Because the solar begins to set on 2025, your time is working out to qualify or requalify for airline elite standing for 2026. Now’s the time to verify your account balances, plan your journey for the remainder of the 12 months and see the place you’ll find yourself by Dec. 31.
For those who suppose you’ll end in need of your United Airways MileagePlus Premier standing objective, listed here are some suggestions for incomes the Premier qualifying factors and Premier qualifying flights you want earlier than the tip of the 12 months.
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Tips on how to earn United Airways Premier standing
United makes use of two elite standing metrics: Premier qualifying flights, or PQFs, and Premier qualifying factors, or PQPs.
You may decide to earn standing with PQPs alone, or with a mixture of PQPs and PQFs. Listed below are the necessities for 2026 standing:
| Standing tier | Necessities (PQPs solely) | Necessities (PQFs + PQPs) |
|---|---|---|
| Premier Silver | 6,000 PQPs | 15 PQFs + 5,000 PQPs |
| Premier Gold | 12,000 PQPs | 30 PQFs + 10,000 PQPs |
| Premier Platinum | 18,000 PQPs | 45 PQFs + 15,000 PQPs |
| Premier 1K | 28,000 PQPs | 60 PQFs + 22,000 PQPs |
Nonetheless, needless to say qualifying for any Premier standing requires flying at the very least 4 paid segments operated by United or United Categorical in a calendar 12 months. Most often, these 4 paid segments may even depend as PQFs.
Premier qualifying flights
You’ll earn 1 PQF for each flight section on United, United Categorical and United’s associate airways — together with eligible award flights. So, in case your flight has one cease, you may get 2 PQFs.
The one paid flights that do not depend as PQFs are fundamental financial system tickets, flights to Venezuela and flights to Cuba that aren’t operated by United. As well as, award flights operated by associate airways will not accrue PQFs.
Premier qualifying factors
There are a number of methods to earn PQPs, together with paid and award flights, seating assignments and upgrades, and bank card spending. We’ll cowl these intimately later.
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Though fundamental financial system fares do not accrue PQFs, they do earn PQPs and depend towards the four-segment minimal for standing.
As with PQFs, you may’t earn PQPs on award flights with associate airways. You will solely earn PQFs and PQPs on the United-operated segments of your award flight.
Associated: Flights, bank cards and extra: Tips on how to earn miles with the United MileagePlus program
Tips on how to earn extra PQPs
The one strategy to earn extra Premier qualifying flights is to, properly, fly extra. However there are a number of methods to earn Premier qualifying factors, and so they do not all require leaving the bottom.
Flights booked by way of United
Let’s begin with the fundamentals: incomes PQPs on United tickets.
For those who ebook your flight by way of United in any fare class, all clients (together with these with Premier standing) earn 1 PQP per greenback spent on base airfare and carrier-imposed surcharges. This is applicable to all United-issued tickets (indicated by a 016 ticket quantity), whether or not the flight is operated by United or a associate airline.
This implies you may maximize your PQPs on fares which might be predominantly base airfare and carrier-imposed surcharges (versus taxes and different charges). Sadly, worldwide itineraries usually have excessive government-imposed taxes and charges that do not earn PQPs.
As you seek for flights on United’s website, you may see the PQPs and PQFs a given flight will earn by clicking on “Particulars.” Here is an instance of a one-stop flight from Denver Worldwide Airport (DEN) to Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), with each segments operated by United. All tickets earn 2 PQFs, however the variety of PQPs will increase with the fare worth.
You may even earn PQPs on flights and upgrades booked with miles, albeit at a a lot decrease price. You will get 1 PQP for each 100 MileagePlus miles redeemed on United and United Categorical flights and seat upgrades. Award itineraries that embrace partner-operated flights will solely earn PQPs on the United segments.
Here is the same itinerary from DEN to BER, which prices the identical variety of miles — besides this feature earns fewer PQFs and PQPs as a result of one section is operated by a associate airline. That distinction may make our break your elite standing desires, so make sure to verify all of your choices earlier than reserving.
You can too earn PQPs on Most well-liked and Economic system Plus seating and paid cabin upgrades at a price of 1 PQP for each greenback spent (excluding taxes and charges). Nonetheless, word that different nonflight purchases like baggage charges and United Membership lounge memberships do not earn PQPs, nor do sure personal bulk fares and journey trade fares.
PQPs are awarded to the traveler, not the one who bought the ticket. So if you happen to booked and paid for tickets to your whole household, you’ll solely earn PQPs in your ticket, not your relations’ tickets.
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Flights booked by way of associate airways
Accomplice itineraries — flights booked by way of a associate airline’s website the place you enter your United MileagePlus quantity at reserving — are the candy spot of United Premier standing, as a result of you may earn a lot of PQPs for a fraction of the conventional worth.
The variety of PQPs you may earn is dependent upon the associate airline:
- Most well-liked associate airways: Earn 1 PQP per 5 award miles earned, as much as a most of 750 PQPs per flight for financial system and premium financial system and 1,500 PQPs for first and enterprise class.
- MileagePlus companions: Earn 1 PQP per 6 award miles earned, as much as a most of 500 PQPs per flight in financial system and premium financial system and 1,000 PQPs in first and enterprise class.
The complicated half is that “most well-liked companions” and “MileagePlus companions” don’t have anything to do with which airways are in Star Alliance. You may see a full record of most well-liked and MileagePlus companions on United’s web site.
To make it much more advanced, the variety of miles (and thus PQPs) you may earn varies from one airline to the following. With most United companions, miles are awarded primarily based on three components: the space flown, the fare class and the airline that operates your flight. You may discover every associate’s miles-earning tips on United’s web site.
Here is an instance of a associate itinerary that might earn considerably greater than the 1 PQP per greenback you’d get by reserving by way of United:
This one-way Lufthansa financial system ticket from Los Angeles to Krakow, Poland, prices $398 and is ticketed within the T fare class (50% accrual foundation per Lufthansa’s incomes chart), so it might earn the next MileagePlus miles:
- L.A. to Munich: 5,989 miles flown multiplied by 50% equals 2,994 miles earned
- Munich to Krakow: 500 miles flown multiplied by 50% equals 250 miles earned
- Complete: 3,244 miles earned
Since Lufthansa is a most well-liked associate, it earns 1 PQP for each 5 award miles:
- 3,375 miles earned divided by 5 equals 675 PQPs
Examine that to the identical flight on the similar worth booked and ticketed by way of United, which might earn simply 344 PQPs:
On this case, you possibly can earn almost twice as many PQPs just by shopping for your ticket on Lufthansa’s website as an alternative of United’s. That might make a giant distinction if you happen to’re attempting to nab last-minute Premier standing.
MileagePlus bank card spending
Flights aren’t the one strategy to shut the hole to your 2026 standing targets; it’s also possible to earn PQPs by spending on most United bank cards.
The playing cards that provide PQPs earn them at a price of 1 PQP per $15 or $20 spent, relying on the cardboard. Every card has a restrict to what number of PQPs you may earn in a calendar 12 months, however you may stack PQPs from a number of playing cards. This information has the total scoop on incomes PQPs by way of bank card purchases.
As 2025 winds down, check out your incomes exercise to see what number of extra PQPs you possibly can earn in your card — or if it’d make sense to use for an additional United card earlier than the tip of the 12 months.
Listed below are three of our favourite United cobranded playing cards that earn PQPs, together with their present welcome bonuses:
- United℠ Explorer Card (see charges and charges): Earn 60,000 bonus miles after spending $3,000 on purchases within the first three months from account opening. Plus, earn 10,000 bonus miles after you add a certified person to your account within the first three months your account is open.
- United Quest℠ Card (see charges and charges): Earn 70,000 bonus miles and 1,000 Premier qualifying factors after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months from account opening. Plus, earn 10,000 bonus miles after you add a certified person to your account within the first three months your account is open.
- United Membership℠ Card (see charges and charges): Earn 80,000 miles after you spend $5,000 on purchases within the first three months from account opening. Plus, earn 10,000 bonus miles after you add a certified person to your account within the first three months your account is open.
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Purchase PQPs
You probably have an upcoming reservation with United, you could possibly buy further miles and PQPs to your journey. To view your provides, go to “My Journeys” and open your reservation, then click on “View all provides” and discover the “Award Accelerator” choice.
Click on on “Be taught Extra,” and you will be taken to a web page the place you may see your present PQP and PQF balances and select to buy MileagePlus miles and PQPs. Listed below are the choices for a one-way flight from Denver to Philadelphia:
It isn’t arduous to inform that this is not an excellent deal, contemplating you possibly can earn extra PQPs and award miles on a paid United ticket for a similar worth. Nonetheless, when you have no flexibility to take one other flight within the final months of 2025, this could possibly be a worthwhile choice — particularly if it’s going to enhance you to one among United’s highest standing tiers, like Premier 1K.
Talking of shopping for standing, it’s normal for United to supply focused buy-ups to the following standing tier someday in January or February, however traditionally, these have been exorbitantly costly.
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Backside line
Whereas 2025 is drawing to a detailed, there’s nonetheless loads of time left to requalify to your present United Premier elite standing or stage up for subsequent 12 months. Step one is figuring out the place you stand and what you may earn from any scheduled end-of-year journey so you may determine if a mileage run is best for you. Within the “My United” part of your MileagePlus account, it is easy to see the variety of PQPs and PQFs you have already got underneath “Your Premier progress.”
For those who’re near your 2026 standing targets however not fairly there but, put some thought into your journey plans and bank card spending for the remainder of the 12 months. Reserving flights by way of the proper avenue or paying for purchases with the proper card can assist you recover from the end line.
