i have had no prblem at all i buy the ticket class needed for upgrade and then gladly use my miles to fly first class

just booked EWR - LAS 11/1-11/6
$330.00 FIRST CLASS......SWEET

Ditto, up to the part about the photo with the fiance. It turns out that my experiences weren't directly relevant to what she's looking for, but I don't think she has an ax to grind in terms of proving that award seats are hard to get. If anyone took anything in my previous post to suggest otherwise, this is an official clarification.

Are you THE pudding guy? The guy who racked up 1 million miles on AA through purchase of pudding?

He just as well may be...that same person lives in Davis, CA, as he does.

That's cool..good work!

Way to go! I remember you saying you wanted to use those BA miles from the $20 tix for some F awards to Mauritius.

By the way, you are still the only FT'er to ever spot me and my FT luggage tag. It was a real treat meeting you, too, Pudding Guy.

[This message has been edited by bpauker (edited 10-03-2003).]

Seats are not hard to get using miles. They are expensive to get because you have to use twice the miles.

I talked to the reporter earlier this morning, and was told the story would run either Saturday or Tuesday. I'll post a link here if I see it.

Found a message from this lovely lady on my machine today and called her back. She is under a deadline of two hours from now and desperately needs someone who has tons of miles from flying to contact her as soon as possible. If any of you are in the mood to be kind I can give you her number, just e mail me. Do a good deed!

marysunshine - YHM

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Sharon

Just talked to the reporter. The article's been filed. Nice lady; in the course of the conversation, gave her some ideas for future articles.

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Sharon

Of course he is! Who else would have the stones to appropriate that handle?

He's also the one who rubbed my nose in the Jag promotion, and as a direct result just got back from a First class vacation in Europe. Long may he wave.

When will your story run?

Story appeared today in the Chicago Tribune. It's at http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...,6915478.story

I'm at the very beginning of the story

From article:

Robert Cullen and Allie Buttgereit have tickets to fly first-class from San Jose to Barcelona next summer for their honeymoon. The tickets typically cost about $20,000. Their cost: less than $1,000.

The couple did not win a sweepstakes.

They simply joined the ranks of frequent fliers earning miles without spending much time on airplanes.

Congratulations. But it barely feels like the story I thought it would be. After your example, it mostly turns into a report about the changes to FF programs that give most perks to people who pay more for flights. This doesn't seem to me like it has much to do with earning flights through means other than flying, and I see nothing discussing whether it's hard or easy to redeem miles for flights once you've earned them. So I wonder if the nature of the article changed over the few days between the reporter's post here and the publication, or whether the article she originally intended to write is still out there to be written on some day when there's no "breaking news" about FF programs to report on? (I completely understand "breaking news" trumping a "background" type of feature.)

I spent a few minutes talking to her, and she made it sound like her editor had her change the direction of the article. It's too bad, because I think the public would enjoy reading an article about all of the non-flying ways of getting miles. Many of my friends who've read the article have asked me to show them how to get miles. And if they're asking that, there are countless other people who would like to learn how to earn miles.....so an interesting newspaper article would be good to see. Maybe someday.