Originally Posted by
GUWonder
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.
I used to attain status with a combination of work and personal travel. My personal travel is best covered by my preferred airlines, and I rack up UR points very fast with my CSR credit card, so sometimes I've even been able to purchase J itineraries with them - and that is because I put a value on status, and I was able to afford it, so I didn't mind using credit card point currency for status-lucrative travel. But my work travel has dried up substantially recently, so I'm considering just taking advantage of UR transfers to airline programs instead. I continue placing value of status because I travel so often, even for personal reasons, that having status has made it more sustainable and less stressful in many ways. But if you can redeem your points/miles for J travel, then you should have access to most benefits anyway. It's just... you can't always redeem for business or first, in which case without status you lose out a bit.