I want to open a discussion about the value of status for different kinds of travelers.

My feeling is that status is valuable only to the extent that the benefits outweigh the costs.

The benefits are greatest where there is still a big price gap between what you get "free" with status, and what you would otherwise pay for. A business class seat on an international flight, with the customer buying a cheap discounted coach seat and using a "free" upgrade, is an example of a big benefit of status, because the purchase price of that seat would be very high.

But even in international travel, the pricing differences seem to be collapsing. A year or so ago, you couldn't buy many highly discounted J seats. Now you can often pay $2000 or $3000 and travel on a discounted J seat, to many places. If you need to travel on the spur of the moment and have tight schedulign requirements, you could pay $7000 of course, but in general fares for international J seem to be falling to more reasonable levels.

The trend with lowfare airlines like JetBlue and AirTran in the US make it even more appealing to abandon the quest for status. JetBlue has an amenity that most people love and that is lacking with "full service" airlines. And AirTran has a front cabin that domestically in my experience is as good as anyone's in the USA (except for UA flight, flying a widebody domestically and how many of those are left?).

There is quick check-in available from machines.

There are many lowfare options for shorter domestic flights.

FF miles are worth less and less.

So, three questions please:

1. is status worthwhile to pursue?

2. Would you make mileage runs for it?

3. How would you benefit if you didn't go for status?