"Up in the Air"

[LionCity]

I was watching the show "Up in the Air" and the Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) character. I thinking of the air miles I have accumulated in my life time (including those I spent) and I don't think it even crossed 1.2 Million miles. This includes credit card, rental car, hotels, insurance etc...over a period of 10 years of regular flying.

I just wondering if any knows of a person liked Ryan Bingham who achieved 10 millions? SIN - USD in Business per year will equate to about 30,000 miles per trip round number. This will be more if miles put into some other FFP. 20 Trips per year is around 600,000. Credit card expenditure for buying tickets will be around 400,000 miles assuming a ticket cost of 10K each and an exchange rate of 0.5 dollar per mile. A million miles a year. Plus hotel program etc.perhaps 100k.

That is 1.2 Million miles per year total. This will take about 8 years in total to reach . Just wondering if this has happened before on SQ Krisflyer? Of it is probably easier on BMI or LH with their higher earn ratio.

Just my own food for thoughts on a quiet Saturday evening sitting alone in front of the computer.

[Kiwi]

Not me. I've earnt (and spent most of) 7 million miles, but over multiple programs.

[steeltrader]

I get about 600.000 miles per year on Krisflyer - flights and credit card. Thats about 4.8 million since I started with SIA.

[coffeeblack]

If you read the book it's actually only 1M, and Ryan only ever really flew domestic, so 1M is actually quite an achievement for someone who does so.

I think they went for 10M for the "grand" effect in the movie.

[SQflyergirl]

I'm a mileage junkie yes, but i for one, DON'T WANT to earn 10 million miles (especially by flying)... I love flying, but not THAT much

[Burj]

There are a few issues with that whole "10 Million Mile" mark... Please keep in the mind that the domestic US market is very odd...

Originally there was only one kind of "frequent flier mile" which could be earned. You got 1 mile for each mile you actually FLEW. Getting 1 million of these types of miles is quite difficult as even a round trip transcon (NYC-LA) get only about 5,000 miles.

HOWEVER the airlines then started using their programs to make money by selling miles (essentially printing money!) to credit card companies and hotels who would then give these miles out as incentives to use their services.

So the airlines then created two different types of miles. For instance on Delta we have MQM, which stand for Medallion Qualifying Miles, which only count towards earning elite status but are not good for anything else. MQMs can only be earned by FLYING, however even those now are being sold to American Express (AMEX) so if you have the right AMEX credit card and spend enough money, you get some MQMs to help you get elite status...

The OTHER type of miles, the ones you can use towards an award ticket, which are also the ones given away by all the partner programs are normal "miles" (on Delta called SkyMiles).

So in the movie it is implied, but not clearly stated, that he needs 10 million flying miles (or as some people call them "but in seat" or BIS miles). However if he used his credit card enough, he would get normal miles and maybe some BIS miles...which would explain why he was so keen to use his credit card as much as possible...you have to use it A LOT to get any "BIS" miles...but get at least one "normal" or "award" mile for each dollar spent...

[SilverChris]

IIRC in the US there is an FPP with miles that never expire. Is that AA?

[TerryK]

IIRC in the US there is an FPP with miles that never expire. Is that AA?

No. AA miles expires after 18 months of inactivity. CO is the one you want.

[TerryK]

....So in the movie it is implied, but not clearly stated, that he needs 10 million flying miles (or as some people call them "but in seat" or BIS miles). However if he used his credit card enough, he would get normal miles and maybe some BIS miles...which would explain why he was so keen to use his credit card as much as possible...you have to use it A LOT to get any "BIS" miles...but get at least one "normal" or "award" mile for each dollar spent...

AA is clearly featured in this movie. AA counts all miles for Million Miles mark.

[trekkie]

deleted

[MAN Flyer]

I'm a mileage junkie yes, but i for one, DON'T WANT to earn 10 million miles (especially by flying)... I love flying, but not THAT much

+1.

It would be a very sad day for me if I got anywhere near that. I wouldn't find it anything to shout about or be proud of at all, in fact the opposite.

[LionCity]

+1.

It would be a very sad day for me if I got anywhere near that. I wouldn't find it anything to shout about or be proud of at all, in fact the opposite.

Manflyer, with the amount of flying particularly to the Far East, I won't be surprised if you are already in the couple of million category.

[MAN Flyer]

Manflyer, with the amount of flying particularly to the Far East, I won't be surprised if you are already in the couple of million category.

Probably, but I'd rather not know. Having watched for years with great amusement the end of year parades where people list how many miles they've done I was going to keep a record of this years travel, but I knocked it on the head as I really don't want to know.

[LionCity]

Probably, but I'd rather not know. Having watched for years with great amusement the end of year parades where people list how many miles they've done I was going to keep a record of this years travel, but I knocked it on the head as I really don't want to know.

In the future what is going to happen is you don't need to show your record on how many miles you have accumulated. They are going to have a device where it measured a certain type of radiation = number of actual miles flown.

[Kiwi]

There are many programs that do not expire miles. SQ being an exception. But despite all the shortcomings, the SQ FFP is also one that is favoured for SQ seats namely.

Non-expiring miles are extremely rare. See FFP mileage expiry.