These days, ‘you practically need a Ph.D.’ to figure out frequent-flier status

The airlines’ most valuable customers receive the sorts of benefits that most travellers can only salivate over. But most travellers aren’t constantly flying, and they will find that the airlines have made it a lot more complicated to qualify even for a piece of that good life. “You practically need a Ph.D.” to understand and compare all the complex rules among the different airlines, said Jamie Larounis of the travel blog The Forward Cabin. Three of the major airlines in the US each have 4 frequent-flier status levels and different formulas to compute the tiers. It all adds up to a daunting set of rules for frequent-flier programs. And travellers should keep in mind, one travel bloggers said, that the airline programs have become less rewarding. Tickets cost more to redeem, and because flights are fuller, they are harder to redeem. <br/>