The Extra Mile, Oct. 13: United’s Elite Status Shakeup, Picking the Right Atmos “Community” & More

🎉 Are You Using Our Free Credit Card Benefit Tracker?

Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but we’ve got a fancy, free, and incredibly useful tool to keep tabs on all the perks, statement credits, and offers on your travel credit cards.

Not to toot our own horns, but … beep beep: Our Credit Card Benefit Tracker is the best free tool on the market to help maximize your travel credit cards and make back those annual fees. Yes, I’m biased – but I believe it.

And it’s always getting even better thanks to your feedback.

Want to track your authorized users? You got it. Have multiple American Express Business Platinum® Cards to track? No problem. Have a retail store card you want to be sure gets counted toward your Chase 5/24 status? We got you. Random benefits or Amex Offers you think should count toward your total credits? Yep, that too.

To get started, just log in with your existing flight deal credentials – or create an account if you don’t already have one!

Get started now!

Already using this tool? Your features are automatically upgraded – no action required!

Here’s the full list of features you’ll find:

• A quick household summary view to give you the status of all your users’ card benefits and points in one glance
• Add multiples of the same card with the ability to customize the name, so you know which one is which
• Independently add cards we don’t track because while there aren’t many, you still want to keep tabs on your random retail store card or Apple Card and how it affects your 5/24 status
• Authorized user tracking for that additional card you’re paying for to extend lounge access or a line of credit to a spouse or pal
• Add custom benefits like Amex or Chase offers as well as retention offers – they might not be bona fide benefits, but they add up!
• Easy card downgrades or product changes without messing with your Chase 5/24 status or open accounts
• Separate tracking for companion certificates or hotel free nights because we know they’re so valuable
• Visual enhancements like ordering your cards however you see fit and the ability to hide perks you don’t care about

All that – plus all the usual features like color-coded warnings for benefits, progress toward recouping your annual fee, tracking your points, and more – for 120-plus cards and counting.

We started building out this tool last year to help travelers track, simplify, and maximize the growing list of benefits on travel credit cards. With more premium cards hitting the market and others adding more use-them-or-lose benefits, it’s started to feel like a full-time job.

This new-and-improved dashboard should make it even easier to track all your cards in one place so you never let a valuable perk go to waste again.

As always, there’s no personal information necessary here. No bank account logins, no frequent flyer credentials, no credit scores, and definitely no Social Security Numbers. Just add the cards you want, mark the perks as you use them, and we’ll securely store them for you to come back to anytime.

Have at it. And let us know what you think!

– Kyle Potter, executive editor

🤝 Deal of the Day: Roundtrip Flights to Spain under $369!

Heat scale (out of 3): 🔥🔥

Why we love it: Here’s your nonstop flight to Spain for less than $369 roundtrip!

Flying Iberia nonstop to its Madrid (MAD) hub from a couple of cities on the east coast for shockingly cheap fares! Availability this November through March.

Sign up now to get all the details on this deal & don’t miss the next flight deal alert.

Already a member? Log in to see all your deals.

– Gunnar Olson, Thrifty Traveler Premium deal analyst

📈 United Axes Status Shortcut, Raises the Bar for Top-Tier 1K

How often you fly United is about to matter less than ever. What matters now is how much you spend … either on flights or a United co-branded credit card.

United just announced it’s scrapping Premier Qualifying Flights (PQFs) as a path to MileagePlus elite status starting in 2027. From now on, Premier Qualifying Points (PQPs) are the only thing that counts. You earn them by spending on United flights or on a co-branded United credit card.

But that’s not all: The airline also raised the spending requirement for top-tier 1K status.

Here’s what it’ll take to earn status in 2027:

• Premier Silver: 6,000 PQPs
• Premier Gold: 12,000 PQPs
• Premier Platinum: 18,000 PQPs
• Premier 1K: 32,000 PQPs (up from 28,000)

If you’ve been earning status through spending alone, nothing changes for Silver, Gold, or Platinum. The travelers hit hardest by these changes are the frequent flyers who used the flights-plus-spending combo to earn status at a lower out-of-pocket cost.

Under that option, 15 flights and 5,000 PQPs was enough Silver status, while 60 flights and 22,000 PQPs got you all the way to 1K. Some 1Ks will now need roughly 45% more PQPs to re-qualify for status in 2027. Ouch!

While the PQF workaround is gone, you’ll still need at least four United flights in a year to qualify, no matter how much you’ve spent. But that’s a pretty low bar for anyone chasing United status in the first place.

And these status changes didn’t happen in a vacuum…

Earlier this year, United went all in on its co-branded cards and practically made carrying one essential to getting value out of MileagePlus miles. Cardholders get expanded “saver” award availability and at least a 10% discount on United-operated award flights. These status changes go a step further by pushing more spending onto those cards to earn PQPs.

The problem? It takes a whole lot of spending to get very far. The pricey *united club* earns 1 PQP per $15 spent. At that rate, even Platinum status would take a whopping $270,000 in card spending. That’s a much steeper climb than the card-spending path to top-tier status at Delta or American.

Cardholders who already have status get a 5% head start on next year’s requirement. That works out to 300 PQPs for Silver, 600 for Gold, 900 for Platinum, and 1,600 for 1K. Opening an eligible United card by the end of the year also qualifies you.

Still, the nearly 15% PQP jump for 1K may not mean much more flying in practice. Fares are up considerably since the start of the War in Iran … with no sign of easing anytime soon. The same itineraries that got you to 28,000 PQPs this year will likely rack up more next year.

I’m sure United sees this move as a way to protect its top-tier status by raising the bar at a time when flights cost more than they have in years.

How thoughtful of them!

– Jackson Newman, senior editor

🏔️ The Best of Alaska is in Anchorage

Anchorage ties the best of Alaska together, from pristine landscapes and trails teeming with wildlife to a lively urban scene full of art, culture, and local flavor. Outdoor adventures offer endless ways to immerse yourself in natural wonders without going too far from city comforts.

Anchorage offers experiences that linger long after you leave.

Plan your next adventure with local tips and free planning tools today. 

🏘️ Alaska’s New Atmos Communities: Which to Pick

Alaska Airlines just handed Atmos Rewards members a free perk, and all you have to do is pick a team.

As of Oct. 1, Atmos Rewards expanded its “Communities” from two to six. Club 49 and Huakaʻi by Hawaiian are still limited to Alaska and Hawaii residents, but the four new ones are open to every member, no matter where you live.

Choose the one that matches how you travel, and Alaska rewards you with bonus points, discounts, quarterly flight deals, and, in one case, points back on award tickets.

Best of all, it costs nothing to join.

Every community comes with a Bonus Points Challenge: 10 destinations, and the first time you fly to (or even connect through) each one by Dec. 31, 2027, you earn bonus points plus an equal number of status points.

Hit all 10, and you’ll pocket 10,000 bonus points and 10,000 status points. Award tickets and partner flights count, too.

For most travelers, two communities stand out:

👨‍👩‍👧 Families on the Go: Get 20% of your points back on award tickets for kids 12 and under. A family of four booking 25,000-point flights each way would get 10,000 points back for the kids’ tickets, with no cap on how often you use it.

🌍 Global Locals: Earn 10% more status points on flights that start or end outside the U.S., plus 1 status point for every 25 Atmos points you transfer in from Bilt or Marriott Bonvoy. Move 100,000 Bilt points to Atmos, and you’ll pick up 4,000 status points along with them.

The other two, Culinary Journeys and Active Escapes, stick to the core perks, but their destination lists could pay off if you’re already headed that way. Culinary Journeys is stacked with big hubs like Chicago-O’Hare, Denver, and LAX that some travelers will knock out without trying.

A couple of catches:

• You can switch communities only once per calendar year, and doing so wipes out your challenge progress.
• Joining also opts you in to Alaska’s marketing emails. Unsubscribe, and you may lose access to those flight deals.

With Bank of America points set to start transferring to Atmos in 2027, this program is only getting harder to ignore.

Read our full story here.

– Nick Serati, Thrifty Traveler co-founder

🎙️ A New Tool to Save on Flights & Other Travel News

📰 This week, the guys break down all the travel news that’s fit to podcast … and there’s a lot of it. That includes a brand-new (and free) tool to save on flights when fares drop, new big card bonus offers, 11 (!) transfer bonuses, and a deep dive on what the heck has happened with World of Hyatt.

Watch it now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

🐻 See us in Chicago Next Month for the Chicago Seminars!

Want to learn more about earning and redeeming points from some of the brightest minds in this crazy game? And also from me?

See what I did there?

Anyway, I’m speaking at this year’s Chicago Seminars in – you guessed it – Chicago, starting a month from today, Nov. 6 to Nov. 8. And I’m one of a few dozen experts spitting facts about all things travel throughout the weekend.

Planning to go? Reply to this email and let us know – maybe we’ll try to organize a happy hour or a small get-together!

I’ll be at my most presidential with a special address: “The State of the Union Award Travel,” an overarching look at the (increasingly sad) state of award availability, the trends driving devaluations and loyalty program changes, how airlines’ loyalty priorities have shifted, and what that means for redeeming points and miles in 2027 and beyond.

Trust me: It’s not all doom and gloom. Thrifty Traveler Premium members know better than just about anyone that there are still stellar deals out there … and there always will be.

See you in a month!

Get your tickets – use promo code THRIFTYTRAVELER for $10 off!

– Kyle Potter, executive editor

✈️ Other Travel Tidbits

• 🇸🇦 As expected, Delta is postponing the start of nonstop flights to Riyadh (RUH) until at least next March after several deadly attacks at the Saudi capital airport. (Delta)
• 🛎️ Marriott is testing a Complimentary Upgrade List in its app that lets Gold elites and above see their spot in the upgrade line before they arrive, with the feature expanding to more than 250 hotels in the U.S. and Canada by November. (The Points Guy)
• 🚫 Cathay Pacific has suspended Asia Miles bookings on Japan Airlines flights until further notice, though existing award tickets are still valid for travel. (LoyaltyLobby)
• 💳 Capital One’s Venture Rewards card is still offering a one-time $300 credit for hotels and vacation rentals on top of its 75,000-mile bonus.