I'm not saying that one shouldn't care about miles when they fly solely J. I'm not saying one should turn down the miles and status when they solely fly J.

I just don't see the reason to try hard to pursue status for those who are flying J once a year or so. The +1 is only needed if that person is flying with someone who is on the same flight but in Y who needs to be guest into a lounge and I don't think it's common anyway. J has already enough checked bag allowance anyway, unless I'm using it to relocate, otherwise I don't see any reason one would need 4 checked bags.

The status is amazing for people like me who fly Y long haul (out of my own pocket) 4-6 times a year. Fast check-in, extra checked bags for other airlines, lounge access and occasional short haul upgrades on TK flights.

My *G saves me tons of $ when SK stranded me in YYZ having to find my way home on my own dime during the most peak period last summer.

LO has one free checked bag for their cheapest fare also for long haul flights.

I tried Sapphire status with OW, and the biggest pro is that you can get free seat reservation for the whole PNR up to 9 pax (even if only 1 person has OWS status). We were able to get Main Cabin Extra when we flew with AA. The AA flagship lounge in LAX was amazing, so was the Qantas/CX lounges at LHR. Our status also gave us super high priority for rebooking when our flight went MX. I saw a FTer said with the highest OW status he got upgraded from Y to Y+ on AY long haul and sometimes from Y to J.

It's a lot easier to maintain TK status vs AY, BA, QR etc. as Jaenks pointed out.