Thanks for the invitation to respond. This is obviously a subject near and dear to everybody's heart here. We all want to make the most of our flying dollars and get the best treatment we can. I think most of us love the perks and special privileges that come with elite levels too.

pgupta011: Thanks for the comments about the UA 100K level. I actually am not talking through my hat on this -- I am a "1K". Since most other airlines give their top elites unlimited domestic upgrades, I still think the extra confirmable upgrades are nice, but not a significant benefit. The 1K lounges, without any food or drink or even coffee, are not terribly useful unless there is a flight cancellation of some kind, and in that case I have always been successful simply calling United on the phone.

Catman: I fly a couple times a month on average, all over the world. I am elite with United and Alaska. I feel bad that some people seemed to think I was talking about them when I talked about fools gold -- obviously if you're conscious about what you're doing and you love to travel and you don't blindly pour time, money and energy into reaching the next level, you're doing great! That probably covers most people who contribute to this board, and the last thing I wanted to do was to insult anyone. I love you all!

Punki: I couldn't have hoped for a better result from my article. Thanks for your indulgence everybody.

All the best memes,

Richard