I still have my temporary membership card from Alaska Airline and a statement dated 2/1/94-4/30/94. The statement shows a beginning balance of 5780 miles, but no explanation of where they came from. The next time I earned miles was June of 95. By the end of 95 I was up to 26,000 miles and I was starting to get the mile bug. '96 saw me at 34K, 97 I was up to 60K, 98 was 80K, 99 121K. 2000 I became an official addict and earned about 70K additional. So far in 2001 I have earned over 50K.

Sadly the rest of the year I won't earn many more miles. I'm finally going to use some of them. I leave June 15th for Africa and will be traveling for 12 months on a mileage ticket.