Ed,

This may not fit your preferences for vacation but substitute your enjoyment for what we did.

This summer I flew 4 of us in FC from SAT to SLC (reward tickets). Spent a week in Park City at the Marriott Vacation Club in a very nice 2BR condo for $500. Full kitchen saved us a few $$$ on food. Besides being a neat place itself we did a lot of sightseeing in the mountains.

I went on a guided fishing trip (just myself and a guide) and caught so many trout I quit counting.

Reward car rental for the 10 days. A couple of nights in a Marriott in downtown SLC and a Courtyard cost me nothing. Food was our largest expenditure.

No, my family isn't thrilled with me being gone so much but we make the most of it when I'm home. Also FC travel to almost anywhere in the world a couple of times a year helps soothe their nerves.

Who's to say that spending your time off in the home range is more sensible than me taking off on a trip? I like it, you don't. We're both right IMNSHO.

Regards.

You should annoy her into letting you pay for the trip and claim the VIPOWS for yourself. That is really hard to believe. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/eek.gif

Actually, your trip sounds wonderful to me. I wish I could do something similar.

My issue is that I simply cannot afford to pay for all the travel it must have taken you to be able to get all those rewards.

Our circumstances are different, and that's OK. My only point is that I now understand that most of the people on this board are comfortable with spending many thousands of dollars per year on travel, and I am not.

Ed

I LOVE to fly, and I wish I could do mileage runs, but I simply can't afford them.

Ed

I have to admit that I don't pay for 90% of my travel. It's mostly business and they let me keep all the points/miles.

Yes, from reading your well-written and entertaining trip reports to Australia/NZ last year, I know you like to fly and be on airplanes. That's wonderful. To say that most people who do mileage runs just plain like to fly is being too generous though. I love to travel (don't we all?) and I've done mileage runs, but I hate the actual hassle of flying. For me, the destination is the objective. I could care less how I get there. For others, not necessarily but possibly including you, the transit time gets them excited, although I wonder how excited people would be if they had to fly in coach for 36 hours. What I've tried to point out is that the economics of a mileage run need to be viewed against an individual's unique circumstances. I have no problem if someone else wants to do a mileage run if it makes sense for their personal objectives (I know that mileage runs make sense for some folks -- in fact, I enjoy reading about why people take them because I know the time and money, more the former than the latter, needed to take a mileage run really is a sacrifice), but to encourage someone to follow your hobby/passion without regard to their individual circumstances and goals is bad advice. For many, the large majority of the population, mileage runs are an extravagance. To say otherwise is to not recognize reality.

Although I also think JonNYC's friend should get on an airplane one more time this year to qualify for those VIPOWs, I can also completely understand her reluctance. She is already Platinum status on AA, she is already flying business class or better for her job, she already gets treated as well as she needs to be treated by the airlines, and she already has enough miles to upgrade the flights she wants to upgrade. What she probably doesn't have enough of is time, and going to Paris, Frankfurt, or London for the Nteenth time in her life (via Chicago in order to get the 10K status miles) in the wintertime just doesn't appeal to her. Even if she has the luxury of time, unless she is about to quit her job to travel around the world next year on discount economy fares, she really doesn't need those VIPOWs. There is nothing wrong with her point of view. She is as sane (and burnt out from traveling) as you or me.

As for the poster who wrote about getting 79,000 AA miles for $650 on a SIN run, was that possible this year (not last year)?

I also understand that. I know that there are many jobs that require lots of travel, and I imagine that many of the members of this board have those kinds of jobs.

However, I travel very little for my job. Maybe one domestic and one international trip per year. But I consider myself lucky: Most people I know NEVER travel for work.

I read this board because I love air travel and wish I could do more of it.

Ed

fallinasleep, I might have missed something here, but I haven't sensed anyone encouraging others to do mileage runs, regardless of their financial circumstances. What I have read in these posts is people describing their reasons for doing a mileage run or runs. While some may have done so enthusiastically, I haven't read of anyone saying "you too should do mileage runs!".

You state that for you, the destination is the objective. I would say that puts you in the normal majority of travelers. However, you are reading and posting at a site where the member's interest and or passion for flying actually has them going out of their way to read about and/or post their own tales. Aside from those folks you read about on this site, if you're like me most people you know could care less about whether they get there in First Class or Coach, or how they can maximize their miles, etc. They just want to get there and not pay too much doing it. Everything you're saying makes sense out in that everyday world where people just want to get there. Here however, a higher percentage of people also want to get there in style or for free. Unlike the general population, most of the folks here know how to do that and some are willing to do a mileage run or two (or five!) to meet their individual goals.

As for how excited people would be if they had to fly in coach for 36 hours, well, once you've reached that 50,000 mile level and above, (I'm talking about those people you mentioned earlier who do lots of mileage runs) even on mileage runs you'll be sitting up front more often than not. On the one M.R. I wrote of recently here, I was in First Class on 21 of 38 flights and my elite status got me some pretty good seats in coach when I did sit in back.

[This message has been edited by Seat 2A (edited 10-29-2002).]

That's exactly and precisely how she reacted to my excellent suggestion-- almost verbatim. Hey, in a way she (and you) are right.

OTOH, ht_redneck's suggestion is potentially an excellent one! For that matter, if I can con her out of all 16 VIPows, I can afford to fly her to Paris and put her up in a suite in The Four Seasons for the weekend and I'd still be ahead of the game-- I get the VIPows, she still gets the aadvantage of being EXP, right? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I hope she's not still following this thread...

A woman said something many years ago as I was leaving to drive from California to Massachusetts.

"Don't let the destination interfere with the trip."

I consider those wise words and that saying has always guided my travels.

FYI, if you carefully watch the fare sales and diligently plan mileage runs, you can get silver on NW for just over $900 if you're lucky. I know, I did it. So don't think you have to spend $1800 to get real benefits, they can be had for a lot less. Your mileage may vary, but right now for example you can go to PHX-LON for just over $300. That right there is in the neighborhood of 12,000 status miles.

Extremely wise words.

Never forget that the journey is about meeting people, seeing new things, experiencing culture shock, getting lost in a foreign place, depending on strangers for help, realizing that your Amex Centurion, AA Ex Plat, or complete lack of status means nothing to 99.999% of the world, having a bad stomach virus, looking forward to the journey home ... I'm not sure if it really matters in the end if you sat/slept in a First Suite or in a Third-Class Carriage*

*Honore Daumier. The Third-Class Carriage. 1860-63. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.

Quite true.
I can't speak for others, but I do mileage runs so that I can later get to a destination either for less money than it would otherwise cost or better yet get there in style, once again for less than it would actually cost. Once there, I can then experience all the aforementioned benefits (or detriments) of being in a different country and culture. Last year, $1200.00 worth of mileage runs financed my First Class trip between Alaska and New Zealand. Were I to have bought even an economy class ticket without benefit of a mileage run, it would have cost me close to $1500.00.

Oddly enough however, once I reach the destination, I'm definitely relegated to the Third Class Carriage (or hitch-hiking) and staying in hostels or camping. Go figure. Still, I meet some great people and have some great times of a type that would be far less likely to happen were I ensconced in some swank resort.

You are making the assumption that everyone is in the same boat. That is simply not true.
All my travel is personal. I don't do the "pure" milage runs, but I sure try to get away on weekends.
I don't consider LGA-DCA @ $116 overpriced. And visiting friends and family on a weekend LGA-ORD for $175 is well worth it to me.
And taking a long weekend LGA-MSY for $180 is certainly a fun mini-vacation.
It's all a matter of perspective. And keeping an eye on sales, and bonus opportunities has boosted my AA account from < 1K to over 300K in about 15 months.

Well, it is an unusual calculus. I travel a lot on business but not enough to get top tier on both airlines I fly. In the past I did, but less travel this year. So I thought about it and decided dp some pretty serious runs, especially on UA. The reasons? My wife and I go to Europe once or twice a year on vacation. Business on UAL is like $5000. As a 1K we pay between $0 and about $800 and fly business. I view that as saving about $8000 per trip! Then there is being stuck somewhere on a business trip due to a cancellation and being told there are 50 people on the waiting list for the next flight so forget about it and asking well, where am I on the list. "Oh, first." Thanks, aisle seat if you have it.

Despite all of the complaining, being a mid or top tier flyer helps make the lives of those who have to travel a lot enormously easier. It also lets us provide some nice benefits for our families when we travel with them. So JFK to NRT for a long weekend and some good (hopefully!) blowfish is on my agenda. And likely some good resturants in London and SF. I have a bunch of HK49s expiring.