That mostly depends on your home airport. Which airlines serve your most frequent routes and do they have business class options? If you want to fly business class, what is your philosophy for routes where business class requires an (additional) stopover? Are you willing to take an (additional) stopover with “your” airline if a different airline offers non-stop options? I know some people who almost always pick the fastest option and others who are willing to travel 4-6 hours longer in order to get a business class flight with their airline. That last group might shrink significantly if people had to pay taxes on the miles they get to use personally from business travel.

Good example is a trip my brother did last summer. Frankfurt -> Chicago -> Kansas City -> Phoenix -> Salt Lake City -> Los Angeles -> Vancouver -> Orlando -> Frankfurt in 9 days. If you basically travel every night, you just want to get to your next hotel even if that means flying SW or business class with an airline where you don’t collect points. But if you travel the same way twice a week, there’s obviously no reason not to collect points with the airline that offers direct business class flights for that route.

Like hang around an airport for 4 to 6 hours instead of going to their destination coach?

Prima-donnas.

They could fly airline A non-stop to their destination but because they collect points for airline B (which doesn’t offer non-stop flights) they take their flight that includes a stop–over.

Or their airline offers a non-stop flight on a plane without business class so they pick a stop-over flight where both legs have business class.

Lots of people underestimate how much frequent flier points are worth for people who travel a lot. A friend of mine who made Lufthansa HON circle (600k miles in first/business class in consecutive years) for the first time last year told me that the status is worth ~$30k tax free to him which translates to >$50k pre-tax income in his tax bracket.

Am I correct that he is traveling 2,000 hours per year? 600,000/300? That is quite a lot of travel and $30k doesn't seem that much benefit when you have a second full-time job being on a plane.

golf,

Far less than that. You get a multiplier on your flight miles in paid business/first. And long flights are quite a bit more than 300 miles/hr.

I saw 500mph. That is still 1,200 hours in the air. That is a lot of hours. At $50k value-added, that is $41/hr. Not chump change, but that ain't a lot of compensation for basically being uncomfortable on a plane. Some people are much better-suited than others. Like the ones that can fall asleep instantly. I am jealous.

golf,

Dude, slow down, you don't have to post every thought that enters your head immediately. You didn't even process one of the two simple points in my post.

Dude, people who fly for work don't do it all in addition to their 40 hours. Plenty of on the clock time is in the air and in/traveling to and from the airport.

1,200 hours in the air plus hundreds of hours at airports, plus hundreds of hours traveling to and from airports is intense. The Lufthansa guy does deserve special treatment for parting with a fraction of his soul.

"People who travel for work are stupid because their hourly rate sleeping in hotels and eating at restaurants on the company dime is pretty low. Like, they could sleep at home and eat home-cooked meals."

As someone who has traveled for work for the last ten years mostly on south west GTO seat is in my opinion row nine. This is close enough to the front to get off the plane reasonably quick. It is the first row to get drink service from the second stewardess. If you are AList you will walk past a couple empty rows normally letting you put your stuff up without the next person breathing all over you while they wait to get past.


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You have to factor in many jobs that ask you to travel pay much better. There is a 50% pay difference between inside and outside sales reps at my company. Most of the best paying jobs where I work require 25 to 50 % travel. The points are a bonus on top of that.


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Ican,

Yep. Also that premium class flights generally get a multiple of miles credited, so it’s going to be way less than 1200 flight hours. And as JT pointed out, jobs at the level of a lot of premium class international flying often have much or most of that travel during business hours - and often clients are billed huge amounts of money for the time spent traveling.

I don’t know why this Lufthansa thing is, but I’ve had a couple of friends be United global services level flyers and that **** is crazy in terms of perks/privileges.

El

There is a reasonable chance United global and the Lufthansa deal are the same I think both are part of star alliance. I have not done extensive international travel in 7 or 8 years so I am not up on the details.


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The row 9 getting the first drink service from the second attendant tip is elite.

I'm flying Monday and booked yesterday. There were plenty of gotta get away flights open, which is a bummer because I get more points for the business select if that's all that is available. It must be a slow time of year for this route.

Just chatting with my most prolific flying friend and he flew around 200k actual miles in '17 And earned about 600k and similar previous years. He said has the top published tier for united but global services is invite only and he books coach and upgrades with points which diminishes his shot.

JT,

Yeah, I don’t believe people know (or at least when I flew a lot they didn’t) the criteria, but they do know it’s a very heavily revenue based qualification.

It’s pretty similar for Lufthansa HON circle. Only flights in paid business/first class count towards the status. The highest status for other customers is Senator.

FWIW, $50k pre-tax income is a lot of money even for the majority of business travelers. Before my brother got promoted to director at his company, we always made fun of him because his yearly travel costs significantly exceeded his salary.

FWIW2, at most jobs, travel time = work time. If your job pays for business class flights, you are “on the clock” during business hours and expected to do something productive instead of watching movies. (Not that it really matters if nobody pays you overtime).

What do you guys do about seat savers? I don't fly SWA, ever, but if I ran into one of these ****tards I would probably take the seat they're saving just on principle

It pisses me off more than it should.

My wife has asked about what it takes for Global Services. They always give her a non-answer that is basically "Don't call us, we'll call you".

Did,

Got curious and found these articles. I'm sure there's much better and more detailed info in FlyerTalk threads.

https://thepointsguy.com/2017/08/uni...vices-in-2017/

https://thepointsguy.com/2017/12/uni...ions-benefits/
So something like $40k+ of non-discounted economy and business/first fares.

Those cats sound cold



Perfect tune to get your Friday rolling

What are the perks you get with global services?

I'd like to do that but it's too easy for them to take revenge. Their friend just sits next to you and leans on you and breathes on you the whole flight just to be a prick.