
The Madness of Airline Élite Status - ohjeez
http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-madness-of-airline-elite-status
======
simonebrunozzi
I liked the article. This madness is real.

I used to fly 110 times/year for work, internationally. I had gold status with
several airlines at once. I did this for about 8 years (although the last two
years I went down to about 80 flights/year).

I live in SF and, of course, I have to fly United if I don't want to make one
connection every time I fly somewhere in the US. And I am a Premier 1k member.

I can confirm that the perks are almost useless; that this absurd race loses
any meaning when everybody else is racing with you. How can Premier 1k be
good, if I'm not among the top 1% (the only case in which automatic upgrades
and such would actually be useful)?

All in all, I hate United. And I'm not the only one [0].

By the way, why does Google NOT provide this link when I search for "Untied"?
[1]

[0]: [http://www.untied.com/main.shtml](http://www.untied.com/main.shtml)

[1]:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=untied&oq=untied&aqs=chrome....](https://www.google.com/search?q=untied&oq=untied&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.1192j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=91&ie=UTF-8#q=untied.com)

~~~
DavidAdams
I'll disagree that the perks are almost useless. But they can be a bit subtle.
In comparison to people's typical experience flying, as a United 1K:

When I call the 800 number, a real human being picks up right away and helps
me. If I'd like to catch an earlier or later flight, if it's within 24 hours,
I can usually make the change with no charge. I use this perk dozens of times
a year, and it even enables me to book cheaper flights because I'll usually be
able to make adjustments on the day of travel. If I end up on the standby
list, I'm put at the top (because it goes in order of highest status before
first come first served). If I use miles to book a flight, I can cancel or
change the flight at any time. This lets me speculatively book a vacation
flight to Maui months ahead of time when availability is good, even if I'm not
sure I'll be free then. My entire family gets free bags and free extra legroom
seats when they travel with me. I get to sit in fancy lounges when traveling
overseas. And the first class upgrades are a nice bonus.

~~~
late2part
Arguably, United is _intentionally_ providing a lower class of service to
those that haven't reached your level. It's all relative - but you're not
getting "good"; you're getting "not bad."

~~~
rayiner
Airlines make no money. They can't afford to treat everyone like that.

~~~
kjw
Actually, that is a popular misconception. Airlines have been highly
profitable for the past few years. It is directly related to the degraded
consumer experience. More capacity discipline and new ancillary fees have
really boosted margins. Also, the cost of fuel has plummeted.

~~~
rayiner
United's average quarterly profit margin over the last 5 years is
4.37%.They've dipped into quarterly losses three times during that period.
They're not "highly profitable"\--they're just not losing money for once.

------
joshfraser
It's pretty smart how these loyalty programs are designed. Much of the
behavior hinges on flights being expensed, while it's the individual employee
who reaps the benefits. It causes people to constantly overspend on flights
because they aren't the ones paying.

~~~
robin_reala
As part of the UK civil service I’m not allowed to keep airmiles accrued
during business flights: they have to be declared and donated back to the
government.

~~~
jessriedel
Honestly, it's crazy this isn't true for all governments and businesses.
Frequent flier programs are just transparent kickbacks. I'm not too worried
about the redistribution (since ultimately people will count it as a perk when
they are comparing jobs, so it's priced in), but there has got to be
significant deadweight losses from inefficient compensation, and from the
person booking the travel being insulated from various incentives.

~~~
apendleton
Yeah, I generally look at it as legitimate compensation rather than a
kickback. Like: "As the sales manager for across the country you have to spend
half the year away from your family, and we're not going to pay you any more
than the guy that sits next to you, manages sales on this side of the country,
and travels a lot less. But at least when it comes time for you to go on
vacation, you'll get to fly for free."

Also, anecdote: I have a friend who works for an organization that employs
many frequent flyers, and they have an organization policy of all flying the
same airline for all flights because the benefits in terms of better rebooking
in the event of flight problems for their frequent fliers are worth the added
cost of not shopping around. They actually all switched, collectively, from
United to American last year or the year before in response to changes to
United's program.

~~~
_delirium
Yes, I think big companies especially tend to view it that way. Governments
have passed some of these rules about employee travel having to use the
miles/points for official purposes mostly because it's politically popular to
hammer "government waste", even using tools that aren't very efficient
hammers. Companies tend to take a bigger-picture view when they're worried
about travel budgets, instead of the relative penny-pinching of going after
airline miles. For example when there's internal pressure to cut corporate
travel budgets, two common policies are: 1) direct managers to reduce
unnecessary travel, e.g. cut out 10% of trips entirely, and 2) institute a
rule that employees have to book through the corporate travel agent and
normally must pick one of the routes that's within x% of the cheapest business
class fare.

The miles themselves, yeah, I think they just see as a minor compensation to
employees for travel, since they don't pay them overtime or anything. Plus in
some cases it's not precisely a kickback. Sometimes it is, but other times
it's intended to incentivize the traveler to stick with their main airline
even when the airline has worse routes to some cities. For example, you
usually fly United, but today you want to fly to a city where American has a
nonstop and United has only a 1-stop, for similar prices. Absent any kind of
loyalty program, you'd pick American's nonstop for convenience. United's perks
are supposed to encourage you to take the United 1-stop, even though it's a
bit less convenient. This isn't precisely a kickback in the normal sense,
because they aren't incentivizing you to buy a higher fare, and it's basically
a wash from the employer's perspective. Instead they're incentivizing you to
accept being personally inconvenienced with a worse flight, in return for
receiving some personal perks.

~~~
ghaff
I know people who do a lot of crazy routings to stay with their preferred
carriers. As you suggest, it's not necessarily about spending more money but
taking a less direct route. Personally, I won't do it for shorter trips; I
spend too much time in planes as it is. But there are a couple more distant
destinations where I could fly non-stop but usually will take my regular
carrier with a stop instead.

~~~
sithadmin
>I know people who do a lot of crazy routings to stay with their preferred
carriers. As you suggest, it's not necessarily about spending more money but
taking a less direct route.

That generally doesn't work anymore. Almost all airlines now use a revenue
model for milage awards, not distance.

~~~
mpeg
With oneworld airlines (BA and AA, amongst many others) mileage doesn't affect
status, it works on a different point system (tier points) that doesn't depend
in cost, but largely can be gamed by breaking up a direct flight into a few
stops in different "zones".

For instance, I flew LHR-CDG-DOH-KUL-PEN last year, business class, for less
money that I would have spent in a more direct flight, but I got a lot of tier
points for it.

Then I realised I was addicted to my BA gold status, and that I wasn't getting
that many perks anyway. This year I'm opening myself up to other airlines.

~~~
sithadmin
AA's switch to a revenue model is already under way.

------
gyardley
The only thing better than business-class upgrades on your work-related travel
is not having work-related travel.

~~~
umanwizard
I couldn't disagree more. Work-related travel means seeing the world on
someone else's dime, and getting paid to do it.

~~~
Havoc
>Work-related travel means seeing the world on someone else's dime, and
getting paid to do it.

Thats the problem. You don't "get to see the world" in most cases. You're
shuttled back & forth between some hotel and some office block. e.g. I was in
Paris the other day & the only sightseeing I got to do is seeing the (far
away) tip of the Eiffel tower from a fkin boardroom window. That kind of
"seeing the world" gets old fast.

~~~
umanwizard
I went to London for work. I got to walk around an unfamiliar big city, go
drinking in traditional English pubs, meet people from around the world, etc.
My evenings were free, just like they are at my local office. Unless you are
working 24 hours a day, traveling to exotic places for business can be great.

~~~
ido
Yes, in London that would work great.

Now travel for work to an office in a suburban business park in greater
Oklahoma City & report back on the experience.

~~~
umanwizard
My comment above yours specifically mentioned Paris. The one I was replying to
initially didn't mention any city, and implied no work-related travel is
better than any, full stop.

Where are you getting Oklahoma City from? You're moving the goalposts.

~~~
ido
I agree that "traveling to exotic places for business __can__ be great".

Don't know why you think I'm arguing with you, just having a conversation. I'm
not moving any goalposts, I'm talking about my own experience from work travel
to less exciting places, that are sometimes not easily explorable in a couple
free evenings without a car.

In places like Paris & London it should be easier to have some fun. Although
still you might not always be able to - sometimes you only travel for a few
days & want to get the most of that work session, or e.g. want to go back home
as soon as you can so you can spend the weekend with your spouse/kids.

For example I had a colleague visiting here in Berlin for one week, that
required 16h of travel either way. When he came on Sunday (flight took off on
Saturday morning in his original time zone) he was tired from the long flight
and his flight back home was the Sunday afterwards. During the week we worked
like mad in order to get the most value from the visit, so he had some
evenings and one Saturday, in which I think he got to see some of Berlin, but
not much (simply due to not really having a lot of time + being tired).

In a city less accessible he would have seen next to nothing. When I did the
reverse trip to a small Canadian town with a metropolitan population of less
than 100k people & no transit, I've not managed to do much sight seeing.

------
mathattack
For better or worse, this just locks you in to crappy airlines.

I spent 7.5 years in a full-time travel job. The perks (other than occasional
upgrades on redeyes) did very little for me. I wound up using miles just for
last minute flights.

I did used to get a big laugh out of people (usually junior consultants) who
confused airline status with real social status.

~~~
acchow
> I did used to get a big laugh out of people (usually junior consultants) who
> confused airline status with real social status.

I see this a lot among consultants - they love to talk about airports, airport
lounges, "horrifying" delays, rude customs agents, free upgrades, and seat
pitches. Bizarre.

~~~
ghaff
I'm not sure it's so much about social status as shared "war stories" and
experiences.

~~~
mathattack
I've viewed some ghastly behavior, even worse than this ->
[http://www.bigtimeconsulting.org/wp-
content/uploads/cartoons...](http://www.bigtimeconsulting.org/wp-
content/uploads/cartoons/2011-05-26_155644.jpg)

------
chrismaeda
Fun article, and one which shows the dark side of gamification. If you provide
points, levels, and leaderboards, people will sacrifice their lives to
leveling up for stupid little perks like jumping the line, slightly larger
seats, and liquor and snacks that you probably shouldn't have anyway.

I was one of these people years ago. I was doing a lot of international
business class flights on behalf of a public software company, and had 1k and
global services status. Then I burned out and quit, and spent the next several
years barely making premier silver. It's no big deal once you get over your
sense of entitlement. And United has put all the perks up for sale anyway, so
you can now buy whatever perk that you can't live without.

A couple of months ago, I finally made million miler status, which is a kind
of "emeritus" status: you (and a designated companion) get star alliance gold
status for life. This is actually kind of awesome since now I don't have to
worry about getting miles every year to make premier. I still accumulate
points so that I can get free tickets, but being retired from the elite status
rat race is very relaxing.

------
gadders
My old boss discovered that there is a class higher than first with British
Airways when he found himself on a flight with the research analyst from
Goldman Sachs that covered the airline sector.

~~~
logfromblammo
Whenever I try to imagine nilth class travelers, all I come up with is
Hedonism-Bot from Futurama, giggling and eating grapes. Surrounded by giggling
gynoid party-bots. In a solid gold hot tub filled with champagne. Entertained
by a live string quartet. Plus Bootsy Collins on electric bass. As flakes of
99.995% pure cocaine gently fall from the ceiling, like snow.

As I don't ever get _de luxe_ accommodation, I simply have no basis for
imagining _plus luxe_.

~~~
xaqfox
Prior to deregulation, American Airlines used to lug around a grand piano in
their first class lounges on 747s.

~~~
ghaff
Not a grand piano AFAIK (which might be difficult to get into the first class
lounge on a 747--not sure what sort of access there is besides the staircase),
but they did have a piano bar:
[http://unroadwarrior.boardingarea.com/2010/07/21/the-747-pia...](http://unroadwarrior.boardingarea.com/2010/07/21/the-747-piano-
bar/)

g

------
lifeisstillgood
In the early days of train travel (1840s), they quickly realised that the
first class passengers arrived no faster than the cheaper passengers, somthey
did the only sensible thing. They took the roof and Windows off the third
class carriages and made you share them with cattle.

This way people paid extra to avoid the weather and cow shit

There is a hard upper limit to how good flying in a tin can at 35,000 feet can
be made (1)

If airlines could strap economy class passengers to the wings they would

(1) actually an ad exec made an excellent point in a ted talk - instead of
spending 4bn on reducing the time the high speed train went from London to
Paris, spend 2bn on half naked super models handing out free champagne and no
one will care how long the journey is. This is of course what airline
stewardesses were supposed to be before all those pesky lawsuits.

------
draw_down
I have traveled some for work over my career, but I never paid any attention
to any of these programs or miles or anything like that. I probably missed out
on a free flight at some point, but the thought of keeping track of those
things seems tedious and dreadful. The whole culture of travel is like that
really, parsing the tiny differences between anonymous airports and roughly-
identical airlines. People become obsessed with checking in online exactly 24
hours in advance, etc. Expending effort for the tiniest, tiniest morsels of
difference and succor in an overall terrible experience. It's understandable
of course, but I just accept that it's all bad and try to forget about it as
soon as it's over.

~~~
peferron
You really don't have to spend hours min-maxing your miles like described in
the article. Just spend two minutes creating an account online, and ten
seconds inputting your member number when buying tickets or checking in. Then
two years later check your balance and you might have a free ticket worth
$500+. That's a huge return given the amount of time invested.

It's like credit cards. There are entire websites dedicated to min-maxing the
hell out of credit card points, sign-up bonuses, etc. But you don't have to do
that. You can just spend an hour getting a good credit card (assuming you can
:/) and then reap massive benefits compared to the amount of time invested.

~~~
voltagex_
Until your points expire or the T&Cs change - thanks Qantas.

------
pricechild
> I then asked my wife for permission to spend five hundred and sixty dollars
> for a flight that I already had a free ticket for.

Why would this make sense? Surely there wouldn't be a benefit worth more than
$560?

~~~
edutechnion
If elite status results in a free upgrade on 20% of your flight segments, and
you fly 50 segments per year: 10 upgrades to business class > $560

~~~
ryanlol
20%? What airline you're with, for "elite" statuses it's generally less than
20% of the flights that _do not_ get upgraded. Obviously depends on
availability on the specific flights though.

~~~
ropiku
On a long haul international flight ? I doubt it. It's hard to find even mile
redemption availability.

~~~
lnanek2
Depends on what you fly. I always used to fly first flight out of Newark
preferentially compared to anything else out of Newark/LGA/JFK simply because
I always got upgraded without fail. First flight out of Newark leaves before
the mass transit gets running. So you can game the system to make sure there
are seats to be upgraded to.

------
devereaux
Here is an alternative algorithm: fly with whichever airline is the cheapest,
having a frequent flyer account on each airline. Accumulate miles separately.

It won't get you a elite status, just a status slightly better than the normal
flyer -- and free tickets too.

It will prevent you from reaching the extremes of this mile madness, like
spending money just to maintain your status.

Bonus: when airlines merge, you get a really nice status. It may not be that
interesting now with so little airlines in competition, but around year 2000
that was something regular

~~~
imartin2k
If you are a frequent flier, you want elite status (at least equivalent to
Gold), because the perks (especially priority access, Lounge, preferred seats
etc) actually make travel better and more convenient. So not putting all eggs
in one basket then simply does not do the job.

I'd argue that most of those who reach the extremes of mile madness actually
love it, even if they sometimes might seem to be irrationally stressed due to
pressure to maintain their status.

It's a hobby, and one that can get you to unexpected places of the world -
even if the initial motivation might have been to chase some miles.

~~~
hammock
_> the perks (especially priority access, Lounge, preferred seats etc)
actually make travel better and more convenient. So not putting all eggs in
one basket then simply does not do the job._

For $1067, you can get a year of TSA Precheck, Economy Plus and United Club
lounge access, which is about how much you might save by comparison shopping
on just half a dozen flights. And if you are a "frequent flier" you are
probably flying more than that.

~~~
phil21
If you're a frequent flier you will save a hell of a lot more than $1067 on
the free upgrades alone.

TSA Precheck is rapidly becoming worth less and less, if it continues at this
rate it will be the regular lines in a year or two. When grandma who flies
once every 2 years can get it, it ruins the entire point. I've switched back
to regular priority lines at some airports these days as they are faster.

The #1 perk any frequent flier will tell you matters the most is having
competent people who pick up the phone instantly during IRROPS (e.g.
weather/flight problems). Simply using this once a year trivially pays for
itself by putting you so far ahead of the regular queue I still get amazed
sometimes. Plus having them available for wonky changes/etc. due to rapidly
changing schedules is great - 90% of the time they simply waive change fees
for me.

I agree that the programs are becoming pretty gutted, but still barely hold
enough value for me to keep "loyal" to my main airline. The experience flying
Elite with them vs. plebe on other domestic carriers is night and day.

~~~
djcapelis
> The #1 perk any frequent flier will tell you matters the most is having
> competent people who pick up the phone instantly during IRROPS (e.g.
> weather/flight problems). Simply using this once a year trivially pays for
> itself by putting you so far ahead of the regular queue I still get amazed
> sometimes.

I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but I get better service than you even when I
don't have status. I can and do rebook my flights on my phone, with my
preferred routing and timing before the rush for seats begin as other people
go try and call someone or god forbid, walk up to a desk and stand in line to
do it in person.

No status needed. Delta's app will definitely automatically recognize a
delayed or diverted flight and allow you to rebook. It even allows you to
browse flights to alternate destinations, so I have totally switched from a
plane going arriving at OAK to one arriving at SFO while taxing at SLC.

Oh, I also regularly switch to better seats in the days before my flight. I
switched from middle to window on my flight leaving tomorrow this morning and
moved up seven rows on the return flight, all without needing to make a phone
call.

~~~
phil21
Late reply, but I also am a Delta flier.

What you describe only works during regular operations, and it's spotty at
best. 50% of the time the Android app fails at loading the seat map, for
example. While Delta is considered the best IT in the business, it's still
pretty atrocious - I use it multiple times per week.

You will never beat a Plat/Diamond for a confirmed seat during irrops. The
problem isn't "can I rebook myself onto a plane with tons of open seats
available" it's "can I bump the regular fliers from standby and get a seat on
that entirely full aircraft".

Even when the app functions - it's still slower than calling the elite desk
many times.

What you're describing is just normal access everyone gets. The elite fliers
get even more options in the app (block the seats next to you, switch to
economy comfort for free, etc.), but I guarantee you it's worthless when it
all goes to shit :)

~~~
djcapelis
I've used it when ATL shut down. I don't know if there's a way Delta's routes
can go to shit more than losing ATL and diverting flights to other entirely
different airports.

And you're right. I am describing the normal access anyone can get. That's the
point, elite status offerings just don't do as much as most people seem to
think.

I don't know why every flier with status on this thread wants to insist to me
that "it's worthless when it all goes to shit" when it clearly isn't. But I'm
not surprised, 90% of fliers I know with elite status are incentivized to
think they're getting something out of it that regular people can't access,
even though they're saying things like how awesome it is to be able to call a
phone number. Gag me with a stick, I'd rather use an app.

Y'all got it pretty bad.

(I have status sometimes too. It's nice when I have it, but I don't and won't
do anything extra to get it, for me, flying without status is not that much
different. It's certainly not worth being loyal to a domestic airline. The
airlines we have in this country just suck. If I lived in SG or JP or even ID
I'd totally go ahead and give some loyalty to an airline, SQ, ANA and Garuda
are all great.)

------
frandroid
> Absent posted guidelines, road-warrior message boards are filled with
> speculation about why certain travellers receive Global Services. Is it a
> measure of dollars spent? Segments flown? Behavior?

The fact that he actually tried to redeem his points for a free flight
probably made him a target for infection with GS-MAD :)

------
apercu
I've never been a business globe trotter, but I travelled every 2 weeks in
2014 between Ottawa, Toronto and Washington DC. That equalled about 10,000
"air" miles or about $50.

Whoopety doo.

In the mid-90's I was travelling about once a month between the midwest and
the coasts. That was enough for a couple round trips in "air" miles.

These days it's barely worth it to be part of the programs (I am, but the
"perks" are way less than they used to be).

------
benhebert
I flew two extra trips to Asia last year to get American Airlines Executive
Platinum status.

After a year and getting all the nice lounge access and international long-
haul upgrades, I think it's worth it!

Take my girlfriend and family around the world using a combination of miles /
money and everything things I'm rich, when really I'm just a wannabe travel
hacker.

------
wpietri
It's almost as if humans are primates, and so are inclined to pursue markers
of social status all out of proportion to actual utility in a civilized
setting.

------
brbsix
Casey Neistat of Youtube fame has a video illustrating the perks and perils of
flying Executive Platinum with American Airlines. The perks seem pretty damn
nice if you're already going to be flying that much anyways.

[https://youtu.be/3AeYIUyZXKE](https://youtu.be/3AeYIUyZXKE)

------
pkamb
I've never understood why airline miles follow each individual person rather
than the company that's paying for the weekly business class seats.

Seems like the Senior Manager who just joined the firm should be bumped up to
first class in front of the Junior Consultant that's been flying out weekly
for a year.

~~~
_delirium
They're designed as incentives for individuals, because at most companies
individuals have a significant degree of leeway in booking flights. You might
have to book through the corporate travel agent, but typically you can still
choose that you want flight X instead of Y. So United (or whoever) giving the
specific individual status/perks is designed to encourage them to keep
choosing United tickets, even when sometimes a competitor might have a better
or cheaper route.

It'd be possible to design a loyalty program aimed at entire companies, and
there's a little bit of movement in that direction, especially targeting small
and medium-sized businesses (e.g. United PerksPlus). The goal of those would
be to encourage the whole company to standardize on one airline. Big companies
tend not to want to do that, because their travel needs are too varied for it
to make sense to require all their employees to use one airline. So the main
target of the programs is the corporate traveler who is being reimbursed for
travel: they have a choice in their travel arrangements (within reason), and
since they're spending someone else's money, they're also relatively price-
insensitive, which makes them especially lucrative. Hotel loyalty programs
work similarly.

------
yzh
You guys may want to try this (haven't released anything yet, but looks
promising): [http://www.pointimize.com/](http://www.pointimize.com/)

------
joeevans1000
For IT professionals, completely ignoring all points systems (hotel, flight,
car rental, and credit card) will remove enough clutter from your mind to earn
more than the points provide.

------
vidoc
Might have been posted before, but there's a rather interesting documentary on
this madness:

[https://vimeo.com/7167640](https://vimeo.com/7167640)

------
spinlock
I can't stand that you can buy your way out of security with this status. Real
security doesn't work like that.

~~~
slapshot
GS doesn't bypass security. It bypasses the line of people waiting to start
the security process. At every major United hub airport I've seen, the GS
passengers get dropped at the front of the TSA precheck line but still go
through the regular exercise of x-rays and magnetometers.

~~~
spinlock
The agents working those machines and implementing the security protocol see
that. And, they treat you differently.

------
horsecaptin
If you care about your 'status' with a business, then you don't have much of a
status.

------
mpweiher
The only winning move is not to play.

------
nickbauman
Moxie Marlinspike's advice comes to mind:

"... whenever I get on an airplane and walk past first class, I inevitably go
through a familiar mental process. First, I’m envious ... then, I register who
is sitting in those seats. It’s usually almost all predominantly unhealthy
looking ... men, who it is clear from a glance have spent literally hundreds
of hours of their lives over the past year in these airplanes ... the bulk of
the first class passengers resemble each other, just as there’s a reason
prison guards tend to act the same. I know that by making choices designed to
land me in the first class cabin, it would be difficult to avoid also
inheriting the dreariness associated with its current occupants."

[http://www.thoughtcrime.org/blog/career-
advice/](http://www.thoughtcrime.org/blog/career-advice/)

~~~
a2tech
I like Moxie, but I think he's a little off base here. I exclusively fly first
class and I'm not a doughy businessman. I don't even fly for work-just
pleasure. I see the flight as the beginning/ending of my journey and I see no
reason to cram my legs into a seat in front of me. I want to have a pleasant
flight-not flight designed to cripple me. Also, free alcohol and snacks.

~~~
beamatronic
In my experience, flying first class is not a 10% premium or a 50% premium
over coach, it is a ~2x-3x or more premium. I wouldn't call the alcohol and
snacks "free". If you look at it that way, then flying coach gives you a free
meal at say, the French Laundry.

~~~
matthewrudy
I mostly fly between Hong Kong and London.

Return flights are usually something like:

* economy 900USD

* premium 2000USD

* business 6,000USD

* first 10,000USD

So, I always go economy.

Not sure it's ever worth a month's wages (after tax) to have a bit of free
champagne.

~~~
crdb
It comes down to the marginal utility of your money vs. the upgrade.

For example, I fly Singapore to Tokyo about once or twice a year, sometimes
more often, always on Scoot, a budget airline run by Singapore Airlines.
Upgrading from economy to ScootBiz costs as little as $80 with their "bid for
biz" program. I always "bid for biz" and it's absolutely worth it: early
boarding, free food, much more space (for yourself and your carry on), etc. So
the marginal utility of the upgrade for me is worth more than $80.

At some level of net worth, flying First on a legacy airline to Tokyo, maybe
Japan Airlines which I had to take in economy once for $1,500 vs the $200 or
so Scoot can go down to, would have more utility to me than the $10,000 extra
I'd have to fork out. I don't know what that net worth would be (probably
north of 50 million), but I know that past perhaps a few million dollars in
liquid assets, I would always fly business even at 3x the cost, and I know
plenty of people in that situation doing exactly that. And there's people for
whom flying SQ Suites [1] for $30,000 one way is a "discount" from flying the
same route privately.

[1] reposting because such a fun read: [http://dereklow.co/what-its-like-to-
fly-the-23000-singapore-...](http://dereklow.co/what-its-like-to-fly-
the-23000-singapore-airlines-suites-class/)

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GirlProgrammer
It's nice being a United Global Service member--that "secret" level among 1K.
It really helps when there's irops.

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fulafel
Zero comments about ethics of contributing to climate change due to flying so
much? Feels like people are missing the elephant in the room.

~~~
omginternets
What elephant? Airplanes are insanely efficient, relative to cars...

~~~
colin_mccabe
Airplanes are not "insanely efficient" when it comes to greenhouse gasses. A
plane emits roughly the same amount of greenhouse gasses per mile per person
as a car. Maybe 50% if we assume an efficient plane and an inefficient car.
And the number of miles travelled by plane is typically much more. Even one
round trip flight from SF to europe is 10,000 miles, which is comparable to a
year's worth of driving for one person.

~~~
omginternets
> roughly the same amount of greenhouse gasses per mile per person as a car

I see. How much non-human cargo are these cars carrying? More to the point:
how else do you propose one go from SF to Europe?

Reading between the lines, you're either suggesting people stay home or that
they take a boat, both of which are absolute crazy talk.

EDIT: moreover, wikipedia's numbers suggest jetliners get roughly 70 to 110
passenger-miles/gallon
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_efficiency_in_transport...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_efficiency_in_transportation#Aircraft)).
I have yet to come across a car that gets that kind of mileage _period_ , let
alone per passenger.

Besides, gas turbine engines are pretty much the model of efficiency when it
comes to hydrocarbon-consuming engines. I don't know where you people are
getting your numbers but my BS detector is off the charts.

~~~
sokoloff
I don't think that turbine engines are the model of efficiency that you claim.
On a BSFC basis, they're significantly worse than piston diesels or marine
two-strokes.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brake_specific_fuel_consumptio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brake_specific_fuel_consumption#Examples_of_values_of_BSFC_for_shaft_engines)

(That's for shaft engines, which a turbojet isn't, but the turboprop examples
are jet engines with a gearbox and propellor mounted.) Jet engines are
incredibly powerful (per unit of mass) and reliable, but I don't think they're
incredibly efficient.

~~~
omginternets
Perhaps I don't understand the measure (entirely possible!) but I think
thrust-specific fuel consumption is a better indicator here. You need to
account for the thrust required in these behemoths: replace the gas turbine
engines with piston engines large enough to produce equivalent thrust and I
doubt you'll retain the fuel economy.

Either way, this is an auxiliary point: the per-passenger fuel economy of
airplanes is significantly higher than that of cars.

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NoMoreNicksLeft
I don't like making comments like this, but this is a prime candidate for
something along the lines of "white people problems" with no additional
remarks.

~~~
mtmail
Do you mean first-world problems? I don't see what race has to do with
frequent flier programs.

