I have flown all my life, tons in fact, as a son of a 33 year Air Canada employee I flew everywhere very often respecting the fact it was a privilege and not a right and to never complain nor ask for anything (old school)!

In the military, flown many times on many aircraft, including jumping out of perfectly good flying aircraft: cool:

...and of course through leisure and work. This past year as I am not working (still looking though) my mom who lives in Vancouver suffered a stroke right in front of me hours before we were going to leave for LAX for a mom & son trip. I like to take my mom on trips and we have fun together as my dad, the Air Canada employee passed away three years ago so my mom is alone. She was hospitalized for three months and now lives in a long term residence in Vancouver. I live in Ottawa and I flew out every ten days or so to look after my mom, her house, her financial affairs etc. I flew through the US many times as the AC fares are very expensive through Canada so I flew through the US on AC and UA and BINGO five months later 100,000 miles. I utilized many strategies to maximize my time and benefits and had a lot of fun doing so.

She is my mom, I only have one mom and I love her, so I have to look after her as my %$@*^$ brother sits in Toronto waiting for his payday which I hope does not occur for a very long time. As a grown man with my own family I still cry for my mom and I am proud of it!

That is how I made Super Elite in five months all through leisure on my own dime as I have the time to go back and forth to look after my mom and now I have the SE bug and need a job that allows me to keep flying while on company business! ^