For the last few years, I haven’t had status on any airline. It wasn’t that I didn’t fly enough, but I split my flights pretty evenly among various airlines and I often went for award deals (which don’t earn miles towards status).
In 2016, though, I flew enough on United and its partners to get Premium Silver status, and I flew enough on American and its partners to become a Gold elite status member. Arguably, I would have been better off going for either Gold status on United or Platinum status on American rather than splitting between the two. But I ultimately decided that I would likely fly both airlines in 2017, probably in equal amounts, and that I’d rather be treated pretty decently by both airlines than very decently by only one. Stay tuned to see if that was a good choice.
In any event, I officially reached status with both airlines in November (around the same time) and, for both, the status extends until January 31, 2018. A week after getting status from American, they sent me a welcome package. By now, I figured I was never getting one from United, but it came today.
Basically, it had a welcome note, a list of the benefits I’ll get, an advertisement for United’s new Polaris service, and a small tag for my luggage, which is used to alert everyone who can see my bag that it belongs to someone who has status (and to remind them that it’s only United’s lowest-tier status).
I’m excited to try Silver status out. I already have a Chase United MileagePlus credit card, so I already received a lot of these benefits, but I’ve already had an opportunity to take advantage of the complimentary Economy Plus upgrade and am hoping for an upgrade when I fly to Belize in about a week.
Hoping for some great flights with United and the Star Alliance this year!
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