Premier Silver status

[expedition_retirement]

As we were preparing to join the ski club trip to Copper Mountain, I discovered that I had acquired Premier Silver status with United Airlines. I've never had any sort of elevated status with any airline before, so it was a bit of a surprise to see the benefits of that status as I booked our travel back to Colorado. The first difference we noticed is that I now get a free checked bag (up to 70 pounds!) because of my status. Since we put my wife on the club's group ticket, she wasn't getting any free checked bags, so the extra weight allowance allowed us to still make the trip without paying for any checked bags. The other nice benefit is that I am now entitled to free upgrades to Economy Plus on United fights, giving me extra leg room. And...I am automatically added to the upgrade request list for any available first class seats (although for the flights on this trip, I was located around the mid-teens on the list, for aircraft that only had about 8 or 10 first class seats...there was NO chance I was get that upgrade).

It remains to be seen whether our current pace of travel will allow me to maintain this status from year-to-year, but I do plan to take full advantage of it while I have it this year!