am a 1K UA, PM on DL.
getting tired of keeping both higher statuses.

does it pay anymore?

I do it for upgrades. The certificates on DL are worthless, since I never book A or B rates.
Like the regional on UA. Not crazy about the W class requirement for global.

don't need to see the world. travel for charitable biz, so fares are very important. International and domestic, evenly.

Like premier seating and early boarding.

Wonder if it's worth it anymore?
I have DL and UA credit cards, so the spending limits don't affect me.

No. Soon you'll have to buy first and pay for early boarding even if you are elite. Unless you are global services they will start charging you miles for early boarding and better seats. Sad but true domestic award tickers will increase to 50,000 round trip for economy saver on United soon.

Bitter about the recent deval I see

Who wouldn't be?

I just transferred about 100k from Chase UR, but I feel even worse for those who actually flew to earn the miles.

What are you asking to be "worth" it? I travel a lot for business, always taking best fares/times and accrue miles/status as a result. The "effort" is signing up and putting my number on each reservation.

Are you going out of your way to pay more, travel longer, layover longer, spending your charities money or your time to stick with a specific carrier?

You're basically screwed

UA you can get your upgrades at higher fare, but if you can go JFK-SFO then at least you could use upgrades for PS service.

DL you have the same issue.

DL economy comfort and service I rate somewhat higher than UA, but UA has a lot more room in E+ for most flights. And MP still somewhat more valuable than DL for redemption.

All in all I'd vote United, or give up on both of them and put your miles on AS or Virgin.

That makes no sense. Those of us who earned miles with BIS aren't any worse off than those who transferred miles to MP. In fact you could argue we are less upset because we didn't have a viable alternative. When you fly BIS you have to credit your miles somwhere. UA is unfortunately the best *A option for most everyone except HVF who might achieve top status on SQ and LH. And even that may not be as useful to US-based travelers.

Contrast to those who earn miles by credit card signups and spending. You have many program choices and even cash-back options. So if you credit to UA or DL and there is a devalutation, you are screwed - could have credited to an alternative program with better ROI.

At one time a coke cost 25cents

To me is has become worthless to collect airline status, make mileage runs to obtain an airline status. No benefits behind. Maybe it is different for US customers, where they get on a regular basis upgrades? In Asia and Europe one gets hardly any upgrade. And if, then it is mostly for a domestic, short distance flight where eco and business is same.

When it comes to lounge access, one has to be honest and ask himself if being allowed to go to a room, have a coke and some unhealty snacks, is really a great benefit. I came to the conclusion that it makes more sense to buy a coffee at a bar, restaurant and go directly to the gate.

Extra baggage? - I don't remember when I needed this benefit!

Check-In: Can be done online. So, no need for priority check-in.

Fast line at security control: A good thing. But most of the airports which I travel to/from have either no such priority line or there is no waiting time at the regular line. Also here, no benefits.

I don't think it's worth it. If you fly enough to maintain the status then good for you, but if you have to go out of your way for MR to earn those status then it's a waste of money. I've really learned to not hate economy seats as much because... well... first seats are equally horrible, just bigger. There's about a 1 cubic foot of space between my lumbar area and the back of the seat in first or economy. The seats fold in on you no matter what class you are in.