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Comment by efitz | Hacker News Reader

I just want them to upgrade my damn seat. United 1k, hundreds of thousands of lifetime miles, and they almost never upgrade me even with their new “plus points” model which appears just to be some kind of fixed price bid for increasing your place on the waitlist.

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It’s been my experience over the past ~year (as a top-tier flier on multiple airlines) that the airlines have completely depreciated their frequent flyer programs to the extent that regardless of your status the only thing you really get is, preferred economy seating, not boarding last, and some free checked bags.

I used to direct my spend to preferred airlines, now I don’t bother, it literally doesn’t matter.

(Not to mention the ~80% devaluation in mile value)

Platinum Medallion with Delta whose been on 30 segments this year with 2! "complimentary upgrades" across those. I'm going to start just booking first on the major (DL,UA,AA) with the direct flight from my local airport and be done with it. Loyalty doesn't buy anything when everyone has it via credit cards.

The thing that keeps me on Delta (despite frequent flyer status being worth ~nil) is that fact that they're the only one out of the big three who has not frequently delayed my flights by more than an hour or just cancelled them outright *after* everyone has already boarded the plane.

Honestly, I like it this way. Provide good service -> receive customer loyalty.

Also United 1K here for 2 years straight.

It really depends on the flight segment and the seating class you bought. Flying to/from the hubs? Forget it. Everyone and their mother are 1K for United if you're flying from SFO. United really screwed the pooch by allowing insane amount of people to qualify for 1K.

At least you get priority boarding (assuming non-1K members don't line up in 1K pre-boarding) and 1K priority support line.

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