Is anybody keen to boast total points accumulated ? I am ...

Since 1993, using programs such as AMEX, VISA, QANTAS, HILTON, UNITED and STARWOOD, total is ...

... 6.2m

Most extravagent trip taken ... 4 people RTW, 1st class + Hilton Accomodation ... 2.1m points


PAUL

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keep those miles (km) coming ... paul

While i think i can easily double your total miles/points, i know that i can't come close to your extravagent trip. That is really amazing. Was is for your parents? Honeymoon or a gift to a great biz partner? I'm more of that thrifty guy who redeems in coach because i'd like to go more often than just once in style. But 2.1 mil. for one award trip is very, very cool. Congrats.

I am lucky if I fly 5,000 miles a year, and I was very proud of the fact that I was able to get 2 Business Elite tix to Italy for our honeymoon--cost--160,000 miles. I would love to hear how you spent 2 million miles on a single trip.

I've only been addicted to... I mean collecting miles/points for abt 4 years. So far I guess abt 1 million total.

I'm a member since 93 and only accumulated 260k miles. I wasn't addicted to miles until last year when AA had the 20 partners promo.

~2.5 million in AA/BA/TWA

Most extravagant expenditure 235K: 125K for father to take trip on Concord (in Oct, thankgoodness for household accounts) AND booked same day 110k as a wedding present to friends for a May trip IAD to Lihue. Talk about cognitive dissonance, happy to do it for them but actually WITHDRAWING the miles, goes against my whole philosophy at the moment

2.1 M on one trip is impressive. That trip is a candidate for a trip report! I for one wouldn't mind living vicariously by reading it.

edited due to inability to do simple arithmetic


[This message has been edited by Mvic (edited 03-06-2002).]

I always worry about extravagant accountants!

10 YR ANNIVERSARY PRESENT TO MY FAMILY ...

4 x 1st class tickets RTW = 1.6m

Me, Wife, Son and My good mate

SYDNEY > LA QF (1 night)
LA > NY QF (6 nights)
NY > LONDON BA (7 nights)
LONDON > HK CP
HK > SYDNEY QF

HILTON ACCOMODATION 420k

BEVERLEY HILTON
NEW YORK HILTON
LANGHAM HILTON

The only thing I regret is not being able to take the CONCORDE on the NY/LON leg. Maybe next time.

MukMuk, you are a very wise person !

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keep those miles (km) coming ... paul

So far the only person with more miles is Randy, and not by much. On the subject of extravagent miles/points useage, three (3) honeymoon trips (my sister and two of our three daughers) each at approximately 600k miles per gift.

Thanks to Australian Rules, we do not have a limit on FF points by Credit Card use. I just used up 7 million miles in the last 6 months and have had (over 5 years) some 38,000,000 miles pass through my account (not to mention a loss of 2 million points when Ansett died).

I got almost 3 million points buying the building my company is in on my Diners Club card (back then it was 1.5 points per dollar) and Diners negotiated a rate of 1.1% (so this was $0.0073 (Aussie) per mile or 0.0037c (US) per mile), quite a good bargin as for AUD$22,000 (US$11,000) I got 3 million miles.

Well over 10M earned. Even though my credit card bills are quite large and I also use diners (and AM-Ex), most of it still comes from flying.

Nothing extravagent. First/Business for five for holidays. Many F/J international award seats for a family member to go along with if AM-Ex can't do it. I've gone back to booking coach for domestic vacations with the whole family as long as it's E+ or exit rows. Domestically, I really can't tell the difference anymore, expecially if the person in the coach seat next to me is my daughter.

Oh yeah: Best award feature: My parents got to fly for free whenever they wanted to go somewhere the last ten years or so of their lives.

[This message has been edited by LAOCA (edited 03-10-2002).]

Geez, I knew land was cheaper in Australia, but $22k USD seems a bit cheap for buying a while building. Can you elaborate a bit more?

I'd just be curious to know what realty company takes Diners Club? Particularly for a commercial transaction as described down under. I realize many churn miles through their Visa and other credit cards, but these cannot be used in most financial transactions that would amass hundreds of thousands of miles per transaction. There is, afterall, the percentage deducted by the card issuer -- did you pay the vendor a markup? -- not to mention the 2 to 5 cents per mile paid by the credit card company to the airline for the miles.

Not to mention one's credit limit: a $3 million credit limit, even in Australian dollars, is quite an achievement. Unless you prepaid the $3 million into your Diner's account -- less a few grand for the existing credit limit -- and then made the charge.

But then, anything in Australian business doesn't surprise me. That being the land of Allan Bond, Chris Skase, and assorted less scam artists of the 80s and 90s. No offence meant to my Aussie colleagues, but this post does defy my ability to believe it without a bit more substantiation. If this were the case, many more of us would be doing it regularly and our accounts would be in the stratosphere.

I think the 22,000.00 was the fees paid, not the total transaction price. And the realty company wouldn't have had to take Diner's, just the seller.

I once looked into using my Diners for a transaction worth several hundred thousand dollars when negotiating a company function. Diner's was very happy to accommodate. And yhey understood the reason was because of miles only commenting that their marketing people would be pleased to know what a great idea they had. Unfortunately, the fees at the establishment made it prohibitively expensive taking everything into consideration.

While I closely guard the total number of points I have earned, (you never know who might be reading) I really think it is neat to share mile/point use experiences and plans. We are saving our miles and points for retirement and I love great ideas on how to use them down the road.

So far we have primarily used miles for emergency trips, and gifts--Christmas presents, first class honeymoon tickets to Mexico for an employee, a business class reward to Rome for a grand-nephew who won a full scholarship to Notre Dame.

This year for my 40th class reunion, I have started a contest where I will give a free (mileage, of course) airplane ticket to the class member who encourages the most other class members to attend the party.

The only personal use we have made of miles is Biz class BA tickets SEA/LHR, 1st LHR/AGP, AGP/BCN, BCN/PMI, PMI/LGW and then Biz LHR/SEA for Hunki, Peregrine, our daughter and me. That was a great trip and would have been quite pricey had we paid $$$.

I am toying with the idea of spending 1,000,000 for the HHonors award that provides an African safari for 8 people. Doesn't that sound fun?

Look forward to hearing more about your great ideas and experiences.