Double EQM

[futaris]

United Airlines - Promotions: Airlines
UA Finally Offers DEQM on 4/21/2008 [MPD228]! - FlyerTalk Forums

Travel dates:
April 21, 2008 - June 15, 2008

Offer:
Earn double Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) on qualifying United®, United Express® and Ted® flights.

Terms and Conditions:
• Offer valid for residents of the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands. Residency is determined by the mailing address listed in your Mileage Plus account.
• Registration is required and must be completed by June 15, 2008 at MP Registration: Double EQM Offer to be eligible for the offer.
• Offer valid for qualifying travel flown between April 21, 2008 and June 15, 2008. Only travel completed after date of registration is eligible for this offer.
• Participation in this offer does not guarantee elite status.
• Qualifying travel must be posted to the Mileage Plus account on/before July 31, 2008 to qualify for the offer.
• Offer valid on flights operated by United, United Express®, and Ted only and not applicable on United-marketed code-share flights operated by other carriers or Star Alliance flights.

[Arthur Hodgson]

Thanks for that.

Just registered, using my US address of course.

[Arthur Hodgson]

No further comments?

I'm surprised that our other members of Mileage Plus aren't up in arms about this, missing out on a great opportunity to become Star Gold for next to nothing.

With this promo (if you live in the USA) you would get sufficient miles with one transpacific round trip for Star Silver, and two round trips would easily get you Star Gold.

Pity it's not available to foreigners, even those that pay good money to UA.

[clifford]

I must say I am also a little surprised at the apparent lack of interest in this topic. It amounts to UA treating non-US residents as second-class Mileage Plus members, unworthy of participating in valuable promotions, and possibly missing out on elite status as a result.

Picture this. An American resident can attain 1K status by flying 50,000 miles. An Australian resident would have to fly 100,000 miles to reach the same status, at an additional cost of several thousand dollars. 1K status is very valuable, as it provides, amongst other things, 6 systemwide confirmed upgrade vouchers (SWU's).

Perhaps the lack of comment is due to the fact that there are no active members of Mileage Plus left in Australia (they have all moved back to the US?). Or maybe they have just ditched UA as being anti-foreigner and switched their allegiance to AA, who have not discriminated against non-residents in this way.

[NYCguy]

I am a US resident, but the offer is of little interest to me, since I comfortably re-qualify as a 1K by the end of March every year.

I really don't think UA is terribly interested in non-US passengers, especially on the AU routes - it has been said before, but is worth repeating, "United has a very lucrative air-freight operation between the USA and Australia, which also carries passengers".

[MelUser]

Surely if more people become top tier and get 6 upgrades this will simply fill up planes with upgraders and make it hard to get a commercial seat.

This is something we found on AA flights last year. You can't book a paid [ie full fare] 1st class flight on AA on the day of travel or at airport because the cabin gets clogged up with people using certificates or having top tier status or whatever else!

[oz_mark]

I must say I am also a little surprised at the apparent lack of interest in this topic. It amounts to UA treating non-US residents as second-class Mileage Plus members, unworthy of participating in valuable promotions, and possibly missing out on elite status as a result.

[...]

Perhaps the lack of comment is due to the fact that there are no active members of Mileage Plus left in Australia (they have all moved back to the US?). Or maybe they have just ditched UA as being anti-foreigner and switched their allegiance to AA, who have not discriminated against non-residents in this way.

Probably says something about the numbers of UA members on this board that are cut out by its residency requirements. I would suspect there are few!

[JohnK]

I actually joined UA about 18 months ago when they had the 3,000 bonus miles offer for joining and I was going to take some flights with them last August and most likely credit to UA MP any *Alliance flights.

Bonus miles did not post to my account and after an email request I was told I had to call UA Australia for them to look at the matter. After a few phone calls where I waited for more than 30 minutes on hold I ditched plans at accumulating any miles or status in MP.

[clifford]

Very wise, I think.