For me, holding only low and mid tier airline statuses these days, it's probably 80% about the irrops support. Even as a lowly AA Gold, if my flights get seriously jacked up, I know I can speak to a human being about it.

Each of my past three trips with family has run into irrops. And each time, I'm convinced that my status helped get me into seats on alternate flights whereas a non-elite wouldn't have gotten them.

A month ago, scheduled to fly ROC-CLE-MCI, 5 seats, late at night on UA. Weather hit ROC, most people got seats the next day. We and two or three other elites got moved to AA to ORD, and then we got the final five seats on an AA flight home to MCI at midnight. Literally, the entire Row 31 on the Mad Dog...never been so happy in my life to sit in the last row of coach next to the engines!!

Late last year, US had irrops and everybody at the airport was getting booked the next day. US Gold desk got us routed onto United and home that night. At least there, my UA status then kicked in and we got some E+ seats, but again I would have sat in the last row of coach and been fine with it.

On the flip side, flying without status on DL over the years, I've had two IDB's. Statistically IDB's are rare, but on certain flights at certain times of the day they are less rare, and almost exclusively doled out to non-elites. One was solo (which I didn't mind too much), and one was with family (which angered me). To this day, I'm far more willing to roll the dice on non-elite travel when I'm flying solo than with family. If there are 4 or 5 of us flying, I simply won't fly without it - even if it's basic low-tier AA Gold or UA Silver.

Of course, I also like the ability to check a bag if I like and I do like the occasional complimentary upgrade. But not being top-tier anymore, the upgrades aren't really as big of a motivator. It's really about peace of mind knowing that I will find someone to help during irrops.