MovieChat Forums > Up in the Air (2009) Discussion > 7th to get 10 million miles?

7th to get 10 million miles?

posted 12 years ago by Corendir
7 replies | jump to latest

Ok so he said he's the 7th, and the airline issued him a card for being the 7th person to reach 10 million miles. But is it the 7th in THAT SPECIFIC AIRLINE? If so then there are actually more than 7.

If not then I guess there's a global ranking system and whichever airline gets a passenger with 10 million miles gets a golden card issued. But wait, Ryan kept talking about loyalty, and the point was to honor those who have flown with the same airline for that amount. Which means he may be the 7th in that airline, or 7th in the world to have flown 10 million miles on a single airline, but there may be others who have flown more but with all different airlines.

[–] johnston.scot 12 years ago

As I understood it, it was with that airline.

He might conceivably know that he's the 7th to hit 10 million with any airline, but it seems unlikely that he'd have any way to know that.

To be totally accurate, it wouldn't be only with that specific airline, but with that airline plus the other partners that participate in its mileage plan. For example, American's partners include British Airways, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, etc.

Another quibble: he talks as if he's really traveled 10 million miles, which is unlikely. All mileage programs also award "miles" for things other than just flying a mile on an airplane, e.g. plain old charging with a credit card, doing things like renting a car or staying at a particular hotel, signing up for various programs, etc. They even allude to this in movie, when he first meets Alex.

[–] joeydhvj 10 years ago

AFAIK, generally million-miler programs are segregated to a single airline...I'm not aware of any way to track them otherwise, other than the flier him/her self (most airlines only track their own passengers' activity). Besides, such an accomplishment would come with perks and rewards, and how would you "allocate" where these come from? i.e., if it were a global program, as previous poster inquired, I doubt any one airline would agree to extend said perks to someone reaching this status, who may have perhaps only flown *their* particular airline a few times (for example).

Agreed - most airlines will award bonus miles for using a CC or through one of the myriad of other bonus programs (hotel stays, dining, etc.), but I believe American (the airline in question here - albeit, a fictional scenario) bases their MM program on "actual miles flown" as does United...Delta used to do this as well, but at some point switched to MQMs - Medallion Qualification Miles (which could include some mileage "multiplier" depending on fare class).

[FWIW - IMO, the whole airline loyalty program situation has gone to H*LL along with the "old" joys of airline travel...loyalty (in this case) just doesn't seem to mean as much anymore...*sigh*]

[–] vnse 10 years ago

Another quibble: he talks as if he's really traveled 10 million miles, which is unlikely. All mileage programs also award "miles" for things other than just flying a mile on an airplane, e.g. plain old charging with a credit card, doing things like renting a car or staying at a particular hotel, signing up for various programs, etc. They even allude to this in movie, when he first meets Alex.

___________

In general, those partner miles don't count towards things like million mile status or any status. Only BIS (Butt In Seat) miles do. So while he has flown 10M miles, he probably earned 11 or 12 or whatever million miles when counting all the partner miles like credit cards, car rental, etc.

And this isn't just American Airlines, it's all airlines.

[–] johnston.scot 10 years ago

They do on American Airlines, I can assure you - as someone who has a million miles and the (modest) perks that go with, but nowhere near a million BIS miles.

[–] jbaxtron 8 years ago

Another quibble: he talks as if he's really traveled 10 million miles, which is unlikely. All mileage programs also award "miles" for things other than just flying a mile on an airplane, e.g. plain old charging with a credit card, doing things like renting a car or staying at a particular hotel, signing up for various programs, etc. They even allude to this in movie, when he first meets Alex.

In the script he flat out states this plainly. He says how he never buys any thing/service without figuring out how many miles it will get him, he then pits the options against each other to get the most miles.

[–] mururoa 7 years ago

In the script he flat out states this plainly. He says how he never buys any thing/service without figuring out how many miles it will get him, he then pits the options against each other to get the most miles.

He flat out states this plainly in the movie as well, making it abundantly clear his habits as a customer revolve around collecting bonus miles.

[–] csenterprise 9 years ago

i find it a little weird they knew where to find him.

presumably the airline knew the 10 m.m. was approaching and made the card.

however...
his trip to chicago was unplanned.
his return trip was unplanned.

even if he called ahead the previous night, booked the flight, they would have had to ship the card and plan the 'party'.
a little big brother, or just good service?

further... without his unplanned trip to chicago he might not have received the card for awhile. he was giving a lecture - then he would have flown back to his new job in front of a computer and not taken his next flight for who knows how long. one flight short.