We flew home from Athens (via Amsterdam) on the final day of me having any airline status at all. So, that’s my last ‘free’ champagne for a while. (And just in case we’re not on the same grammatical page: I use the phrase ‘hoi polloi’ to mean the great mass of common people. Apparently a lot of people use it in the opposite sense to refer to the snobby elites.)

I actually flew plenty in the past year to stay at Gold level. But the combination of my destinations plus rules applying to the various parties paying for my trips meant that I had to split points across different networks, not use my own mileage-earning credit cards, etc.

I do feel like I got to do a lot of traveling in really favorable points-earning circumstances … there were years where I was almost always upgraded to first class and we certainly got plenty of free vacations. That level of rewards just isn’t a thing here in NZ: there has never been the same level of competition for airlines, hotel chains, or credit cards. And I think the rewards for people at my kind of level (frequent business travel but not a TikTok influencer or member of a royal family) have just gotten slimmer in general.

Anyway… we’ll see what happens in the coming years. Flying is a pain, even with Gold status. It’s ridiculously expensive, and jets are absolute ecological assassins.

I can, if I suddenly need to, go to a not-very-good restaurant or hotel lobby bar and order the same mini-bottle of champagne and a cheese platter any time I want. I can then sit in their chairs, use their bathrooms, and surf on their mostly-reliable Internet connection. Same same.