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Are you a frequent United Airlines flyer? If so, achieving airline elite status is one of the biggest steps you can take to upgrade your travel experience. United elite status comes with benefits like complimentary seat upgrades, free checked bags, free snacks and drinks, access to airport lounges and more.
Recently, United Airlines changed how you can earn elite status, making it easier than ever to get status with an airline credit card. Let’s take a look at how exactly you can fast-track yourself to enviable United elite status with a credit card in 2024.
Requirements to earn United elite status
United Airlines calculates your loyalty with two units of measurement:
- Premier Qualifying Flights (PQFs): These reflect the number of United and United Express segments you’ve flown in a calendar year.
- Premier Qualifying Points (PQPs): These indicate the amount of money you’ve spent in the United ecosystem in a calendar year — including on flights and upgrades, as well as the amount of spending you’ve funneled through United credit cards.
There are four United Premier elite status tiers, each with unique qualification requirements. Here’s what you must earn in 2024 to qualify for elite status.
Importantly, you must complete at least four qualifying United segments to attain any level of elite status. There is no way around this requirement.
How to earn United elite status with credit cards
You can earn the PQPs you need for high-level United Airlines elite status entirely from spending on the best United credit cards, so long as you fly the required four segments on United. In fact, you could achieve up to 19,000 PQPs per year.
That said, you’d have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in a calendar year to rack up that amount of PQPs — so it’s not particularly easy to do. But it’s a neat option for those that can swing it.
You’ll receive 25 PQPs for every $500 you spend on eligible United Airlines credit cards. Each credit card implements a cap on the number of PQPs you can earn in a calendar year:
- United? Explorer Card: Up to 1,000 PQPs.
- United Quest? Card: Up to 6,000 PQPs.
- United Club? Infinite Card: Up to 10,000 PQPs.
- United? Business Card: Up to 1,000 PQPs.
- United Club? Business Card: Up to 1,000 PQPs.
By holding multiple United credit cards, you could achieve the PQPs you need for Premier Silver, Premier Gold and Premier Platinum elite status through spending (you’ll still need to fly at least four segments to qualify). You could even catapult yourself to within spitting distance of top-tier Premier 1K status.
For example, holding both the United Club Infinite Card and United Quest Card gives you the potential to earn up to 16,000 PQPs each year. That’s more than enough to qualify for United Premier Platinum status — though you’d have to spend $300,000+ in a calendar year between the two cards.
Earn United Premier Silver status with Marriott
Marriott and United have a partnership that confers various reciprocal benefits. One such benefit is exclusive to top-tier Marriott Bonvoy Titanium and Ambassador elite status members.
If you achieve Marriott Titanium elite status, you’ll also qualify for United Premier Silver elite status. Qualifying for Marriott Titanium status requires that you earn at least 75 elite night credits in a calendar year. However, there are a few ways to accelerate the process with the best Marriott credit cards.
All Marriott credit cards offer annual elite night credits. You’ll receive:
- Marriott Bonvoy Bold? Credit Card: 15 elite night credits.
- Marriott Bonvoy Boundless? Credit Card: 15 elite night credits.
- Marriott Bonvoy Bevy? American Express? Card: 15 elite night credits.
- Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful? Card: 15 elite night credits.
- Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant? American Express? Card: 25 elite night credits.
- Marriott Bonvoy Business? American Express? Card: 15 elite night credits.
There’s one massive caveat to the number of elite night credits you’re awarded from these cards: Even if you’ve got multiple personal Marriott cards, you’re only eligible to earn the elite night credits from one of them. But if you have both a personal and a small business Marriott credit card, you’ll earn the elite night credits from both of these cards.
In other words, it’s possible to achieve up to 40 elite night credits each year without ever stepping foot in a Marriott hotel. This means you’ll need to complete just 35 more nights to qualify for Titanium status — and, by extension, United Silver elite status.
Additionally, you can earn one elite night per $5,000 you spend on the Bonvoy Boundless card per year. With this card, you could — in theory — spend your way to Titanium status, but you’d need to spend a lot of money to make it happen.
This path to status could be helpful for someone who often finds themselves in Marriott hotels and rarely on United Airlines flights. Just note that you won’t earn PQPs with Marriott credit cards — so if your aspirations are beyond United Silver status, this isn’t a good strategy.
Bottom line
If you’re interested in United Airlines elite status, you likely fly with United at least a handful of times each year. Earning Premier Qualifying Points with United Airlines credit cards may be just the helpful boost you need to earn status.
You can also achieve most United elite status tiers almost entirely through credit card spending — but you’ll have to channel a lot of expenses through your United credit cards to do it.
Looking for a new travel credit card? Check out?CNN Underscored Money’s?list of the?best credit cards?currently available.
