Originally Posted by
flamingocrazyfl
I had a steep reduction in travel since March of this year due to a special assignment I accepted at work. Now that things are wrapping up with that, my travel will begin to pick up again starting in mid-October. I met the Silver Medallion qualification back in March of this year and am now just shy of Gold. With my newly scheduled trips October-December of this year, I can easily meet the requirements for Gold (but not Platinum). With my next trip I will meet the MQD requirement for Gold and can take a few more trips on DL, stopping just short of the MQM or MQS requirement for Gold.
I would like some opinions on if I should fly out the year on DL, reaching Gold with a few thousand rollover miles or if I should stop just short of hitting the MQM/MQS requirement for Gold and have about 24k rollover miles for next year. I expect my travel to increase substantially next year (likely reaching Plat again and maybe Diamond with the rollover, MQDs have never be difficult for me). I have not been Silver since 2004, so I'm not sure if the benefit differences are worth it for me to hit Gold. I only have minimal international travel and my company reimburses 50% of an airline club membership, so I will have SkyClub access anyway, so STE+ really isn't a big deal. Much of my travel is last minute enough where I am on higher fares but find that C+ is typically full or has middle seats only by the time I book, so the 3 day UG window for C+ doesn't really matter much. It looks like Silvers can book non-C+ exit row seats at the time of booking which is where I typically end up. Any thoughts on this? Would you prefer Silver with a lot of rollover (and a shot at diamond) or Gold with minimal rollover if your travel was going to continue to increase for the next program year?
The big wild card is the MQD. The rollover only helps so much until you meet the MQD thresholds (or get the AmEx waiver). So if you're going to hit the MQD threshold early and will have to wait for MQMs to catch up, rollover may be more helpful. If it's the opposite, then getting GM now and at least having GM perks for more of the year in the early part of the year would be more beneficial, IMO.
How are UGs on the routes you fly now as a Silver? Are you just missing them to where making GM might make a difference? If so, this would be a reason to go for GM. If you're regularly
#50 on the UG list for 1 seat though, bumping up to GM isn't going to make much of a difference.
You'll gain SDC/SDS benefits as a GM over FO. So if SDC flexibility would be a benefit, that's a reason to push for GM.
SkyPriority is also a nice perk and not just for boarding but for check-in and in IROPS when you can use a SkyPriority line or get through to an agent that much more quickly.