Thoughts? I'm not likely to get to Gold with UA... If it weren't for access to the Economy Plus seats I should have probably stuck with Aeroplan, but now I'm wondering:
a) Stick with UA and get Silver status
b) Go to Aeroplan and try to squeeze in (but pay extra for Economy Plus seats.
c) Jump over to something like Aegean just to get easy *G and run my US travel with the economy plus stuff through UA.
1) What is your home airport? Toronto for travel within Canada, Buffalo for travel to the USA
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Usually lowest fare
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? About 36 segments, or 25-40k a year
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? I'm a rookie, 7k into UA with status miles and a boatload of non-status Aeroplan. I would have stuck with Aeroplan but I bought RCC access with United and prepaid Economy Plus seating... I figured, if I didn't have status, I can try to fake it.
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? (Frequent upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, good award redemption rates, free lounge access, etc.) The ability to work - lounge access at the airport, legroom, space and electrical access in the air. I'm OK with economy service but at 6'4" vastly prefer economy plus or exit row seats.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc) US Domestic around the east coast, mostly, plus 3-5 trips a year around Canada. On rare occasion transcontinental to Europe.
(7) Preferred Airlines... In a perfect world, it's hard to beat the personal TV and electrical outlets in Air Canada metal, but throughout the US I'm usually stuck flying UA or CO.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?) work. I'm a consultant so I usually price airfare into a proposal, so cost is an issue, but not always the be all and end all.