Yesterday over Thanksgiving dinner, I met with a friend who is a prominent Harvard business school professor.

During the conversation, I found out that he is also 1K. Apparently, he travels on paid C fares to Asia and Europe. In a summer trip to PEK, he and his family were in economy, and he complained about how crappy UA's economy seats are.

So I asked: do you know that you can upgrade them using SWUs?

He said, "SWUs"? "What SWUs"?

I was speechless. So I asked him to email me his MP number.

Today, I set up his password at united.com, registered etc. Then I clicked E-Upgrade Summary.


I fainted.

It shows:

5 SWUs expired on 2/1/2007

Total of 8 CR1s expired in 2007

In addition, he has 8 SWUs, about to expire in 12/31/2007 and 1/31/2008.

So I took over his MP account, become his manager, and booked a Christmas trip to Europe for his family of 4, and upgraded all.

Meanwhile, I looked at his itinerary:

he booked standard coach awards BOS-ORD-MCO (Ted), at 50,000 miles each. Total 200,000 miles. geez

I strongly objected this based on the value of 200,000 miles. Apparently this business school professor was convinced, and I canceled this crazy mileage award reservation for him. A nonstop ticket on JetBlue costs $300 or less. He saved 200,000 miles, enough to book 2 tickets in business class to PEK for summer 2008 Olympics.

I shall have some SWUs CR1s as commission next year based on my hard work, he agreed.