I've noticed two sides in this thread - those who will be affected by the lower SC earn who emphasise the 'frequent' part of the program, and those affected by the devaluation of their 'loyalty' to the the program. I think both sides are valid in their disappointment and my key outtake from reading these pages is that they've sha-t on their frequent and loyal members. Whether you've attained status by flying on lots of cheap seats frequently, or by spending more on VA and their partners for you and your family pool, we were all working with the same criteria so one type of elite is not more valuable than another.
The last couple of years I've been meaning to sit down and properly work out whether VFF status is valuable to me at all as (A) I use very few status perks, and (B) they don't fly anywhere I want to go. As it seems VFF has now answered that for me, I feel so free! I can now use my points* for flights that give zero status credits; I can fly routes and airlines without being tethered to Velocity (airlines that actually have their own international lounges); and I don't have to pretend that being WP on an airline that doesn't even have flat seats is anything to aim for.
I remember back in 2019 when United moved from a strictly miles flown system for accumulating status (at least for overseas elites) to one now based on quasi-dollars spent, I had a similar panic attack. I was using United status a lot so there was a lot of value in keeping it, but I couldn't justify spending the many thousands of dollars USD to keep status each and every year. Initially it felt like a betrayal by United. After all, I planned all of my travel around that airline, sometimes flying with United even if it added hours to my travel time or crossing the wrong international oceans (once I flew Berlin Tegel to Osaka Japan via Dusseldorf, Las Vegas, and San Francisco just to keep to mostly UA metal). I understood the system really well and knew what it took to keep status. Then they just flip the bloody checker board and I'm left trying to pick up the pieces. I spoke to a dear travel colleague (who by the way is an AC Million Miler) and she told me I need to take a step back and re-evaluate what is going on. I'm glad I did, and made the switch to Qantas.
This is not to say I'll never fly United again (indeed I flew them back in August in Polaris business class as part of a Virgin Australia award back to Sydney). But I'll be clever in how I fly them. If I can status match them now against my Qantas Gold and take one trip to Europe from Australia to earn Premier Gold status for a year so be it. But I'm not going out of my way to chase the status. Life is too short to sit middle seat in coach just so you can claim you're Medallion Palladium.
I'll miss the priority check-in and boarding, but that's still a couple of years away with plenty of time to put on my big girl pants on and get over it, and savings on sale fares from other airlines will be used on the AMEX PC - I could never 'justify' the cost of the card as well as keeping up VFF status, but my new freedom now makes it a very pleasant and viable option.
IME much of the benefits aren't amazing. Yes, lounge access is nice, as is seat selection, but one must ask the question is it really worth going out of your way for these benefits? There's some status out there where a credible argument towards chasing status could be made. For instance, LATAM Black gives you 8 international upgrade certificates every year to upgrade their flights from economy to business. And unlike other airlines, LATAM Black members are second in order of upgrades.
LTG would have been something to aim for, but I feel their lol some of your previous SC's now aren't worth sht bait 'n switch is highly distasteful, and not something I want to reward with my loyalty. They should have at the very least had the LTG data available to all members at the same time as the announcement.....simple....fair.
Lifetime status makes sense so long as there is a viable way to get there. Looking at Virgin Australia, United and Air Canada as examples, they require you to earn all of those status credits flying with them (or at least on a flight marketed by them). For me that's plain unrealistic, especially for long haul flights where you're just not going to find a Virgin Australia flight to LA or Paris. Contrast this with Air France/KLM, where the requirement is attainable: 10 consecutive years of top tier status gets you lifetime top tier status with Air France/KLM (and therefore SkyTeam). Yes that is a big hurdle, but it is one that is attainable for some people. Meanwhile Qantas and Asiana let you earn lifetime status based on flights you take operated by them and partners, which opens up a huge opportunity for travellers, especially those who are nomads.
-RooFlyer88
