How My Elite Status has benefited Others this year

As some of you may or may not know, I travel more than your average person for work (traveling to races across the USA.) I flew 55K miles in 2009, 65K in 2010 and was expecting about 75K in 2011. Before some unexpected trips came up in 2010, I took my first "mileage run" to keep my Premier Executive status with United Airlines. I met someone on a flight from Chicago, IL (ORD) to Seattle, WA (SEA) that recommended I check out a website called Flyertalk. I dabbled a bit and eventually decided I would like to try for 1K status on United - 1K Webpage . Fast forward to today and I have flown 105,000+ miles on United or Continental Airlines.

Reading some other blogs - JohnnyJet , Frequently Flying , One Mile at a Time along with some inspiration from friends and my GF I have decided to start trying to blog a few times a week. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I thought my first post would outline how my elite status has helped others this year.

Most recently my girlfriend flew back to Chicago for a wedding of two friends and to see her family. I was able to use two of my CR1's (confirmed regional upgrades) to assure her first class on both her outbound and return flights. Although she does not have the flying bug like I do, she said it was much better sitting up front. I was tracking her flight last night, and knew it would be a fun one for her when I watched her Airbus 320 drop all the way out of Montana into Idaho due to turbulence, sorry babe! She will also be flying First home the week before Christmas and her return trip (care of another CR1 and a SWU - systemwide upgrade).

I've also been recently blessed with becoming an Uncle. My mother came out here to visit my sister and her newborn son, Aiden. Besides playing Grandma, she also helped me with lots of data entry and packet stuffing :) (thanks mom!) The least I could do is get her some good seats on her flight back. I don't think my dad appreciated it... he says she only wants to fly First now...oops! I also enjoyed the "had 3 bloody marys" text I received from here once she landed in DEN for her layover.

The two other experiences I've had involved complete strangers. I was flying back from vacation in FL and my seatmate noticed my KU (Kansas) sticker on my Macbook. Turned out she was a KU alum and we of course talked about KU Bball, etc. We were delayed getting into ORD and both of us had tight connections. I offered to guest her into the lounge and get her re-booked. She was able to get on the next flight out of MCI and get a free drink without waiting in what I would assume was a massive line at a customer service center in O'hare. The other had me traveling from BTV (Burlington, VT) to EWR (Newark, NJ) on my way home from IronMan Lake Placid. There were multiple folks trying to get to Seattle, including a very cute Golden Retriever in training. My original flight to EWR was delayed (and eventually cancelled) so I switched to the other flight. That was also delayed, but by the time we left there was no flights to SEA. I was able to give some hints to the Golden Retriever family on getting re-booked on the 6AM and also was able to help the woman next to me get a hotel room comped.

In full disclosure, I of course enjoy some of the benefits that spending countless hours on an airplane brings - but it is always nice to help out someone else in need. Hopefully I can get into a groove and start blogging regularly.