Should I just for EXP?
 

I'm currently at 96,728 eqm's. My international job is going away Jan1 and I most likely won't be travelling internationally next year. I will actually be leaving the company. I have a trip next week (tickets in hand) that is a grueling trip to the UK that I can skip, it's up to me. It's a Sun-Thurs with hours on the road in England.

Should I go just to gain EXP? Is it worth it? I know this is a tired subject so I appologize for the redundancy, but I'm curious what some of you veterans would do. My travel next year is likely to be domestic and not extensive. I have about 50 upgrade stickers in the bank.

Thanks

Do you think you might take some additional, personal trips, beyond the minimal work-related trips? If so, I'd say go for it. If it really is just a few domestic trips, and you have a bunch of stickers, it may not be worth it, especially a less-than-pleasant trip as you've painted it :)

Cheers.

Thanks for the quick reply.

If I take a personal trip it is likely to be Hawaii and we'll use miles. My gut says unless I get another international gig, it's not really worth it. And since I'm 3 year into this gig, I'm not actively looking for another one.

Thanks again.

If I were in your shoes, I'll take the trip and shoot for EXP for the following reasons.

1. If you're EXP next year, you would have status for one additional year. Plat in 2010 and Gld in 2011.

2. All your domestic upgrades would be free and you can save your stickers for another time. Saves you money and stickers.

3. EVIPS. Free upgrades on international and domestic fares. You can also give them away if you choose - you'd have more friends.

4. Flight is already paid for. Get a book, ipod, movies, and laptop for the trip.

5. If the 4 reasons above do not convince you, don't do it. You don't deserve it and would mess up my chances for an upgrade. :D

I've never been EXP (PLT for several years, though). Everything I've read on here, and from what I've seen at the gate in terms of upgrades ... I'd say go for it since you are so close.

It would be a different story if you had, say, 20,000 miles to go. But less than 5,000 miles to attain that status?

Personally, I wouldn't hesitate considering all the bennies that come with... not when you moments away... :)

Safe travels!

You never know what 2009 will bring. Even if you don't take the trip it's worth the 4,000 miles to know you'll have EXP next year and the 8 eVIPs. You could take a domestic MR before the end of the year to get to EXP.

Just my 2 cents!

Good luck whatever you decide.

What type of business are you in?
 

I myself would like to have a job that offered me the opportunity to travel, more so internationally. All of my travel is on my dime, and its mostly leisure.

Way too easy a decision. Though there may be some merit in taking a domestic MR if the London trip is too demanding.

In addition to the pros listed by others above, you'll get all of those pesky fees waived and higher priority / greater availability for just about everything.

Here's my expert, super complicated quantitative analysis of the situation....

yes. :)

Seriously, for any level I'd say if you're within 5k miles, it's a no brainer.

5k - 10k: Probably as could do two trips to the west coast or get creative with routings.

10k-20k: Starting to second guess.

20k+: Only if I know for sure my travel patterns will be about the same or more for the following year. But I'd probably take the drop.

Definitely do it
 

you`re leaving so why on earth will it be grueling? It should be the boodoggle of your lifetime........

Domestic EXP
 

I'm a domestic EXP, and the amount of upgrades that I have not gotten this year is less than 10 out of 109 segments so far, a few of those were because I got to a gate to standby for an earlier flight that was in the boarding process already..

Go for it, you can use the stickers to upgrade friends, or next year when you drop to PLT.

Silly question if you ask me, but I also did a few MR's to get EXP the first time.

I have not flown internationally in about 10 years..

In the face of superior numbers (and reasoning) I retract my previous statement and also agree that you should go for it.

Cheers.

I'm in software sales. I took over responsibility for Europe and after a year in coach flying on multiple airlines I found out about the Plat challenge and Flyertalk. Unfortunately we have a new VP who wanted to hire someone in the UK to take over, and I'd move to a new role. Now they aren't hiring anyone and I'm moving on as of 12/31.

Thanks all for the input, I've decided to take the trip. The big benefit as I see it is that it ensure Plat for 2010 if I don't fly next year. That's worth a few days of suffering and eating humble pie.

Yeah, I'm going to do it. Pretty funny that my flight to LHR gets me 7 miles short of EXP.......

Just curious. If I made it to, say 100,101 on my outbound flight on Monday, would I have access to EVIPs for the return on Thursday?

Doubtul but possible, but who knows.. I just talked to the EXP desk about another vip issue I had, and the AAgent said something about the computers was causing a delay in evips being credited when people requalify. She said it is taking a couple of weeks for the system to see them.. Luckily I requalified in July, so mine are avail :)