As one who flies on Air Canada internationally, I highly value my top tier status.

I don't pay any more than I would if I flew on other airlines but I will pay up to $400 CAD (about $300 USD) for transoceanic flights to upgrade some flights (we have two types of upgrades, some from mid-range discount fares and the others from any fare). I think the price is worth it for 10-14 hour flights.

The key benefits that I would lose are:
rewards--access to any unsold seat (not just reward seats) if plane is not oversold -- huge benefit for last minute travel
upgrades--virtually unlimited upgrades for the routes I travel as I earn enough to keep getting new ones (2 every 15K qualifying miles plus 6 to 8 at beginning of year)--huge benefit on long hauls

other not so important:
lounge access--not a big thing as I could probably buy this one way or the other for a few hundred dollars but it is a nice added benefit that I use frequently (and we still get some food and free drinks in our lounges)
elite check-in--not a big deal anymore with kiosk and online checkin but there are times when I can't do kiosk etc and elite check-in is a big benefit over long line waits
concierge service--this has meant the difference between getting on earlier flights and not when I have had tight but doable connections

Overall, I must say that for trans-oceanic travel, I would really not like travelling so much without status. It just makes most things go so much more smoothly.

For North American travel, I might not miss it as much (but haven't been put to the test too much on this). I can stand several hours in coach provided I get Economy Plus (e.g. UA). With recent changes in my program related to North America, I would be inclined to look for another program/airline to fly on and not necessarily go for status without a careful look at the benefits.

Somewhat assumptive statement if I may say so, what makes you think people on FT are mainly from the USA and only fly within the USA

Punki this is a good question and one that I am asking myself as an AS MVP Gold. Are the benefits really any good? The biggest one is probably the double miles, and a majority of free upgrades. But as people have mentioned, F on domestic routes is often pretty similar to Y.

I am not sure why the airlines are cutting back on the elite benefits. I am not a marketing specialist, but so many programs hotel, airline etc, are making loyalty something that is not important, rather they only want the high paying customer. I used to be Hilton Gold, until I found out that Hilton status benefits only apply if you pay more. So I find it is just better to pay less.

Airlines are doing the same, be loyal and if you pay enough we will give you benefits. Maybe it is time to take pleasure that we can just pay less.

There are options for to give yourself 'your own' elite benefits. - Punki benefits!

For example, with Hilton, I book on priceline, save $100 per stay, then go out for a nice steak dinner (on the difference I would have paid) and tell myself that is the Elite Smilee program benefit. A nice steak dinner and a free breakfast. Ha ha

Next, I will use my credit card miles for maybe a longer haul ultra cheap upgrade. I have a variety of FF points from various credit card programs, that I can choose the cheapest flight to upgrade on. Again Elite Smilee program.

Finally, from all the savings, I can now afford to buy a consolidator fare to Asia, instead of booking that coach seat and hoping that the series of flights even had space to upgrade on.

UA miles dilemma redux...
 

Forgive me if y'all have covered this in some other thread, but I'm not a frequent reader... I just returned from a transpac SFO-SIN-DPS-SIN-SFO on SQ which is in the neighborhood of 20K miles. I am a KrisFlyer member but choose to put the miles to UA because I have almost all my miles there -128K and counting -, and with SFO as my home hub and Asia my main destination, that made more sense than putting them on SQ where I have no miles to date . Traveling to Asia I have either UA or NW to choose from (plus the Star alliance carriers if I could EVER figure out how to get an award seat -- but that's another thread...)
Now I am 6K miles away from getting back to basic Premier status (oh, how low we have fallen since the days of biz class biz travel went down w/ the dotbomb) and debating whether it's worth manufacturing a trip (one visit to the folks in NY would almost do it, but not quite) to get back to bottom level elite.
What should I do?
ANd did I make a mistake putting my last trip onto UA, thinking that I cdn't get enough miles on SQ - then later realizing I could opt to put any UA miles to SQ instead. But SQ rules are very sticky on their KrisFlyer program.
I appreciate the following comments on benefits of elite status, but I haven't gotten much benefit from most of them - except E+, which really is a big difference on a transcon.
So, what would YOU do with future UA/Star alliance trips/miles???

First, what are the primary benefits of status?

1. Upgrades. -
I haven't figured out this science, or maybe my problem is buying discount tickets but I haven't gotten a free upgrade unlike NW

2. Priority checkin. useful in asia where there are fewer kiosks

3. Priority boarding/seating. Priority seating matters on UA with E+. ABSOLUTELY. In asia I cheat and use my old Gold star card....

4. Bonus flight miles.
alas, haven't gotten out of cattle on a paid ticket in yonks...
5. Priority waitlisting and priority baggage handling.


all advice apreciated.
BTW< is it possible to change one's mind on miles that were redirected to an alternate airline, particularly before they are posted????
;)