sanramon

I am amazed and shocked by the number of miles and points redeemed in 2002. I cannot believe people have that many points and miles. My question is how long did it take to accumulate those miles/points that were blown. I will use an example "1.1 million redeemed in 2002.
265,000 redeemed in 2003 YTD.".

CPRich

I burned 450K in 2002 but ended up with more miles than I started with, so it's really an ongoing process. The 1.8M I have and the 125k/yr I average burning per year have been building up for about 8 years.

pitflyer

It took my wife and myself three years to earn about 1.5 million miles between us, along with about 600k hotel points. Of that I've burned about .4 million.

SEA_Tigger

I added almost 51,000 miles to my UA account in 2002, but burned 55,000. This leaves me with a little over 75,000 in my account.

l etoile

Redeemed 400,000 in 2002, about one year's earnings.

R&R

Accumulated over 1 million in my 2nd FreqFlyer program in about 10 years. Then switched to a Partner airline to accumulate another 1 million in about 3 years, while using some miles along the way for upgrades.

Finally brushed off the dust on some old miles accumulated since 1984 in AA, and took a First Class Luxury trip to Thailand for the Holidays. That was a NICE tax free dividend!

Bourne

65%(HH)-80%(US/AA) of the miles redeemed in 2002 were earned within 2001-2002.

Rudi

the KLM miles comping promotion did let me earn over 800'000 miles with just one flight, plus I earned about 400'000 miles flying - includes about 250% bonus (Mileage Plus-, miles&more-, Flying Dutchman-accounts), and another 100'000 miles into my Qualiflyer account solely from my credit card and shopping accounts (Coop).

I did spend about 1 Mio miles in 2002 (Mileage Plus miles, miles&more miles, Qualiflyer miles, Flying Dutchman miles).

My spending motivation was more influenced by my 'fear' of future heavy miles'-inflation', than by chapter 11/7 guesses.

onedog

I earned about 300k miles in 2001 and burned about 200k. In 2002, I earned probably another 300k, but only redeemed 60k.

When you are top or middle tier elite on an airline and so receive 100% mileage bonus, plus any miles you receive for credit card usage, plus all the bonus miles promotions, IMHO it is often pretty easy to accumulate more miles than you are able to burn.

Standby4321

I used 287,500 miles and earned around 300,000 in 2002. For me, it was an exceptionally good year in terms of opportunties to earn miles as well as finding good uses for them. I would be pleased to have 2003 turn out that well, but I think it would be a lot to expect, too.

satori

I had a nice balance this year with redeeming about 800,000 miles and earning about the same amount. I spent 400,000 UA miles and earned about 300,000. I spent 200,000 BA miles which I earned from a promotion in 1999, but also added about 160,000 BA miles through Diner's Club and transfers of United and American airline miles. Picked up about 40,000 Northwest miles from Sprint and hotel stays. Picked up the remainder of miles from the 55,555 promo last summer. Transferred 250,000 miles from LatinPass (from the million mile promo in 2000) to 500,000 HHonors points and I spent those, but also picked up about 150,000 HHonors points from their promos and stays. We spent about $6,500 on airfare and $2,500 with Hilton hotels.
(These numbers combine my and my wife's accounts.)

We have accumulated roughly 3,000,000 miles in the past 3.5 years and our redemption this year was significantly more than in the past.
I think it will be harder to pick up the cheap miles in 2003, but hopefully not .

Skylink USA

Burn: 250K
earned: 30K? (used to earn 250K/year, all from flights, none from credit cards)
goal: burn rate> or = earn rate
previous goal: earn, no burn

Life is short. FF rules change. I don't think a panic withdrawal is needed, though.

clanson

My wife and I burned up over 1 million miles last year and still ended up with more than we started. A lot were used by our children.

jfe

Earned a few, used 0.

But this year will change