Originally Posted by
Antarius
Several of my friends are WN loyalists. They fly plenty for work and have companion pass. Which they use twice a month for friends and SOs. If you aren't a big longhaul traveler and aren't big on longhaul J for the few trips they do take, the WN rewards program is perfect.
Or if you refuse to play upgrade lottery (can't or won't fly the amount required to really "win" it on one legacy airline), WN for domestic, OAL in paid/award J/F longhaul across oceans (basically, buy what you want and look for mileage/paid airfare sales) is STILL a viable option. Most of the benefits of status simply replicate what you get in paid or award J/F (lounge access, extra baggage, DYWKIA boarding/checkin, etc.) if you're flying in Y. So why tie yourself into knots for loyalty if you could just buy what works best for you?
Yeah, you lose DYKWIA IROPS handling maybe if you bought AV/AA/UA/AS miles (or burned MR/UR/TY points) to cash that award in J/F, and OK, you're not getting F lounges/boarding/bennies if you're in J, but that's about it. I totally get that someone who's putting in 100k+ a year and flies across oceans regularly is likely to want something other than WN (since, well, they don't fly across oceans), but for domestic hops it makes a lot of sense in the right situation.