After years of chasing status (I still do), sometimes being a Free Agent when it comes to choosing your travel product is the most liberating of all. While I still hold elite status, on a recent trip my family used four different carriers for four different flight segments, three hotel chains over five nights and got tremendous value for money.
I Still Hold Status, I Am Just Less Loyal
I have talked about leaving American Airlines in the past after being exclusively loyal to them since 2002 (in terms of concentrating my loyalty) and Hyatt after a decade. I switched to United which has been mostly better so far, and grabbed a ton of different hotel statuses (Hilton, IHG, Marriott/SPG) and that has opened up the world for us. But if United doesn’t deliver on upgrades, or their experience is inferior (their soft product is better, their long-haul hard product is so much worse than American) I will leave them too.
At the end of the day, you can buy the benefits you want on the flag carriers just like you can on the ULCCs. If you want priority boarding ensuring you space for your carry-on, United will sell it for $9. If you want an upgrade to first class, $45-150 upgrades are available on many domestic flights from most of the airlines where the space is available for sale. United’s first class breakfast catering has been a problem from Pittsburgh, but on the last flight it was actually loaded they offered a bowl of cheerios and a fruit cup – I opted for the cheese snack pack for sale in the back as it was more food.
I have status with SPG, but I won’t be at their properties exclusively due to lack of footprint and price concerns, and while IHG has the footprint in spades, they don’t have a luxury line outside of a few dozen Kimpton properties that only became redeemable a few months ago.
It feels liberating to be able to choose any place as opposed to just what’s available with my airline and my hotel chain.
They Made Me This Way
Standing in the bathroom of a Hyatt in Cartagena, my wife and I discussed how used to ride or die with American and Hyatt. We would choose our trips and destinations based on the following two criteria:
- Can we get there on American or one of their partners?
- Is there a Hyatt we want to stay in?
If either of the previous two were a no, we didn’t go. And while I loathe Hyatt’s limited footprint, I still have yet to visit all of the places that fall inside of this loyalty Venn Diagram. Places like Buenos Aires, the Maldives, Maui, and spending so much more time in Tokyo are reasons why we could have been very happy to stay with the two of them.
But they had other plans.
American not only gutted their program but they made eVIPs so impossible to use and saver space, a newsworthy event that I decided to walk out on them after half a decade as an Executive Platinum based purely on leisure travel. Hyatt made some nice changes to their program (space available suite upgrades or elites, free stay coupons) but also increased their top-tier status requirement by as much as 140% (from 25 stays to 60 nights minimum). Hyatt also made those coupons explode after a strange 120 days and incentivized their top-tier guests to stay less due to their new odd expiry dates (as Gary Leff aptly put) and premature requalification makes it so the guest may not be able to use their benefits as they wish.
I’m not even mad anymore about the switch from awarding flights based on distance rather than dollars spent because I think businesses should get a fair deal from their customers too. When their customers are flying a partner 10,000 miles for $400 and getting almost a free domestic ticket with status bonuses, that payout really wasn’t fair to the carrier. The revenue requirement should include anything I pay the airline in exchange for the ticket (including taxes, fees, changes, and upgrades). I think it’s fine to say that your top-tier customers should be valuable ones.
But when American made their miles impossible to use, and Hyatt increased their requirements by 140% without increasing their property portfolio the same amount, they gave me (and everyone else) plenty of reasons to shop around. Delta and United are no better, even JetBlue added change fees and Southwest increased the cost of their ancillary products along with the redemption rate for Wanna Get Away fares. Spirit is the only one that seems to be using “transfarency” these days.
How I Use It To My Advantage
I am more apt to shop where I want to go now and find a way to get there. Sometimes that means cash on airline tickets, sometimes it means AirBnB, but mostly it means that I will cobble a trip together in whatever way makes sense for me. On a recent trip (my wife wrote a primer to this and we will begin to post more about it in the coming weeks) we freelanced all over the place. For example, we flew:
- OneJet – Pittsburgh to Florida
- Spirit – Florida to Colombia
- JetBlue – Colombia to Florida
- Southwest – Florida to Pittsburgh
We stayed six nights during our trip in a mix of Hyatt, Hilton, and Marriott properties as it suited us. In the past, this would have been 100% Hyatt, and we would have used more points and money than booking the way we did. Here is our per person cost breakdown for our week in Florida and Colombia booked a day before we left:
- $370.53
- 10,000 True Blue points
- 12,000 Ultimate Rewards points (transferred to Hyatt)
- 16,000 Hilton Honors points
- 5,333 Southwest Rapid Rewards
- (1.3) Promotional certificates
As a result, we got a chance to try out the ultra-Luxurious Conrad Cartagena resort as well as the new Hyatt Regency Cartagena. We were able to fly Spirit’s Big Front Seat (comparable to a domestic first class product) for just $45 premium on a $132 one-way ticket (I am a big fan at this point). We got to use my wife’s companion pass and points when it suited us but weren’t pigeon-holed to their availability and (lately) sky high prices.
We were able to burn a ton of promotional certificates that we usually wouldn’t be able to, including a pair of one-way car rentals on National, and two free hotel nights (one from our Hyatt credit card, and another from a Marriott promotion). In the past, we would have shopped our primary carrier only (American) and let that dictate our destination choices. Hotel stays would have been solely on Hyatt to continue to build stays and utilize points. We wouldn’t have had other options other than cash and perhaps that would have meant we didn’t go at all, but now, the whole world is open to us.
Am I wrong on this? Do you still prefer to fly just one carrier or stay with just one hotel chain? Have you also become a Free Agent?
Given the business you are in, you have this option. For those of us who fly total miles in the neighborhood of 150k/year and accumulate maybe 50-100 hotel stays, we can’t get enough ‘minor’ status with any airline or hotel property to make it meaningful. Most programs only start to reward at minimum Silver or equivalent, but really, even with Gold you might get some extra leg room or a better view. No upgrades on flights or any other major perks. And with your approach, I would not accumulate enough miles on any one airline to pay for more than a one-way trip in most cases. My 2 cents.
Lorrie, thanks for your comment. At 75 nights you could still get to Hilton Diamond (30 stays), SPG Platinum (25) if you do it this year and make some headway on Hyatt with the remaining nights for the rest of the 45 nights if you like.
For flights, you could also be selective in some cases. I would grab British Airways status if you can snag some cheap prices on American first class. Sometimes the coach price is just as cheap but BA usually awards a lot more tier points for these, then credit to Turkish when flying United to get both access to the club and Star Gold status faster. You can still hit two programs for both your nights and your flights if you have some involvement in the choice of who and what to book. If someone else decides that for you (internal travel booking service/restrictions) then I would try some combination of that when available and consider a good old fashioned mileage run.
Side note, the “business” I am in is separate from blogging full time. That business puts me in a lot of hotel rooms, granted, but flying is enough to qualify for about 3rd tier for revenue annually but only 35,000 miles flown for business. To maintain, I am still status running these days.
I agree. I’ve been chasing airline statuses for years now and decided to give it a break once my current status ends. The main benefit that I valued the most were F upgrades but with DL’s paid F fares being competitive, it’s better that I just pay for the F tickets instead of spending $6K+ and my time on MRs (I don’t do 4+ hr flights in Y).
On the hotel side, I’m still going to retain status as I enjoy SPG Plat status from the suite upgrades to the breakfast benefits. Only time will tell how the new Marriott/SPG program will be in a year.
I wonder if your SPG loyalty will change, I know that if the rumors that came out today are true, mine probably will.
Becuase hotels won’t give any loyalty benefits to airline crews I don’t do a lot of paid hotel stays. As a result the vast majority of my points accrual in the hotel space is with credit card spend. Hilton has been my go to for years because I could get gold status through spend or holding the premium card. For a customer like me no one else offered as good a deal because of the high earn Hilton cards give you. About a year ago I acquired the Amex Starwood card mainly as a transfer currency but also because with the 1-3 transfer into Marriott that program offered slightly better access to top tier properties.
When we buy rooms we almost always look Hilton first because that’s where the majority of our points are. I’ve looked at Starwood properties but generally have been able to score a better deal from Hilton. I’m strongly considering the new top tier Hilton card for the Diamond status and the other benefits but I haven’t decided yet if I can make it pay. The loss of bonus categories for gas and grocery spend means that we’d end up splitting our Hilton spend between my wife’s account and mine to maximize those benefits.
On the airline side we usually fly standby on my benefits but when we don’t since we live in a United Hub they tend to get our spend. My wife has a medium size cache of points with them from company travel and we both have the United Cards though they get little to no spend since we got the Sapphire Reserve when it came out. I wouldn’t say we are loyal to United but if all else is equal or close to it they will get the sale. I also have a small cache of points with the carrier I work for but we don’t live in base so a lot of times they don’t make sense if we are buying tickets.
In general our spend goes primarily to Chase for Ultimate Rewards Points with the rest to Hilton and Starwood.
We too put most of our spending on Ultimate Rewards cards with some American Express Membership Rewards sprinkled in.
Well the only way for me to get First Class lounge access with CX or QF is to buy a first class ticket. So lets see, do I want to spend $12,000 a year chasing EXP status on AA or spending $15,000 for a CX F ticket on LAX-HKG? Tough choice there.
I guess, for my money, as much as I love The Wing lounge in Hong Kong, it’s not worth $12,000 or $15,000. Easy choice for you, easy choice for me. I’d rather sit at the gate for that kind of money or simply better time my arrival at the airport.
I agree with your post. I do think Spirit miles are no joy to use either though. There are some sweet spots but they work hard to keep you from redeeming them on connecting itineraries in my experience. At least they will let you buy up to “big front seats” which is about as good as United First on many domestic routes.
Spirit miles are dead before you can use them usually, so I make no assumptions that I will ever be able to use them, but I would gladly forfeit any mileage earning in exchange for a last-minute $170 first class seat on a 2.5 hour flight.
for leisure (or nearly all leisure) travelers it’s not worth it unless you can easily get status “by accident”
For business travellers it is probably still worth it as long as it isn’t coming at the cost of lots of your time
I can agree with this Richard and this is kind of the place I find myself in. I will requalify on United from business travel alone to 1K, but on American, unless I found some great fares that trick the system (last year I could have requalified on just three trips in Qatar business to Asia for $4000) – I doubt I will even bother.
“Hyatt also made those coupons explode…” Hope they didn’t explode in your pocket!
No they did not… though my eVIPs from American Airlines did. I haven’t forgiven them for that yet.
I, too, used to be hostage to airlines, hotels, and a car rental company. No more. I now fly or stay with whom I want to. I do have slight preferences and a slight rank order but it’s a good feeling to give up slavery.
True, I do lose out to some elite status but I also get flexibility. On one airline, they only have a red eye. Why would I want to be a slave to points or miles just to be forced to take a red eye?
Dave, this is my exact point. Before the carriers devalued their programs so much, we would have both considered that red eye – that was the whole purpose of the loyalty program. Now, the shackles have been broken.
Another article completely biased to the American market.
Well Isaac, while we certainly strive to create relevant content for readers all over the world, most of our readership is American, our writers are American and factually, the most frequent flyers are Americans. In the most recent study I have seen, America led the world with the most flights (just shy of 10 million per annum), the next closest competitor was China with 65% fewer flights and given that this is an English language blog, the next closest English-speaking country was Canada (3rd place) with 85% fewer flights than the States. Further, load factors in the US are at an all-time high even as more and more capacity hits the market, especially from low-cost carriers Spirit, Allegiant, and Frontier. In fact, the fourth largest carrier in the US (Southwest) would place third in the world by themselves.
But to your point, what’s this picture look like elsewhere? Europe carriers certainly aren’t doing any better to distinguish themselves from low-cost carriers, just this week British Airways was TESTING giving away free water to guests, Michael O’Leary would be so proud. Finnair moved their top tier requirements to an unattainable 300,000-mile quota. And an upgrade to intra-European business class is not worth being loyal. It would be cheaper in most cases to just buy a row on an Easyjet flight instead.
How about in Asia? Cathay’s awards are difficult to use, most carriers add fuel surcharges and Air Asia makes it easy and cheap to buy every perk you’d get with status, save the lounges which you can still buy from the carriers anyway.
In South America, Avianca made some improvements recently to their award chart and they sell miles cheap, too bad they didn’t improve their website or call center making them redeemable. Is LATAM secretly ruling the world of aviation loyalty?
Welcome to the dark side. 🙂
I’d also add that being a hotel “free agent” opens up a whole bunch of smaller, boutique-type properties in destinations everywhere, which often offer better pricing, free breakfast for all guests, more personalized service, etc. Hilton’s given me good service over the years, so I generally still try to stick with them where it makes sense, but it’s nice to not stress about passing up on a great deal at a non-chain property just to stay on the loyalty hamster wheel.
I am with you… almost. We would love to book more boutique hotels, but too often our needs really do require a chain.