It has been a hot girl summer on @united for me. This trip to Tahiti might have been one of the wildest upgrades I’ve ever pulled off. Tahiti flights nearly impossible to upgraded on, so I was planning on just purchasing the cheapest coach ticket I could find. After buying my flight on United I started looking into their upgrade instruments and realized I could upgrade with miles. But......... I had no miles as I never fly with United. I signed up for their credit card, met the spend requirement and received the 60K miles sign up bonus. This was exactly what it cost to upgrade round trip. With my upgrades applied for I started really going down the rabbit hole on United’s frequent flyer program. I ended up doing a status match with them and they gave me their top tier 1K status for 120 days. This gives me access to their Polaris lounges, first class check in and three checked bags at 70lbs. If I could hit so many flights and a minimum spend in that 120 days I could keep a status with them for all of next year. With my South Africa flights and Tahiti combined I will qualify for their Premier Platinum status. Now I’m able to fly any airline on One World or Star Alliance with elite benefits on both for the rest of this year and next.