I have never been elite/gold/silver anything. Over the years I have collected miles both by flying and the occasional opening of a CC and once in a while it has yielded an award ticket or UG with miles...I did this after randomly receiving a UG on NWA years ago for reasons i did not and still do not understand....and it was sweet...i wanted to try to make it happen more often for myself.

I recently discovered FT and have become fascinated by the possibilities.

Reality is that I fly one or two big trips per year. And a few weekend trips per year. I have done some math (with my recent new skymiles AMEX and Milage pluse Visa bonus miles for new accts, and my new chase OP checking with CO. and HH AMEX) and i dont think I fly enough to warrant actually trying to attain any real status. Even at my best of collecting 25k here and there each year by credit cards and special offers, I will never actually fly or spend enough to crack 50k-100k/year. I got to 65k on UA, 65k on DL, will have 25k once the chase checking offe ris complete, hope to merge that with UA miles next year. but the whole premise doesnt seem realistic for "status"

It seems that it does not make sense to try so hard to get status when I dont fly enough to milk it, and it only lasts for the following year.

My goals are such that I would like to enjoy upgrades and access to lounges on my long trips. As I learn more about the awards systems it seems things have changed over the years, now upgrades are less reliable, are more of a gamble, and awards tickets cant get upgraded, so I start thinking "whats the point?" Perhaps I should just suck it up and by upper class fares when I want them and shop around for sales on them...Its either that or I dedicate more energy to befriending and networking with people with status who can help sponsor upgrades for me. I have found that I like UA and *A and those should help me over the next few year for me to go on the 2 big trips/year that I can go on and try to reap some UGs here and there to make it nice....

does anyone else have experience with these thoughts?