Written by: alessiobax
Friday, December 29, 2006 8:54 AM

December 29, 2006. 220pm

There are many kinds of addictions one could be dealing with. Most are unhealthy, some even destructive, and some are just plain silly. I think my frequent flyer mile addiction belongs to this last category. It all started in 1994, with my first trip to the New World, when I joined American Airlines' AAdvantage program. I wasn't a really good sport, and very soon I found myself, very unfaithfully, trying out new programs. AA's was fine, but I was young, in search of new experiences and curious. So, Northwest Airlines' World Perks program was next. It lasted a few trips, including some to Europe and one even to Japan! Then, the first big love: Delta's Frequent Flyer Program, later called Skymiles. The advantages at the time were clear. What turned me to Delta was the fact that it was the only one who's miles didn't expire. All I had to do was to fly once every three years. They also introduced a new business class cabin. By getting rid of First Class, and introducing their Business Elite cabin, Delta succeeded to create a Business Class that was, at the time, far better than its competitors'. But what really bought my loyalty was the fact that every 20,000 miles flown, they awarded me two system-wide upgrade vouchers. That meant that I could get to fly in the new Business Elite cabin to Europe, Japan, or anywhere else Delta flew, with a free upgrade!

So, after a beautiful relationship with Delta lasted nearly half a million actual miles, two majors events took place. First, they got rid of the whole complimentary system-wide upgrade deal, which nearly killed me. Then, after 9/11 they had to withdraw over 20 gates from my home airport of DFW. I was getting weary of the fact that they never flew directly where I needed them too (I had way too many burgers at Atlanta Airport), and now it just made no sense to keep flying Delta. I had a change of heart and went back to my first love: American Airlines' AAdvantage (yes they really spell it this way) Program.

Feeling all powerful now, with my home airport being AA's hub, I racked up over half a million actual miles in just few years, and have been an Aadvantage Platinum member for the past couple of years.

As you know there is still one more tier to go: it's called Executive Platinum. I have been close to reaching this frequent flyer heaven a few times, but this year, after counting up all my miles for 2006, I found myself short of about 500 miles to qualify. The perks of being an Executive Platinum are not too different from a platinum member's. There is, of course, a uber-alles priority for a variety of things, but there is something else that is very dear to me: eight (!!) system-wide upgrades to be used anywhere AA flies. Oh, I had been waiting for this since my first days with Delta, and the moment had arrived, but I needed few more miles, few real miles! I couldn't simply make a purchase with my AA MasterCard, or even buy $500 worth of flowers from FTD for my wife. No, I had to fly before the end of the year!

I still can't believe I did this, or to be exact, I can't believe I am doing this right now.  Lucille found out that the best combination of price, mileage and duration was flying to St.Louis, Missouri and back on the same day! That would grant me an Executive Platinum status for the whole of 2007 and my long-dreamed system-wide upgrades, eight of them!  A mini-vacation was out of the question, because after a whole month across Europe, and a lot to do here in Dallas preparing for upcoming concerts, I just couldn't take any time off.

I realize now how silly all of this sounds, but in a life that makes us travel for most of the year, there are few little things that make us smile. One of them is a complimentary upgrade. Just imagine the spell eight of them could hold on me!

I also realize how materialistic this is. That is why, probably, my day today hasn't gone very well. I woke up to a gloomy, dark and rainy day. "Great", I thought! "I am going to fly to St. Louis, be delayed and miss my plane back home tonight! And all of this for miles, not pleasure, not even business". I tried to keep positive. I ran a few errands before I left, and two blocks from home I got stopped by a police-woman. She had been hiding around the corner from a highway exit, and stopped all cars that didn't come to a complete stop, after the exit, where a useless stop sign happened to be. I do believe in stop signs, but when they are placed at a highway exit, and the only other lane has a traffic light governing its course, it is a whole different story.

Anyhow, she was on a mission, and stopped and fined cars at the rate of 3 at a time. When the little alley where she was parked was at capacity, another police car, strategically placed one block further, gave her a helping hand. I have only had one other ticket in my life. The first one was on a pretty tough day. A performance of Tchaikovsky's first concerto in the afternoon, followed by a 3-hour rehearsal of Rach 3 with the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra at the end of a two week period when I played the Rach 3 both in Europe and US, the Tchaikovsky in the US and the Brahms 1 in Europe. I was ready to come home at about 10pm, maybe too ready, and got fined for driving 45mph in a 30 mph empty road. I accepted that, and even put myself through defensive driving videos to keep my conscience and record clean. But this time, it was just a trap.

Anyhow, I made it to the airport in time to catch my flight, but only to discover that all planes out of DFW were delayed of 30 minutes to 2 hours, and many flights had been cancelled, because of bad weather at the airport. By now, it had really hit me that I was being punished for something I shouldn't have done! What kept me going were faith, and the dream of eight system-wide upgrades. I pictured myself flying to far-away destinations in business class. I imagined going, maybe in a twist of fate, to China on the Greater Dallas Youth Symphony Tour next June, arrive in Beijing reasonably well rested and fed! This thought made me take that nifty little thing that DFW and AA calls Skylink all the way from gate A14 to gate C35 to check if I could perhaps take an earlier flight to St. Louis. I went to the gate showed my boarding card and got on the plane!

Here we are now. We are about to land in St. Louis. I've never been to St. Louis, and I don't know much. All I know is that it will give me the miles I so badly need. As it often happens, I had formulated some kind of idea about St. Louis. Part of it, was that I know it is a city with a very good orchestra. From this day, St. Louis will have a whole different meaning to me. That of eight system-wide upgrades and a business class flight to Beijingin the middle of the summer. Unless, of course, the business class will be sold-out and the standby list will include those monsters called multi million milers……..

December 29, 2006. 418pm. St. Louis update             

Just arrived in St. Louis. All flights to Dallas are cancelled except for a little plane going to Dallas Love Field Airport. While standing in a very long line to some awe-inspiring red phones meant to rebook your route, I used all my platinum powers and called AA's platinum line. Very cordially they apologized and offered me a seat on the flight. Let's just hope it won't be cancelled, or it will be another wild St. Louis night for me.

December 29^th, 2006 1033pm Crowne Plaza Hotel, St. Louis Airport

Yes, Crowne Plaza Hotel, St. Louis Airport. Need I say more? All flights to Dallas have been cancelled. I called at some point and booked the last seat on a St. Louis-Wichita-Dallas flight which, with some luck, will get me home at 915pm tomorrow.

But I have the option to standby on all the direct flights tomorrow morning, starting at 625am. How fun! Can't wait. Is this a sign that I have done something horribly wrong? Something unrealistic, like flying back and forth on the same day just to accrue miles, or counting how many times two mirrors reflect each other, or googling Google? (I've actually never tried that last one, just thought of it) What do you think?

It's amazing how stress-free I have remained throughout all of this. It must be due to the lack of concerts on the next day, and most importantly the lack of checked luggage, who knows? I do consider myself lucky, as there have been people stuck here for two days, and found themselves to be unable to get on a flight before the 31^st!

Was it worth it? Ask me again next year, around June, and I will tell you!

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Location: Blogs AB Web Blog

Written by: alessiobax
Friday, December 29, 2006 8:54 AM

December 29, 2006. 220pm

There are many kinds of addictions one could be dealing with. Most are unhealthy, some even destructive, and some are just plain silly. I think my frequent flyer mile addiction belongs to this last category. It all started in 1994, with my first trip to the New World, when I joined American Airlines' AAdvantage program. I wasn't a really good sport, and very soon I found myself, very unfaithfully, trying out new programs. AA's was fine, but I was young, in search of new experiences and curious. So, Northwest Airlines' World Perks program was next. It lasted a few trips, including some to Europe and one even to Japan! Then, the first big love: Delta's Frequent Flyer Program, later called Skymiles. The advantages at the time were clear. What turned me to Delta was the fact that it was the only one who's miles didn't expire. All I had to do was to fly once every three years. They also introduced a new business class cabin. By getting rid of First Class, and introducing their Business Elite cabin, Delta succeeded to create a Business Class that was, at the time, far better than its competitors'. But what really bought my loyalty was the fact that every 20,000 miles flown, they awarded me two system-wide upgrade vouchers. That meant that I could get to fly in the new Business Elite cabin to Europe, Japan, or anywhere else Delta flew, with a free upgrade!

So, after a beautiful relationship with Delta lasted nearly half a million actual miles, two majors events took place. First, they got rid of the whole complimentary system-wide upgrade deal, which nearly killed me. Then, after 9/11 they had to withdraw over 20 gates from my home airport of DFW. I was getting weary of the fact that they never flew directly where I needed them too (I had way too many burgers at Atlanta Airport), and now it just made no sense to keep flying Delta. I had a change of heart and went back to my first love: American Airlines' AAdvantage (yes they really spell it this way) Program.

Feeling all powerful now, with my home airport being AA's hub, I racked up over half a million actual miles in just few years, and have been an Aadvantage Platinum member for the past couple of years.

As you know there is still one more tier to go: it's called Executive Platinum. I have been close to reaching this frequent flyer heaven a few times, but this year, after counting up all my miles for 2006, I found myself short of about 500 miles to qualify. The perks of being an Executive Platinum are not too different from a platinum member's. There is, of course, a uber-alles priority for a variety of things, but there is something else that is very dear to me: eight (!!) system-wide upgrades to be used anywhere AA flies. Oh, I had been waiting for this since my first days with Delta, and the moment had arrived, but I needed few more miles, few real miles! I couldn't simply make a purchase with my AA MasterCard, or even buy $500 worth of flowers from FTD for my wife. No, I had to fly before the end of the year!

I still can't believe I did this, or to be exact, I can't believe I am doing this right now.  Lucille found out that the best combination of price, mileage and duration was flying to St.Louis, Missouri and back on the same day! That would grant me an Executive Platinum status for the whole of 2007 and my long-dreamed system-wide upgrades, eight of them!  A mini-vacation was out of the question, because after a whole month across Europe, and a lot to do here in Dallas preparing for upcoming concerts, I just couldn't take any time off.

I realize now how silly all of this sounds, but in a life that makes us travel for most of the year, there are few little things that make us smile. One of them is a complimentary upgrade. Just imagine the spell eight of them could hold on me!

I also realize how materialistic this is. That is why, probably, my day today hasn't gone very well. I woke up to a gloomy, dark and rainy day. "Great", I thought! "I am going to fly to St. Louis, be delayed and miss my plane back home tonight! And all of this for miles, not pleasure, not even business". I tried to keep positive. I ran a few errands before I left, and two blocks from home I got stopped by a police-woman. She had been hiding around the corner from a highway exit, and stopped all cars that didn't come to a complete stop, after the exit, where a useless stop sign happened to be. I do believe in stop signs, but when they are placed at a highway exit, and the only other lane has a traffic light governing its course, it is a whole different story.

Anyhow, she was on a mission, and stopped and fined cars at the rate of 3 at a time. When the little alley where she was parked was at capacity, another police car, strategically placed one block further, gave her a helping hand. I have only had one other ticket in my life. The first one was on a pretty tough day. A performance of Tchaikovsky's first concerto in the afternoon, followed by a 3-hour rehearsal of Rach 3 with the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra at the end of a two week period when I played the Rach 3 both in Europe and US, the Tchaikovsky in the US and the Brahms 1 in Europe. I was ready to come home at about 10pm, maybe too ready, and got fined for driving 45mph in a 30 mph empty road. I accepted that, and even put myself through defensive driving videos to keep my conscience and record clean. But this time, it was just a trap.

Anyhow, I made it to the airport in time to catch my flight, but only to discover that all planes out of DFW were delayed of 30 minutes to 2 hours, and many flights had been cancelled, because of bad weather at the airport. By now, it had really hit me that I was being punished for something I shouldn't have done! What kept me going were faith, and the dream of eight system-wide upgrades. I pictured myself flying to far-away destinations in business class. I imagined going, maybe in a twist of fate, to China on the Greater Dallas Youth Symphony Tour next June, arrive in Beijing reasonably well rested and fed! This thought made me take that nifty little thing that DFW and AA calls Skylink all the way from gate A14 to gate C35 to check if I could perhaps take an earlier flight to St. Louis. I went to the gate showed my boarding card and got on the plane!

Here we are now. We are about to land in St. Louis. I've never been to St. Louis, and I don't know much. All I know is that it will give me the miles I so badly need. As it often happens, I had formulated some kind of idea about St. Louis. Part of it, was that I know it is a city with a very good orchestra. From this day, St. Louis will have a whole different meaning to me. That of eight system-wide upgrades and a business class flight to Beijingin the middle of the summer. Unless, of course, the business class will be sold-out and the standby list will include those monsters called multi million milers……..

December 29, 2006. 418pm. St. Louis update             

Just arrived in St. Louis. All flights to Dallas are cancelled except for a little plane going to Dallas Love Field Airport. While standing in a very long line to some awe-inspiring red phones meant to rebook your route, I used all my platinum powers and called AA's platinum line. Very cordially they apologized and offered me a seat on the flight. Let's just hope it won't be cancelled, or it will be another wild St. Louis night for me.

December 29^th, 2006 1033pm Crowne Plaza Hotel, St. Louis Airport

Yes, Crowne Plaza Hotel, St. Louis Airport. Need I say more? All flights to Dallas have been cancelled. I called at some point and booked the last seat on a St. Louis-Wichita-Dallas flight which, with some luck, will get me home at 915pm tomorrow.

But I have the option to standby on all the direct flights tomorrow morning, starting at 625am. How fun! Can't wait. Is this a sign that I have done something horribly wrong? Something unrealistic, like flying back and forth on the same day just to accrue miles, or counting how many times two mirrors reflect each other, or googling Google? (I've actually never tried that last one, just thought of it) What do you think?

It's amazing how stress-free I have remained throughout all of this. It must be due to the lack of concerts on the next day, and most importantly the lack of checked luggage, who knows? I do consider myself lucky, as there have been people stuck here for two days, and found themselves to be unable to get on a flight before the 31^st!

Was it worth it? Ask me again next year, around June, and I will tell you!

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Location: Blogs AB Web Blog