MilesBuzz! - What does a "Mile" look like to YOU?

I know this is another psuedo-philosophical one, and so if nobody likes it, just nicely tell me to stop, or gloss right by... But my wife, who loves me and NOT miles, asked me this question:

"What does a MILE look like to you?"

My answer was that it has hardly any shape or form, but if I were to put a face to it, it is kinda like the little red grinning smily guy you often see in this very forum--you know, kind of giggling at US and not being able to be grabbed, like a slippery ball or something http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif. It is not angry but sure is a little devil, huh? I can see them laughing now! (yes, sometimes I DO have a little time on my hands, but you know). That's just my opinion...

I showed her that little red smily guy oon this site and she said, "I don't like miles. Just get me a ticket to XYZ destination and make it simple!"

I told her to go tell THAT to the industry and we had a laugh. Onto the next thing...

BUT, Now I wanna know your thoughts:
So, what DOES a mile look like to you?...


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If speed is not your thing, distance may as well be. Enjoy and embrace it all!

1.6093 kilometres ...

To me $1300 for 30K of them! At least with DL Skymiles I fly free with my DH annually for FREE & all I do is shop, as usual, pay taxes, bills, just like normal folks. We are far from rich, just clever how we get from point A to point B.

So miles are $$$$$$$$$$$

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Marathon Man:
My answer was that it has hardly any shape or form, but if I were to put a face to it, it is kinda like the little red grinning smily guy you often see in this very forum--you know, kind of giggling at US and not being able to be grabbed, like a slippery ball or something http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif. It is not angry but sure is a little devil, huh? I can see them laughing now! (yes, sometimes I DO have a little time on my hands, but you know). That's just my opinion...
</font>

What kind of drugs are you on and can I please buy some from you????? he he he

MeWantMoreMiles

Four laps around the local high school track. On a good day, 5:50.

Once we decide what a mile looks like, we should focus our efforts on what a hotel point looks like. Those little monsters take on many different forms!!

I am glad to see all this. Makes me laugh and I will show the wife. Miles can be $$$, miles can be headaches and yes, you could say even drugs!-or things that DO make us need to use them, such as having to convert to Km.

SO can you say, Little purple pill?

And that's a pretty good time too, 5:50... Nice!
I am a bit slower but never was so great with the sprint runs. I like the longer ones.

Miles to me are at present a bit of an addiction but it will pass, I guess when I cash in a few awards.
Thanks and keep it up! Good light-hearted discussion is needed these days once and a while, I think.

You're right about it being an addiction but you're dreaming if you think it will pass. It's been my hobby for 10 years and I'm as "addicted" now as I was in year one.

Currently a mile looks like 1/320,000th of a Concorde, since my current mileage goal is to take my wife across the pond on the fast bird, unfortunately on AF. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

great goal but that'll take ya about 10 years of some serious additions!
Yeah, they keep pullin' me back in!

Nah I'll be there by mid-late next year. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

even better!
why the "unfortunatly AF" ?

AND, I hope AF (Air France, right?) is still (A) around next year-- I mean they should be but you never know and (B) that they dont pull and Amtrak or Radisson on ya!

Good goal. I like it. I should take my wife on THAT trip too as we visit Europe a lot!
Either that or the US Airways 4million mile thing where you can fly in the stratosphere for that many miles-- I think I once read.

The "unfortuinately on AF" was a somewhat tongue-in-cheek remark. They're always on strike! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Not to mention that the DL award for the AF Concorde is 40,000(?) miles more expensive per ticket than the comparable awards for the BA Concorde. However as I have about 180k miles "invested" in my DL account, AF it is! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif I too hope that AF is around and they haven't pulled the award when I want to use it. You can be sure I'll book the trip the minute I have the requisite 320k miles safely ensconced in my DL account.

A mile looks like two cents to me.

That's my two cents worth (sorry, but I couldn't resist).

I can see for miles and miles.

One thing for sure, they're not black, not white....definitely gray/grey.

well, I recently found in plumbing that there is certainly NO gray area. Well said indeed! Because in plumbing (sinks and drains) It either leaks or it doesnt! Simple as black or white.

I have said to friends who know I have tried to do a bit of ameture plumbing in my condo that I would rather run 3 marathons back to back before having to toil with that again!

So, miles are DEFINITELY NOT plumbing!
That's nice to know (and any plumber out there DESERVES EVERY PENNY he can get so pay them well and be nice to them! Next time I will hire one.) Now, if I can only get the miles world to be less GRAY, it would surely be easier, right?

Aloha;

Miles to me look like a "white sandy beach of Hawaii" I never paid any attention to miles until TWA was going out of business. Then thought gee maybe we should use these miles that DH and I had haphazardly accumulated over the years (half the time we didn't even use our numbers cause we knew miles were useless). Then two summers ago I was able to use those "worthless" miles to get RT tickets from STL to Hawaii.

Then I was able to do the same thing last summer with the new AA miles. Yowza, I am now hooked. Trying to get Platinum by the end of the year, and almost got enough miles for another Hawaii run.

Aloha

Let's see. A mile would look like a quick glance out of the window at 560 miles per hour!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Please also see

http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/Forum44/HTML/007560.html

[This message has been edited by pynchonesque (edited 11-12-2002).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by toadman:
Four laps around the local high school track. On a good day, 5:50.</font>

The one between Start to 1 looks WAY different from the one between 25 and 26.

Ah, 5:50 ... once that was my 10K pace ... not any longer, but I still managed an age-group second place in my only race since entering a new group lately!

As for what an airline mile looks like to me: I seldom think about them individually, but when I think about lots of them together they look like boarding passes with low row numbers or smiles on the faces of family and friends.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Efrem:
As for what an airline mile looks like to me: I seldom think about them individually, but when I think about lots of them together they look like boarding passes with low row numbers or smiles on the faces of family and friends.</font>

I'm with you on this one. I look at my mileage balance and think o them in discrete units.

So 100k miles look like....

4 domestic RT in cacoh or 4 int'l upgrades, or 1 J ticket to Asia....

I don't think of individual miles as useful units.

I think in terms of units of 1,000 miles and 100,000 miles.

So if I had 1,200,000 UA miles, I would have 12 RT's in international First from US-Europe. Or I'd have 10 RT's in international First from US-Asia. (for now....)

Looks like a beautiful sunset (or least 1/90,000) in South Asia.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Let's see. A mile would look like a quick glance out of the window at 560 miles per hour!</font>

That was a good one. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

For me, a mile looks like $$$. Respect it's value, use it judiciously and it would would take you a long way http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I always thought of miles as drops in a bucket, filling up in a very slow trickle