This is the year that the three years of being a Flyertalk devotee is really paying off. I found this site a few days after mailing off my first 50,000 miles worth of Healthy Choice pudding vouchers in May 99. I thought the pudding was a cheap way to get a trip to Barbados. Now I am earning and burning >700,000 miles/year and all my travel is leisure or mileage runs.

UA First class SFO-AMS for my wife and I = 200,000 miles burned. The 55,555 Star Alliance promo was > 400,000 earned.

BA First Class this December-January holiday for SFO-Geneva is 190,000 burned. Diners Club promo for BA and AA miles transfers put >100,000 in those accounts.

Helped relatives with last minute international tickets.

The entire year has been upgraded except for the $135 Lufthansa Denver-Frankfurt tickets last April and the United Express flights in California and the short flights I did on the Star carriers for those 55,555 bonus miles.

Travel has been very good to me this year.