djp98374

I agree with you.

im not a heavy business traveler but traveling XC i could earn base status easily on one airline. Now with airlines devaluing miles I won’t get ststus by miles. I could be legs/ segments flown if the don’t have other spend/ miles requirements.

navydevildoc

It's worth reminding folks that VX had EQM through card spend, and when they merged the two programs they chose to eliminate that. So the discussion has happened in the recent past.

WrightHI

IMO now is not the time to be planning next year’s qualification strategy (2023 qualification for 2024 status). There are too many uncertainties. AS has announced new credit card bennies for later this year, which may be a nothingburger or may have some impact on qualification strategy. Where the economy goes may affect both qualification and the value of status. Conceivably AS could be affected by whatever M&A activity could come after the Freedom/Spirit/JetBlue saga is resolved. Etc. If your choices are AS and AA, you don’t need to decide until you’re actually spending money and crediting flights in 2023.

isaacchambers

Find the carrier that works for your travel patterns.....i do find AS upgrades more plentiful......i love them a lot; great food and drinks....reasonably ontime these days compared to everyone else....i love the lounge over others.....

I am really curious at the "additional 100k benefits" later in 2022 for 2023 benefit year......im booked to 82k EQM right now....is it worth the push to 100k....

985X

I guess the additional 100k benefits means a collection of all 3 snacks (chips+choco almonds+popcorn)

TRAVEL4SCUBA

The 100K level has been useful for me in getting upgraded, I am getting upgraded out of LAS 90 percent of the time. I imagine SEA or PDX would be very different, but I do fly to SFO 2X a month and been upgraded almost every flight.

isaacchambers

ill just take a free cheese plate or wrap!

doubleA

You could just stop writing right here and know that they won't miss your BIS. Sorry.

You could say there's something out there for lifetime customer value because you'll be loyal in the future, but truth be told, you and the airline in 5 years when you're "more settled in your career" are going to do exactly what the business dictates. Today wasn't different, it's just new.

TRAVEL4SCUBA

Alaska just seems like a "friendlier" airline. I have had only one pretty bad experience with Alaska, but they made up for it with $5K in flight vouchers and handled it quickly. Overall they have been good to me and for the most part get me where I need to go. Living temporarily in Vegas for tax reasons, I do occasionally have to fly American, but just credit to Alaska. My biggest issue is I no longer fly to NYC and Asia 2X a year for work, so the ability to rack up EQM is limited with my 90 percent west coast travel. Asia will come back (eventually, but who knows when) NYC will not. So as I mentioned, just really need to sit down and pencil this out, getting to EXP on American will be a breeze with the "loyalty" points, I will be very, very, to make it to 75K on Alaska this year and most likely only make it to Gold.

jsguyrus

At some point this gets exhausting and I want to just throw in the towel and book whoever has the best price/schedule. Normally I would also say if I want first I would just pay for it, but with the recent price increases even first is generally too expensive for me to consider.

eponymous_coward

Yeah, I realized sometime earlier this year that with some WN funny money after a VDB, WN and DL miles I don't mind blowing on domestic redemptions, DL gift cards and flight credits, and credit cards I want to retain that will cover $450 in DL/WN cheap flights or split tenders with gift cards/vouchers/credits, I don't have to spend any more money in 2023 to do the travel I legitimately expect to take. I'll lose AS status for 2024, but I also anticipate enough credit card signups that I won't really go backwards on the stash of miles I have. Very reasonable signups should net me positive (and able to take future J/F trips across oceans).

Even if I want upgraded experiences from WN/DL basic Y, I can pay for it out of that pool of miles/credit card reimbursement/funny money.

So why exactly would I chase AS status in 2023 for 2024 when I can basically fly a reasonable amount (~20k or so BIS domestic miles) without spending any more cash than $450 in credit card renewal fees? Yeah, I know, the RDM earn and AS sweet spots. I can literally buy AS RDM for ~2 cents a mile (and I've never had the BofA card, so there's that too).

"Best price" seems to be "it's not you, it's me, AS". I won't be actively avoiding them, just... the status hamster wheel makes less and less sense for a leisure traveler who struggles to make MVPG in a good year, and now has credit card earning as an alternate way of getting those juicy longhaul premium trips.

985X

I will miss flying LAX-SEA-JFK-SEA-LAX for $150 in main cabin from the crazy discount code last year which gave me 0.9cpm for RDM..

VegasGambler

I let every single GGU I ever had expire unused, except for two that I gave to someone on this forum. The minimum booking class always made them completely worthless for me; every time there was U space available in advance there was always an economy ticket available for much much cheaper than the upgradeable fare, and the chances were good that I would get upgraded anyway. I'm not sure why I would pay more to confirm the upgrade at booking when I can just wait and get the upgrade for free when the window opens.

On the other hand two SWUs allow me to upgrade from a sub-$1000 economy (or basic economy) round trip ticket to a business class ticket that would cost somewhere in the $3000-$5000 range, on a route where I'm not willing to fly economy, and where there are no complimentary upgrades.

eponymous_coward

Mine are not quite that useless, but the G/T low fare exclusions hurt GGU value a lot.

TRAVEL4SCUBA

Well, they are exactly that, confirmed. By the time the window opens, there may be no seats left. If I am flying 6.5 hours to Hawaii or Costa Rica would rather be confirmed than "hope" seats are available.I am seeing almost every flight going out of LAX and SAN with first FULL. long before the window opens. So if the opportunity arises, I grab them.