Being relatively new in the "earning" category (2 years?), I've still got a long ways to utilising ALL possibilities for earning capacity. Then watch out! I'll be bursting with miles and wild with FF euphoria.

At the beginning of this calendar year, I had a total of over 250,000 ff miles between three accounts, and not wanting to part with any. My first ff miles redemption was a domestic RT EUG-DCA, booked at 8 pm Monday, departed 6 am Tuesday, and returning on Thursday. Boy, what power, how extravagant, what a whim! Saw a Dali exhibit in DC, met FTers at an Irish Pub, and got some online booking bonuses from Starwood. It felt great doing something that normally I would not even act upon. That flight would have cost me over 2100 dollars, one less FT opportunity (midweek? rare), and more Dali research.

Like geo1004 and others, I pay for my own plane tickets out of my own pocket, so spending miles for the DREAM department is a good way to go. I have since used another 50,000 miles to take an employee to WDW, and have a trip to NYC on hold. I will not part with miles to upgrade, since legroom is not an issue with me. Although getting upgraded by status over 15 segments this year gives me another perspective and I may be getting spoiled and fat (too much cheesecake in FC). I made my first extensive mileage run for triple miles this July, and I'm currently planning the rest of year's itinerary to utilize mileage earnings and achieve status quotas. In the future, I plan to use miles for a friend to accompany me on a trip, and I also want to keep a large stash for in case of an emergency as others have mentioned.

What can I say? I love earning miles, and I love spending them. The planning of the whole scenario is my hobby. You better believe I'm a list maker! And there went the garden, the aquarium, the collecting....

Linda