Most decorated frequent flyer?
 

I've been lurking these forums for a quite a while and am still surprised at how many different elite status' flyers accrue.

So who do you think has the largest collection of programs in which they hold elite status?

George Clooney, naturally

I think that Traxo's leaderboards are the only place you'll find semi-accurate data, as it pulls status/account balances/travel/etc from the program websites, like Award Wallet and others. Unfortunately, programs cutting 3rd party access has severely limited the functionality/accuracy of these sites. They are now forced to allow manual inputs, which makes all data suspect.

There's obviously some gaming gong on, but the most I see that I can trust is someone with elite status in 12 programs - 5 airlines, 6 hotels, and 1 car rental.

The unknown is status matches and such. Before Feb 28, I was showing 12, but in reality only had 9 (4 air, 3 hotel, 2 car)

probably Mr Pickles

Probably These Guys

I'm at 17 total (8 air, 6 hotel, and 3 car) but most of this is from credit cards and status match. I really don't fly that much but if status is offered, I'll take it.

Most decorated frequent flyer?
 

Peter,

Any advice on the most likely OW and Skyteam airlines to status match for *G?

UA matches DL Platinum to UA Platinum but AA Platinum to UA gold.

The best resource I've found for status matching is

http://www.statusmatcher.com/

Somebody out there has to have a bunch of hotel statuses. Even a fairly regular biz traveler doing 10-12 actual hotel nights per month, and holding the right credit cards for his favorite programs, could probably hold 5 to 6 statuses of Marriott Gold value or better.

Perhaps a modest amount of hotel-hopping required for the stay-based programs, but certainly wouldn't need any crazy degree of manufactured spending or unnecessary mattress running.

I've had quite a few years where I've held all of MR Plat, HH Diamond, SPG Plat, PC Plat, and one or two more like a Hyatt or a Kimpton status. Usually 1-2 due to credit cards and sometimes a status or two granted to me for longer than I expected it.

Never held more than 1 airline top-tier at one time though. Sometimes 2-3 mid- or low-tiers. Clearly the hotel world has far more backdoors, fast tracks, comps, challenges, etc. than the airline world - especially when you're talking top-tiers.

Isn't this something more to feel sympathy for than anything?

Is there any travel experience that beats sleeping in your own bed and propping your feet up on your own coffee table and watching your own TV?

Is there anyone who gets to their destination and says "Oh gosh, I wish I could take another segment?"

For me personally there's a happy medium in there somewhere. My most enjoyable travel years were where I was doing enough to have one decent mid-tier airline status (preferably Star Alliance) and a couple of hotel statuses attainable with 50-70 total nights per year including vacations.

When I've gone more than a couple weeks without going somewhere, I get an itch for it. In the years when I was United 1K, I grew tired of it...especially tired of the little feeder segments and the hub connections.

This year I'll end up with Aegean Gold and my usual hotel statuses (since they're pretty easy to maintain). Plus AA Lifetime Gold, not that I'm really flying them much. Enough to have basic access to most of the world but not requiring so much travel that I'm never home...

Do credit cards actually give status, or only the equivalent benefits? I've never owned one but while I know the US card gives you a free bag, zone 2 boarding, etc., I don't believe you actually hold Silver status (e.g. no *A status).

Most status matches are one-time only, or once in a 5 year period, etc., so be careful about how you use them.


It's certainly possible to earn status in many hotel programs. My 125 nights go to MR (75) and SPG (50) PLT - I'm sure I could get lowest tier status in quite a few - but I doubt many savvy travelers would give up higher-tier perks after three programs at most.

Correct, the credit cards don't provide full elite tier benefits. No bonus RDM's, no status in the upgrade queue, no partner elite treatment at all.

If you really wanted to spread the 125 nights around and use the right credit cards to hit the various spending thresholds, you could probably have 6 or 7 top tiers. Of course, you might not get to enjoy them much if you're always chasing the next one! :o

Sure. I find being at home all the time to be exceedingly boring. Unfortunately there aren't many travel opportunities in my field.

If I didn't have to work I'd spend at least 3/4 of the year away from home. That being said not all of us live in areas that are at all nice or have much to do (see my home airport).

Huh? AFAIK the Centurion card to DL PM gives all the benefits and privileges of PM status but MQMs and RDMs, so that getting to DM would still require 125,000 MQMs. I'm not sure whether Centurion PMs get to pick a choice benefit such as four SWUs or gifting FO to someone.

Similarly, for SPG status, AmEx Plat to Gold gives all the privileges of Gold, including earning an additional point per dollar, late checkout, enhanced rooms, etc. Centurion used to give SPG Plat but it's been changed to just Gold.

Is this thread about status benefits now? :confused:

I probably would say Mr. Pillows:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ws-thread.html

FYI. I seriously doubt neither this FTer or that one is the same Mr. Pillows referenced in the above thread though.

Centurion comes with full PM benefits and a PM card. However, to get to Diamond, you start at zero miles rather than just needing the difference between PM and DM.

Same for US Air.

I was talking hotel statuses, wasn't even thinking airlines.

Let's see...125 actual nights in beds.

56 Marriott
21 Starwood
0 Hilton
0 Priority Club
20 Hyatt

Assumes "perfect" hotel hopping on SPG and HY plus threshold spend on HY Visa and HH Visa or Amex. That gets you four very good top-tiers. (PC Plat is lame IMHO.)

Still have 30 nights to throw at a couple of niche brands like Kimpton, Fairmont, etc. Or you could probably have some sort of out-of-the-box top-tier from another cheaper brand that gives it away via some other non-stay method.

Granted, I wouldn't necessarily *want* to do all of this Starwood/Hyatt hotel-hopping. I'd probably do what CPRich does - throw my additional nights towards the higher tiers of SPG Platinum. I've never chased Hyatt myself.

But a true status nerd *could* do it... :p

You bet. Visiting friends and family. I do 300k BIS a year. Less than 30 nights a year in my own bed, and except for resorts, I doubt I spend more than 15 nights a year in a hotel.

I don't like being home or in my home city. Watch the same TV bs, the same people, the same old BS - who wants that?

Maybe true for airlines, but one Marriott credit card from Chase gives 15 nights' credit, which is more than enough for Silver status with the Marriott Rewards program just from having the credit card; one Citi Hilton credit card similarly gives Gold status in HHonors; and I believe one of the Hyatt credit cards also gives elite status in their frequent guest program.

Back to the OP's question, I would suggest Randy himself might be in the running. Also, in the early days a FlyerTalk member named variously Merry and Merry Flyer (as I recall) said because of his position in industry he got complimentary elite status in most frequent flyer and frequent guest programs.

Min effort status
 

One can easily get the following with min effort

Citi HH reserve = Hilton Gold
Amex Plat = SPG Gold
Chase United Club = Hyatt Platinum and Avis Executive
Amex Hilton = HH silver
Le Accor Free status matches come every few months

Barclays cards x 2-3 = US silver
AA lifetime status if done by 2011 via cc spend or churns
DL Silver
TK by status match
Aegean - 20k flying over 1-2 years
UA up to Plat with old CO pres Plus card

That is already 11.
With status matches that can be increased easily

As mentioned before, it is quite easy to obtain hotel status:

Accor PLT: given for free every once in a while
Hyatt PLT: Hyatt card
Priority Club PLT: Priority Club card
Hilton Gold (Silver): Citi HH reserve card (resp. Amex Hilton)
Marriott Silver: Marriott Rewards Premier card
SPG Gold: Amex PLT card
others smaller brands also possible

Note that these hotel cards are normally really good to keep given the AF/free nights ratio. The car rental "status" are quiet easy to obtain also (e.g., via Amex Plat card).

For airlines Aegean status are almost free to keep once you achieve them (which is not hard at all at 20k for *A Gold)

So it is quiet easy to have a 8...12 FF status