Reading everyone’s strategies and thoughts on this topic has been so interesting! Thanks for sharing.

Lifetime status is certainly a dream, but I’m about to start year 3 of FB Platinum and while I have good hopes to get to year 4 as well, that’s still not even halfway through. At this point in my life there may be a chance for parental leave extensions 1 or 2 years, but it’s still a long way there.

At this point I’ve given up on United. Even if based in the US, being loyal to a European program works best for me as I travel between the US and EU often, and it is my feeling — though I know extremely little about European programs other than FB — that status with European airlines is slightly easier to reach and retain, simply because it seems like a smaller market than the US altogether. I’m shocked every time I see the number of passengers boarding the plane at the call of Diamond Medallion and Premier 1K. So many people. Group 1 boarding on United is often larger than group 2. I don’t experience the same in Europe when SkyTeam E+ are called for boarding.

Also, it’s not that FB doesn’t count on a sizable number of US-based members, given the cobranded credit card with Bank of America.

I’m trying to figure out the best usage for the thousands of FB miles I keep sitting on. Because every bit of travel counts for keeping Platinum for me, if it’s personal travel I tend to pay OOP or with CSR points. I can afford it and that’s fine. But I’d like to put those miles to work at some point! Maybe for a one way JFK-CDG in La Première some day.