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Around 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. Coronavirus dominated 2020 and shut down all my flying after February that year.
At the start of 2021 with vaccines starting to roll out I thought we'd gradually return to normal from Coronavirus and my pace of travel would resume. Alas that hasn't happened because 30% of the country refuses to accept the pandemic as actual fact. I didn't fly anywhere until May, and my travel has been at maybe half what it otherwise would be. And now with a fresh surge I'm cancelling planned trips like it's March 2020 all over again. Instead of returning to normal we're arriving at a new normal. The pandemic has become endemic.
Anyway, this blog isn't about Coronavirus, it's about frequent flyer points and status. Let's get back to that.
Southwest has been my primary airline for the past several years, the airline I take most of my flights on. This year I earned 134,000 points in Southwest's Rapid Rewards (RR) program. To some people that would be good news; "Woohoo! I earned 134k points!" Even better, I redeemed 64k on flights this year and another 49k for flights in early 2022. But to me it's a mixed bag... and not just because all those 2022 trips are in jeopardy for needing to be canceled now.
Even if I do fly all those trips I'm not redeeming points fast enough. My points are piling up, with my balance now at 277,000. 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 will be to burn faster than I earn.
Elite status-wise, I managed to renew both A-List Preferred status and Southwest's Companion Pass. 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 2022.
For years United was my airline of choice. I flew them over 100,000 miles annually for several years, reaching Million Miler lifetime status in 2013. As they watered down their frequent flyer program and my travel patterns changed I shifted my business to other airlines. I do still have Premier Gold status at United, though. It's a benefit of that Million Miler deal. That gold status did nothing for me this year, though, as I didn't fly United at all. Oh, I considered booking with them several times, particularly because I'm always looking for ways to burn off the 300,000+ miles I have in their program. Their prices were always too high compared to the competition. Although I didn't fly with them at all I did add about 1,000 miles to my accounting (bringing it to 319k) by completing a handful of surveys just to create activity. My goal for 2022 is to do something worthwhile with those 319k points to get them off the books. Because, again, carrying big points balances is a losing bargain.
You might wonder about the arrow icons I'm using here. I've marked AA with a down arrow. It's not a thurmbs down but rather an indication that I spent down my miles/points balance. In the case of miles and points, as I've been explaining, down is a good thing! Carrying a huge balance is risky, as points only ever devalue. It's like stuffing cash in a mattress. And my AA mattress used to be huge. A few year ago I had almost 1 million points! By the end of last year I'd spent it down to 816k. This year I spent 76k on award tickets— a nice first-class trip to the East Coast in June— and earned 2k via AA's rebooking mistake, landing my balance at 742k. It's nice that with AA, unlike UA, I'm at least finding some good redemption values. For 2022 I'll keep chipping away at my huge balance.
Another down arrow, and again down is good. At the start of the year I had 50,000 points with Delta, a balance I didn't even know I had a few years earlier. I hadn't flown Delta, or even considered flying Delta, since 2015. But this year I did! On that East Coast trip I mentioned above I found nice first-class tickets for a one-way from New York to Maine for both Hawk and me. Those burned off 35k, leaving me with a balance of 15k. This is kind of a good news/bad news combo. Good news: I'm pleased with the value I got for the 35k I spend. Bad news: the 15k remaining is too little to do anything with. We'll see how many more years it is before I fly Delta or any of its partners again.
At the start of 2021 with vaccines starting to roll out I thought we'd gradually return to normal from Coronavirus and my pace of travel would resume. Alas that hasn't happened because 30% of the country refuses to accept the pandemic as actual fact. I didn't fly anywhere until May, and my travel has been at maybe half what it otherwise would be. And now with a fresh surge I'm cancelling planned trips like it's March 2020 all over again. Instead of returning to normal we're arriving at a new normal. The pandemic has become endemic.
Anyway, this blog isn't about Coronavirus, it's about frequent flyer points and status. Let's get back to that.
⬆️ Southwest Airlines: Earn and Burn
Southwest has been my primary airline for the past several years, the airline I take most of my flights on. This year I earned 134,000 points in Southwest's Rapid Rewards (RR) program. To some people that would be good news; "Woohoo! I earned 134k points!" Even better, I redeemed 64k on flights this year and another 49k for flights in early 2022. But to me it's a mixed bag... and not just because all those 2022 trips are in jeopardy for needing to be canceled now.Even if I do fly all those trips I'm not redeeming points fast enough. My points are piling up, with my balance now at 277,000. 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 will be to burn faster than I earn.
Elite status-wise, I managed to renew both A-List Preferred status and Southwest's Companion Pass. 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 2022.
↔️ United Airlines: On Hold at Gold
For years United was my airline of choice. I flew them over 100,000 miles annually for several years, reaching Million Miler lifetime status in 2013. As they watered down their frequent flyer program and my travel patterns changed I shifted my business to other airlines. I do still have Premier Gold status at United, though. It's a benefit of that Million Miler deal. That gold status did nothing for me this year, though, as I didn't fly United at all. Oh, I considered booking with them several times, particularly because I'm always looking for ways to burn off the 300,000+ miles I have in their program. Their prices were always too high compared to the competition. Although I didn't fly with them at all I did add about 1,000 miles to my accounting (bringing it to 319k) by completing a handful of surveys just to create activity. My goal for 2022 is to do something worthwhile with those 319k points to get them off the books. Because, again, carrying big points balances is a losing bargain.⬇️ American Airlines: Spending a Million, Slowly
You might wonder about the arrow icons I'm using here. I've marked AA with a down arrow. It's not a thurmbs down but rather an indication that I spent down my miles/points balance. In the case of miles and points, as I've been explaining, down is a good thing! Carrying a huge balance is risky, as points only ever devalue. It's like stuffing cash in a mattress. And my AA mattress used to be huge. A few year ago I had almost 1 million points! By the end of last year I'd spent it down to 816k. This year I spent 76k on award tickets— a nice first-class trip to the East Coast in June— and earned 2k via AA's rebooking mistake, landing my balance at 742k. It's nice that with AA, unlike UA, I'm at least finding some good redemption values. For 2022 I'll keep chipping away at my huge balance.⬇️ Delta: Once Every Few Years?
Another down arrow, and again down is good. At the start of the year I had 50,000 points with Delta, a balance I didn't even know I had a few years earlier. I hadn't flown Delta, or even considered flying Delta, since 2015. But this year I did! On that East Coast trip I mentioned above I found nice first-class tickets for a one-way from New York to Maine for both Hawk and me. Those burned off 35k, leaving me with a balance of 15k. This is kind of a good news/bad news combo. Good news: I'm pleased with the value I got for the 35k I spend. Bad news: the 15k remaining is too little to do anything with. We'll see how many more years it is before I fly Delta or any of its partners again.
