wtigerFF

OP, I love how you made your lemonade! I applaud your creativity!

I wish I had thought of doing something like that 10 years ago when I really focused my travel on United. At this point, unless I have a radical change in my work travel schedule, 4MM seems like too far of a stretch but I am hoping to reach 2MM or 3MM before I stop flying... I mainly care about MM status because I can share it with my husband. It has made him very supportive of my travel since he now has my status. He'd hardly flown anywhere before he met me :-) Before, I would have to push him to fly enough to get some status so that he could sit in E+ if I wasn't there. Nevertheless, 2017 was my first year with no business travel at all. It has given me the opportunity to do a lot of fun personal travel that I have not been able to do previously, but it also means that I'm paying for it all so I will be w/o 1K status for the first time in many years due to the PQD. I'm really close for PQM and could have gotten that by some creative routing for my past few trips, but who cares. I'm no where close for PQD.

So, I've settled for Platinum via CC waiver. I'm not going to book a ridiculously expensive flight to get the remaining PQD. I did think about it briefly because I could have bought SFO-AKL in BF but I just couldn't do it after I was able to book it as a saver award for 80K miles and $30.50 in taxes/fees. It was hard to justify it when those funds will be better spend on the trip itself...

I also flew a number of trips on DL and B6 because they were much cheaper, nonstop, and didn't require me to take extra time off from work.

Two Bee

For me-----
I never started out planning/anticipating this never ending sojourn. I was always a DL flyer until my wife's company made her fly only UAL. I accompanied her on many business trips for many years, and when she became very sick, and entered a home, I hit the friendly skies to get away. Forty four round trips to BKK in 4 years, every few weeks,and then back home to check on my wife and the sprinklers. Had a condo with my main squeeze and did a lot of Asian travel, while over there. When I was home in LAS I did mucho m/r's just to get away from my house and the nursing home, as my kids were grown up and gone. Loneliness set the tone, and 1K for about 20 years. Two years of over 300K got me and my son-in-law a few hours of flight time in a simulator in Denver. Then when my wife passed. I just kept er goin', moving my new wife and her son from Thailand to LAS, and she is super patient with my hobby.

If you let other people get to you, then you'd really be better off in front of the tube, but if you like to travel and the thrill of planning somewhere to go (anywhere cheap as possible), and riding in the front with the BIG SHOTS, and have the bucks and time then give it a go!

Would I do it over all again. Not willingly - No I wouldn't wish this on anyone. But when your life changes and you have something to fall back on that keeps you occupied and sane, you just sort-a go along for the ride!

TerryK

I am in awe. Congrats! ^

PBAudit

It is good to know that I am not alone as a "frugal" traveler. However, I'm a little surprised that over the past 5 years that someone else had not posted that they expanded their travel (miles) to maintain 1k status (and gain lifetime status thresholds). Obviously, there are many others who faced the same dilemna and I assumed there would be a small subset of FF who would aggressively increase their miles flown.

Good point. If I based at an out station, I very well may not have attempted this plan. For example, if I was based in LAX instead of SFO, it would have been much harder, as I would need to add a segment to/from SFO, adding at least 4 hours each way (not to mention the possiblities of misconnects).

A good example, was taking advantage of the LAX/IAD/KWI/BAH/KWI/IAD/LAX deals ($750). I would need positioning flights to/from SFO/LAX. I recall after flying 11 hours on the BAH/KWI/IAD flights, that I would need to change planes and fly another 5+ hours form IAD/SFO. It would have been so much easier to be able to get off at IAD and go home.

That is a great question and was one that I actually had given a lot of thought. I would slightly change the question, to "if you had to do it all over again, what would you do differntly".

About 25 years ago, I left Corporate America and became an independent consultant. About 10 or 11 years of being a consultant, I read a business article that posed the question "if you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?" Without hesitation, my answer was I wish I had started (consulting) earlier. It was a poignant momemt as it confirmed that I had made the right decision, that I was enjoying what I was doing, and was a question I should periodically ask myself to help gain/maintain perspective. .

After the first several months of expanded Mileage Runs (to acheive Lifetime status), I thought about this question (what would you do differently). My answer then is the same today, I wish I started earlier. Specifically, in the previous 25+ years, I wished, I added a few MR a year (flying 150k miles vs. 100k miles). First, I would have gained more Redeemable miles (over 1 million miles) if based on mileage flown versus spend. Second, I would be able to enjoy GS benefits years earlier. But most important it "validated" my decision to go for this ridiculous goal.

5 years ago, when I starting to think/plan this goal, my logical side was against doing this. However, I realized that if this ceases to be fun/interesting and became more of a chore/drudgery, I could quit at any time. Fortunately for me, I always looked forward to taking the Mileage Runs. There was only a couple of times I can recall where I wished I could skip the MR (one because I wasn't feeling well, another because it conflicted with my work).

John Aldeborgh

Fun thread. It’s always amazing what people focus on and how a goal drives focus. I share the cheap flying history, mostly imposed by my employers, but never the willingness to do mileage runs, maybe because my travel has always been 30% to 50%+ for more than 25 years. This year I’ll do roughly 350K BIS miles in total, all coach tickets. I hit 4M in mid 2016 and GS has made a huge difference, so I’d be shocked if you aren’t thrilled with the change. To me the biggest chuckle is that people all think I’m a big spender on UA but the truth is my cost per mile is about $0.10, higher than yours but my travel is mostly last minute and I do frequent changes. My wife was once asked by a fellow passenger what it takes to be GS, she answered “having a husband who has flown 4M miles” and then smiled, not the answer they were expecting. Enjoy your new found status.

sbm12

I remain baffled that this was seen as a smart use of either money or time.

halls120

The OP clearly stated he looked at this as a hobby. Why does any hobby have to qualify as a "smart use of money of time?"

Welltended3

Wow. Congratulations!

flyerbaby19

awesome thread. i'm super happy for you OP. if it's not too personal, i'm curious about a few things. and i'm not asking really about you, but more to figure out if i could make something like this work with my own profile

how old are you? do you feel you have enough traveling years ahead of you that it was worth it?
what is your job? (or be generic) - it seems like quite a bit of money to spend
are you single? married? kids?
when you travel alone and see these new cities, do you wish someone were with you? do you find it hard to navigate foreign cities by yourself? (i travel a ton and still get nervous about being in a foreign country)
what did you do for hotels? was that a significant added expense?

thank you! i hope you don't mind sharing. or if you don't want to post publicly, i'd love to ask you these things privately. i really see you as an inspiration

sbm12

I think the hobby "Give lots of extra time and money to an airline in hopes of realizing value eventually" is baffling. And if there is no hope of realizing value from the GS status then it is just spending tens of thousands of dollars flying around without ever really stopping to see any of the destinations for more than a couple hours. I understand that some people enjoy doing that. Again, I find it baffling.

The OP admits the push this year was "grueling" and that it was driven by paranoia about potential program changes. That doesn't sound healthy to me. Moreover, the "hobby" analogy given falls apart when the costs of "investment" now to pay for bleacher seats and sit behind home plate in the future are examined with any objectivity.

It is okay. Loyalty programs are designed to drive irrational behavior on the part of their members. It worked.

halls120

No one is suggesting that we all engage in something you - and likely others - consider to be baffling.

So you don't like what he did. We get it. Why do you feel compelled to criticize the OP's use of his own time and money?

JNelson113

I've been turning over exactly what you did in my mind for the last few years as a fellow "frugal" traveler and sitting at my current 2.1MM. Now that my daughter is almost seven I'm planning to do a short Asia MR (4 days total, 18-20K miles from IAH) most months of 2018. She will have great dad/daughter time and I'll make strides to getting to LT 1K. My goal is to get to 3MM in the next 4 years or so.

JNelson113

I think that it's fantastic and wish that I had the time to make the mile runs he did.

747FC

OP: Congrats on your achievement. If this was your hobby/passion, good for you.

I do have a question about the real cost of your hobby: You say it was about $9k a year, but I suspect that was for the flight costs. What about the hotels, dining out above what you would do at home, etc?

Two Bee

And once you get to a certain age, you don't care what anyone else thinks, especially about the use of your own money!

It's really a wonderful feeling when you finally reach the point in your life when you can do anything you want and NOT have to report to anyone else or justify your life style, and/or spending habits!"

I highly recommend retirement. Ya'all should try it some day, and when you do, hopefully you wont's need to answer to anyone!!!