With it now being 2026, I thought it would be fun to share my airline elite status strategy for the coming year, following my recent post about my hotel elite status strategy. While I for the most part value airline elite status less than in the past, there are still programs that I strategically get…
Continue reading: My Airline Elite Status Strategy For 2026: American & Air France-KLM For Me!
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
AF-FB Plat status certainly makes sense - can get access to La Premiere sure, but more importantly for most, access to better FB award availability and pricing.
As for American... welcome back? (Good try, Atmos, but you didn't get Ben this year...). PPro really is the sweet spot for OWE status (even the silly things like being served first on partner airlines like BA are nice... enjoyed my "priority meal" a few days ago including my "priority last special Chai tea leftover from Christmas").
Even though 175k is achievable, so hard to find SWU availability. But I'll still make EP this year - honestly value AA miles more than the LP at this point, they still offer great value, so I enjoy earning them through AA Hotels, eshopping, SimplyMiles and now of course through Citi.
I would say SAS is a better value at the moment if you happen to use their network from time to time. 45k level points is pretty easy if you do any amount of travel long haul. They partner with KL/AF too.
In a way I agree that the elite status of frequent flyer programs somehow lost their appeal - especially when one usually travel in business class anyway.
I do have active oneworld/QR Emerald, Skyteam/AF Platinum and Star Alliance/LH HON status. IMHO, the latter actually stands out quite a bit over the other two and is probably the only status which I think is worthwhile trying to keep. It will be a tough year for me as LH stopped flying direct to my milkrun destination.
I came across OMAAT about two years ago, first as a flight reviews reader and then later as a commenter too. I wanted to know if pursuing points, status, etc, was worth my time or effort. My conclusion is that it is not worth it to me.
I now read that Ben, plus others, have under certain circumstances, come to a similar conclusion. It will be interesting to read how many other travellers will also draw similar conclusions.
AA makes sense as you are a relative 'captive' based in MIA (and American has its stronghold there.) The Flying Blue over Delta for SkyTeam status is an interesting angle, and I think you may be onto something there, especially since you've pulled off La Première upgrades before.
Personally, I did reach my goals in 2025 (SkyTeam Elite Plus, OneWorld Emerald, Star Alliance Gold), and I'm not sure yet whether I'm going for that again this/next year. Nice to have them all if you use them all regularly. Worthless if you scale back or just stay at home. Psh.
OWE via PP, FTW! C'mon AA, give Peter more MCE! Ugh, SWU remain disappointing. 125K LP is enuf.
Serious question 1990 (I know shock horror is this possible?).
For all your efforts involved in obtaining your goals in 2025, were the savings/benefits really worth it?
Elite status provides what benefits that a premium cabin ticket does not? There needs to be something beyond the watered down benefits we now see. Such as, access to One World first class lounges or access to more/specific award inventory (as Ben notes). For the image-conscious, elite status bag tags can be purchased on eBay for very little.
Free seat selection on British Airways! One of the main reasons I pursue AA Platinum.
PS - Reasonably consistent across airlines, top tier status attained purely via means other than flight-based elite credits (EQM or LP or XP or whatever) typically incurs an opportunity cost of $4k to $6k. If flight-based elite credits contributes to half of your requirement, then your opportunity cost is reduce by half.
Great. How much do you save in seat selection fees per year? What is your opportunity cost to achieve AA Platinum? There are a number of moving parts embedded in the second question. Best of luck.
@Aero
I happened upon this blog last year, and it has been an interesting read. I have always thought that people who sucked at the teats of these loyalty programs were strange, and I have seen no evidence to contradict this.
Mattress runs etc seems so weird and a waste of a short life.
I can understand if you receive status organically via business travel, but to go out of your way to, still seems bizarre to me.
And then there are the complaints of the programs... Talk about people being masochists...
My strategy for this year - I have none.
My company’s preferred carrier is AA, and all business travel is therefore booked on this airline by default.
For personal travel, I select flights based solely on the best available pricing for business or first class and the most practical flight times, rather than airline loyalty or status considerations. As I continue to reduce my overall travel, any AA status I attain—such as Gold or perhaps Platinum—will be incidental and not the result of intentionally booking flights to pursue status.
This is missing the point. Elite status is of limited value for most premium tickets, but it works really well when travelling in Y.
Example: BHX-IST on 15 Mar is £108 in Y without luggage and £651 in C. *G status gives you lounge access, fast track security, priority boarding, a 23kg luggage allowance, priority baggage handling etc.
If you're happy to pay the $720 difference because you think it represents good value for a 3.5 hour flight or because it's trivial to you as your annual income is NINE FIGURES, you should probably consider altogether avoiding public transport and chartering a private plane.
Since I do not get to fly for work, 2025 was my first year with status (Atmos Silver), and I’m shooting to earn Gold for 2026 with a combo of flights and spend on the Summit card. My plan is to mainly spend on the 3x categories the Summit has to avoid the opportunity cost of not earning transferable points, so I don’t have higher ambitions than that.
Given Ben's MIA requirements and good award space on AA and FB, it makes no sense for him to pursue Star Alliance aside from maybe AV (from MIA he could rack up enough AV miles for *G).
Star Alliance has probably become the hardest program to achieve as SK left in 2024 then A3 and AC massively devalued their programs.
I stopped to run after all airlines programs idem for hotels. I decided to concentrate my action on one Airlines alliance and one hotel company. Hyatt group is the best for tiers and I increase year after year number of nights. 87 in 2025 and expect more than 100 for 2026. Hyatt is especially good out of USA.
For airlines, I chose AF-KLM to become an Ultimate member at the end of 2026. I'm Platinum for life member and skipping Star Alliance, I will recieve more tiers and services with AF-KLM and Skyteam members.
I'm both happy and annoyed with AA today. They swapped the 777 for new 787-P for both legs of an upcoming LHR trip.
On the plus side, snagged 4 new business preferred suites (whatever they're calling the bigger ones) on the outbound. Looking forward to trying that out.
On the inbound, had 4 MCE seats for the family and now there's only 3 (couldn't give us 4 because the remaining 'available' MCE seats are all exit row). Got no notification - only looked at it because they notified me about the inbound (and only then because there was a slight schedule change, not because of an equipment swap and not because seats changed). And they're doing absolutely nothing about it - won't even let me switch flights to a 777 flight where there are MCE seats.
Almost as if designing a plane with only 18 MCE seats (only 12 of which are not exit row) was a terribly stupid idea. And they put all the MCE seats by the bathrooms so you've got PE coming from the front and all of economy coming from the back. (No rear lav on v2 of the 787-P as best I can tell). Honestly considering just cancelling those tickets and booking on another airline.
I’m a longtime reader and came to the conclusion years ago.
I have status as a result of travel out of my home airport but it’s not a goal any longer.
Base status in two programs (AS, DL) is nice because exit row at booking makes coach a reasonable experience.
The juice for higher status isn’t worth the squeeze for me because I don’t review flights and I find premium economy and a paid lounge on an 8-10 hour ex-EU/UK daytime departure flight is fine, and business class lounges are also fine when I on an award in business class.
I’m going with low status on United and Alaska - going to use this year as a test to see which one I should be more loyal to going forwad.
I've been debating jumping off the loyalty train for some time now as I am fortunate to fly F/J 95% of the time, so many of the benefits that come with my status (DL Platinum) come with my ticket price. However, one benefit that doesn't necessarily come with the ticket price that I have come to value a LOT is customer service when there are IROPS (which seem to be occurring more and more and more...) or when something goes awry. Whether it's the weather, plane swaps, cancellations, reschedules, or overbookings, Delta has always erred on the side of me, the customer. And when the rescheduling or cancellation has been of my doing, they've also been very accommodating, always noting my status in the interactions. This is not a post to stan for Delta - while they are my preferred US carrier, I am not addicted 🙂 - but rather a post to share a perspective that I haven't seen in the comments yet. But I am starting to care less and less nowadays, not because I have started valuing customer service less and less, but rather because DL/SkyTeam has become less and less convenient (in the USA, I am based out of Chicago, and while I don't mind making connections, the timing of many of their MDW flights are annoying...I do my best to avoid ORD) while also becoming more and more expensive (especially for my international travel, whether TPAC or TATL).
Justin, eponymous, thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences with me, much appreciated.
Thank you Ralph, for reminding me that my cash F tickets, give me all of the perks without chasing points.
Seeing the ‘wood for the trees’ comes to mind …. I’ve wasted hours reading Ben’s articles too …. who’s been a numpty?
No need to answer that question …. 🙂
Epic on the 787-P. Wow, 4 in the first row is that much more impressive. At least the redeye is excellent. Westbound, while longer in duration, is usually less sleeping, so, could be worse. Could you cancel the return segment and keep outbound? Might require an agent to override.
Some more than others. Delta Diamond, namely for the Global Upgrade Certificates, yes, that one felt like real value. Used them for DeltaOne on 14+ hour flights that would've cost $10K more than Premium Select. For the others, yes, I still feel 'ahead,' but nothing stands out that as much as that one. The reality is that if you have the money, or someone else is paying, and you know what you want, please, just book the best, and don't worry about status.
Fair enough. If it works for you, great. I stepped out of an AF J cabin and into ATL during Crowdstrike. After some hours, I got a Delta rep to admit they had a duty of care, but could not meet it, since she couldn't get the flight manifests and wouldn't accept my boarding pass/PNR/ticket number. I could say more, but suffice that I don't recommend anyone fly Delta jets.
@Bubba - that experience must have surely sucked. And also, I'm not sure a faulty software update by Crowdstrike that required the manual reset of nearly 40,000 servers, crippling Delta's operations - and AA's and UA's - would necessarily cause me to never recommend Delta. All three of the Big US 3 carriers took days to get back to normal operations...
What biased your decision on AS top tier status vs AA?
I find more value with AS miles on AA if you book far enough out
@ralph
No no
It was just delta that melted down due to crowd strike
Just delta.
This is quite public as is the crowd strike public counter to delta’s lawsuit about how badly delta did vs peers
To be clear
I know you know that value that proposition too
Just wondered why get aa emerald vs AS?
Contrary to what seems to be the prevailing opinion around here, I find a good deal of value in having status with an airline. Someone has already pointed out the benefit of getting seats in the Exit Row. I can't remember the last time I didn't have a seat in the Exit Row or better (i.e.: Premium Economy or F/J domestically) for both my wife and I at the cost of a *regular* Coach / Main Cabin / Economy ticket. I flew enough to qualify for oneworld Emerald in 2026 after approximately 10 years as oneworld Sapphire. And I've been upgraded to (domestic) First about 20 percent of the time...
Unless I'm flying internationally, I *only* buy economy tickets (one step above Basic). If I'm flying outside of North America, I'm in Business on points.
@MaxPower, 'Just wondered why get aa emerald vs AS?'
Not sure what you mean there. Perhaps I missed a nuance in your question. 'Emerald' is the OneWorld status level, not an AA status. Why to chase Emerald via AS rather than AA is a valid question, ease of earning and benefits are slightly different, but the alliance-level benefits are the same. It's still OW Emerald.
Because of where I live, I get OW Emerald via Qantas. It's still OW status. I understand the paths to Emerald via AA and AS, but they don't work for me.
We are all different, and we all travel differently. In my case, retired, so many fewer flights/trips, but as a result wanting each of those trips to be comfortable and meaningful.
No need or opportunity for airline status. If I want to fly F, I buy it. Domestically, any upgrade from extra legroom economy to F that doesn’t exceed $1 / minute is a good deal. Premium Economy from New England to Western Europe works just fine. Business to Asia and South America.
My wife and I leverage our high-cost bank Visa card to our advantage, usually for rental cars and hotels.
Bon Voyage!
Max, yes, as an Englishman mostly based in the UK, I was aware of the American points for flights, hotel rooms, etc. In my quest for knowledge, I have been evaluating its worth to me personally. After careful consideration I have concluded that, in my case, the slight advantages which might be gained do not warrant the efforts involved.
Therefore, I suppose that the short answer to your questions is, that it matters not to me. However, I was interested to know if it was worth the effort for others. I hope this helps?
Booked two one ways. So probably will keep the outbound and cancel the inbound.
I'm with you, Jason. As a frequent AA flyer, I always know that (a) I'll be seated in MCE, usually in the first or second row of the main cabin (so quick deplaning), (b) someone will pick up the phone when I call, usually an experienced and capable agent. The little extras like early boarding, upgrades on short hops and a snack box on 3+ hour flights are a nice bonus to help take the edge off flying. And for the love of all that is holy, people, if you want to travel up front, just spring for the ticket (cash or points).
I'm similar to you. I've been an AF fanboy for a while now and simply plan to get Platinum for Life in a few years. I also strive to get AA Platinum Pro. Late last year, I had some United flights so I did a status challenge with United and am now UA Platinum until Jan 2028. Out of 14 years from reading your blog, this is the first time I ever had Star Alliance gold, Oneworld Sapphire, and Skyteam elite plus all at the same time!
might be a nice programme since all airlines devaluate their tier status especially I refer to Qatar Airways where I am platinum since 8 years but now I feel like I am treated really bad compared to the years before. Now I made the status match with flying blue. But these guys are out of the world. The status was approved but since 3 months I am not even able to have access to my online account unless I am not resetting the password twice a day to check some fares. They are not able to help at all. I am dealing with about 15 airlines online but this is by far the worst online access. Not sure how long I can bear that I can book flights only as guest status because no one replies me to save the issue I complaint by email what's app and even the status match company. They don't care I mean that's not a serious airline if they don't know how to provide a online access if they want bookings
This is the first time in 8 years that I have not had silver status with United Airlines. Eventhough silver was the lowest tier, it carried a lot of value to me. I got upgraded to first class almost everytime I flew, especially if it wasn't a popular route. Heck, the free checked bag alone was worth it to me. In fact, my husband and my 8 hear old son had silver elite the last 3 years just through flights and spending. Now that United has significantly raised the spend amount to qualify, I will try to get silver elite through their partnership with Marriott hotels again. That is how I achieved silver elite 2018-2022.
AF-FB Plat status certainly makes sense - can get access to La Premiere sure, but more importantly for most, access to better FB award availability and pricing.
As for American... welcome back? (Good try, Atmos, but you didn't get Ben this year...). PPro really is the sweet spot for OWE status (even the silly things like being served first on partner airlines like BA are nice... enjoyed my "priority meal" a few days ago including my "priority last special Chai tea leftover from Christmas").
Even though 175k is achievable, so hard to find SWU availability. But I'll still make EP this year - honestly value AA miles more than the LP at this point, they still offer great value, so I enjoy earning them through AA Hotels, eshopping, SimplyMiles and now of course through Citi.
OWE via PP, FTW! C'mon AA, give Peter more MCE! Ugh, SWU remain disappointing. 125K LP is enuf.
I'm both happy and annoyed with AA today. They swapped the 777 for new 787-P for both legs of an upcoming LHR trip.
On the plus side, snagged 4 new business preferred suites (whatever they're calling the bigger ones) on the outbound. Looking forward to trying that out.
On the inbound, had 4 MCE seats for the family and now there's only 3 (couldn't give us 4 because the remaining 'available' MCE seats are all exit row). Got no notification - only looked at it because they notified me about the inbound (and only then because there was a slight schedule change, not because of an equipment swap and not because seats changed). And they're doing absolutely nothing about it - won't even let me switch flights to a 777 flight where there are MCE seats.
Almost as if designing a plane with only 18 MCE seats (only 12 of which are not exit row) was a terribly stupid idea. And they put all the MCE seats by the bathrooms so you've got PE coming from the front and all of economy coming from the back. (No rear lav on v2 of the 787-P as best I can tell). Honestly considering just cancelling those tickets and booking on another airline.
Epic on the 787-P. Wow, 4 in the first row is that much more impressive. At least the redeye is excellent. Westbound, while longer in duration, is usually less sleeping, so, could be worse. Could you cancel the return segment and keep outbound? Might require an agent to override.
I would say SAS is a better value at the moment if you happen to use their network from time to time. 45k level points is pretty easy if you do any amount of travel long haul. They partner with KL/AF too.
In a way I agree that the elite status of frequent flyer programs somehow lost their appeal - especially when one usually travel in business class anyway.
I do have active oneworld/QR Emerald, Skyteam/AF Platinum and Star Alliance/LH HON status. IMHO, the latter actually stands out quite a bit over the other two and is probably the only status which I think is worthwhile trying to keep. It will be a tough year for me as LH stopped flying direct to my milkrun destination.
I came across OMAAT about two years ago, first as a flight reviews reader and then later as a commenter too. I wanted to know if pursuing points, status, etc, was worth my time or effort. My conclusion is that it is not worth it to me.
I now read that Ben, plus others, have under certain circumstances, come to a similar conclusion. It will be interesting to read how many other travellers will also draw similar conclusions.
@Aero
I happened upon this blog last year, and it has been an interesting read. I have always thought that people who sucked at the teats of these loyalty programs were strange, and I have seen no evidence to contradict this.
Mattress runs etc seems so weird and a waste of a short life.
I can understand if you receive status organically via business travel, but to go out of your way to, still seems bizarre to me.
And then there are the complaints of the programs... Talk about people being masochists...
I’m a longtime reader and came to the conclusion years ago.
I have status as a result of travel out of my home airport but it’s not a goal any longer.
Base status in two programs (AS, DL) is nice because exit row at booking makes coach a reasonable experience.
The juice for higher status isn’t worth the squeeze for me because I don’t review flights and I find premium economy and a paid lounge on an 8-10 hour ex-EU/UK daytime departure flight is fine, and business class lounges are also fine when I on an award in business class.
Justin, eponymous, thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences with me, much appreciated.
AA makes sense as you are a relative 'captive' based in MIA (and American has its stronghold there.) The Flying Blue over Delta for SkyTeam status is an interesting angle, and I think you may be onto something there, especially since you've pulled off La Première upgrades before.
Personally, I did reach my goals in 2025 (SkyTeam Elite Plus, OneWorld Emerald, Star Alliance Gold), and I'm not sure yet whether I'm going for that again this/next year. Nice to have them all if you use them all regularly. Worthless if you scale back or just stay at home. Psh.
Serious question 1990 (I know shock horror is this possible?).
For all your efforts involved in obtaining your goals in 2025, were the savings/benefits really worth it?
Some more than others. Delta Diamond, namely for the Global Upgrade Certificates, yes, that one felt like real value. Used them for DeltaOne on 14+ hour flights that would've cost $10K more than Premium Select. For the others, yes, I still feel 'ahead,' but nothing stands out that as much as that one. The reality is that if you have the money, or someone else is paying, and you know what you want, please, just book the best, and don't worry about status.
Elite status provides what benefits that a premium cabin ticket does not? There needs to be something beyond the watered down benefits we now see. Such as, access to One World first class lounges or access to more/specific award inventory (as Ben notes). For the image-conscious, elite status bag tags can be purchased on eBay for very little.
Great. How much do you save in seat selection fees per year? What is your opportunity cost to achieve AA Platinum? There are a number of moving parts embedded in the second question. Best of luck.
PS - Reasonably consistent across airlines, top tier status attained purely via means other than flight-based elite credits (EQM or LP or XP or whatever) typically incurs an opportunity cost of $4k to $6k. If flight-based elite credits contributes to half of your requirement, then your opportunity cost is reduce by half.
This is missing the point. Elite status is of limited value for most premium tickets, but it works really well when travelling in Y.
Example: BHX-IST on 15 Mar is £108 in Y without luggage and £651 in C. *G status gives you lounge access, fast track security, priority boarding, a 23kg luggage allowance, priority baggage handling etc.
If you're happy to pay the $720 difference because you think it represents good value for a 3.5 hour flight or because it's trivial to you as your annual income is NINE FIGURES, you should probably consider altogether avoiding public transport and chartering a private plane.
My strategy for this year - I have none.
My company’s preferred carrier is AA, and all business travel is therefore booked on this airline by default.
For personal travel, I select flights based solely on the best available pricing for business or first class and the most practical flight times, rather than airline loyalty or status considerations. As I continue to reduce my overall travel, any AA status I attain—such as Gold or perhaps Platinum—will be incidental and not the result of intentionally booking flights to pursue status.
I stopped to run after all airlines programs idem for hotels. I decided to concentrate my action on one Airlines alliance and one hotel company. Hyatt group is the best for tiers and I increase year after year number of nights. 87 in 2025 and expect more than 100 for 2026. Hyatt is especially good out of USA.
For airlines, I chose AF-KLM to become an Ultimate member at the end of 2026. I'm Platinum for life member and skipping Star Alliance, I will recieve more tiers and services with AF-KLM and Skyteam members.
Since I do not get to fly for work, 2025 was my first year with status (Atmos Silver), and I’m shooting to earn Gold for 2026 with a combo of flights and spend on the Summit card. My plan is to mainly spend on the 3x categories the Summit has to avoid the opportunity cost of not earning transferable points, so I don’t have higher ambitions than that.
Given Ben's MIA requirements and good award space on AA and FB, it makes no sense for him to pursue Star Alliance aside from maybe AV (from MIA he could rack up enough AV miles for *G).
Star Alliance has probably become the hardest program to achieve as SK left in 2024 then A3 and AC massively devalued their programs.
@Ben no Star Alliance status at all?
I’m going with low status on United and Alaska - going to use this year as a test to see which one I should be more loyal to going forwad.
I've been debating jumping off the loyalty train for some time now as I am fortunate to fly F/J 95% of the time, so many of the benefits that come with my status (DL Platinum) come with my ticket price. However, one benefit that doesn't necessarily come with the ticket price that I have come to value a LOT is customer service when there are IROPS (which seem to be occurring more and more and more...) or when something goes awry. Whether it's the weather, plane swaps, cancellations, reschedules, or overbookings, Delta has always erred on the side of me, the customer. And when the rescheduling or cancellation has been of my doing, they've also been very accommodating, always noting my status in the interactions. This is not a post to stan for Delta - while they are my preferred US carrier, I am not addicted 🙂 - but rather a post to share a perspective that I haven't seen in the comments yet. But I am starting to care less and less nowadays, not because I have started valuing customer service less and less, but rather because DL/SkyTeam has become less and less convenient (in the USA, I am based out of Chicago, and while I don't mind making connections, the timing of many of their MDW flights are annoying...I do my best to avoid ORD) while also becoming more and more expensive (especially for my international travel, whether TPAC or TATL).
Thank you Ralph, for reminding me that my cash F tickets, give me all of the perks without chasing points.
Seeing the ‘wood for the trees’ comes to mind …. I’ve wasted hours reading Ben’s articles too …. who’s been a numpty?
No need to answer that question …. 🙂