Loyalty is what airlines strive for, and you should to! Being an elite member at an airline unlocks a bunch of possibilities for your next travel adventure. If you haven’t already, check out our recent post on how to obtain elite status and get that first class seat you’ve been longing for for next to nothing.
Loyalty to an airline is everything, it unlocks a world of possibilities when you travel or even when you’re still at home. You can take a look at our recent article for a few tips on how to obtain status but here are the most common ways. Obtaining elite status is almost like obtaining rank in a club. The more activity and work you put in the more your going to get out and rise in rank. So you can probably guess that flying more often is one of the most common ways to obtain this level. There are a few more things that go into obtaining elite status and those are EQD (Elite qualifying dollars) and EQM’s (Elite qualifying miles). With these you must spend a certain amount of money with the airline and fly a certain amount of miles. For American gold status it is $3,000 spent + 25,000 miles flown. Alternatively you can fly 30 segments or flights with that airline. Airlines differ from each other but these numbers were taken from the American airlines AAdvantage program.
Picture by : American airlines
Now that you have the basics on earning elite status, how can you use it? Well there’s many ways to use elite status. A lot of people favor the upgrades to a higher seating class, or early boarding, maybe even the lounge access they get with their status. There’s a few more underlying ways to use your elite status to get the most out of your travel experience. If your an elite member you have your own phone line to call customer service, and you know those big change or cancellation fee’s? Every time you call customer service they’ll most likely be waived. Delta is most known by me personally for waiving fee’s especially with platinum medallion members. Some airlines even offer annual gifts to it’s elite members as well as million miler flyers. So whether it’s the upgrades, or early boarding, or even the lounge access and waived fee’s, elite status can go a long way to make your flying experience feel luxurious. If you want specific information on an airlines required qualifications you can either open the mobile app or a simple google search will do. Stay tuned in the future to find out the best membership programs available to you right on your phone. (All memberships are free to join)