My thoughts mirror those of many others above. The last five years of AA LT Plt status removed the pressure to requalify.

Thus I now more often fly on OA direct when AA is a connection. I also frequently use the AMX Plt card front cabin twofer on international travel with my wife. Domestic airlines do not offer this. I am burning the many thousands of miles I have on UA, CO, NW and DL at a rapid rate. I top them off with AMX and Diners awards.

I too purchased Life memberships in ALL of the Clubs (that made them available) back in the 1970's. I seem to recall the cost of each was 12 x the yearly rate of about $25. This seemed like a pretty sound investment at my then age. I (and my employers) spent less that $2K in total. I'm still flying, but EA, PA and TW are gone (with my miles moved to CO, DL and AA respectively. But the AMX card gets gets me where my remaining AA and UA club cards don't.

I am a senior FF who spent the first half of my business and personal travel life during the time of airline regulation, when routes and fares were set by the CAB. Schedules and equipment were the major factors in flight decisions. A Club in the destination cities was also a consideration.

After de-regulation, with �open skies� routing and competitive pricing, the airline and flying world changed. My trans-Atlantic carriers were no-longer PA and TW; but became DL, UA and AA. The domestic carriers adopted FF programs to capture my loyalty. AA, because of my location and its superior schedule to my most frequent destinations, became my favored carrier.

I really cannot imagine not giving AA the bulk of my domestic revenue, in order to secure exit row seats and upgrade with points. And with my well over 600K miles, I will obviously be also using it on international flights for mileage upgrades and award flights.

But I really do have a "loyalty" soft-spot for AA. Over the past fifty years of flying, I�ve had my ups and downs with it � just as with other airlines. However, taken as a whole, I must say the AA experience has been a very good one. For which I �Thank You AA�.



[This message has been edited by kappa (edited 05-28-2003).]

Excuse my ignorance - but what is M&M? I get M+ (Mileage Plus), but can somone explain M&M?

Thanks,
james

M&M = Miles & More, Lufthansa's frequent flyer program.

The one big regret of my flying life was in the early 90s when CO offered "Infinite Elite" Status if you earned Gold (then the top tier) membership for 5 consective years. And that took only 50,000 to get .... a cinch from here where a SYD-EWR r/t was over 20,000 flown miles, and 25,000 if flown via Guam.

I did it for 4� years and then CO with no notice whatever pulled out of flights to OZ. NW comped all CO Golds here to Platinum and I continued on my merry way with NK/KLM World Perks.

Now I look back and wince to realise that "Infinite Elite" is actually now PLATINUM For Life on CO. Had I used my brain and made just one more long trip on CO I could have locked that in, and am darn sorry I didn't.

AFAIK it was the ONLY offer made by a USA major that gave TOP tier for life?



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~ Glen ~

Come visit HERE the most ** FRIENDLY FORUM ** on FlyerTalk. No flame wars, no personal abuse, no substance abuse. Not much of anything really!

I'm trying to achieve those levels so I am motivated to stay with carriers on which I can earn MM/lifetime status. AA is my primary carrier and offers good benefits for 1MM and 2MM, as well as nice gifts for each MM level achieved after that. I also earn miles on QF (Qantas) and they have decent benefits for their equivalent status levels.

UA is marginally appealing as a third carrier but it would take a very long time for me to get to 1MM with them as a third carrier. NW offers recognition for 1MM but no benefits. US and CO do not offer recognition at all. DL has made it almost impossible to achieve 1MM, 2MM, or 4MM for lifetime recognition, but on the plus side, their benefits at each level are pretty worthless so it's not tempting to buy any fares on DL anymore.

I don't see myself defecting to anyone else after hitting 2MM/AA and lifetime Gold/QF just because the status will always be there for me otherwise. If UA improves their benefits, I might look at more time w/them. Otherwise, no.

[This message has been edited by Spiff (edited 05-30-2003).]

I made 1MM and am nearly halfway to 2MM, but the routing from AA has changed so horribly there is nearly no way I can maintain the rate I set in the past with them. Colorado into SoCal has virtually dried up; unless you can waste a day each way. AA remains the first place I go to TRY, but the last 4 trips I had to drive to Denver and give my biz to UAL. I just got status there, so in June I can compare the front cabin service. I sure have missed the upgrades!

Airlines... not a chance of Lifetime anything, since we flew TW for so long, and frankly I don't trust any of them anyway. Loyalty is their problem now.

Hotels, now: Lifetime Marriott Platinum may not be the greatest thing, but I have a lot better feeling that Marriott will still be a decent place to stay long after the fly boys are gone... (well, not exactly, but Don McLean was in my head just now).

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email on profile

I have lifetime gold with KLM. The service has dived in the last 6 months.The aircraft are dirty and old and often break down. The general attitude of staff is that they dont care anymore. I have made a clear decision not to use them. I would rather arrive on time in a clean aircraft

Since I barely make NWA Gold each year by less than 1000 miles, I only purchase tix which will be credited to NWA. Thus, only NWA, CO & AS in USA. It's not worth it to save $50 once in a while on a DL,AA, UA or other "deal" if the miles are of little value to me and might cause me to lose NWA Gold status. I like (1)1class upgrades 3+ days out, (2)2x miles, (3)Real food, (4)GoldLine phone response, (5)exceptional NWA service when really needed. I don't like "steerage" seating, so, yes I do have NWA loyalty.

I am not sure lifetime elite status influences my decision to fly almost exclusively with UA. I fly other carriers when UA is absolutely not an option such as not flying to a city I am traveling to. I used to be elite with CO (Bronze 1 year, Gold 1 year and Silver 2 years when these were the 3 status levels). I stopped flying CO at the end of 1993 for 2 reasons. 1) CO pulled the hub out of Denver and 2) a major attempt of a screw-job from a CO gate agent. Since 1994, I have flown almost exclusively with UA compiling the following UA flight history...

1989 - 1993: 30384 miles on 50 segments (all domestic)
1994: 51896 miles on 68 segments (all domestic)
1995: 87468 miles on 119 segments (1 international DEN-MEX via LAX).
1996: 89242 miles on 117 segments (all domestic).
1997: 82402 miles on 106 segments (all domestic).
1998: 87545 miles on 119 segments (1 international DEN-MEX via SFO and ORD).
1999: 71639 miles on 107 segments (all domestic).
2000: 97578 miles on 129 segments (all domestic).
2001: 119356 miles on 153 segments (1 international DEN-MEX via LAX and ORD).
2002: 89566 miles on 106 segments (all domestic).
2003: 32451 miles on 42 segments (all domestic).

The longest flight I ever had on UAL is SEA-IAD at 2306 miles. That was the only trans-con I ever had without stopping in between in all my years of travel. I am only 160,473 miles from MM status on UA. Will I concentrate on UA to get MM status, I guess will. After taking time to track all my UA flight activity on an Excel spreadsheet, and I mean every UA flight, I realize that MM status does mean something to me. Maybe a badge of dishonor, so to speak.


[This message has been edited by RobotDoctor (edited 06-03-2003).]

Husband nearly 1M on UA. Gotta do it. FA's take your dinner order first in first class...Double miles for life is a real incentive.

The lifetime status buys my loyalty, at least a little bit.

I am approaching 2MM on UA, but am trying this year to get the Glostbal Services card again next year. I think if I make 1K again this year for the 13th consecutive year, it will be a slam.

I also recently received a lifetime Diamond status at Hyatt, and I still go out of my way to stay there. So I think my loyalty will remain with United even if I don't get GS or even 1K next year. Premiere Exec is better than no status at all. I couldn't do better staring from low miles on another aitline, especially based in San Diego.

How do you earn lifetime diamond status at Hyatt? I have been diamond there for 3 years. Am I close?

I made CO Infinite Elite just before they cancelled that program. Those of you that remember Continental Lite will realize how well deserved that was..... But I don't fly CO routes much now and have been Chairmans Preferred on US for a couple of years. My best experience was by earning AA Platinum through flying the US Airways Shuttle - I never got on an AA plane. They held my status last year but have now downgraded me to Gold - I still have 14 Upgrades.... Anyway, my question is: How do I find out which programs offer Lifetime Membershp? I've also been Platinum with Hilton for a few years - do they have this benefit?

Debaulk - The lifetime Diamond at Hyatt is new this year. I don't know what the criteria are, or if it is possible to find out. But, I have been Diamond for about 12 consecutive years.