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What some people would do for status (Airline Frequent Flier top-tier status) 12/2005 | | Category: Uncategorized | 2009-03-26 |
| | |  | | | | | | At the end of 2005, my wife Liz was checking her United Airlines MileagePlus qualifying miles for the year, and found out that she is less than 500miles short of making 1K. 1K is the top tier in UA's frequent flier mileage program, and making this 1K status meant a lot of perks and upgrades for the next year. | | | | Now she is really regretting that she did not listen to me, when I suggested that she add in an extra segment on her many trips earlier in the year, to avoid being in this exact predicament. It is true that there have been anecdotes that UA might have a grace mileage requirement, for those a hair under the 100 thousand mile 1K qualification threshold. Liz did not want to risk this uncertainly of whether UA will grant her 1K, and was trying to fly the required miles to make sure she retained her treasured 1K for another year. | | | | Since it was at the end of the year, and less than many of the inexpensive tickets' advance purchase requirements, we were having a hard time finding an inexpensive short trip that she could do in one day. We considered many west coast cities, San Diego, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Portland, Seattle,etc, and the best we could do was several hundred dollars for the ticket. | | | | Then we came up with a brilliant idea: Since she only needs less than 500 miles to requalify for 1K, she does not need to fly the round trip, just one direction will do (at the time UA credits a minimum of 500 miles for any flight). This actually opens up a lot more possibilities, if we could find a cheap enough one-way flight to a near by destination where I could pick her up at the other end. We ended up finding a round-trip ticket San Francisco to Monterey (MRY), California, for about $150. The same day return tickets are much more expensive, and so we decided to have Liz fly to Monterey late in December, with her return flight in middle of January. | | | | So early one fine late December morning, Liz and I drove to San Francisco International Airport. I dropped Liz off at UA's domestic departure level, and immediately got into highway 101 for my drive to Monterey. The non-stop flight between SFO and MRY is 77 miles as the crows fly, and scheduled for 44 minutes. Driving distance between the two airports is 107.4 miles according to my GPS. Lucky for me, traffic on this weekend day was light, and I made good time getting to Monterey. | | | | While driving on the Carrillo highway near the airport, I looked at my watch and noticed that it was a few minutes before 10am, just before Liz's scheduled arrival. Almost at the same time, I noticed a twin-engine propeller commuter plane over the bay lining up for its landing, and I silently wondered whether it was Liz's plane. I watched it flew almost directly overhead as it passed over the highway on its final approach. I turned off at the exit to the airport, and drove right up to the small terminal at the Monterey airport. Even before I shut off my engine, Liz walked out of the small terminal and hopped into the car, none the worst for the wear and tear of the flight, and just as good looking before I dropped her off less than two hours ago. | | | | We decided to have a nice lunch at Monterey before driving back home to San Francisco. Liz got her 1K, and we also got a nice date in Monterey. However, the story does not end here... | | | | Three weeks later in the middle of January, we did the whole thing again in reverse. We got up early, and drove together to Monterey to catch Liz's flight after having lunch at the same restaurant. I dropped Liz off at the same terminal where I picked her up three weeks ago, and immediately headed toward SFO. Traffic again was very smooth, and I make it to SFO in a little over 90 minutes. Low and behold, just when I was pulling up to the terminal, out came Liz looking fine as ever, hopped into the car and gave me a kiss. | | | | We figured that other than the dedicated FlyerTalker, no one would understand how crazy we are to maintain status, and therefore did not mention it at all other than a post on FlyerTalk. Last night when we had some friends over and the conversation got to flying, somebody mentioned that they made a trip to New York at the end of 2008 just to maintain frequent flier status. We realized that we are not so crazy after all, and shared with them our trip to Monterey. Everyone got a laugh over our trip, and thought that it beats their more mundane attempts to requalify. | | | | For 12 hours of our time, about $150, plus 10 gallons of gas, Liz got to keep her 1K, and we had two nice lunch dates out of this whole craziness. We thought it was well worth it and would not hesitate to do it again. What do you think? Please leave a comment; we would love to hear from you. | | | | | | |
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| User comments: | | 2009-04-02 01:04:56 (GMT-6) | Lizzy: | 回覆 Irwin: 為了方便也為了一些 benefits, 就是有這麼一群 " 瘋子 " 非常賣力的盡力的飛 ~~ 飛 ~~ 飛 ~~ (哈哈哈 .....) | | 2009-04-02 00:58:39 (GMT-6) | Lizzy: | 回覆喵喵: 知道喵喵也會做類似這種瘋狂事滴 ~~~ :) | | 2009-04-01 22:17:21 (GMT-6) | Irwin: | 有時候看到有人單純做miles run我一開始也覺得很瘋狂,但是想想像國泰鑽石卡在沒位子的時候,可以保證訂位,想想也有道理 | | 2009-03-27 20:46:35 (GMT-6) | 來地喵喵: | “ no one would understand how crazy we are to maintain status”您的心情，我也強烈地感同身受啊！這份「自我實現」的感覺，真好真羨慕.... |
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