I ran my total miles for the year calculations in November - I was going to be about 3,500 miles short of 50K for the year (1P on United).
I had a $150 e-certificate from irrops (irregular operations) from a previous flight. I did some searching and found a fairly cheap fare from Seattle to Miami (everyone wants to get out of Seattle in December right?). The trip would get me roughly 6,500 miles and only ran me $150 and my time. I'd been reading about mileage running - traveling solely for the purpose of earning miles or status with an airline. Although this trip would not be a traditional mileage run (because I used an e-certificate), it would be my first trip for no apparent reason.
On Dec. 6th I rode the light rail to Sea-Tac around 10:00, and arrived at 10:45. Unfortunately the Red Carpet Club (United's lounge) closes at 7. I hung out outside the gate for a few minutes and it was time for boarding. My upgrade to first class had cleared the day before which made me even more excited for the trip. The snack provided in first was a wrap, salad and United's famous cookies. I asked the flight attendant if there was any extra cookies and she brought by another. Even though the flight was a red eye, I don't do much sleeping on planes. The flight attendant was also pretty aggressive about keeping my Jack and Coke's filled (hey, they are free right?). I dosed off for about 45 minutes before we started our decent in Washington, DC.
I headed the to RCC in IAD grabbed some breakfast, checked email and made some phone calls. I grabbed a root beer for the road and headed to the gate area for my flight to MIA. I caught up on email did some reading on the flight. Thankfully this flight was much shorter than SEA-IAD. We arrived in Miami and I brushed my teeth, freshened up and turned right back around to board the same plane in seat 3A to O'Hare. I listened to my recently received iPod and made some notes for the work week ahead. This was another short flight and uneventful. We landed at ORD and I headed to the RCC to grab some snacks. I had a little bit of time to check email and call my dad and then it was time to fly the final leg.
ORD-SEA was a good flight, we must have had a tail wind because we made some great time. I finalized my plan for the next week, enjoyed a nice dinner and watched Despicable Me. I got to Sea-Tac just in time to head to the RCC and catch the end of the Kansas game. A nice W was a fitting end to my first "mileage run".
