Several years ago, I was Platinum on Delta, and fluctuated between Gold and Diamond with Hilton. But then i had a few years where my focus had to be on other things, and now the game has change, with minimum spend requirements and it being much harder to get upgrades and such. And then for a while my available funds for travel dried up. So things have finally started happening in my life, and there is a chance in the next few months that I will have some funds (I am figuring about $10000 total yearly) to start traveling again. I am hoping that I will be able to find the time to get away on weekends. So my question is: Should I get back into the mileage game?

I am a leisure traveler, so nothing is paid for by my employer. In fact the last trip I made for them I gave up getting reimbursed for. Most of my trips I do on weekends - Friday evening to Sunday evening is my favorite, though I can be flexible by a day or two sometimes. I live in central Mass so I can fly out of ORH, BOS, PVD, and even at a stretch MHT and BDL. I even sometimes take Amtrak to NYC. Most of my trips are either Domestic US or Canada. Maybe once a year I like to go to England. Lately I have been flying Jet Blue a lot, because they often have E90s on their flights, which I prefer as they have the widest seats. When I fly mainline lately, it has usually been American, as I have dreams of someday flying BAs 747 in first before they disappear.

For me the big thing with status is seat upgrades. I am not so desperate for more legroom (though that is nice), but I am a wide guy and what I really need is a wider seat. In-flight catering and service are not terribly important for me, assistance with fight changes and irrop recovery are probably more so. Being a leisure traveler does give me the benefit that I can be a bit more flexible in my flights, and I actually prefer connections.

So is it worth getting back in the game? I have occasionally flown this past year, paying for first. I would like to travel more, but I find coach to unbearable for more than an hour in a 737, maybe an hour and a half in a wide seat 320, or up to 2 or so in a E70/90. I'd like ot get back into flying ot the west coast often again, but I can't do that in coach. I'll never meet the MQD requirements for Platinum on Delta or Platinum Pro on American. I probably could meet the 75,000 mile requirements, but without good upgrades I would probably have to push for 50,000. So do I make the leap?