Triangle Trip

A couple months ago I thought I had planned it perfectly.  Spend Christmas and New Years abroad with friends and also maintain my airline status with the miles incurred for the trip.  I did the math a couple times to make sure I would be guaranteed airline status for 2009.  But today while logging into my United account and seeing my mileage summary reset to zeroes, it suddenly occurred to me that my return leg would be in the new year and not count toward status for 2009.  So I’m short the 7,000 miles that my return leg back home covers.  Darn it!  

So moral of the story is this: if you are planning an year end trip that doubles as a mileage run to maintain airline status, make sure you spend New Years at home.

I recently was at London’s Heathrow airport waiting to board my flight to Seoul.  When I arrived at my gate near boarding time there was already a huge line of people.  Then they called boarding for first class, business class, and Star Alliance Gold members.  I bypassed the line to board the plane.  I had my economy class ticket in my hand, which is a different color than first and business class.  One airline employee apparently saw this discrepency and came up to me.  In a somewhat rude tone he said to me, "Will you please wait in line?"  I then proceeded to flash my Star Alliance Gold card and he responded with an apologetic, "Ah… ok."  That’s right, homie.