Since my line of work over the past 40 years would not have involved any credit card debt, I'm not sure how I could have gotten any more benefit from my Alaska credit card than I have.

But then, I've never been comfortable with signing up for multiple cards and thus accruing any of the ever increasing sign up bonuses - which currently stand at 85000 points.

Additionally, I'm not patient enough to sift through all the Mileage Plan/Atmos shopping deals, Rocketmiles, hotel and rental car promotions, etc. and subsequently go out of my way to take advantage of them all. Had I done so, who knows how much enhanced status - if any - I'd have.

But I know how I am. I'm just not wired to be that particular with that kind of stuff.

That said, one additional regret I have is that despite living in Alaska, I didn't truly focus on Alaska as my main source of mileage accrual until the late 1990s. I logged my 1000000th mile on United in 1997, but basically have little to show for it compared to had I turned to Alaska exclusively when I moved up here in 1988. Had I done so, I'd have logged about 2.8 million eqms so far and be well on my way to lifetime 100K status.