Originally Posted by
pbarnette
First off, I think you overestimate how much it costs to become elite.
I pay for pretty much 100% of my travel and most of it is long-haul. Indeed, for those that fly long-haul a lot on their own dime, I think the redemption issues are less of a big deal. I mean, I fly maybe 8 to 10 long-haul RTs each year. It isn't that difficult to find 1 or 2 of those trips where I can redeem instead of paying cash. The problem would be if I am trying to find a specific trip where I can redeem instead of paying cash.
For the first part, I agree that it isn't really that expensive to become Elite, well, if you consider $4,000 not that expensive to hit Platinum. I wonder what the cheapest anybody has done to get the 75k MQM.
I fly a lot also. International flights, all on my own dime, about 12 r/t long-hauls every year. It is annoying to me that, even if I am not owed anything, that it is so hard just to use the miles to upgrade once in a while. I can get almost 20k MQM from a BKK-PHX route that I can buy for $1,200 sometimes...but a Y/B/M fare is easily $2,400 or more, so only worth it sometimes...not every time...I would love to even have the choice to pay double miles to upgrade! So, I guess I save the miles for the C class award ticket when I can time it so I use it from the USA, not overseas origin, due to the ridiculous fee Delta has! Grrr!