I used to get to Gold based on segments flown (15 non stop round trips= 30 segments).
At an average fair of $325, that’s about 5 grand.
15 Round trips on Spirit the same route at about $79 is about $1,200, a $3,800 savings.
I fly alone with a small bag that doesn’t cost extra.
With American, even if you get upgraded to First there’s no food unless the flight is over 2 hours, my route is an hour and fifty minutes, so I’m not paying almost 4 grand more for some pretzels.
To top it off, I have about 20 upgrade certificates that these scumbags won’t let me use now because I’m not a Gold!.
I have something like 16 upgrade certificates BUT you can’t use them. You have to submit to some list and I have never gotten above 29 on that list of requests, even when I’ve requested it over a week in advance. Something like two people get put into first and several times I’ve seen them take off with empty seats in first even though there were 30 people waiting in the upgrade list (they now show it on a big TV screen). Basically upgrades are 100% useless as is their entire frequent flyer program. The industry’s worst.