Elite Benefits That Don't Interest You
 

I travel enough that I end up with elite status in a few programs (air and hotel). Elite benefits vary, of course, across programs. I find that many - probably most - of the benefits I get are utterly worthless to me. In my dreams, I would customize my programs.

I'm just curious what others find valuable or not.

With respect to air only these are the ones that are most interest to me: separate (hopefully expedited) check-in, lounge access, waived baggage fees. Given that, *Gold is a good solution for me.

Wow... :eek: Those are the ones that *do* interest me!

Just reading down the list of AA benefits, I suppose my list would be:

- Discounted AA club membership. Never even knew it was there...
- Special discounts on hotel and car rental awards. Don't even know what this really is. Am I missing something important?
- Exclusive partner offers. Also don't know what this is.

In the hotel world, my list would be:
- Check cashing privileges. This one is a bit dated. :) I suppose I'd need a paper check of some sorts, and I'd have to time-travel back to the 90s to find one.
- Spa discounts and similar. Hotels seem to mark up spa services by 100% or more, but hey, thanks for that 20% Diamond discount... :rolleyes:

(1) shortened queues
(2) lounge access
(3) and mileage multiplier (altho seems to have mostly disappeared)

complimentary upgrade would be useful if i was flying in US. doesnt exist here.
luggage... i never exceed whats given by way of ticket anyways so doesnt matter.

nothing else really matters. on hotels occasionally get a larger room and some snacks but by and large hotel benefits are especially useless.

Free baggage. I don't check bags anyhow. Never will. It amounts to nothing but a time sink to check and claim it. Yes, check in lines are shorter in F and bags get priority so they come out first..but I would still rather skip all that.

I'm guilty of not answering the question that was really posed. Those are indeed the benefits that are of most interest to me.

One of my favourite credit card benefits that isn't really a benefit - Barclays had the chutzpah to issue us with Barclays "Premier" cards, the only tangible benefit apparently is that we have a dedicated person on the Barclays end who we can talk to about buying more Barclays products. Had to block their number on my mobile when they wouldn't stop calling.

I regularly get consumer surveys to gauge my interest in potential additional "elite benefits." For hotel programs these include cut-rate concert tickets, wine tastings, gift certs or discounts at local stores, and many other things I would find completely worthless.

It feels like some providers are working terribly hard to come up with dumb "benefits" in lieu of real, tangible ones: upgrades and good redemptions.

LOL...I have yet to get those surveys. A few years ago, I got a Marriott survey (one that several other FTers got) about a new, improved Visa offering. I did participate, and happily they actually did roll out a better Visa card, which I now have.

I have a couple credit cards that include access to concert tickets. Not discounts...just presales and the like. Since big concerts seem to have about 5 different flavors of "presale", I have yet to see this benefit yield anything. I've actually clicked through a couple times, but never found seats that were really that amazing.

SPG has the "Moments" program which is genuinely cool, but not limited to elites (I don't think). I'll give them credit for that one: a wide range of offerings to some cool experiences that you can't easily buy with cash. I hope Marriott doesn't kill it off or water it down so it takes a million points for anything good.

Crappy food at check-in. Sometimes I'll have a guy or gal show up at my room with a big giant Draft Beer and a delicious pretzel, but other times its a hot bottle of water and a 3 year old power bar. No thanks

few if any appeal to me, and i think quite a few on FT, who are here to discuss travel itself

I like all the elite benefits earned from flying, except the implication that I'm upgrade-eligible when really I am not due to low status! :p

Oh man...

The standby ones! They often seem to come with so many clauses that I've never even really gotten a chance to THINK of when I'd use one. I did a SDC once, and they only did it because I took a VDB because of it.

The other ones that get me are the "we'll let you buy a seat even if there are none" type deals. I'm sure there are some business pax or whatever that need a certain flight at a certain time and don't really care the cost, or maybe are on a flight pass, but I'll take the connection at YYZ and a couple extra hours to spend $800 instead of $2200 on the direct sold out/oversold flight.

Flight schedules are such that the standby options are of limited utility to me, even when my status would qualify for one. I don't fly many routes where there are so many flights where I might catch an earlier one just by showing up an hour or two earlier than usual. Plus I'd assume that with flights being as full as they are, even if I cleared a standby list it would be to an E- middle seat in the back.

20 years ago I flew a lot more standby. AA Plat meant that I cleared more often than not, and the fact that everybody had to use paper 500-milers for domestic upgrades meant that I even had a decent chance of clearing straight into F.

Extra baggage allowance - I enjoy the extra weight limit increase (haven't used it, but like the safety net of it) but no way am I going to lug two suitcases through airports etc. I easily do 2 weeks with a single suitcase, and that includes swimming/workout gear and a bunch of shoes.

priority standby
 

most of my trips are booked well in advance so this one is not so hot.