For the win.
If wifey's not happy, ain't nobody happy.

For 1-3 hour business flights, I'll agree with the OP; elite status is a convenient, ego-stroking perk that simply makes the travel experience more enjoyable and more efficient.

However....once you start crossing oceans and/or bringing your spouse on a romantic getaway, elite status can make or break the trip.

I've staggered from the back row of a 777 from Hong Kong, hungry, smelly and having not slept for 36 hours. I was a total wreck for several days afterwards.

I've also awaken after 7 hours of sound sleep in my private little pod, had a hot meal before landing, deplaned and walked to a lounge where I had a shower and a change of clothes, ready to start my day.

My vacation days are precious. I prefer to enjoy each and every one...especially if the missus is with me. That's where elite status pays off in spades.

That was you!!!

When I was traveling weekly, status was helpful during irrops (was mostly on CRJs, so no upgrades but a free snacks). Now that I'm mostly leisure, I just make sure I'm in a premium cabin for vacation, and don't really need status.

BUT, when I have travel for work...I miss my old status. SUre it's only 20 more minutes in security. I have lounge through my AmEx. But when they did OpUPs on my international flight (when I had flown 22k on their airline in the past 5 days, and would willingly have paid for the upgrade!), I did want to cry.

Would I ever, ever, do a MR to Hong Kong to get status? Never. Would I spend several hundred dollars to get status if I were close? Probably. Did I stupidly choose AF for my last flight to get Delta status? Step One: My Name is...and I'm a Mile-a-Holic

I know people in HKG so not an issue for me to do MRs there.
But, most of my MR is done to NRT/Europe.
And, DL>>> AF.

Status is important to me - I hate not having status mostly when traveling with the family. I have two young children and a wife to travel with me, so lots of stuff to travel with.

Beginning with seat selection options opened up via status, ability to find additional frequent flyer seats, ability to have earned more miles than non-status individuals to be able to book more rewards seats.

Next the check-in and the experience of not standing in line for too long with the family and having priority tagged bags. More chances to scrape by with a little extra weight in the bags.

Security Checks - taking the shorter line and quite often being able to select a line without the body imagers.

Lounge access - a place to cool the heels before getting on the plane and not dealing with the lack of seats or the noise. Having a childrens area to keep the kids busy is also a good start to the flight. Grabbing a couple of free bottles of water for the journey is an added perk. Perhaps a mimosa before heading to the gate.

Upgrades - enough said.

OpUps - rare but has happened to me now a number of times.

Boarding - taking the wife and kids and all our bags onto the plane and being able to get settled without people pushing past and having room to stow the bags make a great start.

In flight i find certain flight attendants do actually treat you a little more courteously if they know you have status.

Arrivals - having those priority tags bags arriving earlier than others to be able to clear customs and be on our way.

Basically the less hassle I can have with the family on trips we take together is what makes it worth while to me.

I don't mind flying without status too much when it is just myself or when my family is taking a domestic vacation. For my family we generally take 1 or 2 international vacations each year with the long flight being greater than 10 hours.

With life time status hopefully lasting my lifetime and not the lifetime of my program then I am content for now.

E

Agree, with all that stuff about the family, also one of the main reasons I like status (especially for the baggage allowance and shorter lines) but I got flamed for it on the DL forum just this week for suggesting that it was ok to seat my wife and kids with me in "Economy Comfort" seats when they all aren't platinum like me. Some people take their status a little too seriously!

I think it depends on the airline. If you're flying Jetblue, Virgin America or to some people Southwest airline status doesn't really feel very important. On B6 and WN everyone is basically the same and there's only one class. On all three service in Y is good with F/As who really seem to care about people.

However, on the major airlines flying without status sucks. Bad seats (fewer and fewer cheap seats can be selected in advance without a fee), no guarantee of overhead bin space, checked bag charges, everything is basically ala carte etc. The only aircrafts where status don't matter are the CRJ-200 and the ERJ-135/140/145 (if you can get a single seat).

As an AA EXP, the thing I value most from my status is the SWUs. I am hooked on travel and consider the flight part of the overall trip/experience. With my SWUs I have the ability to fly business class to my International destinations (all picked based on decent CPM fares) that I've wanted to visit. I may have to adjust the time of year I travel to work for better fares, but my work schedule and 5 weeks of vacation a year allows that.

Having free checked bags is nice when I resort to that. Most of the time I'm carry-on only. But when I'm bringing back some great HEB vacu-sealed pre-marinated fajitas and some frozed axis venison from Texas, it's great to have the checked bags with no fees.

Upgrades on domestic flights are great, no argument there. In the past 4 years I've not been in Y on any flight longer than 2 hours. I am a bit spoiled there and do my best to ensure I'm in F on any longer flights. So far, its worked well for me.

Having status has certainly saved me plenty of $$$ and miles for upgrades that I would have otherwise purchase (if available). My annual spend is relatively low but I get to go to places I've wanted to visit,in business class,and explore new places each year. It'll be a long time before I run out of places I want to see.

Example: In 2013 I'm headed to Venice for Carnivale. AA airfare was not too bad and I used SPG points for a hotel during the stay. Two years ago I went to Rio for Carnival there so I'm looking forward to seeing the differences.

To make an overly long story short: AA EXP status is not overrated for me and what I get out of it.

I've been silver on UA, DL, NW and US, but usually not even that. Admittedly, most of this was before the proliferation of fees.

Maybe I've just been exceptionally lucky with upgrades, but I usually got upgraded as silver. The time I got to Vegas rested and relaxed and ready to party. The 8:30AM flight to Berumda after a 6AM connection, when I had a job interview as soon as I got there. The best one was a week before my last Silver status expired, on Christmas eve, flying from our California vacation to my parents in Pennsylvania with my girlfriend. Yes, it's just domestic F, I don't remember if they even fed us, but it was just relaxed and comfortable enough to make the trip actually fun. (Don't ask me how as a Silver I got us BOTH upgraded. I think I was upgraded at T-72 but she wasn't upgraded until T-24.)

Status isn't the best thing since sliced bread, but even for a lowly silver, yes, it's mattered a lot to me over the years.

Upgraded as a FO??? Are you sure?

If you travel light, doesn't care about lounge then elite status is not going to be very useful.

If you fly in coach and are either tall or take flights 12+ hours in duration, seat selection (exit rows, bulkheads) can make a huge difference.

For me, holding only low and mid tier airline statuses these days, it's probably 80% about the irrops support. Even as a lowly AA Gold, if my flights get seriously jacked up, I know I can speak to a human being about it.

Each of my past three trips with family has run into irrops. And each time, I'm convinced that my status helped get me into seats on alternate flights whereas a non-elite wouldn't have gotten them.

A month ago, scheduled to fly ROC-CLE-MCI, 5 seats, late at night on UA. Weather hit ROC, most people got seats the next day. We and two or three other elites got moved to AA to ORD, and then we got the final five seats on an AA flight home to MCI at midnight. Literally, the entire Row 31 on the Mad Dog...never been so happy in my life to sit in the last row of coach next to the engines!!

Late last year, US had irrops and everybody at the airport was getting booked the next day. US Gold desk got us routed onto United and home that night. At least there, my UA status then kicked in and we got some E+ seats, but again I would have sat in the last row of coach and been fine with it.

On the flip side, flying without status on DL over the years, I've had two IDB's. Statistically IDB's are rare, but on certain flights at certain times of the day they are less rare, and almost exclusively doled out to non-elites. One was solo (which I didn't mind too much), and one was with family (which angered me). To this day, I'm far more willing to roll the dice on non-elite travel when I'm flying solo than with family. If there are 4 or 5 of us flying, I simply won't fly without it - even if it's basic low-tier AA Gold or UA Silver.

Of course, I also like the ability to check a bag if I like and I do like the occasional complimentary upgrade. But not being top-tier anymore, the upgrades aren't really as big of a motivator. It's really about peace of mind knowing that I will find someone to help during irrops.

It can happen, four times this year and counting for me!

In the spirit of compromise, perhaps you should have offered to sit with only your wife and one child in EC, sending the other(s) to the back. This offers several advantages:
- it preserves seat(s) for the (self)important elites
-it ups the sibling rivalry while decreasing the chance of their becoming DYKWIA (although with EC...that's not really a concern is it???)
-in the best possible scenario, the dejected child whines the whole way to his/her seatmates, who happen to be elites unable to get an EC. They then start a thread on the Delta forum, stating that you shouldn't have been allowed any seats in EC and should be forced to accompany your annoying child in the back...providing hours of amusement until the mods close the thread.

And please...this is in jest

Nice touch getting the screwdriver into that shot, CMK! ^