Ask that question of the Hilton board folks. They will regale you with detail.

I'm only 25,000 miles away from a million hard miles on United metal. What is advertised is that I will become Premier Executive for life. Crossing that threshold has been a goal of mine for some time. I've "hurried" in recent years, going out of my way to fly United.

Here's why I've been "hurrying": I think it's likely that perpetual status will be discontinued as a marketing strategy. The kind of people who are moved by such marketing schemes are the very ones most likely to exploit them. This thread illustrates that very point. Lifetime status attainers are likely to start shopping for another airline right away.

And how many lifetimers and benefit packages can airlines sustain? Just think how many people have, like me, averaged 60,000 a year. On UA only 17 years like that and you are there, whether you knew it was coming or not. There's a lot of near mileage millionaires who don't even know they are in for a windfall. How many more will gain MM status with AA even more quickly? Frankly, the Social Security system in the USA makes more sense than this kind of "retirement" system.

Perpetual status could be a loyalty breaker - more like "Temptation Island" than "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?" If you fly this much, you might not really care about a lifetime of double miles. The benefits, as long as they last, are still worth something to me. I like priority check in and getting a shot at the better meal and an occasional upgrade as much as anyone. But I'm likely to expand my flying life beyond my two primary carriers.

As I approach the million mark, I have three questions:

1. What "lifetime" means. Who's going to live longer, United or me, is of course, a big question.

2. What other airline might give me the best one-time comp and ongoing benefits?

3. Will anyone at UA notice that I'm MM? And with inflated ranks of MMers, how many years will it be before that status becomes a negligible thing? I recall seeing a plaque 15 years ago. It was produced in the 60's. It was a special award from United Airlines honoring the then president of that company for flying one hundred thousand miles!! Now United has announced that are discontinuing paper statements, and that will probably be the case even if they had miles in seven figures. Times change. We are all flying farther.

So I'm still hurrying to get my million. It's the very kind of cut back to expect when they are cutting everything else.

And yet there's one reason that I have half a mind to delay crossing the threshold. I'm not going to keep straining to make 1K since the SWUs have been so greatly devalued. Since UA customarily gives 3 SWUs (instead of a nice plaque!) when you attain MM status, crossing that threshold will give me what I think will be my last batch of SWUs. So I may delay it until the end of the year, and fly other airlines or award travel.

For this strange reason, even approaching the lifetime status is affecting my loyalty, which was your question.

If you work for United and you are reading this, what I really mean to say is that the Million Mile program is wonderful. All those benefits are going to keep me on UA for the rest of my days. You should by all means continue the program for at least one more year.

To me the prospect of lifetime elite status has been a strongly motivating factor. Unfortunately, my travel has fallen off in the past year.

Liftetime Elite status is key for me.
I made 1m on AA last week, and really want 2M. However, my travel has fallen off enough that I lack confidence that I can hit 2M before rules get revised, etc.

[ooops, my question was answered in the next thread.]

This is a very interesting thread. I was top tier elite for both AA and UA for many years. Now I fly only on CO. I wonder how many more miles do I need to make 1MM for these airlines. If I am close, I might try to get it but it won�t change the way I fly in the long run unless if I stop getting upgrades on CO.

To answer SanDiego1K's original question, for me lifetime status (in my case with Continental) has definitely made a difference in my travel habits in the way the OP suggests - by allowing me to sit on the sidelines with CO, enjoying paltinum benefits across the CO/NW network, without having to really be loyal to them.

It allows me to take the best of the CO program (domestic upgrades) without having to worry about trying to get miles to requalify. Therefore, I can get rid of the worst of the program (international upgrades) by choosing not to fly in the CO/NW network for my international trips since I don't need the requal miles. As a result I do my domestic flying in-network and simply redeem (mostly) for international first on BA, SQ, CX, QF and to a lesser degree pay for first on these carriers if the company is picking up the tab.

There are some nice benefits with status, the most important to me are the mileage bonus and the ability to select exit row seats, as I often end up in coach. I use the value of the bonus miles to reduce the cost of my ticket (at $0.01/mile) when comparing to other airlines. This can make a ticket that seems uncompetitive the cheaper ticket, or at least close. And then, if it is close, having the exit row seat can be enough to tip the scales.

I echo thesilb's response. I' happy to be InfiniteElite on CO and fly them almost exclusively domestically. Their difficult international upgrades policy is what has pushed me to other carriers for those very long flights: DL for Europe in the past (but I've given up on them now and am struggling to burn up over 3M miles in that program before the airline tanks) and UA for everything else.

My loyalty remains to those programs where I've earned invested the most time and money and where I have the highest status, but the inability to earn lifetime highest level status will ultimately hurt my participation in UA's program. To maintain highest level there, I have to requalify for 1K yearly - which means I have to keep paying to fly, which means I can't use up many miles, which means I now have almost 3M miles in my UA account! In a couple of years I turn 50, which I have set as my time to start using miles with a vengeance - that's lots and lots of free first class travel with UA. I'll keep paying for my domestic CO tix: they get my $$$ and I get the upgrades (along with some free B-first tix!)

good point... especially for me as I am thinking of jumping ship to AA from NW.
Feedback welcome.

I will concentrate on UA as long as it is economically feasible. I've got over 400K miles in about 5 years. The next closest filetime total is probably with F9, with ~60K. I had a mad scramble at the end of last year trying to requalify for 1P. If I had lifetime status, I wouldn't have to do that.

Working towards lifetime status encourages me to stick with a FFP even after I have already requalified, but only to a point.

Lifetime status certainly makes a difference for me.

All else equal, I will currently choose to earn AA miles over any others, because I am getting close to AA 2MM status. Once I have this (lifetime mid-tier) AA may not always be my first program of choice.

However, I expect there will be many years of my life when I am not flying 50K+ miles/year. During these years I will choose AA even if it costs more because they will give me benefits no other carrier will. For now as I can easily mantain top-tier with the carrier of my choosing, I will go wherever the grass seems greenest. But when travel dies down, only AA (or any other mid-tier status airlines) will get my business.