Short Haul vs Long Haul

Since 2007 I’ve been able to maintain Premier Executive on United and Gold Medallion on Delta, but this year I had initially avoided any west coast clients and opted for more local clients.  I also had a few clients with odd restrictions leading me to drive hours and fly Southwest instead of my usual carriers.

Ultimately I find myself with 9 segments (or 17,000 miles) remaining to requalify for Gold on Delta with 3 pending being credited and 4 upcoming next week leaving just 2 total…definitely something I can swing out of pocket.  Since I’m so far off mileage-wise that is why I chose the extra 2 months for the Sky Club.

United, on the other hand, has me needing 12,354 EQM or 18.5 EQS.  I’m picking up 4 EQS/4,000EQM this week, but that leaves me with 8,000+ EQM.

Since I currently have a contract pending on a house with several months before the short-sale will close I can’t pick up any credit cards for the EQM bonus, plus I just got the JP Morgan card from Chase so I need to wait a bit before applying with them again anyway, but my lender told me they don’t want me to open any new lines before closing so I will hang tight until that’s all settled.

I guess I need to play around with a few routings.  I did a 7,000 mile run last year so 8,000 isn’t too bad, but I just have to decide what matters more: money for unexpected purchases with this house or maintaining 1P.  I’m leaning towards 1P, but if I can get 8,000 EQM under $300 I won’t object!

I did manage to maintain my Hilton Diamond status and Marriott Silver status so hotels are fine, but qualifying by miles instead of segments is much easier so I’m suffering this year.