Well, finally crossed 2MM.
Earned 1MM in 2010,
days after stockholders agreed to the the UA/CO merger. Got the Lucite block and LT Gold but nothing on the flight.
Joined UA MP in 1985 and had a relatively low membership number 0001....... but let the corporate travel department schedule travel for years, regularly using LH TATL and occasionally BA/AF/.... Nearly all personal travel was award travel. It wasn't until I became aware of FT in the mid-2000's that I learned about MM status and the UA only metal rule.
The second million include a 10-year stretch as 1K-lite influence by FT, retirement and involvement in non-profit & conferences with a couple international trips annually (meaning no paid business
) but with FT's help 100% success of GPUs (and traded RPUs for GPUs). Once 2MM looked like a real possibility and needing upgrades, did focus on UA metal. Travel for the organization / conferences dropped to zero during the COVID years.
Being SFO based and regularly doing midcons / transcons continued UA focused travel is a no brainer but with 2MM done and if PremEcon pricing is better elsewhere, may be looking at other carriers. Bottomline I am not a PQP traveler
So how did the 2MM flight go --
I started getting regular emails from UA about being close to 2MM when when about 10K short. Tend to travel monthly.
Day of travel got a app message, today's flight was it. Note I made no attempt to reach out to UA.
Nothing particular odd happened on boarding (although there was some "excitement" about the flight discussed elsewhere)
Just before a slightly delayed pushback, during pilot's briefing, the captain mentioned "we have a special passenger today" and announced I was making 2MM that flight. Did use my last name but not my seat assignment. A bit later a FA doing predeparture trash pickup mentioned it and congratulated me. This caught the notice of my seatmate (an 1K), "was that you they are talking about?".
We then proceeded to depart (transcon), and I thought that's it?
Just prior to landing the purser came by and said the caption came back to talk but you were asleep (I tend to sleep on the last half of the flight traveling west in the evening), She had the "coin"
, a card from the caption and a card from the crew. All in all, appreciated.
Seems UA has gotten much more organized in MM inflight recognition.
All-in-all, while inconsistent at times, UA has ment far more positive than negatives. Out of 1,200 UA operated flights, only 1 forced overnight due to UA operations, only 2 others due to closed airports.