Originally Posted by darthbimmer

Welcome to FlyerTalk, Sereisina. There's a lot of good advice in this thread already.

Elite status matters a lot when you're buying coach tickets but less so when you're paying for business. That's because a lot of what high tier elite status provides-- lounge access, premier queues, economy-plus seats on airlines like UA, and a chance at an upgrade to business class-- is part of the package in business. For an economy flyer these make a huge difference in travel comfort and can easily be worth several hundred dollars per international roundtrip. For a business flyer the difference you're left with is... what? a points multiplier and premier customer service phone lines. It's hard to see these as worth paying $500-1,000 more to fly one airline versus another.

That said, when you see similar fares across airlines with acceptable seat comfort and schedules, it does make sense to focus your travel with one airline-- or within one alliance-- for the benefits. That's especially important if you're also making a lot of coach trips, where elite benefits make a big difference in travel comfort as noted above.