Originally Posted by
arollins
If E+ on UA is important for you, best to pay for the benefit you want, rather than chasing the status. That's when I realized that it was time to stop chasing status. Over time, the benefits have been diluted, all it takes is a credit card sign up and you have the pseudo membership without putting the effort.
Between what is mentioned above and the compression between the price/cost of buying regular-priced regular economy class tickets on the legacy majors and the price/cost of buying discounted business class, the relative value gotten out of airline frequent flyer program status is thus no longer worth chasing for some in the way it used to be. And given the drying up of OPM-paid travel, people whose FFP elite status used to be entirely or mostly paid for by employers/clients/grants should know its time to re-evaluate and consider giving up on chasing airline elite status given the out-of-pocket costs involved and the opportunity costs for chasing FFP status.