Originally Posted by Bran28
Enjoyed reading all the posts for so long! Now i decided to sign up and I got my first questions for all of you who are the experts at this! I would say I fly 8-10 times a year now, mostly to FLL. I would say once I get the Silver Elite on NWA I would be able to maintain it. My question I guess is two parts. One is it worth it for someone like me, as some years I will have to take "extra flights". And two this year I will fall about 6K short.(took 4 flights on Spirit, I know DUMB!)would it be worth it for me to try to get it this year? (I have 10,111 now with 3 first class flights to FLL still to come in 2005) Thanks A LOT!!!!!!!!!!
From where? What are you looking for in elite status? The upgrades for silvers are hit and miss. Some routes/flights you will never get them, and some routes/flights you might almost always get them. You also have the ability to prereserve an exit row/bulkhead seat on any skyteam carrier. Silver allows access to F checkin lines but not elite security lines for whatever reason. Remember, buy actually buying F tickets, you will get a 150% EQM bonus, so be sure to figure that into your calcuations.
In some senses, I was sort of hesistant to push for silver this year, because I didn't want to spend the extra dough just to figure out that I would never get an upgrade. I flew two roundtrips out of LAX so far this year where all 4 of my segments cleared. I just flew one this week where NO segments cleared (but I was told after the fact that if I would have taken the next MSP-LAX flight, that my upgrade had cleared. Darn
) My total upgrades for the year are in the 50+ plus bracket, and quite a few are to/from LAX, so it's not like I'm counting a bunch of DTW-BDL and DTW-ROC types and never clearing LAX. In fact, I'm finding that my MKE flights (with the exception of the LAX nonstop) are as hard to clear as the hub-LAX flights.
Ok. So when the upgrade fails, I've almost always been able to secure an exit row/bulkhead. So yeah, I'd say it's worth it.
Edited to add: My flights this year have been very, very, full. I don't check bags so I really appreciate the preboard option, which saves me from having to dump my bag in the baggage pit. I also bought a pass to the World Club this year. I really like it. There are clubs at my home airport (LAX) and all of the airports I visit regularly. It's nice to have familiar faces that are not rushed to get to the next person in line and that will actually take the time to help you, and omigosh smile. I usually leave right from work and take a morning flight out of LAX, and along with the free beer, it helps to even have free orange juice and bagels. I am disappointed in that the only thing offered in the afternoon is just cheese and crackers. Oh, and the line to "please see an agent" usually aren't very long. The main WC at DTW is actually really nice.