I've been a ST E+ member for thr past years or so and always tried, with increasing difficulty, to confirm status on all 3 alliances (I'm also Star Gold and One World Emerald). I say with increasing difficulty because, week after week, I ponder more and more whether SkyTeam really deserves my effort and business. While I always appreciated the benefits offered to frequent flyers, it has been a while that I have the impression that the quality of such services has been gradually decreasing, the the point that it is perhaps no longer worth "going for it".

The list is long but I reckon it can be summed up as follows:

1) Incredible devaluation of the Promo Awards. There used to be, in previous years, a lot of interesting offers for us FF. It has been more than a year now that I don't any offer even closely palatable. Is it really worth keeping this program now that it seems AF and KL have lost interest in it?

2) Devaluation of the FF program itself with less and less miles offered per ticket, and the introduction of XPs that, while leaving my situation almost unchanged, completes the picture above.

3) More and more airline that do not recognize benefits to FF from other partner airlines. See AeroMexico changing rules to "block" AF/KL passengers from being put on the upgrade list, to no access to 3rd party lounges with Delta. And more can be said. Not to mention the less than coherent policies when it comes to seat assignments.

4) An absurd lounge policy that is much worse than the equivalent on both Star and One World. For example the absurd restriction on domestic flights, which SA and OW don't have.

5) Again, when it comes to lounge policies, member airlines that decide to apply their own rules which contraddict the broad SkyTeam rules. For example I was denied access in the lounge in Lima because, while flying AeroMexico, AM gave instructions not to admit AF/KL elites if flying economy. Not to mention yesterday when, flying with UX, my guest was barred from entering the lounge in MAD because "he's flying on a different flight than yours" (SkyTeam website explicity says that "guest DO NOT have to fly on the same flight).

6) Again lounges. They're awful in comparison to those of the other alliances. Take the AF lounges at Terminal 2F or 2G. Small, crowded, cramped, often no seating available. Are these the lounges in AF's flagship airport? The KL lounge in AMS is decent, but food choice is pretty awful. Very little investment in new lounges and even the fanfared "SkyTeam" lounges are, in my opinion, not too special.

7) Rumours of airlines leaving the alliances, but no rumours about new ones willing to join.

I could go on with many more examples but yes, I'm not impressed and I was wondering if this opinion is shared among others.

Do you really think it's still worth keeping status on SkyTeam when other airlines and alliances are really "upping" their game?