wanderingkev

I find I live in two worlds when it comes to recognition.My two primary carrier memberships as noted in my profile are UA and QF. The difference is stark.Whenever I fly QF on my trips back to OZ mainly in the back unless I transcon,from the moment you enter the plane I feel welcomed .QF checks BP's at the front door and I without fail get a "Nice to to see you on board again". On taking my seat in most cases an FA will stop by and give the "let us know if you need anything" line.
15 years as a GS I maybe get the American version of the above 2 or 3 times a year.While I don't have huge needs in this area ,it is something that is really noticeable for the first few days I switch from one to the other.
The other thing that irks me a little is that the world ends at Gold thing on Star A. On One world carriers I get the Emerald recognition which makes a big difference with IRROPs and on occasion meal choice.I am at 4.2M on UA and 3M on other current and past Star A carriers (RIP Ansett) I think that is worth something and I don't think it would be that hard to do

jp12687

In the “not what it used to be” 5+ min waits to usually get agents who are unknowledgeable and unwilling to bend. One of the biggest perks of GS was flexibility and ease of service.

iainmc

I've been a GS for 3 years. I've found the program to be great. I was MVP gold and then 75k (from when they created it) for 10 prior years with Alaska - definitely a step up. The stupid stuff (thanks for being a gs, first meal choice) are hit and miss - I'd say 30% of the time but I don't care. The phone line has been fine-great (they once got me out of a $1000 Lufthansa change fee when I chose to take an earlier flight). Little extra touches when I flew coach were nice. Because I was based in Seattle, upgrades were pretty common - I recently moved to San Diego and they are pretty common as well (at least on the flights I've taken so far).

The biggest difference I've seen is not having gold scarfed UA employees in San Diego - they were incredible in Seattle. Definitely missing the service factor there. The lounge in SD is better, tho...