I am becoming more and more a free agent. The majority of my miles are still with Alaska, but I now have miles in American, Delta, and JetBlue. JetBlue is probably the best alternative but as someone (me) that lives in SEA, JetBlue only offers 3 destinations.

The worst is definitely yet to come with Alaska.

Here, too, although my main bank remains AS MP. But I've never had an exit strategy. Relationships wax and wane. I've never had a "I'm never flying UA again" tantrum after over 1M BIS miles, and millions of miles of redeemed premium award travel. Nevertheless I've flown them on 1 LAX/SFO segment in the past 5 years, and that has been it. But you never know what will come up, like AS hosing us, and eliminating MEX from the route network (before award space opened up), so I can't get to my MEX/SCL/EZE award. So, to make mezcal out of agave (sounds better than lemonade from lemons right now), I bought 2 OW tix on UA, and we'll spend a couple of nights in MEX before heading to Piscosourlandia. I might even take UA up on the Explorer card offer I just received, so I'll have enough miles for a premium award.

I've never shied away from WN on short hops, and the more AS enhances its OAK schedule, the more WN I'll fly ... now mixed in with Jetsuite X. DL? If you told me 18 months ago that I'd be writing this post as a Platinum Medallion, I'd have thought you were presidentially insane. B6 - occasionally.

So, no exit strategy here, just anticipated waxing and waning, and as others have alluded to, and as I've said for a decade or more, sometimes the grass isn't greener on the other side, it is dead.

My main exit strategy is to spend my miles and points when I reasonably can, and have then exit my account before they become even more "less valuable" and/or before I exit to a box in the ground.

Me neither.

But I'm never flying Southwest again. :D

Regardless of choices made about loyalty - worth visiting other forums for other airline programs. The market pressures are not discriminating and everyone seems to see a tightening of benefits. But at the end of the day you should always question if any program is worth it! The whole point of these are to hook you into paying more (see latest AS Investor Day presentation on MP member revenue....)

Do you spend enough money on flights to qualify for another airline's ffp?

To each his/her own. Leaving AS may be best for the OP (but there are very good points made in the above posts) and the exit strategy appears good. The only thing regarding the Mileage Plan Credit Card is I think you get the companion fare after the annual fee for the card is paid, so if you are dumping the card after you pay the fee then fine, it probably is worth the fee depending on how you use your companion ticket.

The main reason I am done with WN is the lack of interlining agreements. Prior to AS's intra-California increase (and transcons, Hawaii) in service options out of SAN, I earned A-list status most every year. While doing my best to avoid SFO whenever possible, there are situations when there are no practical options. During the all too frequent WX cancellations, the gate agent made "good luck getting to your destination", refund instruction announcements, rather than help passengers get to their destination with limited disruption. This is one of the primary reasons why I remain loyal to a major carrier, even if it means spending a few extra $$ to do so. When AS is not an option, AA continues to earn my business (LT Platinum), for the same reason; between the 2, I can generally find competitive fares, with reasonable routing, most anywhere in the world (exception is LAS, of all places).

I'd guess if your travel includes Alaska, keeping some status on AS might prove useful in the future?

I'd have to know more about your travel to suggest anything, but I can tell you as a 1K it's not all that green. I have co-workers who love Delta, but they're both based in non-hub cities where they have to connect to go where they need to.

Go for MM'er and maintain Lifetime MVPG. Then Free-Agent? Granted, I've stuck with AS and partners for 2019 thus far ;)

Um, yah. I'm not even at 500K and an MP member since 1986.

With Delta now booking Basic Economy fares for some award travel, it won't be long before this spreads. Likely, other legacy carriers will match Delta's downward spiral. Landscape of many frequent flyer program is changing, but Alaska is still amongst the best. Tread carefully, if you are thinking of changing.

Jiburi

Just shy of 250K with a bulk of that in the last three years.

James

But if they are part of a downward spiral, as you said, maybe the proper choice in the game is not to play with the "best" in a sorry group of players. If I can accrue miles more easily with a credit card (or just paying cash and flying someone else) than sitting in a tube, and the airline is incentivizing me to do that as opposed to buying cheap fares, I can abstract the mileage acquisition or elite benefits from the actual flying I need to do. Loyalty is for chumps when the airlines keep taking away benefits and watering down programs, at a time where they are making better profits than ever. I'm loyal to my wallet, just like AAG is.

I agree with you in principle. I just don't think it's the case for AS.

If you're willing to pay 2c per mile, then the miles must be worth that much to you (I am, because it gives me good value for award travel)

If you can buy a Main (not saver) transcon round trip for $320, and (as Gold) accrue $200 worth of miles... that sounds like a pretty good deal to me. $120 net cost for a transcon round trip where I'm going to be able to select a premium seat for free? With no status, I paid $113 just to select a Y+ seat on AA, one way (and I don't regret it). Being able to do that for free every single time is worth a lot!

For shorter routes it's less obvious. Certainly if you value flexibility on shuttle type routes you might find a lot better value with Southwest. But I still see AS as the clear winner for mid- and long- distance routes, or routes where I just don't value the flexibility. The exception might be "premium" routes if you are willing to pay $1k+ each way for a real premium cabin experience (I'm still debating that one, personally)

If you don't value the miles or the premium seats then it's a totally different story.

But if you do, you've got to "pick" an airline in order to get the status for those premium seats (not having status mean paying every time, which really adds up.. that's not going to be your most cost effective choice). And you may as well pick the one where the price, adjusted for the value of the miles that you earn, is the lowest. And that's still AS.