Beating the status addiction - one case of success!

[juddles]

Hello all,

They say at Alcoholics Anonymous that the first step is to admit you have a problem. I really enjoy a drink, but that poison is not my problem. I also smoke many months of the year, but that is not my main problem either. My BIG problem is that I really get hooked on status.

I travel heaps (I do a very long FIFO thing between Australia and Colombia), but am not rich and work for a small company, so travel budget is tight. But being 6'7" is not fun in Y when you do 380,000 or so kms flying each year, so over these years I found ways to improve travel, and worked my way up the status ladder quite impressively. This year will be (I hope) the pinnacle of my flying career. This year I reach the dizzy heights (pun?) of attaining simultaneously mega status with my three main carriers - Qantas P1, LATAM Signature Black, and Avianca Diamond. And with LATAM and Avianca will get it for next year. But it was going to be a struggle to reattain QF P1, and up until last week had decided not to try to reach it.

Then dropped in another bloody double SC offer! Suddenly P1 was within reach again, if I just adjusted a couple of flights and made QF bookings instead of LATAM for a few trans-pac trips later in the year. But this would come at a higher financial cost. I have struggled with this miserably over the past few days - do I or don't I???

The logical me said DON'T. I enjoy being P1 but really for me it has made bugger-all difference than vanilla-WP. (I do NOT want this to be yet another thread on the benefits of P1!) But the addictive part of me finds it really hard to drop a notch. In the end (five minutes ago) I made a decision - I will NOT take up the double SC offer and NOT use it to retain P1.

And I feel happy. This whole status game is predominantly tailored by very savvy airline people to prey on basic human desires and traits (the same way online games do to keep people "hooked"). So I have bitten the bullet and obeyed the rational me. LATAM and Avianca have very solid and usable upgrades, etc, which in my personal situation are real and predictable benefits. QF P1 feels fuzzy-wuzzy but for me (could be different for others) it is not worth chasing.

The whole point of this thread is that it might help other addicts make similar sane decisions. And returning to the Alcoholics Anonymous idea - it is the same - to know you have beaten such a disease, it isn't sufficient to stop drinking. You have to also help someone else do the same. Hopefully someone reading this will stop and think and also realise the whole status-chasing thing can get out of hand.

But I still love the actual flying - that is not an addiction, it is just pure Good

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Hi, I am lovetravellingoz and I was a Statusholic (Ansett Diamond amongst other things). However I have not had a status run now for 16 years.


However I am still addicted to airline business lounges and the pointy end, but after giving up the life of the Plane Warrior rely on only ever now flying in J/F via points to maintain my habit.

 

[defurax]

Timely thread...I've been wondering lately how bad my addiction is! I will be reaching LTG by the end of my membership year and I'd like to think that after that I will simply aim to get the minimum 1200SC every year to renew WP. I guess my biggest fear is that I will decide to start renewing WP every year and then decide to get status with another carrier on *A or Scary Team...Looks like there is potential for a new job opportunity as a Frequent Flyer therapist!!!

 

[SFSC]

For various reasons, including having to self-fund my travel insurance as I age (and get more pre-existings) the status thing no longer does anything for SWMBO and myself. We travel so infrequently now that we have decided to only travel in J or F and so we don't need status for lounge access etc. The aircraft seats all arrive at the same time so seat selection is not much of an issue.

I recall my grandfather telling me many years ago "there are no pockets in a shroud" and this is our philosophy now even for short domestic and we even did a SYD-MEL-SYD in QF paid J a week or two ago. This attitude now frees us up to pick any carrier so in the long run who knows what the overall outcome for us may be financially.

 

[dmitri]

Well said. I've been doing FIFO for the last 10 yrs, the last 5 flying QF domestic, but as of last year the company cut out points/credits from the flights to save money so I'll be dropping from WP to Gold this year (WP for last 3 yrs). I was telling my wife that I should look at spending the cash to keep WP as she quite enjoys first class lounges when we fly. With the last few OS trips we have done all flights have been in J on points so we had access to good lounges anyway. Status is great but if you fly mostly using points in premium economy or higher it's sort of redundant. I am nearly at 6000 LTC so my next long term will be LTS. If I can keep accruing points for Y+ and J flights I'm happy with that, any relevant status will just be a perk if I can attain it.

 

[serfty]

Hey Juddles, at least with you being currently P1 it will guarantee two+ years of QFF Emerald with Qantas' soft landing ...

 

[juddles]

Hey Juddles, at least with you being currently P1 it will guarantee two+ years of QFF Emerald with Qantas' soft landing ...

That is true, but any truly infected status-holic P1 would get little comfort from a "measely" WP card

 

[DaveB]

It is a crazy addiction. Flying on points the past 10 or so years, have always been a status novice though admit to at one stage catching the bug which is difficult to contain when exposed to this site.
I must say I have only had mild symptons of the disease having never done a status run. Towards the end of QF J/FASA's, I attempted to fly QF wherever possible even when I had better options available on other airlines.
Since 2003, always fly on points in J/F apart from a 2013 Aer Lingus flight from BOD to DUB having cancelled J on BA not wanting to waste the day transiting via London.
Funnily enough, our two girls reached VA platinum and gold one year whilst wife and I stayed red. Always flying the four together in the same J or F cabin, often only two reward seats were available which I would stupidly allocate to the wife and I with the girls tickets booked later using Citi reward points earning the status credits.

 

[SuzieQ68]

Brilliant thread and have to say I'm still an addict. Unfortunately after the heady days of VA WP (ok, in my world they were heady days ), have now dropped to SG. Hanging on by a thread but determined to maintain. Would love a VA DSC to come up soon though - would make it so much easier.

I'm still in denial and probably will be for awhile, so no point me attending one of those anonymous programs anytime soon.......

 

[Jet L]

Ill go out of my way to fly VA but never done a status run (but I have made "visiting" family trip), I am still very young so i'm sure I shall succumb to this someday

 

[theweaselsteve]

Very timely, I too have decided to NOT take advantage of the QF DSC's. A status run last year got me to SG which was the ambition as I was pretty close already but retaining it this year will be a stretch so have decided not to bother and concentrate on the points instead. The way I see it, with a bit of planning the perks can be had anyway if you're booking premium reward cabins. The big question for me now is whether to switch to another alliance. QF isn't doing much for me out of Perth, Sydney was a different story but I'm here now and need to evaluate the options!

 

[docjames]

What you've basically said is P1 isn't worth the extra spend compared to WP.

 

[OATEK]

I really ummed and aahed right down to the wire, but like juddles, theweaselsteve and others, I decided NOT to take up the DSC offer. Last year I did a status run to tip me over into SG, but since the xASAs were removed have on the whole settled down to a more sustainable pattern.

And of course being close to retirement, I just don't have the regular domestic flying any more. I still have QP membership, half paid by work, but that will end by Dec 2018. And yet I have not flashed the card for a while and the SG card only once, and realise that between J fights on points and reduced QF flights in general, I have less and less need to chase status.

The upcoming trip to EU will see visits to the J lounges in SYD, HKG, HEL, and CDG based on the ticket and QFF/OWR won't make a difference one way or the other. I may not even get my 4 QF qualifying flights in the retain PS, but as someone once said "not bothered". I finally feel quite free from the status merry-go-round, and still have a great time visiting far flung parts.

 

[juddles]

What you've basically said is P1 isn't worth the extra spend compared to WP.

docjames, yes, in my personal case I decided it was not worth it. But in general I feel that status-chasing, with any airline, is a cleverly designed addictive vice that is probably not worth the SC runs that we all so love to do. With any airline.

 

[docjames]

docjames, yes, in my personal case I decided it was not worth it. But in general I feel that status-chasing, with any airline, is a cleverly designed addictive vice that is probably not worth the SC runs that we all so love to do. With any airline.

Agree largely, but I think there's "tiers" of incremental benefits (as they are designed).

In the QF example, have silver but just short of Gold and next year expecting a lot of travel? Probably worth it to "go for gold". Barely scraped into Silver, and forward travel tiny - no way is it worth it.

You illustrate nicely that each individual's circumstances are different and the relative merits of "chasing" status depend on a host of factors.

 

[Altair]

I too am on the road to recovery. A former AFFer tried to entice me to go on a run to SIN from WLG with him that would get 800 SC for $3.2K NZD. That, with flights booked under the DSC, that I had planned to take would get me 100 SC from qualifying back to WP and incidentally LTG...I only later realised the 100 SC could come from loyalty bonus...anyway I turned it down, $3.2K for an SC run to get me to WP when I would only use the benefits over SG 3 times a year so not worth it.
I did change flight plans from an EK First TT flight on QF code to a WLG-SYD-BNE run in J (which interestingly was the same price as WLG-SYD), with flights back to SYD in Economy (my destination) and return for under $2k which was $1k cheaper than the EK option of CHC-SYD. Happy with the outcome and my resistance to going for WP and spending $3.2k which will now be used for the family's Christmas holiday.

 

[samh004]

I fear I'm still in the hunt until LTG. When I get there, I hope I have the willpower to ignore tempting offers like the one that just ended. I'm just not ready to let go just yet.

 

[juddles]

I fear I'm still in the hunt until LTG. When I get there, I hope I have the willpower to ignore tempting offers like the one that just ended. I'm just not ready to let go just yet.

To be honest and open, I am sure I would not have managed to let go either if I hadn't of got that magical LTG last year

 

[davyjohn]

I too ignored the DSC promotion. I'm FIFO to Central America at the moment, and I could have booked all my trips for the rest of the year and made P1. Decided better, and now I'm looking for options to spread travel across VA and Star Alliance.

With no LTP, I'll do just the minimum to retain WP and spread my travel dollars.

 

[coyote25]

I fear I'm still in the hunt until LTG. When I get there, I hope I have the willpower to ignore tempting offers like the one that just ended. I'm just not ready to let go just yet.

I think we are in the same boat. I'm going to obtain LTG with a DSC J booking to DPS (Bali). Will also get to use QF SYD F Lounge for the first time since I'm currently WP (Melbourne based).

I wonder if I'll be able to give up chasing WP renewal (I effectively we get there in is membership Year). More and more I'm booking J international award seats so LTG in the end probably won't mean that much but later in life I guess I'll still be booking cheapest Y fares and LTG will make it better with exit row selection and lounge access.

Da,n maybe LTG won't make me stop chasing WP status.

Let's hope VA doesn't start a LT program for me to aim for with them as well