Originally Posted by
ytjk
Thanks exactly what I am thinking. I’ve been 1k or GS for the last 12? years— but some of that from back in the day when I was making 1k as a 100 segment domestic guy. So I don’t have that many BIS miles.
I’m over a million but barely and at this point in my career probably won’t see 2 MM
I’m 90% committed to going back to American …. I flew out of Philly when USAir was in Star Alliance and then basically flipped to United. Star alliance works well for me
But $50k consecutive years that didn’t yield GS = I’m going to split my spend. And it will give me better options — if I can’t upgrade a miles ticket anyways then at least I can shop around.
thanks for the thoughts—- it confirmed what was in my head basically.
YTJK
+1
I think United underestimates the amount of OPM flyers that have discretion in their spend.
I am at $100K/year… 5 years ago that was all United’s. Now due to Kirby’s GS ‘enhancements’ my United spend is $50K. And on my long haul flights the experience in business on say Air France with no status is as good (or better) than in Polarless. The second I drop from GS it will be $24,001.
becoming a semi free agent has enhanced my flying experience. It’s the bell curve of status chasing… once you get to the top you realize it’s not that great (today) and then you start the slide back down the right side of the curve.
united don’t compete (very well) on price. Certainly not on service. One of the worst on food. Bedding is probably their best feature at the moment and they even managed to make that slightly worse (IMO). And despite being a leader in seats 8 years ago they get more uncomfortable the older I get and more used the product is.
if your spend allows it I think the best approach in the modern transactional FF world is to be ok with getting status on 2 (or more) airlines versus blindly giving everything to one.
lifetime status? I’ll hit 2MM which gives me platinum… not sure how that’s different or better than a solid credit card strategy… 3MM? If I stayed exclusively on United it might be possible, but I’m not willing to inflict that pain on myself.
lower levels of spend may entail a different approach….