kb1992

Yeah, they did at 12:00 EST, not CST or MST.

My son is now a "member". No more Premier Associate.

mahasamatman

You're one person. The hundreds who lamented missing upgrades last year outnumber you by just a bit.

kb1992

If it shows Global Services now, does it mean GS status will stay for another year?

UA1K4EVER

There is nothing more objective than one's personal experience...but I suspect that there were more people who cleared upgrades than did not. The question is how did this compare with prior, 1K-liteless years? Dunno...

mahasamatman

Our personal upgrade percentage was down. We had our first ever TATL in Y since the BFT (Before FlyerTalk) days. But I don't think we're necessarily representative either, which is why I like the statistical numbers we get from the long success/failure threads.

UA1K4EVER

That is what I was referring to. I looked at the successes/failures threads at the end of 2010 and noticed that there were a lot more successes than failures reported. The trend seems to be the same so far this year as last year. It would be interesting at the end of 2011 to compare this 1K-liteless year to last year...

rbcar3

See ya 1K...

TransCon1

I have a chance to get back to 1K – maybe . . . But first some background.


I had read about frequent flyer programs in college in the mid-80’s, although in retrospect not totally sure why I paid attention to them. I guess it was because I was always fascinated with aircraft and flying, dating back to my first flight on Eastern Airlines from RAL to LGA – I remember almost everything about that trip even though I was 7 years old at the time. So when I graduated from college and took what was really my first “big” trip from the east coast to California, I was eager to sign up for Mileage Plus, as my trip just happened to be on UA. I still have my original card that I got at the ticket counter at IAD in May 1986 – it starts with “000.” Somehow, I always knew I was a United person rather than an American person. Weird that it actually worked out that way. Again, I am not really sure why, but I remain that way to this day.


On personal travel on United in the In the late 80’s / early 90’s, I earned a couple of round trip tickets which I used to travel from JFK to SAN to visit my brother and experience California – and I felt pretty lucky and smart. But what I really longed for was BUSINESS TRAVEL. I made a few minor trips connected to my job at a major bank in NYC, but I was wildly jealous of friends who traveled frequently. They lead such glamorous lives, jetting here and there, with expense accounts and racking up double and triple miles on things like the Pan Am Shuttle between LGA – BOS - DCA. I was amazed that my friend used his miles to get first class tickets to Greece from these travels for himself and his new wife for his honeymoon. I figured that would never happen for me.


As first a commercial banker, then credit research analyst, then a fixed income analyst on both the buy side and sell side I made a few trips, but it was really pretty sporadic and I earned no status. Then in 2000, I discovered FlyerTalk. It was a whole world of crazy people that were as obsessed about travel and the ins and outs of frequent flyer programs. I was laid off from my job following 9/11 and tried developing my own business, with only marginal success. There was pretty much NO opportunity for business travel and by now I had pretty much accepted my fate as never really having a job where I traveled much, if at all. Business travel never lost its appeal, however, and I wondered how I would really like the life. Was it a matter of having to be careful what one wished for?

Then it all changed.

Out of the blue in the Spring of 2007, I was offered my dream job. I was a technical expert in a financial product / asset class on the west coast of the U.S. I was thrust into basically traveling as a job all over the west coast and every six weeks or so back to the company’s east coast headquarters. I was traveling every week for 2-3 days, which was the perfect mix of being away and being home. I quickly became 2P, then 1P, then in December 2008, I hit 1K!!! I was also a Hilton Diamond and I LOVED IT. Due to my lurking on FT for so long, I knew my way around the programs, the planes, the airports, etc. I loved it every bit as much as I hoped and knew I would. Its definitely irrational – I really should love to be home and to some extent I do. But there is something about being out of the office, out of town, meeting new people, talking, and eating and traveling full time for a living. IT WAS AWESOME. It is totally silly to love it as much as I did. I felt lucky EVERY DAY – it sounds nuts, but I really did think how lucky I was EVERY DAY, that I had the best job I ever had, and that the travel was as thrilling as I had imagined. I started to bring my family on some of the more interesting trips – to OR, to HI, and a wonderful week in Jackson Hole, WY where I spoke at a conference. My 2 year old son talked about the horse he rode for a year (we actually went back on our own).


Then in March 2009, as I was about to walk into a 7:30 AM meeting in Walnut Creek, CA , I got a call that my job had been eliminated. No “sorry,” no offer to find another function within the company – nothing but “See YA!”

I was crushed.

I thought about the normal things like loss of income, and “what do I do now in this market?” I also thought about the fact that I just made 1K three months earlier and didn’t even get to enjoy it . I swear I actually had that thought despite the much bigger problems I faced.


I have been looking for a similar job for almost two years now. I am fortunate that my wife has a senior management position for a name brand company and makes a good living. So, things could be far worse – I get that. And I know that there are a lot of laid off business travelers or workers with their travel curtailed. I joke that I am destined for some cubical job, but I am not sure its a joke. I really want my life back. I really fear losing my newly won world for good – a world that I wanted for so long, finally got, and lost within two years. I want my RCC and 1K status – I want MY LIFE BACK!

As we enter 2011, the job market in financial services seems to be picking up. So I am hopeful. So MAYBE 1K? . . . . .maybe not. We will see.

UA Mike

This is really sort of a sad thread. I'm starting to feel really fortunate (and somewhat guilty) that I was able to re-qualify for 1K again this year. I flew the most BIS miles (129K) this past year than in any other year since I joined MP back in 1984. I know for most folks on here that is not a huge amount of BIS miles but it was definitely a lot for me

I was 1K-lite last year and really enjoyed the perks. With the higher fares I'm seeing so far this year to my favorite MR destinations, I'm not sure that I'll be able to re-qualify for next year. I do hope to be able to fly enough this year to really enjoy 1K.

SQPPS

GraceB and I are on the same page...

All SWU's kissed goodbye, but who cares; we'll have much better experiences for a few dollars more on the other companies.

Chapel Hill Guy

This is what happened to me last year. I've made 1K the last two years on my own dime as work travel has evaporated. It just got too expensive to fly the long-haul transpac/transatl routes I'd need to hit 1K (I have neither the time nor the inclination to fly a bunch of transcons).

With capacity down, I don't see fares coming down anytime soon, so I made the decision last year to give up on 1K after nine straight years and settle at 1P this year. And if fares stay high, I'll likely settle for 2P next year.

I've also concluded that hotel points are a lot more valuable to me than miles. Sure it's nice to fly international F/C, but at the end of the day I'm spending a lot more time in hotel rooms than I am sitting on planes. So I'm concentrating all my cc spend, for example, on acquiring hotel points rather than miles.

UA_Flyer

Yes, I did. Did I imply I lost status in my post?

Yes, already there. My wife has asked me to make sure she flies enough to make at least 1P each year. We have been taking a few creative routings recently.

Mike Jacoubowsky

Just to be clear, in my year as a 1K, I was not a bin hog, I turned down five UDUs, three of which were transcons, got to use only two of my SWUs, and didn't even board on the red carpet when they were already boarding seating area 1. Well, OK, I did do that one time, but I felt really sheepish about doing so.

work2fly

multi-year 1k to GM

It was a fun ride while it lasted.

MrAOK

It's Feb. 1. Not only my Premier status, but my elite status has vanished because I didn't travel much last year.

Is this what a mere Mileage Plus "member" is supposed to feels like?

The emptiness. The phone calls to India. The drop in compensation for problems. The Red Carpet lounges. No more priority.

Ahh the way it used to be ...

Anyone sharing my grief today?