Well, you're talking about me. We usually take two trips a year, either both transatlantic or transcontinetal. We occassionally get one or two shorter trips in on top of those. Total annual miles, maybe 15,000 if we're lucky.

I fly United - with MP credit card and miles flown, we usually have enough to at least upgrade from a B fare, often enough to upgrade from an H or M.

Obviously we are not elite members, but with booking far in advance (9 -11 months), we usually can get what we want.

Also, with UA being part of *Alliance, we can do an occassional extra (April we are going to GLA for four days out of Toronto on AC) - and even though it will be in coach, at least we accumulate some miles at a fairly low price (at $470US not a mileage run, but not too bad)