--Once a year, at Xmas-New Year's, the Economist does a 2-week issue.
--For those who can't read the article, it doesn't say that much: just that the number of miles is growing a lost faster than the number of seats/flights, and therefore inflation is resulting (modestly now as award flights become harder to get or effectively cost more miles; more dramatically, goes the prediction, in the future.
--They said this before some years ago, and the sky is still up there.
--But my personal philosophy, not necessary good for anyone else, is carpe diem, and I try to spend my miles about as fast as I get them.

Interesting discussion. So much so that last night, while listening to my Iowa State Cyclones get beaten by the Horny Toads (or whoever), I pulled out my files relating to my travel in the 1980s and did a walk down memory lane. I was surprised at what I saw . . .

During the mid- to late-1980s, the two Frequent Flyer programs I was most intimately familiar with were United�s Mileage Plus and TWA�s Frequent Flyer programs. While I was also a member of American�s, I didn�t fly them very much (I did, however, date one of their stewardesses, but that�s a different story ). So, I dug out the literature, including the award charts for various years, to see what was offered in the �good old days� compared to now.

Awards varied a bit over the early years as �tweaks� were made, but in general they remained surprisingly consistent from year to year until 1988 and 1989 when the major changes were made.

United�s Mileage Plus did indeed offer its �cheapest� free ticket at 50,000 miles. However, according to the Mileage Plus Program Guide dated September 1985, it was not a coach class ticket, but rather a First Class domestic round-trip ticket with a companion upgrade, and along with the ticket, for that 50K miles you also received (remember this??) three free nights at a Westin, Hyatt or Meridian hotel and also two free weekend days of a rental car! Ah, the good old days . . .

And in those days, the minimum mileage for every United segment was 750 miles, not today�s 500 miles.

TWA also had a fascinating program. Before the changes in 1988 (effective in mid-1989), the awards included:

- 50,000 miles would get you two domestic coach class round-trip tickets; or
- 50,000 miles would get you one First Class round-trip ticket . . . to Europe . . . along with a companion upgrade; or
- 60,000 miles would get you TWO coach class round-trip tickets to Europe; or
- 85,000 miles would get you TWO Ambassador (Business) class round-trip tickets to Europe; or (my very favorite)
- 90,000 miles would get you TWO First Class round-trip tickets to Europe.

Now, those �two� ticket awards did not have to be used at the same time, like the current Lufthansa two-ticket Companion awards. You could (as I did with one of the 90,000 mile awards) use one ticket and keep the other to use later.

And, the awards did not end with the flights. Along with these awards went certificates for 50% discounts on hotel stays, and free rental car days.

And, like United, each segment on TWA carried a minimum of 750 miles.

Other TWA program benefits included making Silver after 5,000 miles in a twelve-month period, which gave you unlimited upgrades to Business on domestic three-class flights (with an unrestricted fare), and making Gold after 30,000 miles, or four trans-Atlantic segments (two round trips) in a twelve-month period. Gold gave you unlimited free upgrades to First Class on domestic flights, and to Ambassador class on trans-Atlantic flights. (An unpublished benefit was that they would upgrade a Gold�s companion as well.)

And did I mention � you earned miles based on the class of service flown, not (as today) the class of service purchased. That meant your free upgrade to domestic First or international Ambassador class carried with it the class-of-service bonus.

Gawd, I loved that program!!!!!

Anyway, in 1988 they announced a change (effective in mid-1989) that generally raised the mileage cost for awards across the board, but they added:

- 20,000 miles for a domestic coach class round-trip ticket. This was their �standard� award; unlike United (see below), there was no �twice the price gets you any seat�.

At about the same time, United also announced changes to their Mileage Plus awards. Included in the new award chart were the �Saver Awards� where for 20,000 miles you could get a free domestic coach class round-trip ticket (30,000 miles for Hawaii). As Randy points out, the Saver Awards did come with some restrictions, which could be avoided by paying double miles, i.e., 40,000 for an unrestricted domestic coach class round-trip ticket, or 60,000 if you wanted to go to Hawaii.

Now here�s the interesting point: Obviously concerned about the perception that the Saver Awards would be difficult to get, in its United Report of June 1988 United stated,

The same guarantee appears in the following issue of United Report.

Ah, if they�d only continue the same guarantee . . .

A couple of moderately interesting side points:

For years TWA allowed miles earned before 1 July 1989 to be used against the old award chart, and as late as 2000 I was able to redeem a 90,000 mile award under that chart. What you received was a pair of certificates that you had one year to use to book a flight, so essentially you had *two* years after they cancelled the use of the old chart to actually fly. Furthermore, after American took over, they honored the certificates issued by TWA. For a trip report on one of the award trips, click here.

In those days United�s Mileage Plus had a rather eclectic group of partners. Not just Lufthansa and SAS as you might expect, but also British Airways, Air France, Alitalia, Swissair, and KLM (all limited to flights or round-trips originating in the US and Canada, though).

Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane. Those were truly the days.