Mileage Plus

That’s interesting. If you have the United Explorer card, that can come with some priority perks depending on the fare and route. Sometimes it triggers priority boarding or certain “Premier Access” labeling even if you don’t actually have elite status. United’s app wording can...

Just got off UA 2017 from Vegas to Houston. Departs 1:00am, lands 5:45am local. I usually avoid domestic redeyes, but this one was next-level painful. It’s only about 2 hours and 15 minutes of actual flight time. By the time you start to drift off, you’re already descending. So...

At some point it just started feeling like work. Chasing PQPs, routing a certain way, holding a card, tracking promos. For what? A slightly better boarding group and maybe an upgrade that clears once in a while? I hit a moment recently where I just said forget it. I’ll pay for...

I have a flight coming up from SFO to SJD and we’re a group of 4 currently near the top of the upgrade list. If there aren’t 4 upgrade seats available, will United still upgrade 1–3 of us, or do they usually treat it as all or nothing for groups? Just trying to understand how it...

Curious about what kind of passenger info flight attendants can see on their devices. Obviously they can see your name and MileagePlus status, since they usually greet elites by name. But I’ve heard they might see other things too. Stuff like: Your birthday Your previous United...

reminding everyone that she’s United 1K and flies every week. Guess the headphone rule doesn’t apply if you’re 1K? The whole interaction had a pretty sarcastic vibe afterward, with the person wondering if there’s actually a way to report passengers for ignoring the headphone...

Had a pretty wild upgrade surprise on a recent SFO to HNL flight. Checked the upgrade list about 24 hours before departure and I was somewhere around #25, so I figured there was basically zero chance. There were only a handful of first class seats left. About 6 hours before the...

With the latest United award earning changes, figured it’s worth breaking this down because a lot of people mix it up. United isn’t a bank. Chase issues United credit cards. United just licenses its brand and provides the miles. When you earn miles from flying, those miles are...

Saw the news about MileagePlus changes basically favoring people who hold a United credit card. Feels like they’re clearly trying to push more people into signing up. But I’m not sure it’s going to land the way they expect. Some folks will probably cave and get the card. Others...