RustyC

I didn't go the match route but have moved my legacy business to AA. It isn't the easiest thing to do from ATL, but with US they have a bit more presence and options, and I've flown non-DL carriers before at high status by feasting off things like hub-attack fares. Am 100% self-funded and mostly leisure.

Am closing in on gold, which is the low tier. If I dump the ULCCs and align everything with AA I can go up a level and get more into the benefits. OTOH, with Spirit I was in a feedback loop where award tickets at their off-peak time were easily funded via miles from only credit-card spend. They're a different animal, though, and the bag limits, cramped seats and late flights are causing fatigue. Still, sometimes it's hard to lay off a RT of around $50-60 at their very lowest-demand points, and the old method of minimizing CPM on the legacies had a bias toward longer hauls, so after years of that, some of the places for short hauls hadn't been visited in a while.