Seven letters:

DYMTWTU

350,000 miles off of one promotion...wow.

When does KCYMTWTU begin? ;)

I recall the award a bit differently. If you redeemed 100K for an international first class award, you got an upgrade to first good on a purchased coach ticket (any published fare) that could be used for a companion ticket or by you alone at some other time. Since I was traveling by myself frequently on business to Europe I piled up the miles but wasn't flying first on the company's money. I did use the awards several times when we took vacations together, though, which kind of discouraged my wife's willingness to fly coach internationally afterwards. I rolled the last couple hundred thou into AA when TWA got bought, but there's nothing close to that old award out htere now.

Approximately 1993 or so Budget had a promo where if you rented a car 5 (perhaps as many as 6, I can't remember for sure) you received a totally transferable free coach R/T on AA, for most participants the free R/T was good for travel only in the continental US however if you were a Hawaii resident - which I was at the time - it could be used between HI and the mainland. I lived about 3 miles from Honolulu Intl at Hickam AFB, would pop over and rent an econobox for about $25, drive it home and let it sit in the driveway until I returned it the next day.

Maybe not the best promo of all time but still pretty good...

back when you could ask NWA to send you your miles voucher, you could take it into any airport, any time and walk on any flight if there was any seat in your class.

:)MM classic

Mine is just recently actually, this xmas season. FTD.com and united have a great partnership with 20 miles per dollar spent. This xmas they offered some of their gifts for an even higher 35 miles per dollar spent. I loaded up for the rest of the season and spring with birthdays ect. I spent probably $600 bucks and got 21,000 miles with united. You not only get the miles but the value of the gift that I sent to someone. Great deal.

They werent EQM but still they will come in handy.

This may seem lame to you guys, but I remember in the 80s, EA had an award for around 100,000 that was lifetime Ionosphere Club Membership. I remember having a tough time deciding whether to redeem for it or not. It went away before EA did, and I never did get it. I assume that I'd still be reaping the rewards for that in the President's Club if I had taken it?

Yes, you would. But the again how much would it have cost to buy a lifetime card at that time? Might have been better to use the miles for a couple business class tickets to Europe and buy the membership. Oh well, could of, would of should of ...

AA was the same. And I did it, many times.

Pan Am
 

I am reminded of another oldie, that was really 2 different great awards. I was about to cancel my BankAmericard when then sent an offer. You earned points for spending, good for travel. I do not remember the spend requirement. But I think it was about $80,000, in one year (I did a lot of reimburseable travel, charged to my personal credit cards). In exchange we got a complete vacation, for 2, which included round-trip airfare on Pan Am from LA to London (took the non-stop - see next paragraph for reward #2), and a full week bus tour of the UK including hotels and meals.

The Pan Am tickets were actually consolidator price tickets, because VISA bought them from Pan Am. Just then, Pan Am had a promotion - 15,000 miles to upgrade *any* purchased ticket to business class. And that included these consolidator tickets. So, for 30,000 Pan Am miles, we upgraded our free tickets on the LAX-LHR Pan Am non-stop to business.

Randy, I do remember the OnePass award. My in-laws had just retired and my wife was trying to convince her father to sign up for the program. Unfortuantely, he was already a million mile traveler on Delta and was "done" with flying.

We still tease him about not signing up for the program.

Just found this thread....it just so happened that I found the itinerary for my honeymoon yesterday in an old filing cabinet...DL F ticket from DUB-SJU for 2 for 120k...50k Hyatt Gold Passport got us a week in a suite St. John (now the Westin) plus a BOGO for a 7 day cruise on RCL, which we used while down there (and then got upgraded to Junior Suite on the cruise). The whole thing cost $1,135 for two, including all taxes and port charges.....Great trip at very little cost in points and cash.....

Do you guys remember when awards had other things besides 'nights' or 'flights?' I recall that the GP award mentioned above also had a 1 day Avis coupon that we also used on that trip....I'm looking for that receipt now....

TW used to be a great program for earning and burning....

I remember the Braniff relaunch of the mid to late-80's...managed to get 6 free domestic tickets in about 1 month (with only weekly travel from FSM-MCI) and burned them 2 weeks before they went bankrupt again on a wild trip to Vegas with college buddies....

This game ain't as fun as it used to be......

My father had the "perpetual" award on TWA.

It went like this:

Triple mile bonus on all tickets and these were the days when miles accrued on award ticket (irrespective of class of service).

He purchased LAX-LHR and earned approx 33,000 miles (11K times 3), which he redeemed for another LAX-LHR ticket (they only required 30K for RT US/Europe then) that also earned 33K miles, which he redeemed for another LAX-LHR ticket that earned 33K miles, etc.

Small wonder TWA went under - (Imagine what could be earned today with mileage runs if this was still around).