Originally Posted by
extramileage
I would say forget about loyalty and maximize your budget. If the status comes organically, then sure. I've made that round trip to Muscat to get those extra 2,000 tier miles I needed...
Couple more subtle benefits that I use:
- Being able to guest 1 adult and 2 children into the F lounge is a nice plus (I tell my wife that's why I won't have more children) except that the kids now scoff at the J lounge (I tell my wife that's also why I won't have more children)
- I've made good use of the (fka) SPACE upgrade availability for Plats although I wish it was a bit more transparent.
- My wife loooves the reserved parking access at the Dubai Mall. You simply register your car plate. This is actually a nice little perk if you are Dubai-based as that parking is well located and always available. They've recently added free access to the in-mall buggy service (not sure if Plat only)
- I usually get picked up in Dubai in an S-Class even if flying J, which is nice. F Car queue usually a bit shorter at DXB arrivals.
- Priority First luggage which, while being quite hit or miss (especially at out-stations), is better than the Business tags.
For some these benefits could be quite useful but for me all I am bothered about these days is the on board experience. My connections are now normally quite tight to reduce the overall travel time so whilst the F lounge is a good perk, it is not a priority for me.
As for the tags, I don't see there is much real life difference between First and business class, however this does raise an issue. On 4 flights this year, I have travelled with my girlfriend and whilst I watched the check in staff place priority tags on her bags, by the time we landed her bags came out with the rest of economy class and the tags had been ripped off. If this happened once or twice I could believe it was an 'accident' but not four times. On my last flight a couple of weeks ago I checked all the bags in under my name, we landed and all tags remained in place.