It's October and I'm 37,000 short with only 5 trips left

I gotta make 1k again this year. I have already bought my next week trip from SEA to MCI via Houston and back the same way to add up an extra 2K miles but in two weeks when I go to Houston and back from San Antonio I've got to add up some big miles. Any thoughts on how to stack them up going to houston / San Antonio and not break the bank would be appreciated.

 

You can always bite the bullet and buy Elite Maximizer Miles as your flights look like they are CO flights. Credit to your OP number and then have them combined assuming that you've linked accounts.

 

And I think there is still a Chase VISA card that gives up to 5K EQM for united.com ticket purchases. And you can convert "Choices" (RDM earned with the Chase UA cards) into EQM at a 10/1 ratio (10000 choices = 1000 EQM).

And just to clarify, are you 37k EQM short after already counting your remaining five trips? If so, sounds like you may need a trip or two over an ocean to fill that gap cost- and time-efficiently.

Oh, and welcome to MP!

 

Thanks for the welcome. I need 37k miles to make my 1k this year. I have about 5 trips left to make them in including the next trip from SEA to IAH to MCI and back after a week already purchased. The next trip after that in SEA to HOU then SAT to SEA. i did not know I could get EQM from a card I thought they were just miles, I will look into that.

 

Ok so I am a UA customer (19 years) and am currently a 1k. I am 37k short of retaining my 1k and have a trip next week SEA - HOU - MCI and back after a week (already purchased) the next opportunity I have is SEA - HOU then SAT - SEA (not purchased) I am trying to figure out what you are saying, buy the miles? Will that qualify as EQM?

Thanx,
Joel

 

Continental has a feature where you can buy Elite Qualifying Miles as an add-on to your regular earned EQMs. It is similar to United's Award Accelerator, except that the CO Elite Maximizer Miles count toward status. The idea is to 1) create and/or link your OnePass and Mileage Plus accounts; 2) purchase your itin(s) through your OP account; and 3) purchase Elite Maximizer Miles on those segments.

 

Welcome to milePoint Joel - I hope you get your required miles

 

Hi JoelM, welcome to Milepoint.

The SEA-IAH-MCI is about 5K RT, you could stretch out the SEA-IAH with SEA-PDX-IAH (4650 vs 3750 direct RT) and SAT-SEA via IAH (2374 o.w) is your best bet given you will get 500 miles for SAT-IAH. For those 3 trips, you would accrue 14K miles, so your last 2 trips would need 20K.

Continental's DEQM and TEQM offers will probably be good, but as Scottrick pointed out, the cost has gone up fro 7.5cpm to 9pm, so to get 20K in miles would cost $1800.

If you want to look at some mileage runs, you can start with fares from SEA here at Farecompare - limit your search to cities you are in and Star alliance to see what is available (BNA, MCO, MIA PBI and FLL are listed at 5cpm). I believe there are ways to connect cities along the way to increase the mileage or route through EWR/IAD to increase miles along the way.

Good luck on the 1K run. I posted a thread noting I was short a few miles and got a lot of good suggestions (albeit, mine was 11 miles, so the CO EQM would have been my best bet!)

 

As I posted elsewhere, the cost for EQM through CO has recently gone up, from 7.5 cents to 9 cents (including the cost of the RDM and the EQM, which you have to buy together). It will likely go up further. So you should make a decision quickly if you go this route, which is expensive to begin with.

And as others have pointed out, it still isn't clear just how short you are. Have you already included the mileage from those 5 planned trips, and you need 37K more, or will you need less than 37K after you take them? With the new Premier Platinum tier, maybe you should just shoot for that this year instead of 1K.

 

I am currently 37k short. After next week I will be about 32K short then I have a coming trip to Texas (SEA-HOU then SAT-SEA) which is not purchased yet so I will try and stack it up on that one. I am working on where the next three trips are going to be but I am hoping to go to ATL and FLL. Will be working on it today.

Thanks for the help

 

can you bounce through IAD without screwing up the fares too badly?