Okay,
I am a CPA from AVL. Mid 40s, single, one cat. I am currently US1 (cockroach division). All of my travel is leisure oriented paid for out of my pocket. My usual destinations seem to be LGW, MUC, SEA, SAN and LAS. I will depart from AVL when the rates are reasonable, but otherwise it will be CLT or RDU. I became a US Preferred by accident in 1999. I took advantage of the inaugural CLT – LGW fares in June of that year. A few months later I received a postcard with a challenge to make Silver with so many segments or miles or one transatlantic trip. I tossed it and forgot about it. Later that year, BA had $199 fares from their gateway cities. Since CLT was one at that time I tried to get one of those flights and they were sold out. US had matched those fares so we booked on them. A few weeks after my return, I received the welcome kit for Silver. That was in November so it turned out that I was good through 2000. To see what “Preferred” was good for I Googled the term and found Flyertalk.