Hi,

In April of this year, I passed the 10 million mile threshold in Program to Date Miles on AA. After the movie "Up in the Air", I was hoping for something more than just another million mile rollover. Well, I got the standard letter and four more SWUs. I was pretty disappointed. I would have been happy with a phone call and a "Thanks for passing 10MM". Bummer.

That all changed near the end of May. I got a phone call from the AA executive offices inviting me and a guest to fly up to Seattle for three days. During that time, we would meet some AA executives, take a Boeing plant tour, and witness AA taking formal delivery of their second 737 with the new Skyinterior. We would then get on the plane and fly to DFW on the plane's first flight as an AA plane. AA would then fly us back home. All airfare, hotel, and food paid for by AA.

WOW! That is, by far, the coolest thing any company has ever offered me. The tragedy was this was supposed to happen June 8-10, and we were leaving on June 8 to visit our daughter in Hong Kong (and meet her boyfriend's Dad for the first time). So, we didn't go to the AA event. Bummer.

To anticipate a few questions:

1) How do I know it really was AA calling, perhaps it was a prank? (That's the first thing my wife said when I told her). Well, there is no way to be sure. The phone number the call was placed from was blocked. The person I talked to clearly had reviewed my Aadvantage account and knew some details about me that only someone who had seen it would know. Also the timing (within 8 weeks of passing the 10MM threshold), seems to argue against a prank. If is was a prank, it was the most convincing prank I've ever experienced.

2) Did AA state this was for crossing 10MM? No. The person I talked to said it was "to show appreciation for my loyalty and business." So, perhaps it wasn't for crossing 10MM and it was just an incredible coincidence. However, my wife spends about as much with AA as I do, and no invitation for her. She has about 3MM lifetime miles.

3) How did I earn the that many miles? Slightly more than half of it was from Bank Direct. About 1.6 million of them came last year when AA offered a 35% bonus for converting hotel points into AA miles. I converted every hotel point I had in every program. Probably 500K came from FTD. Another 500K or so came from credit card spending (long ago before I switched over primarily to SPG Amex). The remainder came from flying. And there was an incredible thing with BankDirect. For those of you who follow BankDirect, you know that they recently reduced the number of miles we get if you have more than 200K in the account. The very last month we got the old rate, was the month I went over 10MM. That was kind of poetic.

4) Did the movie "Up in the Air" have anything to do with you trying to hit 10MM? You bet it did! I had a ton of money parked in BankDirect specifically to earn miles. My wife and I started with BankDirect just to help us earn lifetime platinum. Once we got that, I didn't really care anymore. But the movie's goal (10MM lifetime miles) was something I thought was cool, and so I started moving as much cash as I could into BankDirect. I probably hit 10MM 10-15 years earlier than I would have had I not been inspired by the movie. The goal of 10MM was also a major driving factor in my mass conversion of hotel points during the 35% bonus promotion.

Edited to add:

Today (July 12), I got a package that contained a model 777 with a plaque on the base that reads "With appreciation for your loyalty and in honor of you achieving 10 million Aadvantage Miles"