Million Miles Club membership...OMG

Guess what, while I was booking the travel arrangement for mom and me up to Vancouver, I noticed that Continental started to track life time mileage. And I was so surprise to find out that since joining the OnePass program 18 years ago, I have flown 835K miles! This is based on cumulative flight miles in the OnePass program and do not include certain airline partner, bonus, purchased or other non-flight miles. Wow, I am not sure if this is something a person should be bragging about….I guess I haven’t been home much!

Anyway, they have this Million Miles Club. I don’t know what actual benefits a member would get. One of them is a lifetime guarantee of at least silver elite for the member even if you don’t fly enough in the future to get to elite. The second benefit is the ability to invite the spouse or significant other residing at your same address to share your Elite status and enjoy the exact same benefits as you, including upgrades, mileage bonuses and EliteAccess airport services.

I figure at my current rate, I probably will find out the benefit details in 2-3 years.

Oh, one more thing, there are 3 levels in the MMC, first is the 1MM, then 2MM, then 4MM.

Now that I think about it, I remember a colleague was telling me about knowing someone that has a “black” card on British Airway. This black card is higher benefit than a Platinum card. Just may be, this MMC is another black card deal.

Of course, I don’t actually have this many miles in my account now since I am an active redeemer. Since all frequent flyer programs are “free” to join and maintain, it also means the provider can cancel them or change rules on usage anytime. Long time ago, I have read somewhere that it would be wise to actually use these miles before they go away on you. That is, don’t bother to save them for your retirement, as they may not be there…pretty much like the Social Security; don’t expect them to be there when you retire.

I got an email from Continental couple weeks ago, indicating that the number of reward seats on popular route will be reduced due to high fuel cost; and then a follow up paragraph, saying that the number of seats accessible for elite members will continue to be the same. Of course, no one said anything about having to use more miles than before to get the same seat / same route.