ua1flyer - A "Real" Up-In-The-Air GS
Apr 4, 2015, 2:35 am
#677
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: ord,ewr
Programs: Lifetime UA GS 22 million,AA 1m ,Hilton Li fetime diamond,marriott lifetime platinum hyatt diamond
Posts: 1,000
Apr 5, 2015, 5:15 pm
#678
Moderator: Mileage Run, United Airlines; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: The City/Honolulu
Programs: UA 3MM; Hyatt Glob*****; Hilton Diamond
Posts: 14,473
Apr 5, 2015, 5:57 pm
#680
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: Ewa Beach, Hawaii
Posts: 10,909
Apr 5, 2015, 6:32 pm
#681
Suspended
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: CA, FL, and China.
Programs: UA1K (no longer serviced!), Bonvoy P, Hyatt G
Posts: 704
Apr 5, 2015, 7:11 pm
#682
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: BOS
Programs: UA 1K 1.45MM, Marriott+SPG Plat, Clear, Nexus, Global Entry and MEX Viajero Confiable
Posts: 1,777
Apr 5, 2015, 8:30 pm
#683
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Redwood City, CA USA (SFO/SJC)
Programs: 1K 2010, 1P in 2011, Plat for 2012,13,14,15 & 2016. Gold in 17 & 18, Plat since
Posts: 8,826
Just think, when there are auto dealerships on the moon, you'll be racking up 500,000 miles per trip!
Apr 6, 2015, 4:27 am
#684
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: IAD-DCA
Programs: Won Kay
Posts: 1,324
Sometimes I think there is more w(h)ine on flyertalk than there is in all of Napa Valley!! All is good. I flew up to Sydney early this morning to grab the 3 class cabin to LAX. I am being treated like gold by United's finest, I had a great spinach cannelloni with a nicely paired shiraz.I have wifi and am able to complete a backlog of chores. Life is good and in another 18 hours or so I will be landing in JFK and on my way to a romantic dinner with the most beautiful woman in the world, my wife and then back on a plane to Tokyo tomorrow morning. Call me crazy, but if someone is complaining so much about traveling, maybe they would be happier staying home. Nobody is forced to travel. Those of us that do know we don't live in a perfect world and ---- happens. Still, we all weigh the pros and cons and eventually make choices to fly or not . I choose to fly with the understanding that even if you fly first class this don't always go as planned or expected. I love to fly and I love United. I accept the imperfections of travel. Life is good.
I will shed no tears for the closing of the IFL, since as a 1K, UA would never open the doors to the United Club unless I paid the fee - yet Lufthansa would open the Senator Lounge to me on the basis of being a lowly *G.
Apr 6, 2015, 7:13 am
#685
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: TPA
Programs: UA Global Services 3MM, Hyatt Lifetime Globalist
Posts: 2,927
Enjoy the wife time
Apr 6, 2015, 12:36 pm
#686
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Redwood City, CA USA (SFO/SJC)
Programs: 1K 2010, 1P in 2011, Plat for 2012,13,14,15 & 2016. Gold in 17 & 18, Plat since
Posts: 8,826
Congratulations to you. Although your travel experience with UA is such an anomaly it doesn't really fit with 95% of the other people on FT who by and large are grinding out travel in Y, making the same 24 hour+ trips to SIN, BKK, or OZ from the U.S., but dealing with all of the indignities that flying on UA can provide.
He is treated like royalty because he is truly on another level, a level where a company would ask "What can we do for our 5 top customers to make their experience awesome?" The top-5 customers is hugely different from the top 5 percent. The top 5 percent are obviously important to the airline, but you could not allocate anywhere near the resources to the entire top 5 percent that you could, or should, to the top 5.
As for the rest of us? I think we get the experience that we have paid for. If we're well-enough-off we can buy, a la carte, whatever experience w want, on whatever airline we wish. But because we're not that well off, we search for a value proposition that makes sense, and then grumble because whatever it is we're getting, it's not what we could get 5 years ago. Some of us roll with the punches better than others.
As for Tom, keep in mind that we do hear grumbling, sometimes quite a bit, from other GS folk (who, for the most part, remain treated very well... I know a few). Rolling with the punches is something I think Tom handles better than most. His happiness isn't just because he's well-off and can travel in style. It's also because he's not looking for problems, and when they do come up, by all appearances he's empathetic and nice about such things and doesn't use FT as a platform to talk about them.
Tom would have made an awesome lowly 2P.
Last edited by Mike Jacoubowsky; Apr 6, 2015 at 3:37 pm Reason: clarity
Apr 9, 2015, 11:08 am
#688
Suspended
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: PVG, SFO
Programs: UA 1k, AA EXP, SPG Platinum, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 222
This is crazy, absolutely crazy. I fly from US to Aisa almost every month. But I want to stay with my kid more time. And a lot of more exciting things in life are waiting for us. You cannot live in the flight.
Apr 9, 2015, 12:32 pm
#689
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: ord,ewr
Programs: Lifetime UA GS 22 million,AA 1m ,Hilton Li fetime diamond,marriott lifetime platinum hyatt diamond
Posts: 1,000
Ouch. An unfair statement from someone who does not know me. Just to be clear, I have two grow sons, ages 32 and 20. One lives in Chicago and the other is in school in Montana. I am VERY close to my 2 boys. I always believe it is more the quality of time not quantity. My father NEVER flew any wear EVER. He was home every night and we were never close when I grew up. My 32 year old who has just blessed me with with my first grandchild has flown with me for almost a million and a half miles. He still talks about our father son trips around the world,the safari I took him on, our trip to the outback in Australia and our climb to the top of the Sydney Harbour bridge. He appreciates the trips I take him to Mexico to Celebrate his wife's Mexican heritage as well as our trips to Italy to celebrate his mother's heritage. Now please don't get me wrong , most people would probably love to do those things with their kids but just don't have the means. My point is this.Their are millions of people that have to spend time away from their kids,pilots,flight attendants,military,fireman,people in sports and entertainment and of course the road warriors. It's the quality of time spent with your children not the quantity. In one's heart you know if you have that close loving relationship with your children that every parent strives for or not. I do.
Apr 9, 2015, 1:14 pm
#690
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: TPA
Programs: UA Global Services 3MM, Hyatt Lifetime Globalist
Posts: 2,927
Amen! Although 1/8th of your total miles, my sentiments and answers to people who choose to judge me (or worse) because of my travel schedule are identical! They do not know me (or you) and have no right to judge.
Ouch. An unfair statement from someone who does not know me. Just to be clear, I have two grow sons, ages 32 and 20. One lives in Chicago and the other is in school in Montana. I am VERY close to my 2 boys. I always believe it is more the quality of time not quantity. My father NEVER flew any wear EVER. He was home every night and we were never close when I grew up. My 32 year old who has just blessed me with with my first grandchild has flown with me for almost a million and a half miles. He still talks about our father son trips around the world,the safari I took him on, our trip to the outback in Australia and our climb to the top of the Sydney Harbour bridge. He appreciates the trips I take him to Mexico to Celebrate his wife's Mexican heritage as well as our trips to Italy to celebrate his mother's heritage. Now please don't get me wrong , most people would probably love to do those things with their kids but just don't have the means. My point is this.Their are millions of people that have to spend time away from their kids,pilots,flight attendants,military,fireman,people in sports and entertainment and of course the road warriors. It's the quality of time spent with your children not the quantity. In one's heart you know if you have that close loving relationship with your children that every parent strives for or not. I do.