Exactly this. OP, take a good look into your potential alternative FFPs before making firm plans to defect from AS. Despite the changes AS has been making lately, they're still far ahead of the Big Three in certain respects, like the lack of a spend requirement for elite qualification. If you move to DL, are you going to be spending $6k+ every year as required now for Gold Medallion, or at least flying enough on partners (where MQD calculations are distance-based and sometime pretty favorable) to close the gap? If you're going to have to do a "spend run" somewhere at the end of the year, are you actually saving any money as opposed to buying up from AS Saver fares all the time?