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Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
I am a trainer for a software company and my travel is fairly erratic but I'm up to about 42k this year. Internationally I've been two England twice, Ireland, Denmark, and Poland. Domestically a couple trips to Boston, DC, Vegas, Charleston,and Chicago.

I am based out Philadelphia and fly US Airways and Star Alliance partners 99% of the time to maximize miles that qualify for status. Unfortunately I got into the status game late and just recently started following specials to get bonus qualifying miles etc. I'm silver on US but could easily have been gold a long time ago if I had paid attention.

We have a $40 daily limit on food but it isn't rigidly enforced. If we are taking customers out we can exceed this and expense alcohol. Our system for expenses is fairly easy just a spreadsheet with different categories. I just stick as many receipts as will fit on my scanner and scan them into 2-4 receipt pdf files. I've also begun to stretch my laziness factor and often won't even split it out my hotel bill into categories.

My engagements are usually Tuesday-Thursday so I fly out Monday and back Thursday. This works great for Monday because I'm at off peak hours and if flying US often get upgraded. The return trip though always sucks because all the super frequent flyers are coming back Thursday night as well. If I can justify it I try to schedule a Friday afternoon flight but that almost never happens.

The last 8k miles I need to hit gold are going to kill me but it would require some crazy luck to hit it.

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Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:

1. There are still a lot of signs but they also just assume that since the rules have been the same for the last five years that you don't need a reminder.

2. educate yoself http://www.tsa.gov/traveler-information/prohibited-items

3. Hate to be like this, but you're the guy everyone hates because he is all They Care About Liquids Still blurghablur and holds up the security lines because I Didn't Know!

I think he might have meant, "I didn't think [taking your appropriately sized and stored liquids out of your carry-on bag] was A Thing anymore..."

I never take my liquids out of my bag these days unless there is a specific sign or the security personnel say it out loud. I haven't had any issues so far. One time they did put my bag back through the scanner because of a book I had in the outside pocket of my bag. Maybe it blocked the scanner or something? It was strange.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
On average I would say that I fly maybe two times a month and I have never been held up, not even once. The only time I ever got held up was for that book I mentioned which was a complete mystery to me.

Also this exact same topic was mentioned by the OP on the previous page where your directly quoted the relevant part of his post?

Edit: To contribute actual content, you guys should all check out Expensify. It is a website/app combo that you can use to record and consolidate all of your expense tracking.

Lyon fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Nov 17, 2012

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
If anyone else uses US Airways as their primary carrier you have until the end of today (I assume midnight) to purchase a club membership and receive $50 off + 5,000 PQMs. US Airways club membership gets you access to all United and (most) Star Alliance clubs as well. With this purchase I will be at 47k PQMs for the year so I'll potentially need to do a 3k mileage run to qualify for gold if nothing comes through for work.

US seems to not get a lot of love but I haven't had any issues with them and have felt their service is on par with United (pretty much the only other domestic I've flown this year).

Edit: I also have a free nomination to Trial Silver (possibly two) that I can give out on US Airways. What this means is you'll have Silver Status on US Airways for 90 days and then you'll get to keep whatever status you earn flying US/Star Alliance flights based on this chart.

    Silver: Fly 7,500 miles or 10 segments
    Gold: Fly 15,000 miles or 20 segments
    Platinum: Fly 22,500 miles or 30 segments
    Chairmans: Fly 30,000 miles or 40 segments

Lyon fucked around with this message at 05:43 on Nov 19, 2012

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

InterceptorV8 posted:

So, what this all this poo poo? PQM? LMNOP?

I'm guessing that you have to do X amount of miles in Y amount of time to earn levels for something? But what does that really mean and what do you get?

It's a completely different world how we travel, but even I have perks. But it's from gallons of fuel bought:

http://www.ultraonerewards.com/ultraone

50 gallons of fuel = a free shower woooohooo. Get 20,000 points in a year, and you'll get a better deals and earn more points, which you can use to buy poo poo. I like ham touched on some poo poo, but since I refuse to fly anymore, it's kinda alien to me. Also you'll have to forgive me if I'm rambling, long day at the office.

Sorry I've been reading FlyerTalk recently and they talk in crazy acronyms.

I imagine each airline does it slightly differently but at US Airways there are two types of miles, Preferred Qualifying Miles (PQMs) and Redeemable Miles (RDMs). PQMs are the actual miles you've flown on US Air or Star Alliance partners, these count towards your status with US Air/Star Alliance and can be used to book free flights (award travel). US will do bonuses and specials occasionally where you can earn PQMs without flying (the above club access). RDMs are earned through credit card reward programs, purchasing them directly, etc and can be redeemed for free flights but don't count towards status.

A mileage run is basically a flight with no purpose other than to gain PQMs so you can reach the next level of status. These are often bizarre bookings with a bunch of random extra connections or someone might fly out and back on the same exact plane.

i like Ham covered the AA and Delta rewards program and US Airways is very similar. US award travel ranges from 25k-60k miles per domestic round trip and 60k-125k miles to Europe round trip. You're eligible for unlimited free domestic upgrades (and a companion if they're on the same booking with enough space for both), priority check in, security, and boarding, free checked bags, etc. The best perks (to me) are actually the personal reservation line so you can get through to someone a lot faster than calling the standard number if you need to and priority standby with no fee for moving up to an earlier flight. This means if I finish work early and get to the airport I can catch an earlier flight if there is room.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:

Thursday night is when the Diamond Medallion guys come out to play in my experience.

I've been 26th on the upgrade list on a 757-200 as a Platinum Medallion.

I've never been upgraded on a Sunday night/Monday morning departure or a Thursday night return. My sister works for Bain and I know their standard consulting schedule was Monday-Thursday out at the client (or at least on the projects she worked). They would have the choice of flying out Sunday night or EARLY Monday morning and then they would return Thursday night after finishing up for the day. A lot of my other friends at Accenture, Deloitte, etc seemed to follow a similar schedule.

In a similar vein, what are everyone else's engagements like? Are you typically going to the same client for several months at a time or always somewhere different for sales meetings? Are you guys primarily working with external customers/clients or traveling for internal meetings/reasons?

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

Belldandy posted:

Another frequent traveller checking in as well. I do about ~250,000 miles a year, mostly domestic, all on American Airlines. I normally book my travel on full fare first and as a result got awarded "ConciergeKey" on AA, much like the guy from "Up in the Air". I also do about 150 nights a year in Starwood properties and just hit lifetime platinum with them.

God drat, what do you do? That is a lot of freaking miles. I would love to travel more and have considered looking for a new position but I can't justify it until they don't give me a raise or I stop learning things.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

Belldandy posted:

High level dude in a large company. Traveling is great but there are a lot of considerations you need to take regarding your personal life, which is really the big downfall for a lot of people. If you can travel on your companies dime it's an amazing opportunity to see the US or in some cases the world.

Oh yeah, you're a high level sales manager (not to say your title is manager by any means) if I remember correctly from another thread? I'm young and love to travel, did about 50k this year and wouldn't mind doing a lot more but I love my job currently so haven't started looking yet. Getting to see the country/world on the company's dime and accumulating all the miles to then travel for free on my own is one of the best parts of work.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
I thought I was going to have to do a small MR to hit gold on US Airways but a project manager just asked me if I would fly to San Francisco for a week long engagement before Christmas so now I'll hit gold on the company dollar.

If anyone wants to try out US Airways Silver Preferred I have at least one free 90 day trial. You'll be Silver Preferred on US Air for 90 days and then depending on how many miles you fly on US/Star Alliance (using your US FF#) you can earn Silver through Chairman's Preferred and keep it for the next program year.

I just need a US Air FF# and I can gift it on over.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
Am I the only one who has never rented a car? I always take public transportation (if it is available) or taxis. I guess all of my trips have been to Europe or major US cities where the airports are fairly close and taxis/public transportation are readily available.

My stats this year will be 52k BIS on US Air and Star Alliance partners hitting gold status on both. Last trip will be next Sunday to San Francisco for a week. Anyone else in the area? I don't participate in hotel or car rental programs. Although that will probably change in 2013 so I'll be asking for recommendations I'm sure.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
I book all my travel myself. Our company let's you book through our primary admin but it requires filling out a long form (not even our CEO has a direct admin as far as I know) and just isn't worth it in case of any screw ups.

Uncle Jam posted:

What is everyone's hotel policy?

We have no direct policy, it is generally a "use your head" policy.

I'm always going to customer sites (and all my expenses are billed through them) so I always ask whoever my customer contact is what their company's preferred hotel is. Then I book with that hotel using whatever corporate rate they've worked out. This can be good and bad, I've had some hotels that are ridiculously amazing (Copenhagen) and others that are terrible (DC).

size1one posted:

It's been my experience that the type of person who processes reimbursements are the least imaginative, most inflexible people I've ever met. I don't really think I can adequately describe how joyless and miserable every one of them seemed. Pray you never anger the accountants. They will not hesitate to nitpick your reimbursements.

This used to be the case for us until our expenses started getting handled out of India. The India finance group just doesn't seem to care like our US group used to. I once got a call from finance over a $25 checked bag fee for our customer conference because "anything over $15 requires a receipt." I was annoyed because I had included the receipt and about 50% of our customer facing employees were attending so I suppose I could have been stealing $25 but come on.

In a similar vein, what is everyone else's food/alcohol policy? Ours is $40/day for food and no alcohol at all unless you're "entertaining" customers which also grants you the ability to spend whatever you want within common sense levels. Generally though as long as your food expenses aren't way overboard (and your manager approves them) we're fine even if we have a beer or two with dinner.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

sellouts posted:

I don't like the backpack style bags personally, so if that's your thing then go for it.

Messenger bag for laptop + electronics, simple wheeled rollerboard for clothes. I'm set.

I hate messenger bags for travel. I tend to have in my laptop bag my laptop (duh), a book or two, usually a pair of shoes (don't fit well in messenger bag), and my toiletries. This stuff starts to add up and if I have that drat strap digging into my neck for a few hours a day I start to get annoyed. This primarily happens on the actual travel days when I'm getting to the airport, going through security, wandering around the airport and then on the way to the hotel if it involves any large amount of walking which it often does because I like taking public transportation.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
Sorry, I don't think I was very clear before... I currently use this http://www.timbuk2.com/tb2/products/q-backpack as my personal item. It was 50% off + free shipping so I bought it, I like the specific padded laptop section and extra space a backpack provides. Luckily I work in software as a trainer so I don't need something that is formal for business meetings.

I keep my laptop/electronics/chargers, any books I want for the trip, usually a pair of shoes, and my toiletries (for ease of getting them out going through security like you guessed). All that weight adds up and even when I just had laptop + books in a messenger bag it still aggravated me.

I'll look into pre-check, I fly out of PHL and I think it just started recently for select US Airways frequent flyers. Not sure what the requirements for participation are though.

Lyon fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Dec 13, 2012

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

Midjack posted:

Oh poo poo. USAir?

Hah I promise US Air isn't that bad.. I pretty much only fly US Air and United and I have never noticed a major difference. I am very curious as to what will happen if US and AA merge, sounds like US Air would leave the Star Alliance which will suck.

Have you AA guys been keeping tabs on the talks at all?

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

sellouts posted:

Despite the pilots wishes it looks very unlikely. Thank god.

Why would OneWorld be so bad for you?

I live in Philadelphia and have never seen a OneWorld alliance member be the most cost effective flight. AA and British Airways occasionally have flights for about the same price but I've never seen them significantly beat US Air or United in all of my trips. US Air and United seem to have the strongest presence at Philadelphia and since they are both Star Alliance this means I get to credit all my miles back to US Air/Star Alliance. If US Air went over to OneWorld it would potentially cause me to lose a lot of miles in my preferred program. I just ran a bunch of dummy flights from PHL to all over the country/world and US Air was the cheapest for every spot except Seattle and Berlin where United was the cheapest. Even PHL-ATL US Air was the exact same price as Delta and Southwest/AirTran.

Like I said, I fly US Air and United 90% of the time and I've never really noticed a major difference between the two. I don't think I've flown American or Delta in years though, last one I can definitely remember was Delta from EWR-ATL 7 or 8 years ago so I can't really speak there. I have noticed a major difference between US airlines and European ones, but not so much domestically.

Lyon fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Dec 28, 2012

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

sellouts posted:

But that's how it works -- US Air is cheapest in PHL . Any merger into Oneworld or with AA wouldn't change that. AA wouldn't start running flights into there, US Air is established. It'd hurt competition if anything, but it sounds like AA isn't really putting any competition due to their much higher prices.

Looks like the crux of your issue is that you'd lose a lot of miles in your preferred program -- but why is it your preferred program? OneWorld/American generally has a very well regarded program in terms of mile value and seat availability. Monetary cost of the ticket is irrelevant when determining mile redemption cost on AA. From what I've read getting into OneWorld and access to AA and their partners might increase your miles value. I can't find the link currently but from what I've read it is very unlikely that any frequent flyer would lose their miles in a merger -- your frequent travel is too valuable to lose you as a customer over that cost.

No no of course, from everything I've ever heard AA is superior in a lot of ways. What I'm saying is that since US Air and United are almost always the two cheapest it works out really well for me that they're in the same alliance. If US Air joins OneWorld then any time I flew United I would be out those miles in regards to status/easy redeeming. I don't fly as much as some of you guys where I could qualify for good status on two airlines.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
I got my first official assignment of the new year that will require a flight which will be Milan, Italy sometime in February. I need to get the dates worked out but hopefully the first of many. All of January is virtual training and then a week long trip to New Jersey, which is local for me, so February is the start for me I suppose. Last year winter was really busy but this year we seem to have more virtual trainings than on-site ones so far, hopefully that changes.

How are everyone else's schedules looking?

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

Belldandy posted:

I approve expenses for my team and I would not be really happy if they maxed out their allowances daily because it will hurt them in the long run. I don't personally care because I know being on the road is a pain in the rear end, nor will I "do" anything about it because you are entitled to it per our T&E policy but, I do know that Sr. Management in finance DOES care about it and will make submitting expenses an absolute pain in the rear end if you are within the top spend tier. The fact that most of my team are people managers also makes this difficult because they are expected to set an example for individual contributors about responsible expense policies. With that said, I have had people try to expense some pretty ridiculous poo poo.

So basically, if you are on the road 5 days a week eat Taco Bell 1 or 2 times.

Just out of curiosity, what are your limits again and are your employees' expenses billable to a customer? I ask because I almost always hit or slightly exceed the daily spend limit on food and I definitely would if I accounted for everything appropriately.

We are given $40/day for food. This isn't too unreasonable to maintain on some trips as when I/we are on site a lot of times the customer will pick up lunch. So if breakfast is $8-9, lunch is free, and then you have ~$30 for dinner (including tip) it isn't awful. If lunch isn't included that's another $8-10 dollars and now you have ~$20 for dinner including tip which basically means you're going to get real sick of your options.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

Belldandy posted:

Non-billable as we are sales, but our consulting arm is billable and I am not familiar with their system. We ask to keep it between $75-100 a day. With that said, what we care more about is quarterly spend. Most of our guys are allowed about $3000 or higher a quarter on personal expenses (food, travel, lodging) depending on their territory size. If a customer is involved the sky is the limit and I have personally tested that. I was sweating after I hit "submit".

Coming from my viewpoint and many others in senior management, if you are a good sales rep you can pretty much get away with murder. One of our guys who is consistently around ~200% the past 6 years is allowed a country club membership on us because this is how he closes deals. I'd imagine unless you work for a really unreasonable company and that unless you completely suck your manager doesn't really care if you exceed spend. Furthermore in most cases they would defend you unless you are doing something vastly retarded.

I get a little red flag in our expense system on plane tickets > $500 and hotel stays > $300 night. I generally do not ask for any justification nor have I ever denied anyone as a lot of the times we have stuff pop up last minute. We have a set rate with a car rental place and those usually end up at about $40 a day before taxes.

Okay, I NEVER exceed $75-100/day unless a customer is involved. I was curious what your company considered reasonable in regards to daily expenses. Sky is the limit if a customer is involved for us as well, some people definitely abuse it a bit though (steak dinners, nice scotch, etc) without actual customers involved or no true justification to take junior level customers out to such a dinner.

I imagine your territories are fairly compact region wise? I am based out of Philadelphia but I've been assigned jobs from San Fran to Eastern Poland. I'd say my average expenses for a single trip are probably close to $3k. My most recent trip was: flight to SFO ~$900, six nights at a Marriott $160/night, ~$50/day/food, rental car, etc. The trip before that I spent 10 days in Manchester, UK and I think including airfare total expenses were over $4k.

My expenses are (generally) billable to the customer and they know if our European resources are unavailable/the timeline dictates that someone from the US heads over to Europe that it is going to be expensive.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
My company tried to institute Concur and everyone used it for a little. What I do now if I'm booking a particularly pricey flight I go into Concur and show the best flight for the dates/times and screen cap it. Then I book mine through someone else which is usually cheaper or within company guidelines but from an outside site. I really only book outside of Concur when I'm flying US Airways so I can make sure they're counting the double miles for using their credit card and that my FF# goes in and I have a shot at upgrades etc.

I did no air travel in January sadly. I had three training engagements but two of them were virtual and one was in New Jersey so it was just a short drive up to company HQ. I will do a little over 10k miles in February because I got luckily assigned to a training engagement in Barcelona and then I'm going to Boston for another one.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
The argument is that the/a corporate travel portal provides extra protection for your tickets/trips/etc but I have never found that to be the case in reality. Concur charges you $25 to call the line and fix any problems... so we're paying all this money and a $7 fee per flight just to have access to Kayak? Then for an additional fee they will help you adjust your flights/trips/whatever? Awesome.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

TouchyMcFeely posted:

We use Concur in my company but I'm pretty meh about it.

The biggest pain in the rear end I run into is the "must take the lowest logical airfare" requirement my company has. Usually that simple translates into "lowest airfare period" so I get flagged every time I fly to Montana from Salt Lake City.

Usually ends up with a phone call wanting to know why I purchased the direct flight for $1000+ when there were other flights for around $600. The answer is always the same and it's because a 50 minute direct flight for $1000+ is cheaper in totality than a 5 hour trip with a layover but it never fails and gets flagged every time.

What I really love is when I book a last minute flight and the person I always go through this dance with is unavailable to approve it so my trip gets cancelled and I have to rebook it at even more money.

Then again I could probably attain higher status with another airline if I didn't take the directly flights but who wants to double up their travel time just so they can spend more time traveling?

The requirements are fairly configurable and it seems like whoever set up your rules is kind of a dick. Ours is set so we can take any flight that is within $200 of the cheapest flight and I think we exclude anything with more than 1 stop from being considered the cheapest.

How does $1000+ end up being cheaper for the company than the $600? Obviously for you an hour is better than five hours, but how does that translate to finance?

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
I just landed in Philadelphia flying on US Air and they announced it briefly on the plane that the merger was official. Time to burn my modest accumulation of miles before they update all the mileage charts.

I'm still upset to be losing the option to fly United but I'll get over it I'm sure once I see all the OneWorld options.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
I am starting to use up my miles on US Air before they adjust all of their award charts. Upgraded my flight back home from Boston with miles just as a guarantee. Strangely the flight to Boston hadn't been released yet but it is early Sunday morning out of DCA so I think I might just hope there aren't many preferred travelers on the flight and see if I get auto upgraded.

I think the spring will be really busy for me so I'll at least get to keep my Star Alliance for a little while! I don't image we'll see the full merger until the 3rd quarter at the earliest and potentially stretched into next year (but I doubt that).

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

True but if you look at the award chart changes it doesn't really affect the economy travel for inside the US or to Europe. I'm not on the level of some of you racking up insane amounts of miles. I flew a little over 50k and earned another 90k or so by signing up for the CC and some other bonuses.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
I am at 11k. Hoping to get to San Diego this month, everything else right now looks like it will be virtual unfortunately.

Got to Barcelona and Boston, so only two trips but high mileage on the one. Did anyone else get to go anywhere exciting?

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

Small White Dragon posted:

50k actual miles (EQM/PQM/MQM/.etc) flown this month?

Yeah Belldandy has the craziest schedule of all of us (so far). He said he does roughly 250k/yr so 50k in two months makes sense.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

salted hash browns posted:

Sup fellow travelers. United/SPG guy here.

Quick question: I'm going a bit stir-crazy during the week. Occasionally there are nights I have a couple hours to kill before bed, what do you all do to keep busy on the road? I've been tearing through books but would like to hear what other people do away from home during the week.

I go out and get drunk at a bar, I thought that's what everyone did? When I'm not doing that I tend to read books, do work, or attempt to learn. You guys should all check out Coursera.org if you haven't seen it before. It is a site that provides completely free online classes from well known/respected universities. I push this on all of my friends but it really helps kill time when I'm traveling (assuming the internet is good enough to actually load the videos anyway).

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

Belldandy posted:

P.S. How is everyone doing with their miles? I just hit 75,000 this past week and have no travel (!) planned this week, which is a nice change. Hoping I can hit EXP again by the end of April.

Did zero flying in March (I did rack up some sweet sweet Holiday Inn points though!!!) but April is looking good. I'm looking at least 14k miles in April already and we're still getting crushed with requests so I might get to sneak another trip in. I'll be Silver Preferred on US by the end of April and hopefully easily make Gold Preferred by the end of the year. Still waiting to hear how the US/AA merger will affect us lower end frequent flyers. I'm Gold through the end of 2013 and hoping to maintain at least that through 2014 so I won't get burned too badly.

Has anyone been keeping up with the US/AA merger?

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
I'm just going to come in here and be excited/brag a little because I'm sure my friends are sick of it and you guys can deflate my head with your awesome trips. I landed in Philly today after a trip out to Portland, OR and when I turned on my phone I found out my trip to Germany got extended and San Diego is now confirmed. So in a week I'll be flying to Munich to work there for a week, then taking the train to Frankfurt and working there for a week, then flying home out of Frankfurt. Pretty excited, Germany is probably the last of the major Western European countries I haven't been to.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
So uhh are you asking if anyone on here maintains two families or even the more manageable two girlfriends between home and a frequent destination? If so while I have no advice please keep us updated so I can live vicariously through you.

Pretty sweet about the free beer, would definitely help keep the old expense report in line (for a night at least).

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

TheLizard posted:

So work is moving me to Raleigh and I'm really disappointed in the flight options out of RDU. There goes my direct flights to SFO and Acela to NY. Taking a flight to JFK/LGA sucks compared to getting off at Penn Station and being at my clients' offices 15 minutes later. Nothing real to add here, I'm just bummed.

How did that conversation go? Did you have a choice, a "choice", or no choice at all on the move? Any chance you could ask to work from home so you don't have to move? I think RDU used to be an American hub but not sure what major airlines operate there currently.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

Belldandy posted:

EWR is wayyyyyy more convenient than LGA or JFK to get to midtown, especially if you already do UA it's a bonus as EWR is a UA hub.

Yeah I'd just like to reiterate this. EWR sits right on the NJ Transit line which terminates at Penn Station. You just take the tram/monorail from the airport to the NJ Transit stop right by the airport (maybe 5-10 minutes on the little train). From there you hop on the NJ Transit train heading towards NYC, super easy.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
US has WiFi available on 89% of its fleet according to their website. They oddly don't list the A330s on there but that might be because they were already equipped with it from the start. I swear the A330s all have it, all my trans-Atlantic flights have had WiFi I think... I've never purchased it so I'm not 100% sure.

http://www.usairways.com/en-US/traveltools/intheair/wifi.html?c=glam_00697&re=1

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

Morby posted:

I finally hit Delta Silver again this year :toot: ! Vancouver is awesome, by the way. I also had a cat as a seat mate for the first time. The couple next to me had brought their cat with them. Best seat mate ever!

Hah never flown with an animal. I know it must have been in a carrier but I'm imagining this very laid back cat with the buckle fastened around its waist working on a crossword puzzle or playing Sudoku.

How is everyone else doing mileage wise so far? I'm sitting at 30k on US Airways, so I've hit Silver for 2014 already but I'm pretty sure I'll easily hit Gold at 50k. It would be really nice to reach 75k and get Plat because I'm not sure what will happen to the status tiers with the American Airlines merger. I have another 7k miles booked for June already and might get some more tacked on to the end of the month.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

Belldandy posted:

What, really? That kinda sucks, I figured Gold would at least get some say in those seats. drat, really no difference between the credit card status and that now.

Oh weird, you guys were making me nervous, AA Plat is the equivalent to US Gold in terms of miles flown so I should be fine as I will pretty much always hit at least US Gold/AA Plat.

US does Silver at 25k, Gold at 50k, Platinum at 75k, and Chairman's at 100k. I'm surprised AA doesn't have a 4th tier, seems like a reasonable place to put one. Maybe it will be added after the merger since US has it, who knows!

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
Anyone have any tips for Phoenix? I'm connecting through there tonight on my way home to Philly and with that tropical storm coming up the east coast I'm already preparing for major delays. I have club access but if I get stuck there for a day is there anything nearby worth checking out?

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
How is everyone doing mileage wise?

I am officially US Airways gold through February of 2015 and I have three trips currently scheduled. Hitting Seattle, Tucson, and Orlando but there is a big gap before going to Orlando in early September so potentially could do a bit more. I'm hoping to hit platinum this year, I just missed out on a trip to Singapore which would have put me to chairman's pretty easily so that was disappointing on all fronts.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
I just took a new sales job and for now the travel will essentially be zero. US Gold through Feb 2015 though I guess... Definitely would have hit Platinum this year too.

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Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
So I took a new job at my company going from the training team to the sales team and my travel was supposed to slow way down for a while. Unfortunately the training manager is quitting but on the plus side I'm getting shipped all over the world to help fill the gap while they rebuild the training team.

I've already done San Francisco and Little Rock and am scheduled through mid March going to Boston, Denver, Chicago, Long Island, NY, and Cork, Ireland. Looks like I'll get to keep my status for at least one more year.

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