Gaining status with an airline

Gaining status with an airline

What is the point of flying just one airline, when it forces you to pick less than optimal connections, pay a couple of extra dollars from time to time, and generally limits your options?

Not my SkyMiles Card

Status - those little perks the airline throws at you for continuing to choose them for your travel.  So what does status get me?  Assuming that you don't have status, we'll examine the entry-level status for each of the big US airlines (Delta, US, American, United, and Southwest).  We'll examine status over a couple of days, starting today with how to get it.

Attaining status

This essentially means flying a lot with one particular airline, as this is the main way to gain status.  There are certain airlines that allow earning status through other means, however the bulk will likely come from having butt-in-seat (BIS) activity with them.

How is it done?  Each airline requires their flyers to earn a minimum number of elite/status-qualifying miles to reach a status, which is done by flying that airline or one their partners.  Notably, 1 mile flown doesn't always equal 1 mile towards status.  Let's use American as an example.  This chart is directly from their website:

Fare Purchased	Booking Class	Points Per Qualifying Mile Earned
First Class	A, F, P	1.50
Business Class	D, I, J,R	1.50
Full-Fare Economy Class	B, Y,W*	1.50
Discount Economy Class	H, K, M, L, W, V	1.00
Deep Discount Economy Class	G, Q, N, O**, S	0.50

As you can see, there are some fares that earn EXTRA qualifying points and some that earn FEWER points.  It pays to fly the airline you're trying to gain status on, as opposed to their partners.  Iberia is a partner in the AAdvantage plan, however it is harder to gain status on AA flying on Iberia, as shown in this chart

Class of Service	Purchased Fares Booked in:	Base Miles (elite status qualifying)	Class of Service Bonus Miles	Elite Qualifying Points Per Mile Earned
First Class	F	100%	50%	1.50
Business Class	C, D, I, J, R	100%	25%	1.50
Full Fare Economy Class	Y	100%		1.50
Discount Economy Class	B, H, K, L, M, V, W, Z, A	80%*		1.00
Deep Discount Economy Class	G, N, O, P, Q, S, E	80%*		0.50

A number of the "standard" discount economy tickets earn qualifying points at 80% of miles flown, and some deeply discounted classes earn at a measly 40%.  Some fares will earn you as few elite qualifying points as 12.5% of miles flown.
Of note, Delta will grant you 500 miles for any segment flown, as long as it's in a qualifying class.  Other airlines do the same, but only once you've achieved status.

Additionally, qualifying for status may be done based on the number of segments flown.  This essentially is a counting every time you step on to an aircraft as one segment.

Essentially, status is achieved through flying.  A lot, and mainly on one airline.

Minimums

Now let's look at the minimum number of elite/status-qualifying miles needed for each of these programs.

	American	Delta	Southwest	United	US
Lowest level	Gold	Silver	A-List	Silver	Silver
Minimum Qualifying Miles	25,000	25,000	35,000	25,000	25,000
Minimum Qualifying Segments	30	30	25	30	30
Status Dates	3/1-2/28	3/1-2/28	1/1-12/31	2/1-1/31	3/1-2/28

All of these requirements are pretty similar, except for Southwest who requires more miles and fewer segments (as they provide more non-stop flights between small-medium sized airports).  

Notably, I find the fare exceptions on American the most restrictive - they award partial EQM for flying their own airline, something that the other US airlines do not do.

Timeline

All of these programs require your flight activity for status to occur in a calendar year.  This means January 1st - December 31st.  You may not combine activity from one year to another (with the exception of Delta, but only if you've already achieved status - more on this in a later post).  For example, if you flew 20,000 miles in 2012, and 5,000 in 2013 on US - you have no status.  However, if you flew all 25,000 of those miles in 2012, you would hit US Silver status.

Status for most airlines starts immediately (+/- a few days) once you have hit your minimum threshold and continues to the end of the following year's dates (shown above).  For example, for Southwest if you qualify as an A-List on 9/1/2012, you will be an A-List until 12/31/2013.  For United, should you qualify on 9/1/2012, you will remain A-List until 1/31/2014.

Other qualifying activities

There are many other ways to earn qualifying miles with the airlines, such as credit card sign-up bonuses, minimum spending thresholds, hotel stays, and car rentals, but these will be covered in future posts!

Conclusion

Gaining status requires flying on one particular airline/frequent flyer network, and you must pay attention to the fares you are buying to ensure you are both banking miles and earning status.  Which status looks easiest to you?

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Cheers- 

Tim