I think a lot more folks fly the big miles than we sometimes think. A neighbour of mine used to fly weekly to SFO on UA as he had a medical consulting business there. He just liked SYD due to weather, and family and religious ties here so came back for weekends. Had an apartment in SFO that doubled as his small office, and for him it worked out fine.

It usually cost him only about $A1,500 (then only about $US750) round trip, and he'd book bulk tickets whenever cheaper deals were running, and used 15% off certs etc.

The SFO flight leaves early afternoon and arrives morning in SFO. It leaves SFO late evening and arrives early morning here.

Remember that a RT runs about 15,000 miles, or 13 hours each way, and he'd do this 40 weeks a year, so without ANY other flying at all [f which he did often do intra USA] he was on around 600,000 flown miles a year right there just for the weekly "commute" to his office.

I am sure we all know folks who drive in grid-lock or travel by train 2-3 hours each way to the office each day - or 20-30 hours a week, so his commute to the office a week was similar - or actually less in hours than some of those folks.

He did it all in coach, and of course was one of UA's biggest flyers from here. He told me Sales Dept approached him now and again with offers of OP upgrades where possible, [hoping like heck he'd never defect to QF!] but oddly he did not like the UA biz seats, and instead did a deal with them that they'd always if space allowed block him off a full centre row of coach seats so he could lay flat and sleep. This would show as officially blocked on manifest, and others could not use them. He preferred that! He was a quiet doctor type, and very unassuming.

He did this for several years, and only stopped last year when he sold the business and retired. But there is one person I know locally who usually did about 700,000 flown on UA a year ..... nearly all in COACH!