Breaking Up is (Not)Hard to Do 2011 - Saying Farewell to Status in Programs

As we are coming to the end of January, it is time to look toward those programs where I did not renew my status at the same levels as I did the year before, and a little discussion as to the reasons.

Delta

In some ways, I am committing a major sin for someone who was born and raised in Atlanta.  I have abandoned Delta.  However, this divorce was set even before this past year.  The decision to abandon Delta was made in June 2009.  I was living in Greensboro, NC (GSO) at the time, and Delta had been the only airline to fly any mainline service into the airport.  This was enough to keep me with them, even as I learned the benefits of other airlines, and how worthless their mileage program really was.  Although I was a Silver Medallion and so rarely saw an upgrade, I was happy, but willing to explore other options.

In February of that year, I used a company status match to try out United, as I had heard good things about Economy Plus, and figured I'd give it a try to see if it was a feature that might cause me to change my flying.  While it was nothing spectacular, I was happy, so I opened myself up to booking United flights to earn the status there.  However, I kept most of my flights on Delta.  Then Delta committed an act which forced me to abandon them for all consideration, they replaced the mainline MD-88 with a CRJ-700.  I could no longer even consider Delta, as while United offered the ERJ-145 to IAD and ExPlus CRJ-700 to ORD, Delta only offered a choice of torture devices, no matter the hub.  So I switched and started exploring Star Alliance carriers, even being spoiled by Air Canada (Including a few operational upgrades to Executive Class).  Thanks to Double EQM, I was able to achieve Premier Executive within my first year of active participation, and have not looked back, except for one positioning flight, and some award redemption to close out my Delta Account.

Marriott

With my travel patterns, I have not really had the opportunity to experience the best Marriott has to offer.  In fact, I have experienced some of the worst.  Many un-renovated Courtyards, Fairfields, and Residence Inns have been in my stay history.  In all of my traveling, there is only one Marriott property that has won its way into my preferred listings for a city, and that is the Courtyard Toronto Downtown, and that wins for location and the property is reasonable (though their rooms are not the greatest).

Another reason I am allowing my Gold status to lapse is their qualification requirements for achieving Gold status.  While Gold Status is easy to achieve with credit card spend, I am not going to use a Marriott branded credit card when there are much more attractive options.  Thus I find their requirements for anything above Silver to be extremely high, for limited benefits compared to the competition.  Before this turns into another anti-Marriott rant, I will say that compared to their closest competitor, Marriott has generous award redemption options.  

Starwood

Starwood has never been one of my preferred programs.  While they are nice properties, their pricing has been out of my budget, and the only reason I even had gold status with them was because of a special program where they gave Delta Medallion members Gold membership.  I did log a few nights in their properties, but nothing special, and certainly nowhere near enough to even consider using them as a main program.  There have also been many places where I could not find a Starwood property and I need strong coverage anywhere I go.

Avis

I came to Avis simply because at the time, they were the one rental car company that my company used that did not automatically apply the under age surcharge to my business rentals.  Their cars were not the greatest, but the extra $25 a day added up.  I was forced to maintain them longer than I wanted because they were the only preferred company to offer local locations in Greensboro.  Fortunately this past year, I had little need for local rentals, and was able to transition to Hertz, and their more generous rewards program.  In addition, their cars are better, and I also had a better upgrade record even before I earned Five Star with them.  

So there you have it, the programs I have chosen to not keep this past year.  Are there any programs you have decided to drop or take a lower status in?