I’ve logged roughly two full Earth-to-Moon round trips.
A moment ago, I crossed the one-million-mile threshold on United Airlines. There wasn’t anything particularly extraordinary about this particular flight. (I’m en route from Denver to Birmingham for a talk tomorrow at the University of Alabama.) The flight attendant offered me a brief word of congratulations soon after I first published this post. It felt like just another ordinary flight. If my calculations are correct, a million miles amounts to roughly two Earth-to-Moon journeys.
I began accumulating United miles around 2012 when I relocated to Houston. United and Continental had just completed their merger. For the first eight years or so, my aim was to accumulate as many miles as possible, since that was the key to achieving status. Longtime readers will recall that I scheduled mileage runs to Singapore, Hong Kong, and Sydney to secure status at year’s end. All of these tickets were bought at low prices. The objective was to fly as far as possible while spending as little as possible. By 2016, I had already accumulated nearly 300,000 lifetime miles. But just before the pandemic, United changed the rules. Now, to earn status, you had to spend money rather than fly miles. It made more sense to take an expensive trip to San Francisco than to take a cheap flight to Singapore. As a result, my rate of mile accumulation plummeted. I flew very little in 2020 through 2022. I picked up again in 2023. In 2024, I reached roughly 750,000 miles. It took another couple of years to reach the ultimate target.
Earning one million miles grants me lifetime gold status. That status, alas, is largely meaningless. There are very few benefits tied to gold status that aren’t already provided by the United Club credit card. In the past, United allowed you to gift your status to a companion—for me, that would be 1K—but United now only permits gifting gold status.
Looking ahead, United has substantially raised the price of achieving status. For 2026, I could qualify for 1K status with 60 segments and about 22,000 PQP. For 2027, segments no longer matter and I would need to reach 32,000 PQP. Unless something significant changes in my spending, I won’t be able to meet that threshold. I could become a free agent and fly with the airline offering the best deal, but residing in Houston severely limits my options. So I’m likely to stay loyal to United, albeit without 1K status.
At this point, even 1K status is less desirable than it once was. I seldom receive complimentary upgrades. And even when I use PlusPoints, upgrades remain infrequent on busy routes. I can’t recall the last time I was upgraded on a flight to DCA or EWR. (I was upgraded on the flight to Birmingham.) United, along with the other carriers, would much rather sell an upgrade than extend it to a loyal flyer. The value proposition simply isn’t what it used to be.
On the bright side, United now offers Starlink on most flights, which makes the skies considerably more productive.
