To achieve top status with award travel in either UA or DL you will need to have millions of miles which the typical FF does not have thus one has to supplement it with spending a boatload of money on CC or buy tickets with $$$. Don't get me on how to calculate all the intricacies of all the ways to earn PQP or MQD that's just a mine field. AS currently is simple fly 100k miles you get status or you can exploit the intricacies of the program as some of you have to beat the system with low spend. I think AS would fair better keeping the miles flown and working the kinks out of min/max exploiters.