Artpen100

Even though I am a 1K and have been for a few years, I would say that loyalty for the sake of benefit is not worth it. Fly what you need to fly, and have CCs that add benefits. I will keep the UC club card as long as I fly a nice amount of domestic UA. But I won't fly UA unless it makes sense for route and cost (and in my experience is increasingly priced well over the alternatives, for international), or I can get an international upgrade, which has gotten much harder. I fly what is best for me, and if that makes me an elite on an airline, it does. I like the Amex not only for Centurion and PP, but also for the airline and uber credits, plus 5x on travel.

By the way, I've seen SRO UCs and Centurions, but never been denied entry. But I've seen lounges turning PP people away a lot at some airports and times.

evergrn

Thanks for the additional info, guys!

I was starting to think this way and, based on some of the responses and info I've seen on this thread, I feel this way even more.

findark

I tend to agree also - "loyalty" is only good if it means always choosing the same carrier from among equal options, or maybe paying a little bit more for the consistency and the status.

Artpen100

For example, I would fly several more long haul J flights with UA each year if PZ were available (even on one leg), or, barring that, if it were the cheapest J option. But neither has been the case about half the time I look. 1K is nice, but not nice enough to spend thousand more to get it if I can hardly use more than one or two GPUs for international at booking (and I will not waitlist).

worldwidedreamer

And remember that for most airlines loyalty is one-sided and transactional. After all most are more driven by profitable sales of virtual currency to banks versus the sometimes loss making act of actually throwing tubes through the sky.

tods27

I gave up on being blindly loyal right about the time I hit 1MM and got Gold for life. I only really fly about 25K/year, so I'm not going to get any higher status. I do find that I am willing to fly WN a decent amount if they have a better schedule and have occasionally picked up a DL or AA flight. With the new earning rules on UA, I don't earn at that fast of a rate and now with the dynamic award pricing, I just don't see being that loyal. I do prefer UA solely due to E+ and ability to get exit row seats (and lounge access on int'l flights) and I figure that spreading across too many airlines pretty much dilutes you points. For credit cards, we moved to Chase (Freedom Unlimited and CSR) as those are much more flexible than trying to use UA points. I have also realized that the days of using miles for premium cabins are dwindling for me, so I'm not that worried.