One of the strategies I've used in the past is if you're going on a big international trip, and I would say this is probably earlier in your miles and points journey, right? Earlier in the journey, I wasn't even thinking about business class. I was like, I just got enough points to take a trip internationally.

Why would I use twice as many points to go in business class? Who cares? Like, I want to take two trips. So it was like, how do I get into lounges? How do I get this better experience? How do I pick the seats, get the free bags, all that.

And there's a lot of international airlines where you can status match. And maybe they'll only give you status for three months until you fly on them. But if you're going to take one trip, and you're going to Greece, if you have a GN status for three months, that's all you need.

And so there are a couple times where I would status match to an airline, and they immediately give you the status for three months. And I would use it in those three months to get a lot of benefits. And then I would never take that flight. I would never credit it.

I would never get any perks, never get any benefits beyond that. But it made that one trip a lot more enjoyable.