Who: Business development manager in charge of Asia-Pacific region at a U.S.-based NGO.
When: Requalified for 1K first week of November while on a "dollar run" to ensure I crossed the $10,000 PQD threshold. The run was on a reasonable Copa P fare ORD-PTY-EWR-ORD.
How: 85% of my travel is for work, and 80% of that is to Asia, India, or the Middle East. The remainder is leisure. I usually take 1-2 mileage runs per year to play it safe, though ever since moving into a new role at work a couple of years ago that requires overseas travel, the MRs have been more fun than functional. I don't churn cards or do much gaming of the system, so the vast majority of my miles earned are BIS. I do accept F/J buy-up offers when they are reasonably priced.
Where: SIN, TPE, LHR, TLV, HKG, NRT, DEL, CCU, CGK, ICN and some domestic destinations.
Why: I'm relatively new to upper tier status, having reached 1k for the first time in 2013. For me, upgrades are everything, especially when traveling on business knowing that I have to hit the ground running upon arrival. Work only allows us to book into economy, though we are encouraged to book W, Q, V etc. and use our own instruments to upgrade. Thus, 1K status is important and practical for me. Miles are also important, since I use them to book leisure travel for my wife and I.
What: Having never tracked my spend before, I thought that $10K would be difficult to reach and worried that I'd lose 1k for 2015. I was pleasantly surprised that I qualified without much difficulty, but with the increase to $12k minimum PQD for 2016 qualification, things are again in doubt. It looks like my travel patterns will be similar this year, but I likely will fly about 20% more for work in 2015 than I did in 2014, which I hope will keep me at 1k for another year. I have about 40,000 miles booked before the March 1 doomsday in an effort to collect as many miles as possible while they are still calculated by distance, and after that, it looks like I'll be booking mostly Q fares for business travel. Should be an interesting year!
