Buyer Beware – What to Consider Before Jumping into That 2025 Airline Challenge

2025 Airline Challenges

Points and travel challenges are fun – for certain people.  Airlines incentivize individuals to participate in a set of activities in order to obtain status and/or bonus miles (insert eye-grabbing amount here).  But if they’re not for you, you’re hearing about them, anyway.  People who do stuff on the internet for money routinely push this challenge drivel.  When it comes to airline challenges, MtM primarily participates from a minimal, PSA perspective, simply announcing them.  Before you go knee- or neck-deep into that 2025 airline challenge, maybe it’s time for a reality check.  Pursuing any particular one can potentially do more harm than good.  Here’s what to consider before jumping on the bandwagon.

Goodbye, Time

With the recent influx of options, I see people good-old-daysing it.  Mileage runs have returned!  Wasn’t that so much fun back in the day?!  Maybe, maybe not.  By pursuing any of these options, one is committing what I now consider my most precious asset – time.  Perhaps I’m more passionate about this than others, as I made one of my most important life decisions because of it.  Regardless, I think everyone should place a particular value on their time and a related threshold to any particular endeavor – including 2025 airline challenges.

The eye-popping details can tempt most any person to consider a given challenge, while conveniently ignoring the costs.  And time is just one cost – so many others exist.

Other Ways You’re Paying

Many offers involve paying points or money to achieve a given status or bonus points.  Individuals should directly subtract any of these costs from the payoff.  This may sound obvious, but I’m confident many aren’t being honest with themselves here.  I’m heavily into AA’s Loyalty Points scheme and must admit I’m not always punctual in applying the costs.  But while it’s not as fun as other hobby tasks, I still do it on a monthly basis.  I know I must eat my vegetables in order to get my dessert, even if it happens in the opposite order sometimes.

By reconciling your costs throughout any given endeavor, one can more objectively decide if a given airline challenge is worth the time, money, miles, points, etc.

You Get What You Asked For

When we see the initial offer, it can be easy to fall in love with the idea of it rather than the reality.  As I previously described, it’s easy to ignore the necessary resources involved in such an escapade.  But also, we can romanticize the actual prize.  In the process, one can idealize it, thinking they’ll obtain some huge value when they won’t necessarily.  They might obtain some amount of value, but was it enough to recoup the investment?

Or, in certain cases, they may obtain it and not use it at all.  For instance, I obtained the Southwest Companion Pass about 12 years ago and never used it once.  (For what it’s worth, it was much easier to obtain back then and wasn’t my primary goal, anyway.)

And while you’re stuck with that status or mileage currency, the program can devalue.  What once sounded remarkable isn’t in reality.  You can’t be as much of a points and miles free agent when you overcommit to such airline challenges.

Opting out of these games may be more boring.  Indeed, boring can end up working out better than the alternative.  Resist the online content machine and make your own decision.

2025 Airline Challenge – Conclusion

I mentioned earlier that I’m deep into AA Loyalty Points.  It’s a long-term form of challenge with relatively low costs in my situation.  Overall, I’m comfortable with the deal I’ve made.  But this will inevitably change at some point, and I’ll adapt accordingly.

I’m not involved with any others at this point because I value my resources more highly.  In our deeply personal hobby, everyone has different thresholds.  The key is to determine your own and stick to them.  Anyone who doesn’t is probably getting hosed.  Be warned.