Airline frequent flyer status used to be worth it. Now...not so much.
Delta's changes convinced me to give up on worrying about status, and just take the flights that work best.
Hello all, for the first time in a while.
I started this Substack with a promise: That I wouldn’t waste your time. No writing or sending email blasts just for the sake of writing or emailing, but only when I have something that I think is worth writing (or reading).
The result is that posts here, for now, will be quite irregular. I might publish two in a week, if that seems worthwhile. And then it might be a month or two or more until the next one, like in this case.
With that out of the way, I wanted to highlight a piece I wrote at work last week. I’ve gotten more reader feedback on it than anything I’ve written in years, pretty much entirely in agreement (along with a shoutout in the lede of this story in The Atlantic).
Amid all the agita about Delta’s massive recentering of its frequent flyer program away from, well, frequent flyers, and more towards big spenders — along with the airline strictly tightening its lounge access policies — I found a degree of serenity.
Read my piece on airline status here: Delta’s SkyMiles changes have convinced me to stop chasing airline status, and that’s liberating
I’ve had at least some form of status since around 2018, when I started covering this beat full-time. I’ve factored status into vacation planning, work travel, credit card spending, and more. It’s stressful, it leads me to make irrational decisions and take dumb flights over better ones, and it just isn’t worth it anymore.
The full piece is available at The Points Guy, head over and take a read.
I’m looking forward to a lot fewer connections in Atlanta and Charlotte, and a lot more free time.
Another post is coming soon — 'till next time!