The consensus here seems to be that YES, elite status IS that important! And the most important reason for getting it is the UPGRADE! Even with our miles, most of us use them for upgrades, and not for Coach/Economy tickets. Even when we use our miles for tickets, it's usually for International Bus. or FC, because international upgrades on discount tickets are nearly impossible to obtain. And, yes, like most of you, nothing cheers me more than to hear the GA asking me to step forward, just prior to boarding.
Most of my friends can't understand my strong desire to move to the front of the plane. They keep telling me, "The back of the plane arrives at the same time as the front" and "You're only on the plane for a few hours." Well, I do have to stop and think about my obsession. What am I getting so excited about? A marginally better meal on china? So, the seat is a bit wider, and you get comped $8-12 worth of drinks and a headset for movies that I rarely watch.
As a travel writer once wrote (might have been Randy...not sure), YES, when you're trapped in a steel cylinder, sitting bored to tears looking at nothing but clouds and
aisles of passengers, a meal DOES become the focus of your life, and takes on a far greater importance than it would under different circumstances.
A second factor, I believe, is the appallingly deteriorating conditions in Coach/Economy. When I started flying in the 60's, there wasn't such an obsession to get into FC. And back then FC tickets were only 20-30% more than a Coach ticket!
In order to compete for the "Price, Price, Price" discretionary passengers and the Steerage airlines (Laker, People Express, and Southwest), the majors have packed more and more seats into the back of the plane, and reduced the ratio of FA's to passengers.
Yes, the flight may only be a few hours long, but that's a long time if you're in misery the entire time. Sitting in a seat designed for an anorexic jockey, you're too cramped and uncomfortable to get any work done, or even to read your favorite book or magazine. On a recent flight, my glasses dropped to the floor. Just how cramped we were was impressed on me when I couldn't even reach to the floor to pick them up, no matter how hard I tried! I actually had to ask another pax to pick them up for me!
Looking out at an endless sea of clouds, you wait for the highlight of your flight...the meal. When the FA finally gets to your seat, after already serving the 250 pax before you, s/he hands you a "meal" that would cause college dorm residents to riot. Then you have the fun of trying to eat it, without your elbows banging into the pax next to you (or vice versa). And, yes, more and more frequently today, there is a pax next to you...so close that you might think you came out of the womb with that person! And that pax is invariably a 400 pounder, or someone's kid who's doing a Sir Edmund Hillary imitation in his seat!
Upon deplaning, you swear that getting that Elite card is going to be your highest priority in life, so that you NEVER, EVER have to endure the cattle car again!
I don't believe that most of us are looking for the upgrade for "status" so much as for comfort and a minimal degree of service. It's not that Bus. and FC are so great...it's that Coach/Economy IS SO BAD!!!
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"An upgrade, an upgrade! My kingdom for an upgrade!"