Me. I value mileage earn than any other benefit.

Granted, I’m currently 100K and often get upgraded, my primary reason is due to the mileage earn toward award travels.

As all major carriers have made transition to the dollar based earn model, earning award travels on those carrier have diminished greatly. A one-way earn on transatlantic flight (5000 miles) on those carriers had gone from 5000(more as elite) redeemable miles to 2500 ($500 one way). I was Platinum on those carriers getting about 11500 miles each way prior to the calculation change. 11500 mile earn pre-change to about 4500 miles ($500 times elite multiplayer of 9) was already near one-third of redeemable miles. 😡. Had I paid more for my transatlantic ticket, I obviously would get more but I’m a thrift shopper always looking for travel bargains and lowest “non-basic” economy fares.

While their upgrade program remained constant, my most valued miles earn had been decimated at those carriers.

So while upgrade perks are amazing, my main reason flying AS is Mileage earn. I’d still be flying AS even if upgrade wasn’t a benefit.

Jiburi