Is Earning Airline Status Actually Worth the Hassle? Or Is It Completely Stupid?

Where I live (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is not an airline hub. Because of this, I rarely get a non-stop, lower-priced fare as I might in Atlanta (on Delta) or Phoenix (with American), where one airline rules the flight schedules. When I pick an airline to build up miles—recently that was Delta—I pay more for flights because it’s not always the cheapest fare. A one-way ticket home from Denver was so pricey I cashed in a $200 voucher I received as a Delta SkyMiles Gold Card member perk. But I’m close to earning enough Delta SkyMiles for a round-trip ticket to Paris, so I sucked it up. Or should I have just spent the last two years booking the cheapest flights, no matter what airline, and paid for a first-class ticket to Paris? I might have come out ahead financially.

It can feel awesome to achieve an airline’s lowest tier in status because, hey, now you’ve got status! But you’re still in a queue of fliers competing for first-class seats or other premium perks on your flight. Only aim for status if you can reach the top two tiers. Otherwise, you’re not getting much incentive at all. You’ll rarely get bumped up to premium economy. Know when to quit angling for status. If you can’t get to the top, it may not be worth it.

I laugh when people declare they must get to the airport early to experience the lounge. Wait, what? Because Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport has one lounge (Delta’s Sky Club) and it’s not as nice as other airports’ Delta lounges. But if I lived near JFK, LAX, or MIA, I’d take advantage of their lounges. Once, I was given access to Scandinavian Airlines’ premier lounge at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, where they had—wait for it—cocktail-sized wienies in a crockpot. If you can, test out a lounge first, using a travel companion’s guest pass or even doing online research. Another option is to spring for a lounge-access credit card and avoid the mileage game altogether.

If your plan for the next calendar year is to stay home more and travel less, then why are you running yourself ragged, trying to earn airline status? As it turns out, you’ll have few opportunities to use it anyway, as status is for the following year. For the flights you do plan to take, book the ones that look best in terms of scheduling and price, and call that a win.

This is my biggest reason for not choosing airline status: with the exception of a certain low-cost airline, ahem, I would book a non-stop flight on any airline over enduring a layover, or even two layovers, any day of the week, any month of the year. I also dislike being trapped in an airline’s schedule. Maybe I want to fly out in the morning, but Delta doesn’t offer a morning flight?

Now, I’m arriving at my destination late, which was not a desired part of my travel plan. Also, where I live, the Midwest offers more non-stop flights to Florida and Arizona during the winter, and I want to get on those seasonal flights. But they aren’t offered year-round, so I need to switch to a different airline for non-stops come summer. Limiting yourself to one airline means locking yourself into their flight schedule, as opposed to picking flights with the time you like best.

This is a definite reason to shoot for airline status: Fliers with status get better customer service if there’s a problem. Say your flight is canceled, and now 400 passengers on that flight are angling to get onto the next flight to that destination. The airline’s priority is their loyalty members—then everyone else. Wouldn’t you want to be in that first group? I know I would.

This point I’m about to make could be because I live in the middle of the country, where flights are rarely more than three hours, and more like 2 or 2.5 hours, and the planes are usually tiny, without a “real” first-class situation. I prefer to cash in miles for free trips, even if I’m using one airline on the outbound and another airline on the return. This way I can spend more on a hotel or in my destination—not on an airline seat. Being upgraded for two hours of my life just isn’t worth it to me. But is it worth it to you?