Loyalty Pays Off
Last year I flew around 130,000 miles across 11 different airlines and had virtually no status to show for it. I probably stayed 30-35 nights in hotels, also with nothing to show for it. So on Jan 1, one of my resolutions was to consolidate my travel down to one airline and one hotel chain.
Because I travel internationally, I was limited to the big alliances, and since I’m in San Francisco, United was the obvious choice for air.
And as of today, in just under 6 months, I’ve hit 1K status. Now that doesn’t mean nearly as much as it used to, but seeing how few perks a Premier Silver (25K) gets from United, at least I’m almost guaranteed an Economy Plus seat (which is all that really matters for productivity). Total miles so far ~106K, 100 of which are on United.
And with Starwood Preferred Guest, I’m a few nights short of Platinum. Not much in the way of benefits when you are gold other than increased accrual, but better than what I had in 2011, which was nothing.
So now the rest of the year (and next) looks far more promising, solely due to a decision made in 2 minutes in early January.
