Interesting AAdvantage Stats

I wish I was the person who had 77.5MM with AA

 

Wow. That pax with 1mm BIS miles is the most stunning...that is, on average, 2,832 miles flown per day! With the 271 segments cap, if it were the same person, that would mean he/she flew an average of 3,814 miles per flight on 271 days of the year.

That is too much flying.

That person should get a handshake from the Chairman.

 

scores of people are flying 3500-5000 miles a day to take advantage of DEQ11

 

dayone,

Thanks for sharing!

 

Or maybe a haldshake from the chief pilot?

 

We may be assured that the person would not care for a free flight! Thanks dayone, this is interesting. It makes my 8mm miles seem really puny!

 

I have flown 5000 miles per day for 3 days in a row, 5 days out of 7. At the end of that time, I was OK with not flying for a while. To fly 1,000,000 miles in a year, you would have to fly 5000 miles per day 4 days per week, every week. I can't imagine it.

By way of comparison, AA pilots work (IIRC) something like 82 hours per month, brakes released to brakes set. That would be around 40K miles per month, about half of what this guy flies. Another way of looking at it is that this guy spends as much time as a full-time job in the air, not to mention time in airports between flights, arriving early for checkin and security, after arriving to get where he has to be. Doesn't seem like he would have a lot of time to do anything else.

 

I would imagine that a person flying this much is Concierge Key and doesn't have to stand in line like petty Priority AAccess'ers. So time in airport may not be much. But still this is too much flying. However your estimate may be a bit off. If one is flying TATL, TPAC, it is pretty easy to fly longer distances in a day. I have flown ~11K BIS miles in one 24 hour period (with 2 stops). With showers in Admiral club, I was raring to go on another such trip.

 

There are a handful of SIN-NYC commuters. One way nonstop 9520 BIS each way. One quite odd person I know does this twice per week, making 38,080 BIS per week when she works. She works about 40 weeks per year making her 1,523,200 BIS per year. I doubt that there are more than a tiny handful who might accumulate more than that.

I always though I had been an ultra-frequent traveller, but people like my friend show me that I am really a stick-in-the-mud.

 

This person you know does TWO round-trips a week SIN-NYC?

 

Perhaps so - after one such trip. Would you still be "raring to go" after 100 such trips in a year? Perhaps not. I would be looking for some way to avoid having to be halfway across the world for two days every week. 11K BIS miles is roughly 22 hours actually in the air, with added time for taxiing and plane unloading. Those must have been quick showers with no line to get into the showers.

I'm not saying it is against the laws of physics to fly 1,000,000 BIS miles in a year, just that it would be very difficult and wouldn't leave much time to actually work on the ground, to do the work that actually requires your physical presence in that location. After all, any work that this person could do in the air could also be done at home in their office.

 

Yes

Also true.
My acquaintance is not doing very much business at either end; she goes, signs, goes, signs. Could it be done a better way? I certainly hope so! that is insane! What is equally insane is the cost of all that.

 

I know what you are trying to say. It is insane. That is unanimous. However for someone who loves flying, it is not unthinkable. My trip was all in Y. If in J or F, I could easily have done another 10. I hate security too much to do 100.

 

Someone earned over 17 million partner miles in one year? Wow... I used to think I was doing pretty well on partner miles.

 

This does put things into perspective does it not? Any hubris one might feel is squarely demolished by such numbers.

 

I'm assuming that "partner miles" includes things like credit card miles, not that they flew 17 million miles on partner airlines. 17 million miles isn't all that much if you have a high enough credit limit and are a purchasing agent dealing with vendors who allow credit card purchases, and it can all be done from the comfort of your office where you can sleep in your own bed every night.

 

Seems like a power of attorney given to a trusted deputy would be a lot cheaper and enable her to actually get something done other than fly and sign.

 

Precisely the point I mentioned when I first learned about it. However, I am not privy to any details.

 

Just tell her that airplane years are like dog years. One year spent on an airplane is the equivalent of seven years on the ground, and shortens life commensurately.

 

Thanks, dayone, for posting this. Still getting my head around the 1m in 2011 stat, and the way gemoc has kindly extrapolated that. Takes "living on a plane" to a whole new level....

I wonder if they lurk/post here or on TOBB.....

 

It suddenly seems obvious that the program needed serious redesign if someone could actually get 77 million miles!
OTOH, without an annual limit one could have purchased those miles outright on one of the 3 cents per mile options that have existed for only $2,310,000.

 

I am quite sure you are correct that "partner miles" includes things like credit card miles, etc.. I consider myself something of an expert on that kind of thing, since the vast majority of my lifetime 11.3 million miles have come from precisely such sources.

As to 17.9 million not being that much, I simply point out that is the most anyone made in all of last year. I agree with you that it may not be that much theoretically. In practice, the dear soul who earned that many set the bar.

Indeed, if one wishes to set the record themselves, here are couple of easy ways to do it without flying a single mile.

1) Deposit 60 million dollars in a Bank Direct checking account, and wait for a year. You will earn 18 million miles.

2) Wait until FTD is giving 30 miles per dollar spent (sometimes happens around Valentines or mother's day). Buy $600,000 worth of flowers for your family and friends. An easy 18,000,000 miles and you will be very popular!

BTW, I have a funny story about partner miles. I had a load of cash in Bank Direct, primarily to earn enough miles to hit 10 million lifetime. On the same month I reached my goal, Bank Direct put in their 200K cap per account, so the amount of miles I would earn there dropped by 60% per month. The combination of those two things (not really having a mileage goal anymore plus the much lower rate), led me to move almost all the money out of Bank Direct and into conventional investments. About three months later, I got a call from AA basically asking if I was upset with any of their partners! AA had noticed the massive decline in my partner earnings and wanted to know if they could do anything to make me happy. I was really shocked that they noticed.

And what a wonderful business practice that is! A big customer goes away, so call them and see what's up. This should be common, but in my experience it is quite rare. Kudos to AA.

 

I have wondered if AA would make more money to remove the cap, or maybe charge 25% more for the miles once the cap is reached. Sure, AA would not make as much money on some of the most expensive fares, but they would make much more on others plus there is always some of the miles that never get used.

It would certainly be an interesting experiment to run. Didn't Alaska Airlines remove their cap for miles last year?

 

You are, of course, correct that that is the bar, and this individual set it. I don't mean to diminish the accomplishment, just to point out that it appears to be mostly a quirk of being in the right place at the right time, and that many people, similarly situated, could have done the same. By way of contrast, I rather doubt that I would have been able to achieve the one million miles flown, and I think many others would likewise not have been up to the task. My hat is really off to that individual for a most impressive accomplishment!