US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - What does US do for Million Milers?

Saw this question on another site and it got me thinking, as I am getting closer to that milestone.

A million miles and $10 will get you an In Flight Cafe on US!

Great! A sore bum AND indigestion.
All for the bargain price of well over $50,000 in tickets + $10 for IFC. Maybe as an added bonus they'll seat me next to the 350lb sweaty, wheezing guy in the exit row next time! ;)

I dont think they let people of that size sit in the exit row...

I passed 1M a few months ago and not a word from Crystal City.

I dont think they let people of that size sit in the exit row...


Oh how I wish that were the truth. More than once, most recently a direct CHS-DCA on a ERJ145, row 12. He was a last minute add-on b/c he missed his earlier flight. i was comfortably in 12F with 12D empty, when they reopened the door and in he came.

I have wondered this from time to time also. But, I was wondering how you are counting the miles. Are you referring to the total available miles you have in the program. Or are you referring actual flight miles ? I seem to always max out my FF account at 950K and then use 250 - 500K and build it up again. But, I would say I went through 1M actual miles a while back and nothing.

I used to thin I flew alot but the question was asked and answered in the Attache Mag this month. Who does the most and how many. Someone did 476,995 last year and someone else did 624 segments (poor guy). I am nowhere near these numbers.

Million mile "perks" on other carriers are based ONLY on tier miles, not including bonuses, miles earned elsewhere, etc. That being said, US does squat.

Perhaps this is somethign to be brought up at Roachfest...

Actually, AA counts external miles earnings such as credit card and hotel credit towards MM, though they do not earn EQMs.

You can impress your mom.

You can impress your mom.


Not if your mom knows what she's talking about. :eek:

not true in all cases. 1 million miles from any source will get you lifetime gold in the AAdvantage program.

Million mile "perks" on other carriers are based ONLY on tier miles, not including bonuses, miles earned elsewhere, etc. That being said, US does squat.

not true in all cases. 1 million miles from any source will get you lifetime gold in the AAdvantage program.

This is ridiculous if true. It's not exactly difficult to earn 1 million miles these days, with all the external earnings opportunities available.

If you fly 1 million "tier miles" in your lifetime, lifetime US3 seems reasonable. If you fly 2 million "tier miles" in your lifetime, lifetime US2 seems reasonable. If you fly 3 million "tier miles" in your lifetime, lifetime US1 seems reasonable.

That's A LOT of flying!

It is true...just search for 1MM or lifetime gold in the AA forum. I'm at 990K...

FWIW, keep in mind that Gold and Platinum members with AA do not receive unlimited upgrades.

This is ridiculous if true. It's not exactly difficult to earn 1 million miles these days, with all the external earnings opportunities available.

If you fly 1 million "tier miles" in your lifetime, lifetime US3 seems reasonable. If you fly 2 million "tier miles" in your lifetime, lifetime US2 seems reasonable. If you fly 3 million "tier miles" in your lifetime, lifetime US1 seems reasonable.

That's A LOT of flying!

This is ridiculous if true. It's not exactly difficult to earn 1 million miles these days, with all the external earnings opportunities available.

If you fly 1 million "tier miles" in your lifetime, lifetime US3 seems reasonable. If you fly 2 million "tier miles" in your lifetime, lifetime US2 seems reasonable. If you fly 3 million "tier miles" in your lifetime, lifetime US1 seems reasonable.

That's A LOT of flying!

It is true - but remember AA Gold is US Silver. Not exactly useful (.25 bonus on miles flown and access to special lines) but at 2M miles AA gives you lifetime Plat (100% bonus on miles flown, Int'l lounge access, lines, etc.) - this is useful. They also give you 8 500 mile upgrades (yawn) at 1M, but at 2M you get 2 or 4 VIPOW's (system wide upgrades) - which are quite useful.

You never get lifetime EXP on AA though - still have to earn it every year by flying 100K BIS miles or 100 points (no segments).

AA has the brains to realize that anyone who has provided 2M AA miles is a serious revenue source (from whatever direction). Since the primary benefits of these memberships is reached through flying AA EVEN MORE, it is not ridiculous at all. In fact, it is quite clever from a revenue standpoint IMHO...

But again, nobody ever accused marketing at CCY of having much in the form of brains.

You can impress your mom.

While visiting at my mom's house, i.e. Grandma's house to my 3 year old FT in training, I had to call to see the Silver Desk to see if I was cleared for some promos. While on the phone, I asked how many miles I had lifetime. Without much delay she said (rounding) over 1.7 million lifetime.

My mother WAS impressed. :)

It might be interesting for other FT US faithful to call their DM desk numbers at their leisure and see how much they've accumulated. Wonder how many we have over 2M? 3M? This could lead to some interesting RoachFest conversation (and to show the corporate types who'll be there how serious we use their airline).

Million mile "perks" on other carriers are based ONLY on tier miles, not including bonuses, miles earned elsewhere, etc. That being said, US does squat.

Not true for AA!

All miles count regardless of how they are earned.

One! Ah ha ha...

I stand corrected. It just seems insanely easy to accrue a million miles these days. Yet again, I've been making weekly transcons for the past several years, so perhaps I'm out of touch.

One! Ah ha ha...

ROFLMAO--thanks for that, Spiff!! :p

I stand corrected. It just seems insanely easy to accrue a million miles these days. Yet again, I've been making weekly transcons for the past several years, so perhaps I'm out of touch.

Weekly transcons could make you a million miler in less than 5 years.

For example: PHL-LAX = 4796 miles r/t

Do the commute 48 weeks out of the year and you'll have 230,304 Preferred miles every 12 months.

Not bad!

I stand corrected. It just seems insanely easy to accrue a million miles these days. Yet again, I've been making weekly transcons for the past several years, so perhaps I'm out of touch.


I agree. Can't you earn something ridiculous like 500,000 miles just from using lendingtree.com? If you moved twice, you'd be a MMer. Earning miles really hasn't been any easier than it is today.

I stand corrected. It just seems insanely easy to accrue a million miles these days. Yet again, I've been making weekly transcons for the past several years, so perhaps I'm out of touch.

Yes, AA seems easy - counting everything under the sun. Lifetime status including bonuses, affiliates, etc., doesn't seem right, IMHO.

I wouldn't say counting butt-in-seat miles is "insanely easy" - I did PIT-SFO 2+ years and PIT-LAX for another year and am still only at about 1.4M after about 10 years in the program. I modestly consider myself to have done lots of flying, and I'm still a long may from 2M lifetime I think 1M lifetime Gold is logical if it counts only BIS miles. Giving lifetime top tier, I'm not sure whether that makes sense, but 2M would be a good target - that's CP-qualification flying for 20 years!

I agree. Can't you earn something ridiculous like 500,000 miles just from using lendingtree.com? If you moved twice, you'd be a MMer. Earning miles really hasn't been any easier than it is today.

That's what I meant. At least only count airline-related miles (tier miles, airline bonuses, etc.), but counting everything under the sun seems ridiculous. But hey, I'm not complaining ... :p

I agree. Can't you earn something ridiculous like 500,000 miles just from using lendingtree.com? If you moved twice, you'd be a MMer. Earning miles really hasn't been any easier than it is today.

Let's see at 1,000 miles for every $10,000 worth of house sold/bought/refinanced, that would mean a $5,000,000 home.

FF miles may not be at the top of that person's list... :D

Plus, lendingtree.com probably hits such people with an extra .25% to cover the miles. :p

After you get 1,000,000 airline miles (I do not care actual or actual + bonus) I think US should do soemthing for you. I probably think this way since I would benefit from it. :D And I had to type the number out since it seems more impressive that way. So don't forget someone (not me) did 476,000 mile last year and anther person (also not me) did more then 650 segments. These people need their own line.

For close to 500,000 miles or 650 segments I think U needs to provide a personal Family Shrink (because you know if the poor person is on the road that much they are having some problems at home, due to not being there), a dedicated phone line - just for them, a personal FA that goes with them on every flight and brings a GLASS (yes an actual glass), a bottle of their favorite beverage, some hot towels, a warm cookie, and a nice green lime. :D

QUOTE=swanscn]After you get 1,000,000 airline miles (I do not care actual or actual + bonus) I think US should do soemthing for you. I probably think this way since I would benefit from it. :D And I had to type the number out since it seems more impressive that way. So don't forget someone (not me) did 476,000 mile last year and anther person (also not me) did more then 650 segments. These people need their own line.[/QUOTE]

What has US done for million milers? I received a nice set of tan leather luggage tags (one large and one small) in the mail stamped with "US AIR MILLION MILE TRAVELER" along with a letter signed by someone important. I recall the luggage tags arriving in 1996 shortly after Delta started recognizing million milers. I think US was reacting to what DL did. My understanding is that US hasn't recognized this elite group of customers since this one-time mass mailing in 1996.

For some reason, the information is immediately in hand in the computer reservation system. Since they only switched to Sabre a few years ago, presumably that info was specifically brought over. They do nothing with it, and to an extent, it is a distortion, since, as has been pointed out, the total includes non flying miles (and possibly bonus miles). I have a vague recollection that they might be able to see both actual and total, but in any case, they don't do anything with the information along promotional lines. The priority in marketing seems to be the creation of a subset of elites, for whom the goal is to do less, in the belief they abuse the system.I'm around 3 million miles myself, with my earliest trips as a toddler growing up in upstate New York, flying a thing called Robinson Airlines, which I beleive morphed into Mohawk around the same time Pennsylvania Central was becoming Allegheny. Long live the DC3 and Convair 240. 2 and 2 seating, and no attitude (or altitude, for that matter). Actually, they had a stable of interesting aircraft in the old days. Early versions of the pure jet BAC1-11, and when Lake Central was folded in, there was a French prop job that looked like an F-27, called the Nord (200 something).

I have a vague recollection that they might be able to see both actual and total, but in any case, they don't do anything with the information along promotional lines.

They can see both total accumulated miles and BIS miles. Last time I called, they gave me the big number and I asked if they had the actual flight miles - it only took a few seconds to come up with (I don't know if it included the minimums or actual distance for shorter flights though).

The RoachFest notes indicate that Marketing (presumably Barry Biffle) took note of our interest in some sort of recognition for those attaining million mile status.

Could this be TripleB's mysterious "more to come" from this afternoon's e-mail?

Has anyone been in contact with Barry or whoever it was that promised to "research the suggestion"?

I passed a million miles about ten years ago. US sent me an 'all leather' million miles bag tag. I passed 2 million miles a few years ago.... and didn't receive any thing. I'm not sure what they would do at this point...

If someone can dig up an old transcript, a few years ago Mike Isom said right here on Flyertalk that they would "investigate" some kind of million+ miler recognition. Here we are today and it looks like someone else fed you the same line. Folks, they ain't gonna do it. Especially while there are a gazillion Silvers and now the Signature Visa holders who will take up even more space in the priority lines.

When it's fairly easy to earn 1 million POINTS in relatively little time, there's little incentive for an airline to provide such a perk. Especially when you can earn those points without even flying on the airline. I don't see it happening, but if it does I'm elated. I just passed 1M points last year sometime.

So why not make the benefits kick in at a million real miles? I think one of the airlines does that already.

So why not make the benefits kick in at a million real miles? I think one of the airlines does that already.

Exactly. Only butt-in-seat miles should count.

That depends on what the recognition is -- miles of any sort & leather bag tags would work.

Butt In Seat miles ought to be worth something like Gold For Life.

I'd just like to see them do something. Set the rules and lets us know.