25 million miles?
 

An associate told me that on the NBC Today show this morning, there were 2 guys with that many miles. That's all I know about it, and can't find anything at NBC.com. Did anybody see this or know anything about it? Thanks

Yes...I saw it. The way I understand it they were trying to find the person who had the biggest ff-mile balance. (That is the way I understood it...not who has earned the most, but who has the biggest balance...I could be wrong!)

They interviewed a guy (from Chicago, I believe?) who has a 25million balance with AA. I expected a "pudding guy" story or something but apparently he earns most of his miles the old-fashioned way...flying! They also interviewed a UA flyer who has a large balance (not 25m though). UA had named a plane after him.

It was just a human interest story about what it is like to fly that much and have that many miles available to use.

A few years back, UA offered the unique frequent flier reward of having your name painted on the fuselage of one of their aircraft for a year. IIRC, it cost either 500,000 or one million miles. Personally, I would have used the miles for travel, but if you have tens of millions accumulated, you probably already fly more than any non-pilot would ever want!

[This message has been edited by cAAl (edited 07-28-2003).]

Pity I missed that....did they by any chance say what these guys did job wise ? I mean there are a lot of jobs that require travel, but 25.000.000 miles..wow.

Something tells me their miles were earned from more than flying coach. Otherwise, if they earned 25,000,000 miles over 25 years, that's about 2,739 miles per day with no days off. Geesh, if that was the case, they wouldn't need a house to live in, since there would be little time in their lives to be out of an airplane.

Was it 25 mil on one airline, or spread among several?

Now, 25 million miles earned by flying.. that's just 200k flown miles per year for 40 years with 100% bonus and 100% class of service bonus.

Of course we also know that frequent flyer programs weren't around 40 years ago.

Even over 20 years, that would be more than 400,000 flown miles per year earning double miles on all flights plus double miles as a class of service bonus on all flights.

Nope. I don't think these folks earned 25 million miles all by flying. Maybe they bought a whole lot of subscriptions to Inside Flyer.

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View from the Wing: A blog about Free Miles and Free Markets

and the real question: Are these guys on FT?

Nah..they would be way to busy flying... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Yes, I saw it on NBC this morning. Peter Greenberg - NBC Travel guru contacted American Express to see who had more miles than him. Peter has about 5 million miles.

The person with the highest was Steve Rothstein with 25 million miles. Its a combination of AA and UA, but he primarily flies on AA. His whole family was featured. His 12 year old daughter has 300K miles, 20 year old daughter has 600K and his wife has 1.2 million miles.

He flies almost daily, and gives a lot of his miles away to strangers since he earns more than he can give away. He recently lost his 15 year old son in a car accident. He seemed like a nice, down to earth regular guy.

The next person was a UA FF with 6 million miles, and they named am A/C after him.

They didn't mention what either of them did for a living or how they accumulated the miles.

[This message has been edited by norton (edited 07-28-2003).]

[This message has been edited by norton (edited 07-28-2003).]

Norton,
Welcome to FT!
ZZ

Qantas top flier does well over a million paid actual miles a year. All in It'l F, so I assume his balance each year is several M before any credit card points/hotel miles etc charges are added.

Flyertalker moderator B_Watson does around 700,000 paid miles in It'l F or C he told me. So a 25M balance out there from someone would not surprise me one bit. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

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~ Glen ~

Come visit HERE the most ** FRIENDLY FORUM ** on FlyerTalk. No flame wars, no personal abuse, no substance abuse. Not much of anything really!

I know a few people who charge much more than that on an annual basis. So I would guess if they belong to MR or something their balance would be way past that....

Something seemed suspicious to me, though. Especially the AA flyer. He described going on mileage-accruing personal flights, even in the week he was describing. Wouldn't he use some of his MILLIONS of miles to pay for his personal flying? Also, his family (especially the 12-year old and the teenager) had huge balances; again, wouldn't they be flying free on Dad's balance? That surprised me. I don't know AA's rules, but I would have guessed that he would not experience capacity controls or concerns about finding a first-class seat.

A major fault of the piece is that there was not a mention (to my recollection) of what these guys did for a living. That may have put some of this in context.

I am going to call NW and see what I get for my 1.5 million miles...maybe a plastic luggage tag? maybe naming a plane after me?

we'll see!!! Ha!

Typical NBC GE monopoly with the disgusting overpaid Katie Couric and Matt Laurer. They should be fired immediately and give someone else a go, they have enough money now and too much of the equity in speech.

The reason? One of the highest FF mile accounts happens to be one of MSNBCs employees.....Jessie "The Brain" Ventura. He travelled extensively as a wrestler and announcer (then Jessie "The Body" Ventura) and none of them have expired.

Leave it to overpaid NBC blind mice to miss it. Plagerists too when they find out it is Ventura.

SHADO

[This message has been edited by SHADO (edited 07-29-2003).]

I don't believe that for a minute. An urban legend for frequent flyers. This is much more than 2749 miles per day, every day of the year. No time to do anything when you land.


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United UGS, MM
Hyatt Lifetime Diamond
Starwood Platimun

No way have they earned 25MM flying.

The frequent flyer programs only began in 1981. So if this guy has flown every day since the inception with triple miles, that is still 1038 miles every day since 1981. There is some serious affinity spending here.

I worked with somebody who earned hundreds of thousands of AMEX points by charging tradeshow expenses, etc. to the corporate card. It would be easy to rack up millions this way if the job is right.

By the way, Gary Player claims to have flown more than anybody in the world with about 13M flight miles since around 1960.

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United UGS, MM
Hyatt Lifetime Diamond
Starwood Platimun

I agree. Over a million FLOWN miles a year can't be right. 2739 miles a day, each and every day....no way.

There's a guy with a 20 million mile balance in Qantas.

Randy has been said to have over 10mm miles himself.

So I actually don't doubt the individual in question could have 25 million miles. The skepticism is solely over flight miles. I'm told by someone who suggests that they would know that he in fact does have over 24 million miles with AA -- but that includes credit card spending...

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View from the Wing: A blog about Free Miles and Free Markets

It is an established fact.

The guy is in executive recruitment and flies round trip to Europe and USA virtually every week - sometimes more than once a week to interview and/or head hunt applicants for top jobs.

Get your atlas out and look where Australia is and you will possibly not make such a un-informed comment again. On last Saturday for instance I flew about 10,000 miles in a day from IAD-LAX-SYD. Round trip it is around 20,000 miles and can be done in 48 hours. Europe is further.

Ask our own B_Watson whether his annual flying is an "Urban Myth".

Glen, can you reference a link to this ?

Also, I find your "uninformed comment" a little harsh, you post an extremely hard to believe fact and get upset if someone questions it ?


Assuming its true, why on earth would anyone do this ? All major exec. recruitment companies have global offices, nobody in their right mind would fly across the globe every week, I am aware of "commuting" btween NYC and LHR, but Oz to Europe is a completley different story....no matter how comfortable F is, the jetlag will still destroy you after a while.

I know where Australia is, and I've been there many times. (Crap place, in my opinion.)

I still don't believe you or B. Watson. Sure it is possible, but who would be so stupid?

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United UGS, MM
Hyatt Lifetime Diamond
Starwood Platimun

Just preserving this gem for posterity.

There have been MANY threads on this and similar subjects in this forum over the years. IIRC someone posted that the head guy of Lions or Rotary clocked up an equally amazing number of miles. A check via "search" will I am sure find some previous references if you are interested.

I can recall reading of several FT'ers who do or have done around or above 500,000 flown paid miles a year. stimpy and CescoG are 2 others that come immediately to mind and I recall reading Merry has also clocked up telephone numbers some years. As long as it is being done in sleeper First on 747s it is not especially hard to take I bet. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

The jeg lag is not bad if you sleep correctly on planes. I got back this Monday 7am from IAD-LAX-SYD, stayed up all day and went to sleep that evening here at a normal time and I feel fine. That is about 24 hours on planes and in airports, after I was up all day in IAD. Decent seats and long sleeps in flight are the keys.

Oh, and Temazepan is essential. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

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[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 08-04-2003).]

I don't doubt some folks are flying 500 kmiles/yr. But this is a far cry from "well over 1 million." I'll get out my atlas to calculate the difference.

divaof travel - I found this on a search where FT'ers like fparker was clocking up 250,000 miles a year just on domestic USA and much of it was on small planes IIRC.

Even some folks on FT exceed 500,000 miles flown a year but you do not seem to believe that. Once you have been around here as a FT member a little more than 2 weeks you might be less inclined to label heavy FT fliers like B_Watson's annual travel tally an "urban legend."

A flight a week from here to London gets you well over a million flown miles a year and allows a month's vacation as well. I do not care one jot if your calculator cannot figger that out.

For such folks flying IS basically their job. An interview may only take a few hours and the guy returns. A two day work week on that basis, which does allow some sleep time if needs be.

Back to the specific thread topic, I found this comment that Randy made a couple of years back on a post about a guy with 2.1 million miles on LH. Randy was himself using years old figures so one assumes these numbers have leapt up significantly in the intervening years, so 25 million in one plan does not surprise me at all, and I can bet there are others that would exceed that:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

As inserted above by the modrator:

Flyertalker moderator B_Watson does around 700,000 paid miles in It'l F or C he told me. So a 25M balance out there from someone would not surprise me one bit.




"Around 700,000" is more believable than "well over a million paid actual miles a year," as claimed.

BTW, if you read the thread the issue became not whether people have accrued 25MM, but if they have done this through flight activity alone.

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United UGS, MM
Hyatt Lifetime Diamond
Starwood Platimun

As a "local" flyer (who is lucky to get a SWA Compnaion Pass each year http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif ), I have another question: WHY? What is the purpose of holding millions (10, 25 or whatever) of FF miles or points?

I have a few hundred thousand MR and HH points that I plan on using for vacations. I admit to some pain when using them. (Am I getting the best value? What if something else comes up?) But, if I was racking up a million FF miles per year, why sit on them? (Apparently you only need a million or so to get an airplane named after you. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

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"I was once dissappointed that I didn't get an upgrade, then I saw a homeless man without shoes. Somehow, the upgrade didn't seem all that important."

Presumably if you are flying a million plus miles annually, the last thing you want to see on your free time is the inside of an another airplane so I can understand why the miles may go unused. Of course, that presumes that all your trips are in business or first class. If not, then you'd be a fool not to use your miles to upgrade virtually every single flight booked in coach (and you might as well make the move forward from business to first whenever possible as well).

Who's to say that this individual is actually sittin on them. It's possible that this person is using the points but also continues to add points.

FWIW, a mere ( http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif ) 267,000 actual flight miles in paid first class on any Star Alliance carrier would earn slightly more than 1,000,000 miles for a Lufthansa Miles & More Senator. (Paid F earns 3.75x total program miles, which are also status miles.)

Evidently, based on inferences made in the LH forum, there may be quite a few annual million milers on LH? Certainly not all that unusual to rack up 750,000 miles (200,000 flight miles in F).

Edited to add: 200 round trips on AirRail, FRA-ZWS, would also earn 1,000,000 miles with LH M&M. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/eek.gif

[This message has been edited by transpac (edited 07-30-2003).]

Just because a major firm has offices in SYD and LHR, and just because there's technology that allows more effective conferencing than before doesn't mean regular travel is out between the two places.

My uncle is SYD-based and for awhile was flying every few weeks to ZRH. He reached a place in his career and with his firm that he was able to say "if someone wants to see me, they can come to me." But that cut down on his travel... and two years ago was making regular runs in paid F to LHR and staying in LHR for only 20 hours or so.

When you're putting together details on a deal valued in the ten figures, and the deal is between companies based in those two cities, sometimes the key players have to get together. Regularly. Why doesn't the person in SYD just stay in LHR for awhile? Because they also have to get together with the folks in SYD. Sorry, but it happens.

And yes, the jetlag is a killer even in F. But you do what you have to do. And you make enough to take nice vacations, and you just have to have the discipline to actually take those vacations.

This isn't how MOST OF US live and work, and that's perhaps why it's so hard to imagine. But that's also why 20 million flight miles in an account is so rare and worth writing/speculating about!

Alas, my mileage balance is only in the seven figures and that includes affinity miles. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

[This message has been edited by gleff (edited 07-30-2003).]

Ah, so it's only the highest that AmEx knew about.

How would AmEx know? I mean, what if the person who had more miles had them spread over a number of airlines, and didn't use any "mile manager" program that AmEx has access to?

Does AmEx (which I am not a member of) know exactly how many miles I have in all of my programs? (If they do, that sounds a lot scarier than anything else about this TV piece, IMHO!)

Holy moly, bless my souly! 25M miles? And, yes, I guess the central point is whether those miles are in-the-seat miles or includes all the rest of it. To just fly 25M miles is mindboggling. Not impossible but truly amazing.

1. You have done a complete somersault on this.

2. You earlier posted re the above you "do not believe either myself or B-Watson". And that "I don't believe that for a minute. An urban legend for frequent flyers". So you now DO believe it? Or half of it? Or do you reserve the right to do yet another back-flip on your view????

3. When you have been around Flyertalk a little more than a couple of weeks your views hopefully will change. Insult my beautiful country all you like (and others will make their own judgement on the politeness and wisdom of that) but do NOT call me and other Flyertalkers liars please. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif

4. If you care to actually READ and hopefully comprehend what I posted, I simply used B_Watson as an EXAMPLE of a Flyertalker in our midst who I know flies big miles - as he has told me so. For all I know there are FT'ers who fly more than he does. I simply used an example I know to be correct, as Barton is in SYD each month or so from GRR - and also flies heavily to Asia, Europe, Sth Africa etc as well as he runs a large global business with several 1000 staff.

5. I was NOT saying the Qantas flyer with a million a year flown and anyone on FT was the one person. You appear to be the only one on this thread that mis-read that.

6. There are presumably many thousands of folks out there who fly more than B_Watson does each year, but I can believe at that flying level have no interest in READING about flying on FT or anywhere else when you do it half your waking days.

7. If you bothered to have an email address visible I would have shared this commentary by email. Most folks do have one visible. Your choice, not mine.



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~ Glen ~

Come visit HERE the most ** FRIENDLY FORUM ** on FlyerTalk. No flame wars, no personal abuse, no substance abuse. Not much of anything really!

Gleff,

I do not doubt the fact that these deals happen every once in a while, and can indeed cause huge spikes in someones travel, but I was surprised as to people doing this over several years, as this is how I understood the example Ozstamps was giving.

Nonetheless, I have thought about it some more and do believe it is possible, although very,very tiring and rare.

I thought back and remember a few years ago, I was working on a project in London which was being run by a board member from NY. He commuted via Concorde (F after the Le Bourget crash) for about 6 months. Went home virtually every weekend. He also had a permanent room at Claridge's. I suppose he would have been in this league had he continued to do this. Guess it is possible after all, although probably not in this economy...... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

A simple math.
They guy says he gets his miles mostly from flying, assuming he flies first class with EXP status at AA.
A round trip Chicago to Rome will award him 25,000 miles, counting 50% class and 100% EXP bonuses. He only needs to fly 40 round trips a year, which is reasonable.