Originally Posted by
ATOBTTR
Many of us on FT have higher level status and can tend to forget that even lower-level status within an FF program can be enough to take flying from "miserable" to "bearable/tolerable."
This. I'm very hesitant to fly a legacy carrier with no status. (Fortunately right now for me, I only need to avoid Delta.)
Just the basics of being able to select a seat and, if I need to, check 1 bag are enough to turn a trip from miserable to tolerable.
Similar thing with hotels. Although none of the hotel statuses are worth a ton anymore (except perhaps Hyatt Globalist in certain situations), having Marriott Titanium or Hilton Diamond at least usually keeps me out of terrible hotel rooms. Same would hold true for any of the lower hotel statuses....they aren't going to yield upgrades but they'll hopefully get you a not-awful room.