Are you a Frequent Flier, and not sure of what to do with your points ?
A giant leap for frequent fliers
US Airline Puts Man Overloaded With Traveller Miles In High-Flying MiG
By Lisa Kalis
Evan Demestihas, a physician who runs a medical company in Atlanta, had always wanted to slip the surly bonds of earth and get out into space, but it looked for a long time as if his abundant business travels on commercial airliners would be the closest he would come. Then came an unexpected opportunity — thanks to those very trips.
In July, he traveled to Star City, Russia, just outside Moscow, for a ride on a MiG fighter to an altitude of 80,000 feet, about 15 miles up. Looking down from a black sky at the curve of the earth, he marveled at how thin the atmosphere, a band of hazy blue, really looked. He was up there with the pilots who travel higher above the planet than anyone but astronauts. “That day was all mine,” he said. And instead of paying the full fare of $18,995, he spent $8,000 — and
2 7 5 , 0 0 0 frequent-flier miles. Forget about saving up for a trip to Hawaii. These days, bigger, more unusual awards are carving out a niche of their own.
And the US Airways Dividend Miles programme that took Dr Demestihas up in the MiG, in an excursion run by Space Adventures of Arlington, Va, is surely one of the most extravagant awards ever collected. The 275,000 miles Dr Demestihas had accumulated to qualify for the deal on the MIG trip, which Space Adventures calls Edge of Space, may sound like an impossible goal. But it’s equivalent to 56 round trips between LA and NY, a total some business travelers reach easily. (He had more to spend, and threw in an extra 415,000 miles for upgrades including VIP tours and a simulated rocket launching in a centrifuge.)
“It really was a reward for having to deal with travel in general for all these years,” said Dr Demestihas, the president of SOS, a medical educational services company. “I won’t be so mad at the stewardess next time.”
Another possibility for the flier overloaded with miles is Space Adventures’ Zero Gravity Flight, which takes an adventurous rider up on a military transport jet and through 10 or so encounters with zero gravity, lasting 30 seconds each.
The usual cost, which is $6,995, is reduced to $2,000 by using 250,000 U S Airways miles.
US Airline Puts Man Overloaded With Traveller Miles In High-Flying MiG
By Lisa Kalis
Evan Demestihas, a physician who runs a medical company in Atlanta, had always wanted to slip the surly bonds of earth and get out into space, but it looked for a long time as if his abundant business travels on commercial airliners would be the closest he would come. Then came an unexpected opportunity — thanks to those very trips.
In July, he traveled to Star City, Russia, just outside Moscow, for a ride on a MiG fighter to an altitude of 80,000 feet, about 15 miles up. Looking down from a black sky at the curve of the earth, he marveled at how thin the atmosphere, a band of hazy blue, really looked. He was up there with the pilots who travel higher above the planet than anyone but astronauts. “That day was all mine,” he said. And instead of paying the full fare of $18,995, he spent $8,000 — and
2 7 5 , 0 0 0 frequent-flier miles. Forget about saving up for a trip to Hawaii. These days, bigger, more unusual awards are carving out a niche of their own.
And the US Airways Dividend Miles programme that took Dr Demestihas up in the MiG, in an excursion run by Space Adventures of Arlington, Va, is surely one of the most extravagant awards ever collected. The 275,000 miles Dr Demestihas had accumulated to qualify for the deal on the MIG trip, which Space Adventures calls Edge of Space, may sound like an impossible goal. But it’s equivalent to 56 round trips between LA and NY, a total some business travelers reach easily. (He had more to spend, and threw in an extra 415,000 miles for upgrades including VIP tours and a simulated rocket launching in a centrifuge.)
“It really was a reward for having to deal with travel in general for all these years,” said Dr Demestihas, the president of SOS, a medical educational services company. “I won’t be so mad at the stewardess next time.”
Another possibility for the flier overloaded with miles is Space Adventures’ Zero Gravity Flight, which takes an adventurous rider up on a military transport jet and through 10 or so encounters with zero gravity, lasting 30 seconds each.
The usual cost, which is $6,995, is reduced to $2,000 by using 250,000 U S Airways miles.
posted by Badri | 7:00 PM
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