[philiphodgen]

It's worth going to https://flyertalk.com and reading the forums. These are the people who play the airline status games.

Status with an airline is useful for (a) free upgrades, (b) lounge access, and (c) better phone service when you need to fix things.

I have Diamond status on Delta. (Top tier before their invite-only tier).

Upgrades. The only value I get out of it is that I can book a generic economy seat and immediately get upgraded to Comfort+ for free. I rarely get upgrades to First Class since Delta sells out the seats to real people for real money. I'm frequently #1 of a bunch of people on the upgrade list for nonexistent First Class seats.

Lounge access. I have the Delta Reserve Amex card that gets me into the lounges anyway.

Phone service. This is really an indictment of the shit service that airlines give. For a while, even with the priority phone service I would be on hold for an hour or so. It's far better now, admittedly.

Delta is making it drastically harder to achieve status in 2024. In all probability I am going to go free agent and fly any airline that gets me where I want to go, when I want to go, at a reasonable price.

The airline miles are useful. I don't think I've paid for a flight for my kids with money once in all the years they've been at university in other states. But that's just a "charge enough money on a credit card" thing. It has nothing to do with status.

[technosophos]

Lounge access is a really good one. I have an AmEx as well, and it includes Priority Pass (which I like), Centurion (which my home airport has), and Delta lounges (if I fly Delta, though I usually fly either United or Southwest).