Among all the perks and awards - what really make me thrilled about going on board

When your travel has been on the gold, executive, esmerald etc. level for a long time you might start asking yourself what the top things are that you really appreciate with your frequent flyer card and the status associated with it. I think I have consluded that the following are among my essential priorities:

1. RECOGNITION, without a decent frequent flyer card these days, the service you seem to get in interactions with airlines is downgraded to a bare minimum. Long gone is the times when "Coach Rocks" was comment that made sense, now we are down to cockroach level in the back of the planes. My most recent experience of this was an airline that claimed $150 to give me airmiles back for an incorrect booking. Do not expect AAA service from an AA airline if you just have been thier gold and platinum customer for 5 years and are back to silver status due to cut-backs on the routes that are meaningful to your travel.

2. THE LOUNGE, has become fundamental as a survival total for hazzle free travel in times of frequenet delays. At my last flight we were delayed 2 hours at the airport for feparture. Needless to say, the connection was long before gone, and even a busy friday afternoon, the alternative options were a 4 hour unplanned stop. Without colleagues and access to the lounge, these non-volunatary stop overs get awful on intercontintal flights with short last leg. How would we survive without them.

3. SECURITY CLEARANCE is a mystery. Oil prices goes up, Air travelling goes down, Security clerarance measures are increasing but nevertheless the hazzle at passing security is just increasing. It seems like the basic principles of clear role descriptions and optimised ways-of-working are considered as science fiction in this part of the industry. Luckily enough, my favoruite card allow me to take a separate que and zoom straight through after having taking off my shoes, belt, suitjacket, the 1 liter plastic bag and after pulling out the notebook into a separate bin.

Am I alone, not at all, here are some more views that might allow you to avoid common pitfalls, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25971832/