How did you feel about losing your airline/hotel elite status?

[Matt_01]

Hotel status I am not too concerned about I currently hold Accor Platinum, Discovery Platinum (just dropped), HH Diamond (dropping to Gold in March), Bonvoy Gold, IHG Gold (just dropped) PGR Gold and . In general I now tend to book what is best for us as in my experience the status benefits of hotel chains seems to have dropped of or are inconsistent.

For airlines I do not fly as much as before so I have dropped back to VA Gold and *A Silver. In both cases I am not to fussed and the only benefit that was of any use to me with VA was the ability to select Y+ seats as for *A I did not find gold status that useful and I mainly SQ J and the other odd *A carrier but that was normally also in J. During the status matches I was matched to QR platinum and this will drop to gold this year and also Volare Executive which looks like it is good to Jan 25. I have not had to use these programs and it is unlikely that I will.

Now for QF as this is an interesting one. I was P1 for 10 years and it had its ups and downs, outside of the published after 10 years you learn to realise what you can get away with. There are some things I will miss, the ability to gift WP status to MrsM was very useful when travelling as a family under the OW rules as we could always gain lounge access and in the major home port this was normally F lounge.

The next was the ability to request seats and over the years I have requested at least x2 (sometimes 3) J or F seats during school holiday periods on many occasions and they normally got released after a manual review. On a couple of occasions I have seats released when they was no D or I inventory only J, this is not common however I know other P1s had experienced the same. On a couple of occasions QF released J seats to HNL which is not that common. IME the only route that was more problematic was to the UK. I know my parents will also miss this as I would often request seats on their behalf. I am yet to request seat release as a WP.

Backend assistance, there were occasions when connecting to other carriers that booking would not ticket and on a few occasions the old SST had been working away in the background to get ticketing issues resolved before I even know there was a problem. On a similar note over the years I have lost reward seats due to ticketing delays with the likes of EK, QR, JL and MH, on all occasions QF managed to get these back.

International upgrades in 10 years I think there was only 1 F upgrade LAX-SYD that did not clear. All family upgrades cleared.

Another thing I will miss is being able to get access to Call Centre staff that know what they are doing and can usually fix things during a single call and no need to 'ask the supervisor'. The other thing with the CC staff that do not have the same level of training is that they seem to have to check on things which through experience I is possible and can be done.

Would I like to get back to P1, the simple answer is yes but it will not happen anytime soon. As I do not fly that much anymore, I will more than likely be LTG by Aug and have to accept this. I knew I was never go remain P1 indefinitely.

 

[leadman]

Although this thread is about losing status, just a line to go further; when you lose the ability to travel, full stop! The past week, I have been cleaning out my parent's home, which has been in the family for 92 years. Both are now in aged care and will, unfortunately, never see an airport again. They extensively travelled to SE Asia over 50-odd years, taking around 120 trips. They never had any real status, just travelling on the cheapest Y ticket and $50/night BKK/KUL/SIA/SIN/CNX et al. hotels and effectively just blended in with the locals. Never the true tourist, Mum often spend 3 weeks in CNX just around the local neighbourhood.
Cleaning out the house now has been quite emotional, finding all their travel memorabilia, ranging from old Y menus on planes, boarding passes, coasters, hotel pens, pads etc, etc. Nothing of any value except the memories. There are a few travel wallets the airlines/TA's used to give out, but unfortunately, no "Jetabout" white bags.
There is a lot of reminiscing when I visit them now in the Aged Care home, and stories told and a few regrets. Dad's first trip was in 1973 with QF and a Jetabout holiday out on a 707 from SYD. It was a big family event and we all came down to the city to watch him go. Sadly, his father, my grandfather, had a stroke at the airport, almost as the wheels left the tarmac and died. QF was very different back in those days, and, once informed, had Dad back on the next flight from SIN. Once everything had settled, they offered him the holiday again FOC. This and other setbacks never stopped them, but age has caught up with them.
They are never going to miss their status, as they never had any, but wow, are they missing their travels.

 

[Seat0B]

Like most other posters here I’m not concerned about losing hotel loyalty. I never had much anyway - just ALL Gold (now silver) as I tend to book the most convenient and then the cheapest hotel in that order rather than be loyal to any brand.

For FF status I will be sad to lose WP whenever it happens as I value the better call centre treatment, the F Lounge, F check in, upgrade priority and award seat release. I reached LTG in 2014 so at least I have that. With over 33k lifetime SC I wish wish wish LTP was a more realistic goal for me.

 

[clifford]

If I'd have lost anything (that I'm aware of, hotels notwithstanding), I'd be miffed.

But, I take steps to ensure that the airline affiliations I have and want are maintained.

For example, I have let my BA membership bleed out, but continue with my QF Plat membership.

It's really a moving target that you've got to keep your eye on

 

[SeaWolf]

I'm about to drop back from Gold to Silver on QF. I got the Gold status as a match from Virgin Platinum back when VA went into administration and I figured I should hedge my bets in case VA didn't recover. Since then I've been giving QF a red hot go, both for business and personal trips, domestic and international, especially in the last six months or so. My conclusion has been that the grass is certainly no greener on the QF side of the fence (quite the opposite, the experience on QF has been medicore at best, chaotic at worst) and I've switched everything back to VA. If QF decided to comp me yet another Gold renewal I wouldn't turn it down, but I wouldn't direct any business their way because of it either.

During the pandemic I also went up to Platinum with Accor through a couple of Fast Track offers and I think I would be disappointed to lose that. I've also got Accor Plus (through AmEx). While getting things like upgrades are a bit hit-and-miss (though lately more hit and last stay I went from the base room to a suite!) I've found that I can pretty much always get a late check out and getting a free breakfast is something that's worth actual money each time I get it. Coupled with the discount from Accor Plus on booking the rooms (especially if a Red Hot Room rate is available) I've actually found this one to be quite valuable.

 

[morfergus]

For Hotel status, I couldn’t care less about losing it. I try to move from the status match to status match but if that doesn’t align, I'm not fussed. I don’t think the value of hotel status outweighs the need to stay at certain hotels, which may not be the most convenient or priced for what you want.

Loss of my Qantas or Virgin Platinum status I’ll be more concerned about. I’ve got Qantas lifetime Gold so that loss would not that big a thing, but after 15 years or so, it would be a bit of a downer. But not so much that I feel the need to spend money for flights that I don't need to take, to retain status.

Exactly my feelings.

 

[Lynda2475]

Thanks to bookings made during this latest DSC plus Green Tier & Loyalty Bonus I will requalify for QF WP again next FF Year (meaning I'll keep WP until at least 31-July-26). I am not doing a big OWA this year, just a number of short trips, but have high hopes for another 6 week OWA in 2026 so status should help with that.

I'm less fussed about hotel status, although the stars aligned nicely in 2022 seeing me have get IHG Diamond through a status match (only had to stay 20 nights) and also Gold Accor Plus; which I was able to benefit from again n 2023, plus was gifted Hilton Gold.

Even with status I found that in Dublin, New Orleans, Indianapolis and Cairns the best hotels for me weren't an IHG, Hilton or Accor so ended up booking rooms in those cities via QF hotels and pocketing bonus points I knew i could use. In fact at The Alex in Dublin (booked via QF) on my return stay I was treated with complimentary Champagne, Water (Sparkling & Still), Cheese & Charcuterie board, Dessert Plate and hand made chocolates which knocked any welcome gift Id got from any hotel where I had status right out of the water.

Last year I didn't stay enough at IHG to maintain status so I have fallen to Platinum. The free diamond breakfast was nice and upgrades were hit and miss but neither perk a deal breaker that would make me choose an IHG property unless it suited my needs well. I'm looking at only 4-10 nights at IHG properties this year, so have decided to burn all my IHG points on reward nights for those stays wherever possible.

I'm not sure yet whether I will renew my Accor+ this year, although it did pay for itself last 2 years as I was able to use the free night on a room that was more expensive than the membership fee.

Once I settle on the next big trips I will reassess whether its worth trying to rebuild and leverage status with any hotel partner, or go with best deal of the day.

 

[leadman]

Although this thread is about losing status, just a line to go further; when you lose the ability to travel, full stop! The past week, I have been cleaning out my parent's home, which has been in the family for 92 years. Both are now in aged care and will, unfortunately, never see an airport again. They extensively travelled to SE Asia over 50-odd years, taking around 120 trips. They never had any real status, just travelling on the cheapest Y ticket and $50/night BKK/KUL/SIA/SIN/CNX et al. hotels and effectively just blended in with the locals. Never the true tourist, Mum often spend 3 weeks in CNX just around the local neighbourhood.
Cleaning out the house now has been quite emotional, finding all their travel memorabilia, ranging from old Y menus on planes, boarding passes, coasters, hotel pens, pads etc, etc. Nothing of any value except the memories. There are a few travel wallets the airlines/TA's used to give out, but unfortunately, no "Jetabout" white bags.
There is a lot of reminiscing when I visit them now in the Aged Care home, and stories told and a few regrets. Dad's first trip was in 1973 with QF and a Jetabout holiday out on a 707 from SYD. It was a big family event and we all came down to the city to watch him go. Sadly, his father, my grandfather, had a stroke at the airport, almost as the wheels left the tarmac and died. QF was very different back in those days, and, once informed, had Dad back on the next flight from SIN. Once everything had settled, they offered him the holiday again FOC. This and other setbacks never stopped them, but age has caught up with them.
They are never going to miss their status, as they never had any, but wow, are they missing their travels.

This might stray off the original post, but after cleaning the parents property, I came across some "classics" from over fifty years ago. The first one, the boarding pass; no name, just the seat! No. 2, love the V-jet 707, but not sure what the misc charge was. No. 3, 2 baht for porterage!!!! street beggars don't even take the 2 baht coin now! No. 4 & 5, Pre-Westpac, Dad said it was delivered to the airport. Note the Thai baht has not moved v AUD, but seeing Porterage was 2b there has been a big shift. And do love the SIN v AUD rate.