For me, and this is my own opinion, I found elevate to be pretty beneficial. I've only flown VX on the LAX-SFO/SFO-LAX trip, which I'm usually able to snag for around $120ish roundtrip. If I pick a good date, I can usually use 2,500 elevate points each way, which means after only 4 trips, I already have one-way taken care of for my next. I find this to be a pretty comparable deal to say WN, which requires me to fly 8 roundtrips to qualify for a free roundtrip ticket.

Plus with my new VX Visa, my monthly spend is pretty much ensuring me enough elevate points for another one-way ticket. If you fly VX for longer trips, this probably doesn't apply, but so far, I'm really happy with elevate.