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so depressed

I flew my 1,000,000th mile on United. They didn't even notice.

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» A Million Miles... And Nothing from Business Evolutionist
Lawrence Lessig just flew his 1,000,000th mile on United... and they didn't even notice.... That is just fucking sad. I recall watching some customer service video a long time ago about some hospital staff member treated this mean-spirited dying patien... [Read More]

» Comments on United Airlines and Mileage Plus from The Newest Industry
On January 31, I went on a rampage about United and Mileage Plus. On Feb 25, Lessig posted that he flew his 1 Millionth mile on United, with no recogition. Today, Johnnie Moore and Jon Strande weigh in on the same topic. I am flying United on Wed... [Read More]

» 1 million miles on United and nothing from Alltheseideas.com
Lawrence Lessig for those of you who don't know is a Professor of Law and author who blogs on a regular basis. I noticed in a recent post of his that he made a small comment on the fact that... [Read More]

Comments (7)

When I first read this, I laughed, but after thinking about it, it is kind of sad(?) that there's no recognition whatsoever for such a thing.

February 25, 2005 5:11 PM Anonymous Coward:

Maybe they're waiting for your 1048576-th mile?

February 25, 2005 5:30 PM Motts McGregor:

Check out a little book called "Up In The Air" by Walter Kirn.

-Motts

I just asked my dad who was in the airline industry. He said about the only thing United does is give you priority seating.

February 25, 2005 6:26 PM Andrew Northern:

I drove around 2,500 miles from February 14-22. I know many professional drives cover much more in similar time spans, but that was my vactation, so I know how you feel with huge amounts of driving.

Well, MileagePlus should notice, even if the FAs on your flight don't. You should get Premier Executive for life (yours or United's, whichever is shorter), with all its usual benefits - Econ+ seating, 100% bonus on flight miles, yada yada yada. I think that if you're a 1K member, it also entitiles you to a couple extra system-wide upgrades per year as well.

This assumes it's 1,000,000 actual miles (the "Lifetime United Flight Miles" item if you check your mileage at united.com). They don't count miles earned by credit card purchases, etc. (American Airlines does) - United's is if your butt is in the seat for 1MM miles.

I happened to be seated next to an extreme frequent-flyer the other day on a United flight. According to him, a million actual flight miles doesn't give you 1K status for life or any other perks with one exception. If you earn 1K status after you reach a million actual miles, you are given priority (seating, upgrades, standby) over other 1K members. Shocking to think how little loyalty means these days. But I don't like to pick on United. I wouldn't fly any other airline. Being on-time is my priority since I travel every week for business and in my personal experience, United gets me there either on-time or early with few exceptions. I tried American for a couple months when United lost my luggage and my loyalty (temporarily). American was late every single time without exception.

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