Another day, another article in a major newspaper about how to obtain the top tier of airline status for cheaper than you think. The article, "The Short Path to First Class" in today's Wall Street Journal covers two flyers who have 1K on United and details how they will take a few trips to Asia or the South Pacific for 8,000-10,000 to maintain their elite status.
I've always wondered how people feel about these articles. They accomplish the idea that many blogs have...which is to show people that it's a lot easier to travel well for much cheaper than you think. But articles like this also expose the hobby to the masses who might decide to join in and shrink the deal windows for everyone else. Now, I've only been at this for a year to a year and a half, so I KNOW I don't have much ground to stand on...but for the long-timers who have been doing this forever...how do you feel about articles like this?
The one kinda cool thing about this article is the awesome chart they have that the bottom of the article that they compare the top elite status levels on UA, DL, AA and US.
In my opinion, if someone is going to go through the trouble to learn this information, they will do it whether it comes through a mainstream article or a travel blog. Most people are indifferent to taking this leap and don't want to put in the time to become advanced enough to take full advantage.
ReplyDeleteI, like you, have been doing this for about 2 years and blogging for only a few months, and I realize that it's about 10x more effort to get to each step of the way. It's easy to read an article. 10x harder to read many articles. 10x harder to put that reading into practice and 10x harder to write about putting that knowledge into practice.
So the barrier of entry is harder and harder and there are very few people who will go against the odds to really affect people. The other thought I have is that there is usually a window in peoples lives where they can travel extensively without being tied down by the realities of life (mainly, having a family), so while more people may get into the game, there will also be people leaving it to cancel things out.
Just a thought I guess.
That's a very good point, Jeff. The barrier to entry is something that you have to overcome to really understand what we do. That makes it much harder for people to do this casually or when they have time.
DeleteThanks for the comment, I totally agree!