elite status

Tag Archives for elite status.

Leak: Lufthansa Will Change How Elite Status is Earned in 2021

by Gary Leff on October 30, 2019

Oct 30 2019

A German-language blog has discovered two mistakenly-published pieces of information from Lufthansa Miles & More.

11 Takeaways From United’s New $18,000 Elite Status

by Gary Leff on October 11, 2019

Oct 11 2019

United Airlines has declared that miles no longer matter at all – a strange position for MileagePlus to take. Distance flown no longer matters for earning miles. Redeeming miles is more revenue-based with the elimination of award charts. And now even qualifying for elite status will be based on spending starting next year.

You can earn status by spending more than before and counting up the number of flights you take, or just based on spending alone. Here are 11 takeaways from this historic change.

Starting Next Year United Elite Status Will No Longer Be Earned Based on Distance Flown

by Gary Leff on October 11, 2019

Oct 11 2019

United will stop counting how far you fly for earning elite status. United will no longer have 25,000 mile, 50,000 mile, 75,000 mile and 100,000 mile status.

Instead – starting in 2020 for customers earning status for the 2021 program year – United will count how many flights you take and how much you spend. And if you want to earn status without taking a lot of flights, just spend more.

Something I Never Knew About the Southwest Airlines Elite Status Match

by Gary Leff on October 5, 2019

Oct 05 2019

Since I earned the full year’s status through last year’s challenge, during the back half of 2018, I assumed I would have the status for all of 2019 and I’d be able to spend all of 2019 requalifying in order to keep the status for 2020. However, oddly, that’s not how this works.

USA Today Columnist Wants to Ban Frequent Flyer Programs, Blames Them For Everything Wrong With Travel

by Gary Leff on September 28, 2019

Sep 28 2019

Forget about bad opinions, for over 15 years Christopher Elliott has been writing columns that get their facts wrong. His pieces haven’t gotten any better as the years have gone on.

He keeps making weak arguments that attempt to use air travel as a vehicle for his claims about social inequality (even when the details don’t work, especially since loyalty programs give customers access to perks that would normally only be available to the wealthy) and telling readers to quit frequent flyer programs for years without correcting his errors or updating his facts.