The Blind Side - Great Date Movie

[Beeeej]

I read the book on my flight over to Taiwan 2-1/2 weeks ago.  It's a strange little book.  I wonder how it translates to the big screen.  And the airline he flew in the book was fictional.

And FWIW, I've earned well over 1 million miles on United, although I only have about 230,000 in my account right now.  I use my miles for free international travel fairly regularly.  A co-worker has 1.25 million currently in his mileage balance.  So the 1 million miles in the book is not that big a deal.

However, I have >800,000 actual flight miles on United.  That's excluding class bonuses, credit card miles, hotel miles, etc.  It works out to something like 40-60 round-trips to Asia.  Gotta admit, I'm not really that anxious to get to 1 million.

It really is a shame those things aren't transferrable.  I know several people with that kind of mileage who'll never come remotely close to using it all.

[KeithK]

It really is a shame those things aren't transferrable.  I know several people with that kind of mileage who'll never come remotely close to using it all.

Miles may not be exactly transferable but I'm pretty sure you can buy a ticket for another person with your miles. Which is more or less what you're looking for.

[CKinsland]

It really is a shame those things aren't transferrable. I know several people with that kind of mileage who'll never come remotely close to using it all.

You can donate them to Make a Wish...  http://www.wish.org/help/donate_airline_miles and the Fisher house http://www.fisherhouse.org/programs/heroMiles, among other charities.

CK

[billhoward]

You can assign the miles to charities and it'd be a cruel airline that would fight this. Use up your air miles on United before you die becaused they dont' survive you; American, Continental and US Air lets them pass down to your heirs. Some airlines say it's discretionary. The rules also vary as to whether miles can be fought over in a divorce. That's what I knew as of this summer; rules change a lot.

[RichH]

I read the book on my flight over to Taiwan 2-1/2 weeks ago.  It's a strange little book.  I wonder how it translates to the big screen.  And the airline he flew in the book was fictional.

Not having read the book, I can't comment directly, but several places have mentioned that the movie is only loosely based on the book.  From McPaper's review: "Clooney gives one of his best performances, upgrading Kirn's smug anti-hero to a better class of fellow, with an undercurrent of vulnerability. Reitman added layers to the characters, made changes to the plot, updated the setting and added players."

And FWIW, I've earned well over 1 million miles on United, although I only have about 230,000 in my account right now.  I use my miles for free international travel fairly regularly.  A co-worker has 1.25 million currently in his mileage balance.  So the 1 million miles in the book is not that big a deal.

I guess I'm not giving away any spoilers in revealing that the number has been updated to 10 million miles for the movie.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

I read the book on my flight over to Taiwan 2-1/2 weeks ago.  It's a strange little book.  I wonder how it translates to the big screen.  And the airline he flew in the book was fictional.

Not having read the book, I can't comment directly, but several places have mentioned that the movie is only loosely based on the book.  From McPaper's review: "Clooney gives one of his best performances, upgrading Kirn's smug anti-hero to a better class of fellow, with an undercurrent of vulnerability. Reitman added layers to the characters, made changes to the plot, updated the setting and added players."

And FWIW, I've earned well over 1 million miles on United, although I only have about 230,000 in my account right now.  I use my miles for free international travel fairly regularly.  A co-worker has 1.25 million currently in his mileage balance.  So the 1 million miles in the book is not that big a deal.

I guess I'm not giving away any spoilers in revealing that the number has been updated to 10 million miles for the movie.

Actually, there's a point in the book where the protagonist mentions that a friend of his has over a million miles, but he got that on another airline by flying to Tokyo.  He said that didn't count.  

In the book, the guy got his miles on flights only within the western US.  I can't imagine getting to 1 million in increments of 500-1000.  I get mine in increments of 20-30,000 per trip.

[billhoward]

I made it to 950K on UA before switching to CO since they fly everywhere nonstop out of Newark, even Singapore at the right times of the year, such as for Cane the Round Eyes Festival. Jeff's right: You can get to a million miles flying to Asia. Doing it within the U.S. is a lot of work. Worst of all is if you live in Chicago because you can't fly that far whereas East Coast-West Coast is 5000 miles round trip. Do that once a month and you've got the airline's most elite status, or close to it (50K or 75K miles in a year).

Crappy as it is flying coach and being away from family, it beats being away in Iraq, or driving a long-haul truck cross country to make maybe $60K a year, or a bunch of other things most of us on this forum don't have to do for a living.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

I made it to 950K on UA before switching to CO since they fly everywhere nonstop out of Newark, even Singapore at the right times of the year, such as for Cane the Round Eyes Festival. Jeff's right: You can get to a million miles flying to Asia. Doing it within the U.S. is a lot of work. Worst of all is if you live in Chicago because you can't fly that far whereas East Coast-West Coast is 5000 miles round trip. Do that once a month and you've got the airline's most elite status, or close to it (50K or 75K miles in a year).

Actually, 50,000 miles a year is not even close to United's elite flyers.  I know because I'm a 50,000 mile flyer and the perks basically amount to giving you more miles, letting you use the lounge for free on international flights, no baggage charges, and getting on the plane before everyone else (and if you're going to be sitting on the damn plane for 14 hours, what's the rush?).  That's pretty much it.  

They have a category for 100,000 mile per year flyers (which for some reason they call 1K).  You get more upgrade certificates for that, but I'm not sure what else.

They also have a category above that called "Global Services" which they don't even advertise in their frequent flyer literature.  You only find out about it once you reach the milestone (and nobody tells you what that milestone is).  You get to that level and you pretty much get upgraded to first for every flight and you can upgrade your friends, too, even if you're not on the same flight.  I had a friend who's Global Services upgrade me from business to first on a trans-pacific flight.  His super uprgrade certs were expiring so rather than let them go to waste...Pretty sweet.

[billhoward]

You're right about UA. I made 1K once but that was with a bunch of Japan trips. When I flew UA regularly the levels were 25K, 50K and 100K, IIRC. Continental's third tier I think is less than 100K. But at this point, while I like ducking into the shorter security line (gad, the one I saw at EWR Friday night while leaving was hellacioius) and the occasional upgrade, it's all BandAids that make you feel a little better about how crappy flying has gotten. Unless I get exit row, it's not worth trying to use your laptop. Also, as all carriers fly closer to capacity, the upgrades-when-available-for-elite come less often. The perk I got into and out of DFW Thursday-Friday was the offer to sit in the bulkhead row of an Embraer 145 regional jet.

(I'm impressed by how long this thread has held on.)