Who: I work in finance for start-ups and specialize in international. I spent six months managing a series b with a fiancee in SF and commuting between LAX and PVG, with a fair amount of time in ICN. In August I left to run
Islais which operates two vertical retailers
Siggy.us (electronics for travelers) and soon
Qood.co which makes nutrition advice for new parents.
When: Sitting at my desk to move the last thousand, or so, EQMs from my Presidential Plus account.
How: Primarily via UA with a bunch of *A partners thrown in. My longest partner trips were on OZ and LH. I did a bunch of shorter trips on CA, SQ, BD and US. US, btw, positively surprised me. My last few EQMs were courtesy of Chase. My travel pattern has been the same from previous years (i.e. an intercontinental trip per quarter and a bunch of domestics). I recently went on the
Lawrence University alumni board, so I'm visiting ATW twice a year.
Where: Much of my work travel was on KE, which meant 70% RDMs on AS. (Would have been 0 EQM/RDM on Delta.) I did snag a few SFO-ICN-PVG-LAX-SFO laps on OZ/UA. Early in the year my partner and I did weekends in TXL (Berlin) and DUB from SFO. I routinely take a few laps to LAS/LAX/SEA/etc. For LAS I tend to go with VX/WN/UA depending on price. We did a trip SFO-PHX-EWR on US which was quite delightful; especially the surprisingly tasty at the PHX US Club. I'm travelling quite a bit less than in past years, and will probably not aim to requalify as a Gold next year.
Why:This game ain't as fun as it used to be. Back in the day (mid-2000s) upgrades were more plentiful, Presidents Clubs were FUN on Fridays and we had food in coach. This is harder to put a pencil on...but the team at UA seems increasingly angry. With my Presidential Plus credit card the big benefit of elite status is upgrades which have not been forthcoming. As a result, I'm increasingly driven by price on a per flight basis. I've been positively surprised by US and AA; DL/AS/VX/WN continue to meet expectations.
What: I spend miles primarily flying to expensive airports in Wisconsin like CWA and ATW. UA seems to have more availability than DL or AA. I'll continue to vacation on cheap tickets over long distances (i.e. SFO-EUR for <$500.) Status for me in 2014 is entirely dependent on whether I have business reasons to fly enough to justify travel. I do have 17,675 FEQMs, so I suspect Silver will be pretty easy to achieve...who knows I might be Gold again?