frappant

A slightly different question, if only one member of the family has status and points, should they take upgrades or get premium cabin rewards while making the rest of the family travel in coach?

There have been different variations of stories like this below, though not always claims about flying up front being some kind of blow for justice.

https://viewfromthewing.com/mother-c...mily-in-coach/

It's typically men, who get status through work travel, who will fly up front on family vacations while making the wife and kids fly back or only upgrade the wife while leaving the kids in the back.


Of course Seinfeld made it funny when Jerry gets upgraded and Elaine tries to sneak in front and the amenities in first class -- it was a domestic flight -- are even better than Elaine's wildest dreams.

Irishtraveler

I certainly value my status I am British Airways gold. I get lounge access which is great and I like the gold customer service phone service. Free seat selection is excellent I also like priority boarding especially on European flights. I typically fly monthly to North America in premium economy which typically doesn’t include lounge access. I wouldn’t go out of my way for status though. Although free upgrades aren’t as common as they used to be I did get a free upgrade to business class on an 8 hour flight to Washington last month.

pinniped

There's still a big gap between having no status and having *some* status. In many cases, it's the basic ability to get customer service from an airline.

But I no longer chase higher tiers. I have some lifetime status, some credit card status, and occasionally run into a mid-tier airline status. But I won't spend extra money or take unnecessary connections to get them the way I used to. I spend a lot of time sitting in ORD and DEN grinding for UA 1K a couple years when nonstop flights on other airlines were available. That is definitely no longer worth it.