Boraxo

I guess it was time for another one of these stories:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/frequent-flier-loyalty-programs-free-flights-upgrades-7c94c48d

Some travelers are beginning to question whether chasing elite status with airlines is worth the effort.

Airlines, hotels and other travel providers initially made it easier to secure and maintain status in their loyalty programs in the wake of the pandemic. They granted free extensions to people who had high levels of status, with the number of fliers in elite tiers ballooning as a result.

Now, those extensions have largely come to an end. At the same time, many status perks—such as first-class upgrades or cashing in miles to book luxurious vacations—have become harder to secure.

The double whammy has many travelers re-evaluating whether status with an airline is worth the potentially higher cost of booking flights with a single carrier rather than playing the field. The result is that some are choosing to ditch their status altogether and become travel free agents.

The first quarter of this year marked the “downgrade apocalypse,” says Mark Ross-Smith, chief executive of StatusMatch.com, a company that designs and implements loyalty promotions for travel companies.

About 20 million U.S. travel loyalty program members had their status downgraded, he says. That figure includes people who were members of two or more programs, including ones with hotels and other travel providers.

“People are a bit more open to other brands because they’ve been unchained from those golden handcuffs or platinum handcuffs,” Ross-Smith says.

Some airlines are making changes to boost their loyalty programs to be more competitive with other airlines. An American Airlines spokesman said that starting June 9, booking an award ticket on select flights through the carrier’s AAdvantage program will result in a complimentary upgrade at all status levels.

Kyle Stewart, director of Pittsburgh-based travel agency Scott & Thomas, previously had top-tier status with United Airlines, American Airlines and Spirit Airlines. Today, he only maintains that level of status with Spirit.

Earning and maintaining status with Spirit, Stewart says, was easier than with larger carriers. Spirit also gives a bigger return on money spent on perks such as seat selection or checked luggage.

Meanwhile, he found that with the major carriers, taking advantage of perks such as upgrades to better seats had become increasingly difficult, an issue he says he doesn’t face with Spirit.

One big loyalty benefit that industry analysts say has shifted recently at many airlines is the cost of using the miles or points accrued from spending on travel or using a co-branded credit card to book flights. Much in the way that it costs more to pay out of pocket for airfare, it now takes more miles or points to book those dream overseas vacations.

Delta Air Lines and United have ushered in steep hikes for booking award trips to destinations in Europe, Asia and Australia—in some cases doubling the number of miles needed, says Kyle Potter, executive editor of travel industry blog Thrifty Traveler.

These changes are driven by dynamic pricing models that many airlines now use for rewards flights, which change based on travel demand.

(continued at WSJ: paywall)

FriendlySkies

While I haven't been 1K or EXP since 2016, I still find value with having elite status. I am just Gold at UAL these days, but getting free E+ at booking, free bags (I check a bag on every trip), better customer service and more award options is worth it to me. There are other things, such as free upgrades which, while more rare these days than the late 2000s, I still seem to get. I'm about 250K from 1MM with UAL and will continue to push towards it.

geepmaley

agree on the basic adds for having status but the days of reasonable miles for J class awards to Europe seems to be gone. Having 500k LPs on AA not buying me much these days when one way fares to places I want to go are so high now

Polytonic

It really depends on what people are looking to get out of a program. Onboard perks are great for frequent flyers, but most people I know don't (or won't) fly enough to earn status. For the general flying public, a thinly disguised rebate program run by banks that happen to operate airplanes would be a more apt description.

I do get a lot of onboard value from United status though. In particular, free E+ at booking gets me into the first row of economy which saves me enormous amounts of time getting off the plane. Pretty much everything else is ancillary, though the occasional upgrade is nice.

Repooc17

If you travel up front, status is not worth it.

If you travel at least moderately in the back, status can be worth it if it can come naturally.

Chasing status is not worth it.

Gig103

If isn't *typically* worth it but there are some cases where I think it is. Delta gold to platinum, my friend did a MR and once platinum got a year of C+ by booking Main for him and his partner. Considering what DL is charging for C+ those days it was worth the $300 r/r MR flight.

Repooc17

If you are close, yes, go for it. But if you have to send thousands of dollars, I would personally advise against it.

adambrau

I have platinum for life with Mileage Plus and getting close-ish to 1K for life. Traveling less than I used to but that is just temporary. Still get the odd complimentary upgrade, can book bulkhead, emergency row and E+ for free. 2 bags for free. Avis Chairman's Club for free. If I really need to fly in Polaris I will pay up for it. My status thus keeps me very loyal to UA, and in general apart from a few airlines like SQ/NH/ I don't feel UA service / product is all that uncompetitive. Once I reach 3MM I might feel a bit freer to fly other *A carriers. Overall elite status I mostly earned years ago that is now lifetime is obviously still worth it to me. Not sure I'd chase it now....

jcf27

clink-clink ! we have a winner! It's beyond me all the people who try to game the system to brag about their super titanium loyalty status and 'elitism'. People forget that 'loyalty' is a two-way street.

plancast

I think it is worth it, as an EP on AA, the upgrades and priority during IRROPS is a good benefit as a weekly traveler.

CPRich

I guess my question is - “worth” what? I earned top tier status at many, many programs while I was working. All were based on work travel that was happening anyway. So signing up and providing my number on each reservation was certainly worth it.

Meeting some of the stay/miles/spend thresholds out of my own pocket, for travel I wasn’t taking anyway, to earn status -certainly not. Outside of, maybe, something like $80 for a local one-night stay to tick over a threshold that I’m near meeting based on planned travel.

Fwiw, this seems like one of those “I have nothing else, let’s publish this again” articles. Like “here are the longest airline routes”.

Kacee

It's become an increasingly relevant question as programs raise thresholds while devaluing status.

This particular article is nothing more than a puff piece, however. It would have been much more instructive to look at specific examples, such as UA's devaluation of MP (both award redemptions and benefits, particularly upgrades) while hiking qualification thresholds into the stratosphere ($24k for 1K).

rtpflyer

I think it was worth arranging my rollover miles plus MQMs to get DL PM/SM in consecutive years rather than GM/GM. While I have yet to get an upgrade beyond C+ this PM year so far (I did get a couple late last year after PM qualification), that C+ upgrade at booking has been worth it. I won't get that next year of course, but I may start paying for 1st more often and become airline agnostic at that point.

javabytes

Expand the conversation to earning miles in general. For the vast majority of people, putting any spend whatsoever on an airline card that's earning you 1x is incredibly stupid. Zero annual fee 2% cash back cards often far exceed the value most people ultimately realize from their miles.

Before y'all come at me, I said *most people*, not FTers who are accustomed to trying to maximize point value through things like saver level premium cabin redemptions, to the extent they still exist. Airlines have cooked the golden goose far beyond well-done at this point and yet for some inexplicable reason it still refuses to die.

GrayAnderson

So, I'm sort-of split here. I honestly don't "really" value my Delta status beyond getting free SDCs (and Delta has been doing their damnedest to undermine the value of that with floods of comp-ups close to the 24-hour mark). On-board upgrades are mostly a zero-value proposition for me (I'm going to pay for First rather than playing games). Extra points, on the other hand, do have a tangible value (bringing the rebate from 7.5% to 13.5%).

I've mentioned it elsewhere, but most of the things I find to be valuable (notably guaranteed upgrades and regular lounge access) either don't kick in until fairly high tiers of status or don't really come via status with most airlines (at least, not without some nasty trade-offs). In particular, "complementary upgrades on a space-available basis" are something that doesn't apply to folks booking up front to begin with and while I've gotten bumped up on one trip...the fact is just that I'd probably just assume bin the comp-ups and just pay for F in exchange for some sort of limited trade-off rather than playing that stupid game. In Delta terms, small number of Regional Upgrades or some points would suffice for me to surrender that "perk". In the meantime, the lounge access that I value...comes from the credit card, not status.

Now, if there were some tangible benefits given to folks with status who also book F right out of the gate (admittedly, I'm at a bit of a loss here...maybe some extra RDMs?) that would alter this equation for me.

On the other hand, I do find tangible utility from my hotel status - guaranteed space availability has been quite valuable more than once, and Hyatt knocking out both all resort fees and parking fees on award nights does wonders for the value proposition there.

So I think the answer is that I strongly value my hotel status (and my Amtrak status, alongside that - 48-hour Acela upgrades are worth a bit of maneuvering from my POV) but with airlines it's more...meh.