Life's too short for coach.

Thanks to Flyertalk, I don't need to fly coach.

But we all have our preferences, and noone views award travel quite the same way as anyone else.

My miles are first and foremost for upgrades. Second for free international premium class tickets.

If my primary goal was to see the world and not spend any money, and I was in a position of needing to stretch my miles (as opposed to having a 7 figure balance of miles) I'd probably want coach awards.

Instead, I have lots of miles. I really want to enjoy the travel itself as much as the destination. And I have more miles and less time to use them. If I was traveling all year for leisure I might be in a position of conserving cash and stretching miles. Instead, I work most of the time and the little bit of true leisure I get I want to make the most of.

I've claimed two coach awards in my life.

* One was a same-day transcon for a funeral back before I even knew awards other than the 25k coach saver award existed.

* The other was to the Freddies in COS this year. It was a personal out of pocket trip. I was flying UA out of DCA, which meant DCA-ORD mainline and ORD-COS RJ. An F award would have upgraded only the DCA-ORD flights, so it didn't seem worth it. Plus I mooched a DCA-ORD upgrade on the coach award anyway.

Otherwise, it's all C and F, baby!!

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View from the Wing: A blog about Free Miles and Free Markets