As I get older I think back on advice I wish someone had given me when I was young, and one of those things involves frequent traveler programs.

TLDR; If you travel for work, be sure to sign up for frequent traveler programs. They don’t cost anything and can provide a lot of “free” value

I travel a lot for my job, usually involving flights. Now I don’t want to be one of those old farts who goes “back in my day” but yes, air travel used to be more civilized, especially before the Pandemic.

One of the things that makes modern air travel bearable is having status with the airline. Not only do you get the kind of attention you should be getting by default, with enough status you can get free upgrades which will make flights more enjoyable.

To my knowledge there are no frequent traveler programs that require a purchase, although they can be augmented by getting a credit card (see below) and those cost money. So sign up early and often and make sure you get points for any work travel you take. I could have advanced my status a lot faster had I done this when I entered the work force.

Airlines

I am an American Airlines loyalist. Note that most of my teammates prefer Delta, with a few United weirdos here and there. The main reason I went with AA is that they used to have a hub at Raleigh/Durham (RDU) and that was my home airport for decades. I usually fly out of Charlotte (CLT) since it is an American hub, and I moved and now live about equidistant to CLT and RDU. The closest airport to me is Piedmont Triad (GSO) but it is just a regional airport and I would end I flying through CLT in many cases. When I can’t get a direct flight out of CLT I will fly out of GSO, but that only happens a couple of times a year, and GSO does not have an Admiral’s Club lounge (although they used to).

Every major airline has status tiers, and the ones for American are Gold, Platinum, Platinum Pro and Executive Platinum (yeah, a little heavy on the “platinum” I know).

There is also a not so secret tier called Concierge Key that is above Exec Plat, made famous by the George Clooney movie “Up in the Air”. You have to spend a lot of money to reach that tier, and while the amounts are vague I’ve heard on order of US$50K/year. Delta’s program is called Delta 360.

I hope to never travel enough to make Concierge Key, but if your are reading this American I’d love to try it out for a year. Big fan (grin).

I have managed to make Executive Platinum for the last four years (I had it before 2020, but, well, 2020) and that requires that I “earn” 200K loyalty points. I want to stress that it doesn’t translate directly to miles flown or money spent, although both play a role. I usually get a little over 250K points in a given year, which is enough to redeem for two business class tickets overseas. Since each ticket is usually well over US$5K that is a minimum of US$10K in value. I cannot think of another rewards program that is worth so much.

I have over 2.3 million lifetime “miles” with AA which means I also get lifetime Platinum status. Note that those miles refer to “in-seat” miles and do not include loyalty points from other programs, such as a credit card. They just announced that you can get lifetime Platinum Pro status at 4 million miles and lifetime Executive Platinum at 5 million, but I will be retired long before I get to those targets (it took me decades to get to 2 million).

Note that even if I don’t fly American I still have Frequent Flyer accounts with the other airlines. I have about 40K lifetime miles with Delta (which has similar status programs) and some unknown number of miles with United (although I get Silver status as a perk of a credit card I use). If you only plan to fly domestically and you like Southwest, they have a great program for earning free flights, but while I used to fly them a long time ago I found that if I book far enough in advance the other airlines are competitive and my status gets me better treatment.

Hotels

Most major hotel chains have similar programs. I am a Marriott loyalist and having spent over 1200 nights in Marriott properties I have “lifetime” Titanium status, which is cool. The benefits include room upgrades and free access to lounges in hotels that have them.

Plus they send you this incredibly thick metal membership card that you could use to cut cheese.

My boss is a big fan of Hyatt hotels, and while I’ve considered giving them a try I haven’t been able to find a good status match program that would let me stay at Hyatts at the same level I get with Marriott. I also have friends who basically lived at a Hilton property for ten years, so they have millions of points, but they don’t seem to have much luck redeeming them. In any case you tend to choose the hotel chain that works best for you, and in my case it is Marriott. I’ve been quite happy with how they have treated me.

They also have a not so secret top tier called “Ambassador”. This year in order to reach that tier you have to spend US$23K in a year, and I barely hit half that. I’ve been told this is a carryover from Starwood and Marriott adopted it after the merger.

Car Rental

I do not rent cars. I’ve always hated the process, I don’t like driving in cities, and now with ride sharing apps like Uber, Lyft and Bolt I don’t need to rent a car. I either take a ride share, a taxi, or in places like Chicago, public transit.

But sometimes you can’t avoid it. The last time I can remember renting a car was about 7 years ago when I visited a client in Bentonville, Arkansas. There just were no other options. While I could get to my hotel (a Marriott-owned TownPlace Suites) via ride share, there was no reasonable way to get to the office without a car rental.

If you do happen to have to rent cars it pays to sign up for the rental agency’s programs. You can get upgrades to nicer cars and ease of access that makes the experience much better.

Also look to see if your other programs help you get status with car rental companies. My status with American gives me Avis Presidential status, although as mentioned I don’t really use it.

Credit Cards

Up to this point all the programs I’ve mentioned are available at no cost. If you do travel a lot I strongly recommend getting the associated credit cards that pair with your frequent flyer programs.

I carry two: The Citibank American Advantage World Elite Mastercard and the Chase Marriott Bonvoy Premier card.

The American card costs US$595 a year and gives you access to Admiral’s Club lounges. By comparison, buying an Admiral’s Club membership costs US$800 a year, although you can also use loyalty points instead. In addition, with the credit card you get 4x loyalty points for AA purchases, your other purchases earn points and you can get loyalty point bonuses if you spend a certain amount per year.

My Marriott card costs US$85/year and you get a free night voucher, plus point multiples on money you spend at Marriott properties.

A couple of things to unpack here.

First, I used to think airport lounges were just a waste of money, until I started traveling a lot. Now they make my trips bearable. I will state that over the years they have become a bit more crowded, but at least on the American side the food offerings have improved, especially in international lounges.

Having sampled both, I do think Delta has better lounges overall.

Second, depending on your employer you can use your personal card for company expenses. This can let you hit those bonuses faster, but you do have to be able to manage getting your expense reimbursement submitted in time to cover the charge, and if you tend to carry a balance on your credit cards I wouldn’t recommend it.

When I ran my own company we did payroll monthly, and that is when I would reimburse folks for travel expenses. If you traveled a lot I gave you a corporate card which was paid directly, but many frequent travelers opted to use their own cards. They just had to be sure to submit expenses on time.

Most companies will not reimburse people for the expense of lounge access, although my rule was that if you traveled enough to earn status on an airline, even the lowest tier, I would cover the lounge fee. But then again I was a great boss (grin).

Status Match

You may find that after you earn status your situation changes and you want to change frequent traveler programs, for example if you move from Dallas (an American hub) to Denver (a United hub). Instead of starting from scratch, you can see if the program you wish to switch to has a status match.

These usually work by matching your current status with the equivalent in the other program for a certain amount of time, and then you have to spend a given amount in that time to maintain the status for the rest of the program year. Then you get to renew as normal.

There are a few caveats. First, you are often limited to how often you can do this, usually once every three years. So don’t make the attempt unless you are certain you can meet the goal.

Second, sometimes if you are at the highest tier they won’t match your status. That is the problem I’ve hit when considering switching to Delta or Hyatt. Hyatt tends not to do a status match and Delta won’t match my Exec Plat status to Diamond.

Conclusion

If you don’t travel a lot for work, then why the heck did you waste time reading this? (grin)

If you do, seriously consider signing up for these frequent traveler programs. It will only cost you a bit of time and the benefits are well worth it.