Sitting in 8D Economy Plus right now, United 477 from Philadelphia to SFO, I reached 1 million miles on United! While I was aware that I was going to attain this elite level of travel, I was still surprised when the attendant of the beverage cart came by and asked if I was the frequent flyer in 8D who has reached 1 million miles. I admitted that I am he. I asked how she knew and she said the computer generates such milestones on every flight and that I was the only one on this flight. I’ve been a member of United’s Mileage Plus program since 1981, perhaps one of the first frequent flyers.
The flight attendant offered me a glass, actually a plastic cup and a little bottle of Redwood Creek Chardonnay, California for my accomplishment. I felt like George Clooney in Up in the Air. Later on, the flight’s main attendant stopped by and thanked me for my loyalty and she talked about how it’ll be more difficult in the future for flyers to reach 1 million miles because of the upcoming merger with Continental. I shared about what I did for my work and how pilots referred to the ABC Mission Center as the “elephant’s toilet seat” as a navigational marker when they approach Philadelphia Airport. She told me that she attends a Baptist church in Lodi, California and that it has a clean water project. I shared about our Lanna Coffee project and that I was flying United to Bangkok early next year for another trip to learn about how selling coffee stops human trafficking. She offered me another glass/bottle of wine.
I was self-conscious of those who sat around me. In the window seat, there’s a young woman with a lot of magazines, a DS player, an iPod and her earphones on. The woman across the aisle is working quietly on her laptop. Neither of them took notice of the attention bestowed on me. Neither of them inquired what happened or congratulated me. I felt more like George Clooney than I would have ever imagined when it comes to the loneliness of business travel.
Accumulating 1 million miles on United came with a tremendous amount of sacrifices and patience from Joy, Greg and Lauren. I will never fully comprehend how many nights Joy was a single mother or how many times Greg and Lauren may have wanted me to be with them when they were growing up. I apologize for being absent in their lives especially during the times when they really needed me. I seek their forgiveness.
During the past 29 years when I flew 1 million miles on United, we have used miles to visit Singapore when Greg and Lauren were kids, visited the major cities of China in 1998 on business class as our small family were about to grow larger with Heather and Daniel. I am saving up miles for our family that will be composed of 6 adults and 6 beautiful grandkids for another family reunion in the near future—maybe to Alaska, the only state that I have not yet been!
I never set out in 1981 to become an elite member of the 1 million mile club. It was more like a game to log miles and to see the number of different places one has traveled. But now that I am, I will be Premier Executive for the rest of my life. I won’t have to work to see if I have flown enough miles or enough segments in a given year to qualify for Premier any longer. I will be able to board after the First-Class travelers. And I pray that being a business traveler has not forfeited the love of my family toward me. I am still up in the air while I write this.
DN/11/20/2010