The 17 Million Mile Man

[futaris]

The 17 Million Mile Man - Forbes.com
Randy Petersen’s 17 Million Frequent Flyer Miles - View from the Wing
The 17 Million Mile Man - FlyerTalk Forums

An interesting motto from Randy Petersen: "he who dies with the most miles wins". I'm more inclined to burn my miles/points now, since they don't increase in value.

 

[QF WP]

Thanks futaris for the links. Great reading.

While many savvy travelers are sizing up the people in line in front of them, I'm looking at the agent behind the x-ray machine. The one who scans the fastest wins in my book, regardless of the baby stroller in front of me.

Different from the advice of Ryan Bingham :shock:

I've had the opportunity to speak to Randy twice, but never in person. Other FT'ers have taken pity and rung me, passing the phone to Randy when he's been in Australia. He really is a mine of information. My goal is to actually meet him.

This is the reason he saves all his miles:

While most travelers believe miles and points devalue over time and it's best to use them now, I happily save miles for my travel 401(k) program.

My understanding is that 401(k) plans are akin to our superannuation. Different rules in the USA...

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I suspect too that Randy is probably in the very fortunate, but well earned, position of getting a lot of free travel and so may have less need to redeem now.

So hence saving the points for when his incomes reduces and the freebies dry up.

 

[DrJ]

After what happened to my global rewards miles, I am not at all inclined to save up miles for the long term - burn them now on family trips and ODUs while they are still worth something!

 

[QF WP]

My thoughts exactly DrJ - although I have never lost many (only 17K when Ansett went belly-up)

 

[anat0l]

I've met Randy before. Great man and full of information. Wasn't a sit down and talk situation, so didn't get to rack his brains a lot.

I couldn't see myself saving up miles just for the sake of it. I need to burn them - unless I somehow had a horde of cash that hardly dried up.

I see no fame in dying with the most miles - unless my family are smart enough to squirrel them away / blow them on awards before the airlines realise I'm dead and close my account(s).


FWIW I've lost about 3-8k points before on MH, since they have a strict policy that all points earned are only valid for 3 years. It was never enough to blow an award AFAICT (and if it were, then oh well) and transferring points to another family member came at a cost.

 

[straitman]

A few of us met Randy in 'Young & Jacksons' in Melbourne a couple of years ago. It was a very interesting evening especially when he bought all the drinks.

Thanks everyone for the prompt toward spending points. After losing 180,000 (I think) with Ansett I probably should not go down that route again.

 

[serfty]

Yup: Randy's Trip To Oz - FlyerTalk Forums

and:

Sydney AUS: Randy buys Fosters and more Oct. 25

 

[sbuerba]

There is nothing better than the feeling of using miles! I can barely accumulate them.

 

[harvyk]

Thanks everyone for the prompt toward spending points. After losing 180,000 (I think) with Ansett I probably should not go down that route again.

I'm a little surprised no insurance company has come out and said they would insure points against airline or points program collapse.

It wouldn't be too hard, simply get the person to pay a premium of an amount based on how many points they wish to insure against. (eg if your account has upto 50,000 points, but you use them before it goes too far over, you'd insure for 50,000 points) and then in the event the points program goes under the insurer would pay an amount per point (say $10 per 1000 points or something like that) upto the insured amount or the number of points actually lost.

As for 17 million miles, that's a lot of free flying coming up...

 

[anat0l]

I'm a little surprised no insurance company has come out and said they would insure points against airline or points program collapse.

It wouldn't be too hard, simply get the person to pay a premium of an amount based on how many points they wish to insure against. (eg if your account has upto 50,000 points, but you use them before it goes too far over, you'd insure for 50,000 points) and then in the event the points program goes under the insurer would pay an amount per point (say $10 per 1000 points or something like that) upto the insured amount or the number of points actually lost.

I think that's a bit of a risky and big "too hard" basket for insurance companies.

Particularly due to the "catch 22" that points do not have any inherent monetary value (most FFP T&Cs), yet you can buy points, or approximate them as the cost of activity required to earn those points. Let's not even entertain the fact that the points are technically the property of the FFP who offers them, not yours. All you get is an entitlement to use them, a very soft right in the whole scheme of things.

There's a whole big possibility of public misunderstanding since the currency of one FFP is not equivalent to the other (one point in DJ is not the same as one point in QF) and hence attracts possibly different premiums, different terms and payouts.

FWIW apparently DJ put their points balance into a trust that protects members' balances in case the FFP goes kaput. No idea what happens or the valuation of member balances in the event of "payout".

 

[futaris]

Interesting that Randy regards Kiwi Flyer as the king of the mileage runners, yet Randy has ~2.5x the amount of miles that Kiwi Flyer has.

Triumph of the Air Warriors from Condé Nast Traveler on Concierge.com
Conde Nast and Flyer Talk - FlyerTalk Forums

Even among the FlyerTalkers, one member inspires awe. Rob Cole, a.k.a. Kiwi Flyer, is a soft-spoken New Zealander whom Randy Petersen regards as the king of the mileage runners, with seven million lifetime miles.

 

[serfty]

I thinks that's in relation to BIS miles rather than redeemable ...

 

[futaris]

I guess so.

This thread on FT suggests that there are people with 100MM RDM.

7 Million BIS, would mean ~14000 flight hours @ 500 mph.

Going by Kiwi Flyer's ba97 profile, he's been flying since 2003. I doubt that 6.25 years of flying of ~43hrs/week is right. I'm sure that Rob's been flying since much earlier, for that 7 million BIS and just hasn't logged all his flights.

 

[straitman]

I guess so.

This thread on FT suggests that there are people with 100MM RDM.

7 Million BIS, would mean ~14000 flight hours @ 500 mph.

Going by Kiwi Flyer's ba97 profile, he's been flying since 2003. I doubt that 6.25 years of flying of ~43hrs/week is right. I'm sure that Rob's been flying since much earlier, for that 7 million BIS and just hasn't logged all his flights.

Rob never sits still and is always up for another flight so nothing would surprise me :!:

 

[sbuerba]

The problem is that insurance companies need to have a diversified portfolio to reduce risks. In this case most travelers have the majority of the miles in only a few major airlines so it is hard for them to diversify the risk. If one airline goes bankrupt the insurer would probably go bankrupt too.