FlyingRobot

I made GS for the first time last year (88,002 BIS on UA metal), and renewed it again this year (109,297 BIS on UA metal), and was 1K for the 13 years before making GS, but get discouraged every time I look at my lifetime flight miles. I've been really obsessive about tracking every last detail of my United flights in Excel since 2013, and the lifetime counter on UA's site matches what I calculate, but I still don't understand how I am only half way to 1MM. I am based in LA and on a r/t flight to Europe or Asia about every 2 weeks ... but ... it ... just ... adds ... up ... so ... slowly.

So, questions for everyone who has hit Million Miler:

1. What Million Miler status are you at?
2. For each milestone, how long did it take?
3. For each milestone, how many actual segments do you estimate you flew?
4. For each milestone, were you on more domestic or international flights?

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Probably 25 years to get the first 1/2 million (far less loyal), then 5 to get the other half to get to 1MM. Don't keep track of flights, but in attaining 1MM, skewed to int'l w/ required domestic connections.

Aussienarelle

1. What Million Miler status are you at? 1MM.
2. For each milestone, how long did it take? I was just told I am at 28 years of MP, and I made 1MM in 2016 so it took 26 years.
3. For each milestone, how many actual segments do you estimate you flew? No idea
4. For each milestone, were you on more domestic or international flights? I primarily fly international and have done so for most of career/life, but it was on many airlines - both *A and OAL.

In the total scheme of things for me 1MM does not mean much as I have been 1K for the past ten years at least and that is better than 1MM benefits with the primary exception that I do value the companion benefit as this gives 1K to my son. I suspect it is unlikely I will make 2MM before I die/cease to travel as I travel *A and OAL and really it is 3MM where the benefits would be had (for me as Platinum has very few benefits in my mind).

jsloan

I made 1MM after about 18 years, but I got a decent bump when they combined pmCO and pmUA balances, as I had quite a bit of off-metal travel in there that would not have counted under the current system. I agree with Aussienarelle that there's little incentive to reach 2MM except as a stepping stone to 3MM.

Aussienarelle

Mine was primarily UA (with a smattering of CO).

FlyingRobot

25, 28, and 18 years. I shall cease my complaining about how slow the BIS miles add up. Thanks for the amazingly fast replies!

8MiHi

24 years on Eastern, People's Express, NY Air and Continental got me to 1MM before the merger. About half way to 2MM in the 8 years since.

aacharya

22 years for me. But in the beginning of my flying "career" I never cared about loyalty, just cheap flights. I just happened to be lucky to go from Northwest to Continental to United, being a EWR hub flyer. Biggest decision was to convert from DL to CO after merger.

Now, I average 125K a year, so the next bump is 8 years if I maintain this, 10 or more if I slow down a bit.

jtwiz

I will finally hit 1MM in 2019, which will be 21 years of flying CO and UA. My annual miles are split pretty evenly between International and Domestic. I plan on retiring in the not too distant future (maybe even at the end of 2019), so it will be nice to hit this milestone before I wind down my business travel.

tarheelnj

At 1MM now.
31 years to get to 1MM (Eastern+Continental+United). (Did enough AA/partner/predecessor flying to get 1MM on AA: Piedmont+US Air/Airways+AA in 22 overlapping years)
No idea on segments
Mix of domestic/international

MBS MillionMiler

Me too and I also agree.

My dad signed me up in 1987. Started traveling heavy in 1999. First million was pre-merger around 2010--so really about 11 years of heavy travel.

I thought the second million would come easier thanks to the merger bump (I gained about 150,000), but I've sputtered since my overall travel has dropped, but still hit 1K thanks to more paid premium fares in the last few years than the 20 years before that, combined. I'm currently about 2 years away from the 2MM mark.

fly2work

1. What Million Miler status are you at? 2MM.
2. For each milestone, how long did it take? 1996 to 2008 for 1st Million, crossed 2MM in 2016, added 255,000 since then as I slowed travel again.
3. For each milestone, how many actual segments do you estimate you flew? A lot!
4. For each milestone, were you on more domestic or international flights? Domestic for the first Million, IAH-AMS for the 2nd Million. No recognition on 1st Million, 2nd MM crew gave me a bottle of champagne on landing in AMS and Captain took some pics with me in the cockpit. Great memory.

hirohito888

1. What Million Miler status are you at? 1MM
2. For each milestone, how long did it take? Around 8 years
3. For each milestone, how many actual segments do you estimate you flew? No idea, don't track, don't care, mostly fly long-haul.
4. For each milestone, were you on more domestic or international flights? International, I think EWR-NRT when I passed 1MM.

Next MM will take longer, as I started to fly other airlines with better seats or better deals.

bigwings8

200k BIS over the last 2 years, and 1K for the 13 years before? Were a lot of your flights on non-UA metal? Even if you were getting 2x PQM bonuses on your 13*100,000 PQMs over those years, it seems like you should still have around 200k + 650k ~= 850k and be almost there? But in the merger, wouldn't all of those old PQM bonuses have been converted to lifetime miles?

I'm not MM yet. I started 2014 with 115k and 2014-2017 did about 80k lifetime miles per year. Sitting around 450k now. But I left the company I worked for because they were an evil company making $$ at the expense of society. Without $$ extracted from society to fund my travels, it'll be much slower going for the next 500k. It'll be even slower if I try to reduce my carbon footprint...

GBadger

I'm at 650k miles after 7 solid years of flying United. Several LH and a few LX and NH flights in there impact the total a bit. Hope to make 1MM three years from now.

Unfortunately, I spent the first 7 years of my "flying career" on NW/DL. Have about 600k lifetime miles over there too...

While it'll never happen, a DL-UA merger would give me a big boost .