New year status

Many things turn on the New Year. We vow and reminisce, we plan and gather our thoughts towards an action we may not be able to carry out through the following twelve months. Some things end and some start. We get an imagined chance to start afresh, a new year, a clean slate.

The New Year is also a boundary and arbitrary line drawn to enable the world to sort things out. A new business or tax year, a time to renew or forsake memberships to clubs, teams and programs. A time where faithful membership is rewarded and those who have been tardy in ‘belonging’ are given another chance or downgraded according to how they behaved in the last twelve months.

I thought about this this morning as I realized that today marks a milestone in my life. Today I finally lose my premium platinum status and slip quietly into the base ranks of the frequent flier. For the last twelve years I managed to hold a top elite status with Delta, my airline of choice, as I relentlessly globetrotted for the cause. It was a status that afforded some relief from the ordinariness of business travel, making airport existence resemble something almost like a normal life.

Airline status is a prized commodity. Those who have it value it highly and jealously compare their ranking with colleagues and competitors. However an airline measures their elite tiers, each of those holding a status knows exactly what it takes to keep it, what benefits they’re entitled too and how to maximize the perks of life in the elite class.

Next time you fly, just watch how those elites hover around the gate counter measuring their chances for an upgrade and flashing their cards like well worn smiles. Feeling entitled, they take ownership at the head of the line and don’t bother to hide their smugness at finding themselves once again at the pointy end of the plane.

And how is such status earned? Have those with such privilege done anything to deserve the benefit? Are they part of the set known as the ‘great and the good’ whose deeds and nobility set them apart from the rest? No, all they’ve done is endure endless hours of airport drudgery, inevitable delays before catching a weekly red-eye home, usually at the expense of the company. Many envy those holding status without realising how trapped those elite’s feel in their endless cycle of flights, security screenings and baggage belts. Like many things that give one status, the getting of it is often not worth the effort.

What’s funny about the whole thing is how competitive people become. Nothing irks an elite more than seeing a lesser status placed ahead of them in the upgrade list, or feel the shame of not gaining access to the lounge because of some change in the rules. Elite’s value such things highly and quibble over missing miles in the hope of holding their hard-won position.

One year, as late December approached, realising I would fall 180 miles short of the 75,000 needed in a calendar year to retain my status I made a ‘mileage run’ to push me over the line. I had a trip planned to Lausanne , Switzerland, that I routed through Rome instead of taking the direct flight just to gain the extra miles needed to qualify. So for a measly 180 miles I added 6 hours travel and a stressful transit through Rome’s chaotic airport just to make sure I got the status. And I was not alone in such actions. Chatting to other elites on frequent trips revealed that many or most did or had done the same. Strange how much it seemed to matter at the time.

What is it in human nature that makes us so competitive in such things? We all like to feel we’re special, that we got a good deal or that we were treated better than the rest. In the end, does it really matter what seat we get on the plane or if we’re upgraded? I suppose that depends on how often one sits on a plane and how well or indifferently an airline treats you when you’re there. Delta were certainly good to me. Their frequent flier program was and is one of the most generous around. They repaid my twelve years loyalty and 1.2 million miles flown with a recognition that held me to the brand and kept me coming back again and again. That makes good business sense.

Strange now that it’s going to change. I’m not so competitive as I was in these things and am happy to sit anywhere on the plane for the amount of times I fly each year now. There is something nice about being ordinary again, it has removed the pressure and enabled me to breathe.

Thanks Delta for being so good to me over the years. If by some strange chance the nice people at Delta want to extend my status for another year, then that would be just fine. Otherwise, I’ll see you down the back.

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