UMTravels

Out of the condo a little before noon and off to the border to find no line at the border after the mandatory stop at duty free since Nexus members get 10% off at the Truck Crossing Duty-Free store.

Next stop is the Safeway in Mount Vernon for discount meats (to restock what I took to CanadaLand) and to fill up the tank with my 20 cent discount.

And speaking of Safeway gas discounts, after a chicken cordon blu dinner with salad, I spent too much time working on importing all the Safeway’s with gas pumps into my new TomTom GPS. After much tinkering I got one state’s worth in so that it even shows the Safeway logo on the map pinpoint. Of course now I have to do that for the rest of the states, then for all the Costco’s with gas pumps, and then the state liquor store in Oregon, Idaho and Montana where the state still runs them. But that’s a chore for another day. Whew.

Whilst doing all this I stumbled across a fare that I couldn’t believe on the United website:

Seattle-San Francisco -Hong Kong, leaving Monday, March 4^th, returning Thursday the 7^th — $745.40 roundtrip. 15,184 flight miles closer to the 108,000 I need to become a million-miler on United and be Gold for life (and nominate someone each year for free silver status)

I got so excited that I booked the next week via Tokyo for $10 more, but I get to fly on ANA’s 787 assuming they are back up in the air by then. This one is only 13,192 flight miles, but between two I’m guaranteed Silver for next year, though that status no longer allows for Economy Plus booking at time of reservation – a loss after the merger with Continental.

Now the downside to all of this is that my United Premier expires at the end of the month, which means I’ll be back in Economy Minus (instead of Economy Plus). This got me thinking – sometimes they will do a status match to get new customers or get them back, and there is a procedure on their site. Send copies of your other club’s status via email… so off this email went with my Alaska Gold MVP status and my Virgin America Elevate Silver Status (also a match because of my current United Premier Silver status):

As a United flyer with almost 900K miles under my belt on United, I’m requesting status match from my current Premier (until the end of the month) to United Gold as I’m an Alaska Gold Member through 2014 (as well as Virgin America Silver). Attached are .jpgs of my online account records.

I am requesting United Gold match status for 90 days in which I promise to log 12,500 flight miles. I will book the trip this evening.

I’m looking forward to returning to the United fold after an absence of several years. And looking forward to matching my father’s million mile status.

Mark Souder

We will see what they say.

All this travel planning and I’m dizzy now.

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