AA 51 yesterday LGW-DFW was a very eye-opening experience for me.

When I went to take my prized coach seat (777 31B), I was somewhat surprised to see that my seatmate was an older woman who had pre-boarded with another older(er) woman. I thought this was odd since there are requirements for the exit row seat. Obviously she was able to circumvent this by demonstrating her youthfulness... by being on her third MR of the year!

Turns out she was a 65 year-old retired teacher from Oakland. Accompanying her was her (older) former college teacher. They had flown Friday, slept Saturday (LGW Hilton) and were returning Sunday. This was a pure MR, attempting to take AAdvantage of the EUR05 promotion. Her knowledge of the program seemed a little limited, and I was terrified that she might be flying on a non-qualifying fare. I didn't ask, but I still worry.

What does she use the miles for? According to her, she has taken a trip to Virginia, and she upgrades a lot of the time. She has another trip to Virgina planned.

The story gets better. Often times she flies to SEA from Oakland, hoping to get bumped so that she can get bump vouchers. Both her and her friend have ties to the Seattle area, so it's a win-win deal.

I was actually looking forward to the day when I never subjected myself to the tortures of travel just for the miles, but apparently this day will never come...

Sam

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Nice story!

AA 51 on Sunday might have been a mileage-run haven. I was in 12J, having arrived at LGW a few hours before on AA174 from RDU...my seatmate was a FT 'er from DFW who had flown in on Friday...and I think there was another person in J collecting miles, IIRC.

But the retired teacher from Oakland apparently tops us all...

Aloha.

Age per se has little to do with it. Fitness, abilities, etc. have much more. I remember a woman who has done the occasional MR I went diving with in the BVI - she was scuba diving (solo) and doing some underwater video twice weekly - at age 85. Diving with Jack Randall at 78 at Midway - he could hardly wait to get back from diving two tanks so he could get a game of tennis in; exit row, no problem, he could probably teach some FAs a thing or two about it. Leni Riefenstahl - had to lie about her age ("downgraded" it to 70, as I think she was 80 when she got certified to dive.)

I know one 70-year old retired woman who does plenty of air travel and mileage runs, more than maintaining an AA EXP, and is quite able to operate an exit hatch. Of course, she is still young, so I shouldn't judge for a few years yet...

Now where I get fit to be fried is when a person gets early boarding because s/he "needs extra boarding assistance" and THEN sits in an exit row. Ya can't have it both ways... and s/he'd better not be MY impediment to speedy evacuation!

I thought she worked for United on the NRT routes! Maybe I'm thinking of someone older.

. . .and then there are people who want to be burried belted into an airline seat. . . . .

... as long as it's a 777 suite...

My mother just turned 70 and has been Platinum on AA for the past eight years; she was Gold for the previous seven years. She has almost 2,000,000 miles on AA and almost all were earned by flying and bonuses. She has never flown for business.

She did her first mileage run back in 1988 by flying to Austin and back from DFW on a Saturday so that she could qualify for AAs triple mile promotion.