier status seating chart, 2 hours before check-in, looks exactly the same except for the fact all the blue seats have a big, fat ‘X’ in the middle of them – even the non-exit row seats.
That’s right – the Economy-plus seats were not available as a choice for an average-joe Premier, 2 hours before check-in, but for a Premier Exec – they were possible choices.
Membership does has it’s privileges.