I have never cared about elite status, not even a little bit. Would an upgrade be nice? Sure, but I don’t travel enough to have high enough status to think that I’d ever actually get one. And I’m not tall, so I really don’t care much about extra legroom either. Living in Southern California, there are different airlines that are better for different routes. It has never made sense to chase elite status on just one.
And it still doesn’t.
But, I decided that it might be something interesting to write about. With some upcoming trips on Alaska and Hawaiian, I decided I’d look into the possibility. In the end, I decided to sacrifice sanity and chase the dragon. Will I succeed? I have no idea. Will it change anything in my behavior next year once I have status? Meh, I dunno. But come along with me on this journey of madness.
On Alaska, you need 20,000 elite qualifying miles (EQMs) in a year to get to the lowest level of elite status, MVP. Or I could do 40,000 and try for Gold on partner American instead. It is absolutely maddening that you can get similar benefits on two partner airlines — both get you oneworld Ruby status — and have the numbers be so far apart.
There is a reason for this, of course. On Alaska, it’s because you earn miles based on how much you actually fly. Right now, I have 10 flights booked on Alaska/Hawaiian. Seven of those are under 500 miles, so they will earn 500 miles each. The last three are 2615, 954, and 630 miles each. That means I will earn 7,699 miles by flying… or 38.5% of the total I need. If I don’t have enough flights by the end of the year, I can use the credit card. You get 1 EQM per $3 spent, so if I spend $36,903 and don’t fly another mile, I get status.
On American, it’s totally different. You earn based on what you pay for American-marketed flights, but you get a percentage of miles flown for Alaska-marketed flights. I have a mix of both, because I burned some old AA credits to book these Alaska flights. Are we having fun yet? Here’s what the lengthy calculation process told me:
- Flight 1 – 477 (Q class on AS – 50% of flown)
- Flight 2 – 176 (N class on AS – 50% of flown)
- Flight 3 – 479 (5x fare on AA marketed/operated by AS)
- Flight 4 – 642 (5x fare on AA marketed/operated by AS)
- Flight 5 – 967 (5x fare on AA marketed/operated by AS)
- Flight 6 – 200 (V class on AS – 50% of flown)
- Flight 7 – 0 (R class on HA – award ticket)
- Flight 8 – 654 (K class on HA – 25% of flown)
- Flight 9 – 176 (N class on AS – 50% of flown)
- Flight 10 – 176 (N class on AS – 50% of flown)
That gets me a pitiful 3,947 miles. But American gives you one point per dollar spent on the credit card, so I’d need to spend $36,053 to get to 40,000 EQMs which is shockingly close to what I’d need to do on Alaska.
So what did I choose? I chose Alaska. I’m flying on Alaska metal so it makes sense to be in that airline’s program. More importantly, if I do fly more, then it’s likely those flights will get me closer to the goal than with American. Also, I just generally like the program better, and I’ll take the $99 companion pass that comes with the credit card.
The only problem here is that I have already made bad decisions in pursuit of status, and it makes no sense at all. I’ve opted to go from LAX or Orange County instead of Long Beach on multiple flights. I chose Alaska when another airline might have had a better time. I have no idea why I’m doing this.
On top of all this, I get absolutely no benefit during the chase itself. Sure, Alaska will do a status match if you have status on another airline. I don’t. I’ve only had status once when I did a challenge on American 20 years ago. I rolled that into a match on US Airways the next year which is where I got the only elite upgrade I’ve ever received… on a 40 minute flight from Vegas to LA. But as far as I know, there is no “challenge” opportunity at Alaska or most airlines. So I have to slog through decisions that might not make much sense in the short term in order to eventually get a future benefit.
The funny thing is… with my flying pattner, it’s not really even worth it to make the right decision. For example, coming back from San Francisco on a flight coming up, I could pay $60 on Frontier at the time I want or I could pay more than double to fly Alaska on a flight 45 minutes later. If I choose Alaska, I get 500 more miles toward elite status. Big deal. I’m better off just spending $1,500 on a credit card.
It is, of course, a different story if you fly far in a premium cabin. Then the miles add up. But for now, I will still try to hit elite status with Alaska this year, and then I can go back to normal again. We’ll see if it happens.
Edited to fix Alaska EQM earning from 3 EQMs per $1 spent to the correct 1 EQM per $3 spent
