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Quest's blog: On the road

By CNN's Richard Quest

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Manage Alerts | What Is This?

(CNN) -- Posted: May 1, 2006
Forum: read comments

Saturday, April 28 -- off again -- I am going to Los Angeles for three days (LHR-JFK-LAX-JFK-LHR) at least that's the plan. But there is talk of going onto Hawaii before returning home. I would only be there for a day.

Why am I going to LAX via JFK? The "official" answer is the non-stop was full (which is true) but I was also quite pleased to go via Kennedy. More Miles -- 10,902 versus 13,844 roundtrip. The things I will do for those dratted miles.

(please note CNN Accountants -- No price difference for this routing!)

My bid for extra miles is appropriate because this week is the 25th anniversary of the frequent flyer program. Yup, a quarter century since American Airlines started its advantage program. Next, if I am not mistaken, came United and the rest soon fell in behind.

To avoid conflict of interests let me be up front with my mileage status. American Advantage gold, United MP 1k and Continental OnePass Platinum. When I fly I try to keep to one program, but keep the others so that I am never giving away the chance to earn miles (heaven forbid.)

Even though a lot of my flying is not on U.S., I put the miles from flying alliance carriers into a U.S. carrier account because they are more generous on "earn and burn" rules.

My colleagues think I am a mileage geek (which I am) but hey -- I'm the one who flew business class to Sydney this year on holiday for free (LHR-SIN-SYD on SQ using Star Alliance reward.)

By the way -- a quick tip for fellow mileage geeks -- there's a wonderful piece of software out there called Flying Fish (you can Google it or get it from flyertalk.com -- it's free) it lets you punch in the airport codes of your flight and will tell you how many miles you are going to earn. You can even program it for elite and fare bonuses. And if you add in the price it will tell you if it would make a good "mileage run" (another topic for another day.)

How can we tell if we are a mileage geek? Oh, my test is that I know my frequent flyer numbers better than most of my family's birthdays. Sorry mum.

(So we are always up front with each other -- I will always tell you which airlines I have flown. If you join me in this blog, please feel free to do the same. This trip: Flying: United Airlines. Car Rental: Hertz. Hotel: Boutique place in Hollywood, called Le Parc.)

Forum

From: Kevin Mercer
Posted: 9 May, 2006
Comment: Richard, I see you have UA 1K status, and I'm curious because I've been hunting around trying to find out more about the UA "Global Services" program, especially since on boarding calls, it's always the GS members and 1st that board before Seating 1 group. Is this similar to the LH HON program?
P.S. Enjoy Hawaii, I envy your job.

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