A note of caution on the travel budget:

What NC_Girl talks about her travel budget, she may mean that is the TOTAL amount allocated to trips - the air fares, the hotels, the sightseeing, the incidentals when away from home.

When others talk about the travel budget, I sense that they are more like taking it as the amount to spend on air fares and a few hotel nights (for turnaround trips). In other words, the budget for flying to earn the elite status.

There may be a large gap between what OP's idea of travel budget and what the typical status chasers' idea of travel budget.