Flying Withdrawal Syndrome
 

So I'm just 1522 miles away from requalifying for UA Premier Executive (1P) status. All of a sudden, I developed a psychological resistance of flying further this year. You see, I don't think I'll make 1K status because it would involve a lot more flying than I want to. But I still want to fly to San Diego to see Helene Grimaud playing Brahms #1 in October, to Philadelphia to see Martha Argerich and Linda Eder in November, and possibly to Hong Kong to see my aging father. But these trips won't make me 1K. I could work up some status on AA, but these trips would cost me more than I would on UA. So what can I do? Wanting to fly but not wanting to...

Forget the trips to nowhere, in my opinion. So you can't requalify -- it won't kill you.

I used to be gold or equivalent on 2 airlines (which is nothing compared to some FTers who are platinum on 3-4 airlines). For 2003, I'll be lucky to make 1 airline's silver. Blame the economy.

Take the trips to see your father and the concerts, but blow off the mileage runs to get status if you have these kinds of doubts. Perhaps your money and time are better spent in other areas.

Just my two cents as a mileage run veteran.

Take the trips you want to and enjoy the concert and visiting with your father. Take the flights because you will enjoy them or the destinations, but don't not take them because they won't generate enough miles.

Right now those trips may not generate enough miles to get to you the next tier level, but who knows, later on in the year you may take a few more unplanned trips and then those trips may be enough to push you over the threshold.

Who knows, you may end up close enough for 1k that you will get excited and antsy enough to take a mileage run! Stranger things have happened.

Yoosh! Dude! You're NORMAL again! Your ego is in line with the way it used to be before you got sick with the virus that is prevalent here. Congratulations! I think that this is really great!

But go see your dad anyhow, even though it does require getting into the magic aluminum tube. Life is too short not to link with your family. My dad is dying and I do regret not seeing him more often, many years ago when I had more time to do so and he was in better health. Then you should spend every minute you think of flying learning to play the Cello or somesuch. Or study French. Whatever. Substitute and move on for the next 5 months.

You are so my hero right now...

After years of multiple airline Elite status, getting free upgrades @ Hilton & Marriott, I am in a job with no travel.

I no longer have to turn down Friday evening engagements because "my flight won't get back until late."

I am no longer hoarding free Presidents Club passes, so I make good friends by giving them to those who are traveling.

I flew only 2 round-trips this year. Both were personal, using only a fraction of miles in my account.

No more jet lag.

I recognize the room I wake up in every morning.

My dog is worn out because I play with him so much.

I can dine at a nice restaurant for dinner and not think, "Will this exceed my per diem?"

I miss traveling ... a little. But withdrawal symptoms? So what if I lose my Gold/Silver/Platinum/Diamond status -- no big deal unless I start traveling again. (If I do, I know from FT how to get comped back.) And I still earn miles & points from idine, HHonors updates, credit cards, and the like.

------------------
On the road, In the air,
I enjoy travel, From here to there.

[This message has been edited by ontheroad (edited 07-11-2002).]

Interesting thread. My job requires me to fly once a month on average to some faraway cool place (Last year: Japan three times, Cambodia, Ecuador, Brazil three times, Spain, UK a number of times, Mexico half a dozen times. This year completed: Japan twice, Singapore, London twice, South Africa, Mexico twice, upcoming: Brazil, Hong Kong, Japan again, Mexico a couple more times. Sorry, had to toot my own horn http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif) I look forward to those trips, just as much as I look forward to chilling out at the home office for weeks at a time. Missing Mrs. Pickles is not an issue, since she comes often with me on trips. Our cat gets the short end, but for all I know, he doesn't really care. Never figured him out, with that "who me?" face of his.

However, too much chilling at the home office, and I get really antsy (exemplified by mindless surfing of travel sites, FT, etc., and reading of guidebooks and travelogues). A few years ago, I had to stay within the US 50 states for visa reasons for a couple of months, and I was climbing up the walls.

I gather if my travel was week-in-week-out to some God-forsaken place in the US (no place names here to upset anybody) I'd go bananas even worse. Even if the travel was to interesting places but just continuous, I might get tired of that after a while.

I think this is genetic. My mother and grandmother are both like that.

"My dog is worn out because I play with him so much." http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

I love flying, I just hate airports. I think I would miss the overall experience if I cut way back but there was life before flying and there will be life after.

-- It's not about the destination, it's about the journey!

When I opened this thread, I thought it'd be something about feeling the urge to fly.

You know, withdrawl symptoms from a junkie. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

I haven't flown in three weeks and I'm happy to report that I'm coping just fine. I even washed the deck chairs last night.

With our budgets for travel scaled down it's nice to re introduce myself to a normal routine I'm pleasantly surprised how enjoyable life can be when you not encouraged by points and miles to avoid It.

I've been home for 5 weeks now; that's the longest stretch I've been home in 3-4 years. I travel almost entirely for work, and I gotta say, staying home for a big chunk of time has been glorious.

I can completely understand some of what people say here. I love travel and flying, but most of the time just can't stand the thought of 'unnecessary' travel. (No offense intended to anyone! At some level all travel is 'unnecessary' and each individual has to decide what's necessary/unnecessary for themself.) I've been 1k on UAL for a while now, but the year before I made 1k I flew ~96000 miles...I just couldn't quite force myself over that hump. If I were in that situation again it would be a tough call. I do like the 1k rooms and other services.

(My stay at home ends 2 weeks from today when I head back out again.)

-BP

Yoosh, making 1P gets you some good benefits, which though less than 1K are still nice to have.

Further, going from 2P to 1P is a jump, but doubling it again to make 1K is a really big jump.

And finally, even if you don't make 1K, your "fun" trips at 50k+ miles this year still earn miles (along with a 100% bonus), and you're also making progress towards 1MM and lifetime 1P ! !

I spent almost 2 hours writing and editing a response to someone on the UA board that wanted to fly 30-40k more miles to earn 1k. I just read their thought about 'all the talk here' and my epiphany hit me. Yoosh, I would email this to you, but your email is unlisted. I chose not to post it as that thread took off on its own way with others 'fueling the fire' that I saw as foolish.

Too many people get caught in the race to be the most 'elite' here. That product exists at any given airline as an incentive for the people who need it most, those true road warriors. I was one once. Sometimes when I get too into things I think I am one again or yearn to be. Slap me when that happens. But lately I vote quality of life and as stated above 1P benefits are excellent and in many ways parallel those of 1k.

[This message has been edited by gregseattle (edited 07-12-2002).]

This time of year I have very little,if any flying. It has been almost three weeks since my last flight. I've got to admit an initial sense of "withdrawal",but my "shakes" are over.IMHO flying isn't what it use to be. I remember when riding up front was First class.Now it's harder to get those seats (Delta) and when I do,it's not much better than the coach of 20 years ago.I remember when I could arrive at an airport with less than 30 minutes before my flight and have no problems.Now the time wasted in lines or at the airports easily surpass my time spent in the air.So,all in all, I'm enjoying my pause in flying.At least for a couple more weeks.

I hafeta go with BlatheringPenguin's comments. I haven't flown on any commercial fights since January and as a result, my back yard is starting to look like we've always imagined it, I have a real garden this year for the first time, etc.

The primary flight path for planes departing VPS goes right over my house, and sometimes it is hard to watch Delta and Northwest flights outbound...but I have to say that for now, at least, life is very good, especially given the new hassles involved with travel now.

So, I'd say go with what pleases you and don't worry about the miles or status. You will probably be back in the middle of the whole chaotic mess before you know it anyway.

[This message has been edited by hnechets (edited 07-12-2002).]

As someone whose been on the road for three years straight, I can tell you that I'm burnt out. I've decided that there are more important things in life than money and am leaving my job to find a local position in Phoenix. It may be a 30% or more pay cut when it's all said and done, but all this travel is just no longer appealing to me. Maybe it's just old age starting to settle in, or the fact that I'm in a serious relationship now - I don't know.

Of course, I've been commuting to the exotic location of Mahwah, NJ for 18 months now. I'm sure that has something to do with it. I'm wondering if I'll end up getting the withdrawals or not. At least I've got my HP Plat status and Hilton Diamond and a ton of points. I'm sure I'l do a lot of leasure travel in the next few years, but I am not going to go back to commuting across the country for work. In my opinion, my ultimate job would probably send me on about 10 trips or so a year. That would allow me to earn enough points to use on vacations.

I too am looking forward to giving my much neglected back yard some TLC. Of course, that'll have to wait untill the temp in Phoenix drops below 112!

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. I suppose I will still be making a limited amount of travel but won't be worrying about making 1K.

gregseattle, I'm sorry to hear about your father. I'll e-mail you separately.


[This message has been edited by Yoosh (edited 07-15-2002).]

This is a very interesting thread! I used to adore flying. Now it's all work. It takes me so long to get to the airport and then all the time before I get to fly. Almost every trip I come home sick. I'm still at the stage where I want the status levels. Perhaps I'll wake up one day and buy and RV.

That sounds better all the time.

This is indeed very interesting thread, as I probably will be cutting back or even stop travel. Since I moved from Northern VA (WAS) to Austin (AUS), I've been flying back and forth to visit family plus mileage runs (thanks fellow FTers!!) to reach and maintain UA 1P. But this year will be the last year I reach for 1P. Next year, I may stick with UA to enjoy my 1P benefits or switch to AA....and then in 2004, if I haven't moved back home to DC yet, jump to AA and fly about 25K. However I'm considering moving back home which would mean no more traveling.

I love to fly and travel, believe me. But at this point, I just can't justify spending my own money to flying 50K miles a year, so the only way I'd be able to fly that much would be for work. So hopefully I might find a new job that will let me travel a lot. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif (and yes, I'm kind of looking around. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif )

Like others, I'll just keep collecting miles for UA and AA....just in case.

Oh man, this is me right now. Year to date I have 49,283 miles on UA and zero on all other airlines. All my flying is for fun. I'm doing ORD-LAX-ORD this weekend, so I'll easily requalify for 1P.

So I'm midway towards 1K with almost half the year left. Without any pure mileage runs I'll probably end up around 75-80K for the year, leaving me approximately a SIN run short. Why not go for it?

I spent a long time thinking about this and decided that I absolutely refuse to go out of my way to make 1K.

The biggest reason for this is that the extra 1K benefits aren't worth what I'd pay for them in terms of the money, time and pain involved in doing mileage runs. And once I make 1K, I'd surely feed the need to requalify every year. And at that point I'd be burning my SWUs on SIN runs in order to earn more SWUs to burn on SIN runs for the following year. I mean, is this really a reason to be 1K?

The quest to travel and to achieve, maintain and reap the benefits from having status has been a fun little game. I've visited lots of neat places, met lots of neat people (many of whom post here) and learned a lot. This will continue. And yeah, I've done a handful of mileage runs -- such as the sameday ORD-SFO-ORD last December that gave me 1P with a scant 59 miles to spare.

But I am drawing the line at 1P. I don't need more miles. If I want to upgrade internationally, I'll fork over the few hundred bucks for the higher fare rather than blow $3,000 flying another 50K status miles. A higher priority on standby and upgrade lists... who really cares. The novelty of being in a plane every week does wear off -- ask a business traveler -- and that would be me in order to make and keep 1K. But I'm happy being 1P, thank you.