Jaunted

Tags: Business Travel / Frequent Flier / Travel Media / New York Times / Joe Sharkey / → All Tags

Running for Miles

Is it that time of year already? No, not holiday shopping and tree trimming time. It's time to book "mileage runs" to bump your frequent flier mileage up to where you'd like it to be. At least, that's what Joe Sharkey tells us in his latest On The Road column.

Here's the deal, says Joe. If you want to retain elite status--silver, gold, double-super platinum elite, whatever--you need to fly a set number of miles in a year. (Usually at least 25,000 for the lowest status, which can net you early boarding, free upgrades and smiles from gate agents.) Credit card purchases and the like that accrue miles normally don't count: You've actually got to put your butt in the seat. That means Joe and his buddies have been known to fly back and forth to Guam--twice--to boost their mileage. Our fave part of the article, though, comes when Joe chats with a shadowy figure in the frequent flier world known only as Viajero Joven:

"Some people want to do over 50,000 miles, which is not possible in a single trip because of the size of the planet," he said. "So they do multiple trips, consecutively."

Now that's our kind of guy.

[Photo: Mareen Fischinger]

Related Stories:
· End of Year. Short on Miles. Coach Class, Here I Come [NYT]
· Jaunted's Business Travel coverage [Jaunted]