I’ll make a public confession today…

“I’m an extremely lazy person.” There I said it.

So lazy actually that I never took the few minutes to just add my “mileage” number to all the flying I do. Even with hotels, I would never take the time to sign-up for their loyalty club.

Here’s what changed me one day…

The backstory is that I use the Delta AMEX credit card ever since we started the company, why? I have no idea, I don’t really like Delta. So, in other words, because of the credit card I’ve been accumulating hundreds of thousands of miles over years and barely ever used them.

I have not flown Delta in over 5 years, I just recently used some miles to send my parents on a vacation (that was the only time I used the points).

Anyways, recently I had to take a trip and Delta came out to really be the only flight that was available so I booked it. Well, a day before the flight, I stepped out of my lazy mode and decided to take a minute to add my “mileage number” to get whatever credit I could get.

I logged into Delta and put the mileage number in on the net and all of a sudden the page refreshed and it showed that I had automatically been upgraded to first class. I actually freaked out thinking that they had just charged me some rediculous money (traveling first class within US is retarded, it’s too expensive)!

I called them up and the support rep says: “No sir, we just upgraded you for free because you are a Silver Medallion level flyer.” Basically my “credit card miles” had given me some elite status with Delta.

I was ecstatic! Thank god I took a few minutes to do this - my 5 hour flight across country would be so much more comfortable now.

Ok, so that was win #1.

Next, the day of my flight I went to check-in only to find out that the flight was delayed. Typically that is OK, but this time it meant that I would miss my connecting flight to Vegas, which would in-turn mean that I could not reach Vegas in time to MC an event our company was holding (uh oh, now I’m in trouble!)

To make matters worst, the only flight available was fully booked with almost 17 people on the stand-by list - in other words, I had NO chance of getting on it. Here’s where things take a turn…

I happen to mention to the lady (as I’m trying to sweet talk any way to get their on time) that Delta had recently upgraded me to first and now that would go to waste.

She proceeds to ask “Why did we do that?”
My answer: “I don’t know, some silver medallion thing…”

She gives me a big smile and says, “Oh! You’re Silver Medallion? <type type type> Done! You’re on the next flight sir…”

You can imagine my confusion and reaction - I went on to learn that because of my Silver Medallion level, they had just bumped me to #1 on the standby list (over 17 people) and that pretty much guaranteed me a seat!

I was able to get to Vegas on time and in class with a big fat comfortable first class seat.

Moral of the story? Take the points and mileage seriously - do dedicate yourself to one airline and try to use them as often as possible, same with hotels. To give yourself a boost, also get that airline or hotel’s credit card.

Do this and you too can travel like a king without having to PAY for it!

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Tags: points mileage travel

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 16th, 2008 at 11:59 am and is filed under CEO Lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.