I've always flown on my own dime. My number one destination is Asia and that travel is likely to be wiped-out this year to where I probably wouldn't even get to Gold based on my numbers (I am lifetime Plat though). However, I've found that the value of PlusPoints is far overhyped and have been booking away from UA this year for all of my domestic travel into paid F on AA and DL, with about 80% on AA and 20% on DL. I've found that the F product on both carriers is superior to UA's. So far, my domestic travel hasn't been cut at all and my future bookings are ahead of where I was last year.

There is a lot of "sound and fury, signifying nothing" on this thread, as if achieving status is of the utmost importance and would be a tragedy to lose. As someone who has been a 1K for 20 years now and is just over 100K miles from 3 million, I can tell you that it's not that big of a deal. Your family and friends, and your health, are far more important, as is your work itself.

"Never love something that can't love you back."