airzim

You just described exactly my earlier life. I have no idea how many annual miles I flew in my earlier career, but I'm at 2.5 MM just on MileagePlus and I'm just over 40. But back in the day, I was flying nearly all worldwide airlines Business Class jetting between a 2 hour meeting in SYD, up to SIN, over to TPE, quick follow up dinner in JNB and back home via LHR. And this is way before lie flat business products. Can't tell you how many miles I slept in ClubWorld cradle seats. Once I met my wife, I was done. Changed jobs, had kids, moved to another city, and loving life. Still travel but all domestic travel.

malgudi

Perhaps find something else to do? A new hobby or sport to keep you occupied

EWRMAN

Not GS. I'm in the bermuda triangle of spending about $20-25k / year. I fly one TATL and a couple of US/Canada trips a month (Chicago, Houston or Calgary) and think it is about the perfect amount of travel. Away from home enough to appreciate getting back and not being in the office too much.

Helps that when I am away typically stay in very nice hotels. not 4 seasons but the rung below.

TexasAggie02

So true. Just add in “go for a run if not totally exhausted” to my morning routine. Its exciting for a few years and then it wears you down. Especially with a wife and kids at home.

eng3

I always try to adjust the the destination time zone as early as possible. However for some reason on a plane, most people decide they want to goto sleep after the meal service. The last think I want to do is wake up fully rested in HKG at 8pm at night.

I think it is pretty standard to get 3 weeks of vacation per year plus about a week of holidays. At least in the engineering field. So I basically have a month to work with every year. My company counts my vacation and work time down to the hour/minute. Meaning I am not forced to take vacation in full day or half day chunks. Also, my company has a "flex" policy meaning that I can work whatever hours I want as long as I get 40hrs in per week (and my manager is ok with it). So if I split a 1 week trip over two weeks, I can work longer days before and after the trip to reduce the amount of vacation hours I use. Also, I can work at home or remotely meaning I can do some work on the plane or at the airport reducing the amount of vacation time I use even more. This means I can typically take one day of using zero vacation. Take two days off using half a day of vacation possibly. That adds up over a year. Finding a company that will pay for J seems alot harder at least in my field.

jdivenere

I've been GS for two years and don't fly for work. Just like to go to new places for short times to explore them. More often than not, I fly just to be in GF because I enjoy it a lot. Just hit 300k PQM for 2017, should end the year around 360k PQM.

caseminole

You poor thing, so sorry!

getagb

Agreed. Companies are usually pretty open about their vacation benefits and often advertise them on their website. Have yet to see a company advertise J travel benefits. Getting back to the main topic of this thread… I’d love to know of some specific companies that advertise these benefits

EWRMAN

My wifes company said during interview is J for TATL, her handbook says J. First trip to Germany she was coerced into Y.

eng3

We work gov't contracts and there is some policy about paid J on flights over a certain length. However, each program (including everyone I've ever been on) can choose to waive this and force everyone into Y to save money. For a short time, our company had some deal with UA where the company got an allotment of GPU and RPUs. This benefit was completely unadvertised to the employees. All the senior managers knew about it. Eventually I figured out the right person to email and they'd apply the GPU and that got me upgraded on a few trips to singapore. Unfortunately we don't have that anymore.
Some people I work with (some GS), are contractors so they are able to put specific stipulations in their contract the they fly paid J on flights over a certain length.

LordHamster

You are a glutton for punishment. While I think it makes sense to try to consolidate air travel to a single airline as best as possible, I think if 100% of my travel was personal... United would NOT be my first choice.

nomad420

I don't like hearing that she was "coerced" into Y. That is kind of cheap to say the least. Sorry to hear that.
My wife works for a large tech company in the Silicon Valley which shall remain nameless. She works globally for them. Part of her terms at hiring was business or better on any flight over 3 hours. I believe it was even written into her contract. They have stood by their end of the deal for the past 3 years.
I have my own business so I travel only TATLs or TPACs business or better. Neither one of us are GS as well use too much non UA metal.

physioprof

My wife has earned GS the last few years and will again this year with almost all leisure travel spend. We go back and forth from NYC to the West Coast about a dozen times per year in business or first, mostly on flexible fares. We also take one or two trips to Europe and one trip to Japan every year, and a handful of trips to other cities in the US (Chicago, St Louis, Houston, etc), all in business or first.

My wife is 1MM, so she flies on cash tickets, and I only fly on miles, so we're both GS.

LordHamster

There are of course definitely many sides to the issue of business class travel. I'm very thankful that my firm treats me well. I have a back injury that has sidelined me from Golf, and even makes sitting at a desk for more than an hour at a time nearly impossible. Sitting 5+ hours in an upright position would simply not be an option for me anymore. In my younger days, sitting 16+ hours was not an issue at all.

1015-1k

Consultant of sorts, doing most of my work for Chinese clients. 8-10 TPAC RTs per year (mostly purchased last minute due to fluctuating schedules). Some TATL or Latin America sprinkled in. Company policy dictates paid business class for flights longer than 6 hours. Domestic flights are paid coach with CPUs.

I suspect those doing work w/ China (which can vary greatly from oil/gas, sales, procurement, consultants, professional services, etc) are a huge chunk of GSs, given the massive route network UA has. Europe is not to be ignored either.