That Was the Year That Was…
How was the year 2012 for you? It worked out well for me as my daughter graduated from Johns-Hopkins, I assumed Brigade Command and published an article in Parameters, the Army War College Journal, and my readership increased from two to three (jk). Perhaps more to the point of this blog, I acheived my goals for frequent flying this year. Here is how I did this year:
United (Mileage Plus) – Goal: 100,000 miles, Actual: 134,292 EQM
Alaska (Mileage Plan) – Goal: 50,000 miles, Actual: 51,822 EQM (over half were on AA or DL)
So I requalified for 1K on United and reaped 6 GPUs(International Upgrades) and 6 RPUs (Domestic Upgrades).
On Alaska, I requalified for MVP Gold which gives me a good chance at upgrades, but more importantly lets me make changes to a reservation without charge. I love this benefit because I can go ahead and book on Alaska whenever I see a good deal knowing that I can get a zero-cost refund whenever I want.
And of course, I continue to collect more miles than I have time to use…
Some questions that I would like my readers to respond to are:
So were what were your goals?
Did you make them or not?
Were the benefits worth it?
What are you going to try for in 2013?
Good luck with those goals and next time I will explain my strategies for acheiving those goals in my next post.
V/r,
Glenn
Hi Glenn,
Most of my long flights were awards, not paid trips so no earned elite status in 2012. But I did get UA Plat for 2013 from my recent winning bid in the MP auction. My upcoming trip (using the GPUs won through your contest) will give me a nice head start on earning that again for 2014.
Would love any tips you can offer on how to best take advantage my new UA Plat. Looking forward to booking awards with no booking/change/cancel fees, good UDU upgrade potential and 75% bonus RDM.
But one big question is how to take advantage of long distance low cost UA coach fares I see on flightdeals or FT MR thread but fly in biz/first. Hate to book non-ref coach fare on 5+ hour flights and end up not getting UDUs and having to fly in coach. Guess could focus on only flights with Eco Plus so get at least that if no UDU. Or use friends’ GPUs to upgrade W+ fares on intl flights or RPUs on domestic. Does anyone ever find these super low cost fares booking into W+ or L+ for GPU/RPU use?
I was looking to make 250k in miles and points.
I only did one churn in November and only had two other card by September so I really didn’t give myself the time to get the 250k. I got to about 200k but haven’t reached the minimum spend on some cards to put me well over the 250k. So, I think I did fine for starting at the end =]
Got to AA exec plat w 124,200 miles (8th year running). Doing a mileage run to Tulsa fr DFW to hit 125,000! Made gold on delta but only silver on UA – bummer. Hit SPG platinum w only 61 nights tho. Hilton Honors Diamond and Priority Club plat for another year but didn’t get far w Hyatt. – an aspiration for next year. Congtats
@ Greek2me – Steve, remember that as a Plat you can get UDU on any flight, the fare restrictions are for using RPU/ GPUs. The key to getting those UDU upgrades is to fly where other MP elites do not go. Fly between two UA hubs? Forget it. Take advantage of routings that go through less traveled cities and you will have pretty good success.
@ Corey – Making 200k in one year is a pretty good achievement. I suggest using those miles for international business/ FC flights to get the most bang for your buck.
@ Kelly – Pretty impressive travel on three airlines and three hotel chains! Hope you find time to spend all those points/ miles on a nice vacation. I would be interested to hear which of those hotel programs treats you the best since you are top tier in all of them.
Hi Glenn. I’m a military frequent flyer like you. I reached United Premier Platinum and Delta Silver Medallion this year. I made about 150k points/miles from credit card churns and I spent about that much visiting six countries that I had not previously seen.
I already have four international trips planned for next year. Two for work and two for pleasure.
2012 was a good year and I’m expecting 2013 to be even better.