My local airport is serviced by three airlines ... Alaska, United and Delta (well Allegiant but I'm never going to fly them). My husband and I have both managed to be MVP on Alaska for the last 10 years or so. We have over 500,000 miles in our mileage plan accounts between us. We use our companions tickets to fly to Hawaii or maybe a couple other random places but now we are beginning to travel to places Alaska doesn't service (Europe, New Zealand on Delta so now we are SM with Delta). AND given that regular MVP status isn't going to have many perks going forward AND I can buy premium seats without having status if I want. I predict we will lose our MVP status in 2020 given our travel list for the next year. We will probably continue to fly to Hawaii but dropping to once a year. But my question is - should I spend those miles now or continue to accumulate them to use sometime in the future - if I ever find a good deal miles-wise to a place I want to visit at the times I want to go on one of their partner airlines - which seems harder and harder. I have never wanted to use miles over dollars so I could maintain MVP but if I'm not going to be MVP does it make sense just to use the miles now? (Sorry for the stream of consciousness - you should hear me try to decide which credit card to keep for what benefits )
Donna