For those in the financial services field, it’s already October – the 4th quarter, which leaves us with just three more months to reach all of those targets and goals. All I can think about at the moment is finalizing arrangements to attend those last few seminars and conventions (sadly this weekend’s Chicago Seminars are not on my agenda, but say hi to Ang there).
Most of these conventions and seminars are far from fun. In fact, I often have flashbacks of my 8 am college philosophy class taught by a professor with a monotone voice. I swear, I had some of my best sleeps in that class – better than those lie-flat seats that all you bloggers talk about.
The 4th quarter in our crazy points and miles world means one thing – status time. This is the time that we try to achieve the “status” – Silver, Gold, Platinum, 1K, Global Services, Diamond, Noir, you know, the works. Angelina just reached 1K with United. I, on the other hand, am a lowly Silver (luckily, now a step above the boarding group 5 lane).
As I stated in my last post/rant about boarding group 5, I am going for the gold with United. For that to happen, I still need 18,000 miles. I spent the last few weeks scouting out some good fares, and I booked the following itineraries for November and December:
- Nov 2: I fly to Las Vegas – land at 3pm, hopefully win at black jack, and then return on the 11:45pm red-eye flight. The cost was $171, and will net me about 4,900 PQM.
- Nov 17: The whole family is flying to Maui on award tickets, so no mileage will be earned (Angie will post about the challenges of award bookings from multiple airports and family coordination).
- Dec 6: taking a weekend trip to Seattle with Angie and my wife on cheap fare we found 4 months ago; I believe it was around $150 round trip. I’ll earn around 4,700 miles.
- Dec 13: I fly to Vegas again, play black jack a few hours, and back home on the late-night flight. I land on Dec 14, spend a few hours home, and then go back to Vegas. Yes, back-to-back, and ~9,800 miles for $340ish.
My coworkers and friends clearly think I have an early case of dementia. Some comments heard around the office sound like this: “Are you nuts? You are going to Vegas and coming back the same day?” I smile, and think the following: “that is why you vacation to the Jersey Shore and I go to Maui… for less than your weekly shore rental.”
Fellow BoardingArea blogger Seth (The Wandering Aramean) still trumps me in the art of back-to-back trans-continental milage-running. Sure, my back-to-back travels sound painful (especially since I’ll be sitting in the back the whole time unless Angie throws me one of her RPUs.. *hint, hint*), but hopefully some casino winnings help ease the pain.
Remember: no pain, no gain. Aside from the miles and status, I’ll be able to get lounge access when traveling domestically in the future after I complete a status match with Turkish Airlines.
What’s the craziest thing you have done to reach status? How are you rounding off your year? Most importantly – anyone going to join me on some of my Vegas trips? Come on… I know there’s gotta be at least a few of you who got in on those great ZFV-LAS deals!
Happy travels,
The Dad.
Mlife tier credits renewed on Oct 1 ;)
I have Dec 7 from PHL-PDX via IAH. Paid $171 and get ~6200 miles
Speaking of back-to-back… a few years ago I did back-to-back-to-back-to-back. It was killer, but at the time UA was offering double EQM’s or whatever it was called bcak them. Those few days of hell yielded me 1K after years of being PremEx. I think I flew 17 segments. Good times!!
Angelina make sure you throw your dad some upgrade certificates!
@ jim- Nice.
@ redhat -good find..I was out of vacation days, i was limited to weekend
@dhammer- You are my hero!!.I don’t know if I will survive my back to back.
@Nickfromct- Thanks..I have my fingers crossed..Take care.