Originally Posted by
tbau
For someone who is flying an additional 60,000 miles after qualifying for 40,000 gold - no there isn't much difference to justify flying double, and in some cases triple the miles.
Do you never actually use your AS miles, then? Because "you get a lot more miles, enough to redeem more awards" is a substantial difference, whether or not you wish to acknowledge it.
I can understand the logic of wanting more SWUs elsewhere, at DL/AA/UA instead of chasing status at AS if you don't really value miles. But there's a tradeoff for sure: way less miles unless you're flying lots of expensive Y/J/F.