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canyonwalkerAround every New Year I take stock of my balances in various frequent traveler points programs, both to see how well I've done in accumulating & using miles as well as to set goals for the coming 12 months. When I did this review 12 months ago there wasn't a lot of change to report. I'd only flown 21,000 miles in 2021. Air travel continued to be fitful this year as we stayed home the first few months during the (first) Omicron surge and were cautious about traveling later. I logged only 32,000 miles in 2022— more than last year but down from the 50k-ish I flew annually for a few years before Coronavirus, and way down from the 150k annually I flew 10-15 years ago.
That said, it's time to review where I landed in the various programs at the end of 2022.
Despite seemingly not flying very much this year I earned a lot of points on Southwest. Between flights and credit cards and partner bonuses I earned 215,000 Rapid Rewards (RR) points. To some people that would be good news. To me, not so much because I wanted to spend, aka burn, more points than I earned. I burned 145k points this year. The balance of points in my account swelled to 379k.
A lot of people would celebrate, "Woohoo! I have nearly 400,000 points!" I don't celebrate it because carrying a big balance is a bad thing. Points only ever devalue so it's a poor idea to keep them banked for too long intending to use them later. For 2022 my goal was to burn faster than I earn. It's my goal again for 2023.
Elite status-wise, I managed to renew both Southwest's Companion Pass and A-List Preferred status— the latter by a whisker in December. Cinching these took some deft play to capture special bonus offers from Southwest. Southwest is the one airline for which I both want to & can earn meaningful status, so now the status chase starts over for 2023.
For years United was my airline of choice. Back in my travel heyday I flew them over 100,000 miles a year for several years, reaching Million Miler lifetime status in 2013. In 2021 flew them not at all. Not a single flight. In 2022 I did better than that but only by a little. I flew UA on 3 one-way trips.
One of those flights was on points, consuming 31k of my points balance. I would've called this section "Chipping Away at the Pile" except the pile (of miles) actually got bigger this year. It got bigger because I opened not one but two UA credit cards with juicy signup bonuses. I finished the year at 450,000 points.
The downside of carrying such a large points balance is the same as in other programs, though it's not as theoretical with United. United has clearly devalued its points over the past several years. Years ago I valued them at 1.8 cents per point (cpp). Today they're only worth 1.1 cpp.
Status-wise I maintain Premier Gold with United, a benefit of reaching Million Miler years ago. What's the value of that status? Well, on those few flights I flew I was able to reserve a room seat in Economy Plus. Those seats with extra legroom are a valuable perk that make flying more comfortable. What's it worth, though? Certainly it's more than zero but really not the $60-80 per flight it would cost to buy ad hoc if I were not an elite status member.
You might wonder about the arrow icons I'm using here. I've marked AA with a sideways arrow. It's not an opinion of the airline but an indication that my points balance barely moved this year. That's because I haven't flown AA in 18 months. I did book a flight though, planned for September 2023, using points which dropped my balance to 730,000.
Still, 730,000 remains a huge balance— and that's a problem, because of the constant threat of devaluation. Indeed AA has announced sweeping changes to its frequent flyer program for 2023. Among the changes are new award charts. I haven't spent time digging into the new charts to gauge how bad it is, but I know it's bad. It's never good.
There's another risk, too, besides devaluation in letting points sit too long. That's expiration. While a number of airlines adopted a "Points never expire" policy during the pandemic AA is one that's kept with the old way of zeroing out your account after 24 months of inactivity. Since I haven't flown AA in 18 months my huge pile of points were in jeopardy of expiring in a few months. Fortunately any activity resets the clock on the whole balance. Before I found that opportunity to book a flight in November I turned to hooking up with Aadvantage Dining during the year to keep my miles alive. That gave me about 2,000 points and— more importantly— renewed the other three-quarters of a million until late 2024.
Another sideways arrow, another airline I didn't fly at all in 2022. Unlike my massive points balance with American Airlines, though, my points balance of Delta Skymiles is a mere 15,000.
With Delta, at least, miles never expire. But since my balance is just 15k I don't really care. Once upon a time 12,500 miles was enough for a one-way domestic ticket. Delta led the way with devaluations years ago. Its Skymiles were dubbed Skypesos by frustrated frequent flyers. Well, the unlimited expiry gives me more time to figure out how to make such a now-small quantity worth anything.
That said, it's time to review where I landed in the various programs at the end of 2022.
⬆️ Southwest Airlines: Earn and Burn (Needs More Burn)
Despite seemingly not flying very much this year I earned a lot of points on Southwest. Between flights and credit cards and partner bonuses I earned 215,000 Rapid Rewards (RR) points. To some people that would be good news. To me, not so much because I wanted to spend, aka burn, more points than I earned. I burned 145k points this year. The balance of points in my account swelled to 379k.A lot of people would celebrate, "Woohoo! I have nearly 400,000 points!" I don't celebrate it because carrying a big balance is a bad thing. Points only ever devalue so it's a poor idea to keep them banked for too long intending to use them later. For 2022 my goal was to burn faster than I earn. It's my goal again for 2023.
Elite status-wise, I managed to renew both Southwest's Companion Pass and A-List Preferred status— the latter by a whisker in December. Cinching these took some deft play to capture special bonus offers from Southwest. Southwest is the one airline for which I both want to & can earn meaningful status, so now the status chase starts over for 2023.
⬆️ United Airlines: Credit Card Boost— Twice!
For years United was my airline of choice. Back in my travel heyday I flew them over 100,000 miles a year for several years, reaching Million Miler lifetime status in 2013. In 2021 flew them not at all. Not a single flight. In 2022 I did better than that but only by a little. I flew UA on 3 one-way trips.One of those flights was on points, consuming 31k of my points balance. I would've called this section "Chipping Away at the Pile" except the pile (of miles) actually got bigger this year. It got bigger because I opened not one but two UA credit cards with juicy signup bonuses. I finished the year at 450,000 points.
The downside of carrying such a large points balance is the same as in other programs, though it's not as theoretical with United. United has clearly devalued its points over the past several years. Years ago I valued them at 1.8 cents per point (cpp). Today they're only worth 1.1 cpp.
Status-wise I maintain Premier Gold with United, a benefit of reaching Million Miler years ago. What's the value of that status? Well, on those few flights I flew I was able to reserve a room seat in Economy Plus. Those seats with extra legroom are a valuable perk that make flying more comfortable. What's it worth, though? Certainly it's more than zero but really not the $60-80 per flight it would cost to buy ad hoc if I were not an elite status member.
↔️ American Airlines: Sitting on Three-Quarters of a Million
You might wonder about the arrow icons I'm using here. I've marked AA with a sideways arrow. It's not an opinion of the airline but an indication that my points balance barely moved this year. That's because I haven't flown AA in 18 months. I did book a flight though, planned for September 2023, using points which dropped my balance to 730,000.Still, 730,000 remains a huge balance— and that's a problem, because of the constant threat of devaluation. Indeed AA has announced sweeping changes to its frequent flyer program for 2023. Among the changes are new award charts. I haven't spent time digging into the new charts to gauge how bad it is, but I know it's bad. It's never good.
There's another risk, too, besides devaluation in letting points sit too long. That's expiration. While a number of airlines adopted a "Points never expire" policy during the pandemic AA is one that's kept with the old way of zeroing out your account after 24 months of inactivity. Since I haven't flown AA in 18 months my huge pile of points were in jeopardy of expiring in a few months. Fortunately any activity resets the clock on the whole balance. Before I found that opportunity to book a flight in November I turned to hooking up with Aadvantage Dining during the year to keep my miles alive. That gave me about 2,000 points and— more importantly— renewed the other three-quarters of a million until late 2024.
↔️ Delta: Also Sitting, But Only on 15k
Another sideways arrow, another airline I didn't fly at all in 2022. Unlike my massive points balance with American Airlines, though, my points balance of Delta Skymiles is a mere 15,000.With Delta, at least, miles never expire. But since my balance is just 15k I don't really care. Once upon a time 12,500 miles was enough for a one-way domestic ticket. Delta led the way with devaluations years ago. Its Skymiles were dubbed Skypesos by frustrated frequent flyers. Well, the unlimited expiry gives me more time to figure out how to make such a now-small quantity worth anything.
