Who: Product development engineer for a semiconductor manufacturer. Lots of travel this year for conferences and training our teams on Agile processes and tools. Also a competitive Masters swimmer.
When: Made Gold earlier this week when miles from my last AUS trip posted
How: Half a dozen business trips to AUS plus a conference in MCO. Fairly high personal travel year too, with several east coast trips, but 2.5 of those were award travel.
Where: SYR/ITH AUS GSO PEN PHL DEN KEF MCO BOS
Why: Decided to put in the extra effort to concentrate on UA and get Gold for the E+ access. I actually had 4 CPUs as a silver, though I'm not sure sure IAH-AUS counts as a big upgrade. Lots of respect for the 1Ks/GS, but I don't really aspire to that much flying--I like to get in lots of swimming and camping every year too.
What: Three AUS trips already planned for Q1 2013, plus MCO for a conference and KOA for vacation. With various other trips, getting Gold by ~July shouldn't be too much of a stretch.