Is Airline Elite Status Worth It?
Whether you are an occasional traveler or a road warrior, having elite status with an airline is a great perk to have. From occasional first class upgrades, to early boarding, who wouldn’t want elite status? Now let’s dive in to see if it really is worth it.
What is Elite Status?
All of the large US airlines and most international airlines offer status to their most frequent fliers. The ways to qualify for status as well as the benefits you receive vary from airline to airline. However, status with the big US airlines are all pretty similar in what you receive with variation on how you actually get it.
With American and Delta you earn status based on how much you spend with the airline as well as on their credit card and their partners. With United, status is based on how much you spend as well as how many flights you take. Alaska is the last airline to still offer status based on the number of miles you fly or the number of flights you take.
Each of these airlines offer four tiers of status with progressively better benefits that come after spending more money and flying more with them. The top published status levels even come with a few confirmable upgrade certificates.
Delta, American and United also have an unpublished invitation only status for their really big spenders. Delta has 360, American has Concierge Key, and United has Global Services. This is the elite of the elite when it comes to flying. In order to get an invitation to these levels of status you need to spend at least $50,000 a year on flights and sometimes more.
Benefits of Elite Status
The first tier of elite status with each airline generally comes with things like priority boarding, a free checked bag, extra legroom economy seats at check in and space available first class upgrades. The higher you move up the ranks of each airlines elite status program the more benefits you receive and the higher you are on the upgrade list.
Tier 1 status holders typically will never see a complimentary first class upgrade, especially since they don’t fly very often. Its not until you get to the third or fourth tier of status when you begin to get upgrades with any frequency. It certainly depends on when you fly too. Most business travelers depart on Monday mornings so even the most frequent flyers with top tier status still may not score that coveted upgrade on an early Monday morning flight.
Additionally, airlines are getting better and better at selling first class seats. In 2011 Delta only sold 14% of its first class seats with the rest of them being filled by upgrading their elite members. Now they sell 74% of them. That means fewer and fewer frequent flyers are getting complimentary upgrades. And no, Delta flyers, I do not consider scoring a Comfort+ seat to be an upgrade like most of you do.
One of my favorite benefits of elite status is the ability to change your flight for free from your original flight to another one on the same day if there are seats available. This is especially beneficial when traveling for work and the last meeting of your trip cancels so you can get out on an earlier flight home. This benefit typically kicks in at the 3rd tier of status.
American Airlines Domestic First Class
The Argument Against Chasing Status
This is a travel website and it will probably sound crazy for me to say this, but for the average traveler, chasing after elite status is a losing proposition. To get entry level status with United you need to spend at least $4,000 on flights, not including taxes and fly at least 12 segments (one take off and one touchdown is a segment). On Delta you now have to spend $5,000 on flights, not including taxes.
Let’s take a look at a random flight I found from Charleston, SC to New York City at the beginning of February. If you were chasing status with United, you’d pay $20 more than the Delta flight that also takes off at 6am. If you wanted to sleep in an extra hour, you could save $60. Now this also assumes you don’t care about which airport in NYC you fly in to.
Flight from CHS to NYC February 9th through 11th
If you take the minimum 6 roundtrip flights to get Premier Silver status with United, you’d still be around a quarter of the way to your spending minimum yet spent $120 to $360 more than if you would have just flown with Delta. Taking a whopping 24 round trip flights would get you to where you need to be spending wise on United to get status. At that point the difference in fares comes out to between $480 and $1,440.
Elite Status Lite
If you like the perks of elite status, there’s a far easier and cheaper way to do it, all without even setting foot on a plane. Queue the co-branded airline credit card. Every airline offers a co-branded credit card that comes with a free first checked bag and priority boarding. Now you won’t be eligible for things like complimentary first class upgrades, but you weren’t going to get that anyway being a lowly entry level status holder. Most of these cards have an annual fee of around $95 and some even waive that fee in the first year of having the card. With checked bag fees around $35 each way, that annual fee pays for itself after only 3 one way flights.
Putting regular spending on an airline’s co-branded card isn’t usually a good idea. The better option is to use a credit card that earns transferable points.
When It Makes Sense to Chase Elite Status
There are only a few circumstances where it makes sense to go after elite status.
First is when you fly enough to reach that 3rd or 4th tier of status with an airline. At that point you start getting somewhat regular first class upgrades. You also get to choose extra legroom economy seats at booking. And to me, best of all is that you can do a free same day flight change.
Next, is when you fly a lot for work and you’re buying plane tickets with someone else’s money. If you have no incentive to save money, just book a flight on the same airline each time to get the perks of loyalty.
Wrapping Up
For the average traveler, be a free agent and chose the flight that is the least expensive and gets to you to and from your destination at the most convenient time. Those first one or two levels of status aren’t much more meaningful than holding an airline’s co-branded credit card. If you’re not flying enough to get to the top of the frequent flyer program, you really won’t be using the benefits enough for it to outweigh the potential cost of getting it.
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