Memories of the Elite Status Chase

[canyonwalker]

Years ago I used to care about the elite status chase, the pursuit of frequent-flyer status with airlines and frequent-guest status with hotel chains. Silver, Gold, 1K, Diamond; these metals, minerals, and other adjectives made a difference in the comfort of traveling. They still do make a difference, albeit less so than before. But at this point I've been away from running the race for so long I feel like all I've got left are memories of the game.

There are a few reasons why the has the race become a memory. First there's the obvious elephant in the room: Coronavirus. Coronavirus shut down travel almost 14 months ago. I've had zero business travel since then, and the few leisure trips I've taken I've chosen to drive instead of fly to reduce risk.

But even before Coronavirus cast a pall over travel my pursuit of the elite status chase was on the wane. Partly that's because I don't have the same level of job related travel I used to. Back in the late 00s and early 10s I averaged flying 150,000 miles a year, plenty to get high level elite status on a preferred airline. With lessening business travel since then I've averaged 50k miles a year, much of it leisure travel.

The third part of why I'm not really running the race anymore is that I've got some fairly decent status through other means. As I explained at the start of last year, I've got lifetime status with United Airlines and Marriott hotels. This is a result of all those years of heavier travel. So in a sense I'm not running the race anymore because I've already won. Then, too, there are some statuses I get via credit cards. That's part of how the rules of the game have changed over the past 10 years. High level status with Hilton and IHG hotels are perks of owning the right credit cards.

Still it's weird, like a form of self alienation, how this chase that used to be so important to me is now mostly just memories.

Comments

[culfinriel]

I wonder if the airlines will change the whole rewards thing if travel doesn't resume to pre pandemic levels.

[canyonwalker]

That's a good question. At the risk of introducing a whole 'nother topic— the ins and outs of how airline rewards programs work— I've read recently that even though air travel was obvious way down over the past 12 months airlines saw no dip in how fast their members were earning points. Although the claim was lightly sourced it makes sense to me as over the past 10 years airlines have reduced the number of points members earn from actually flying while greatly increasing the number of points awarded for partner activity. During the partial shutdown, in particular, airlines were working hard to sell points to consumers. Now, as the pandemic winds down and the public looks to travel by plane again, consumers have more points than ever to use instead of paying cash. Airlines will likely inflate the points cost for tickets (i.e., deflate the effective value of points) to bring this glut of points back into line.