Strategies for when Alaska just won't get you there
I am primarily a business traveler and most of the time AS gets me there. With business travel MVPG is easily attained, but then I usually have another 20k miles in travel on other legacy carriers to get to places AS does not travel to. I wanted to poll others on how you manage maximize benefits or at least some comfort when you travel outside the Alaska network. I am debating a strategy where I try to use some mix of credit card tricks and travel to maintain a little status on DL or UA (probably not AA....). But I also realize I can probably just pay out of pocket for some of those elite perks with a la carte purchases and so maybe its not worth it. I primarily travel domestically and that matters too since I am not looking for international perks as much.
Curious to hear what others have done. I realize the answers are very subjective, but would love to hear how you've debated or managed it.