Weekly Recap: week of May 13
I know I listed this as a recap of the week of May 13, but it actually started before then since I spent a weekend at my destination. Note, I don’t do this regularly and I always make sure the airfare is cheaper to do this and don’t expense anything before I would have normally expensed anything. Always check with your company’s travel policies before doing this.
Friday: Flew from CLT to DEN on US Airways (upgraded) and was supposed to connect in DEN to COS for BAcon. United had other plans for me though. My flight was delayed 2 hours so I asked to stand-by for the earlier flight, but I was #10 on the standby list with 1 seat available so I decided to get a car and drive. I was going to need a car eventually this trip and I could get to COS before my original flight even boarded so I hopped in a car and headed to the hotel. It also helped that I had booked that ticket on my own and it was a one-way ticket so I didn’t have to worry about my return ticket getting cancelled.
I stayed at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort. My room was super comfortable and I enjoyed the bedding as well as the lights in the headboard for easy reading. WIFI was free and I had no issues with speed, but I did not do a speed test. It looked like there were other meetings going on as well as a couple weddings. The staff was genuinely friendly and the breakfast buffet had plenty of options I enjoyed.
Sunday: After the conference ended I headed back to Denver and used a Marriott category 1-4 award night I had from a promotion last year and stayed at the Courtyard downtown. I’ve been to Denver before so I didn’t explore as much as I normally do on weekend trips, instead I visited a friend I hadn’t seen in a while.
Monday: Since Monday is my normal travel day I took a few business calls at the Courtyard and then headed out to my hotel for Monday night, the Hilton Garden Inn Tech Park. The location was what I expected with many office buildings near by as well as restaurants that cater to that crowd. I ate lunch at Maria’s which was very fast and allowed me to make my subsequent calls. For dinner I headed to the local tavern. It was on the restaurant list provided by the hotel, but wasn’t one of the starred locations. Dinner and service were great.
Tuesday: After the meetings in Denver it was time to head to Des Moines. I was flying United and I still have Silver status on them and my travel agent had applied my United number instead of my US Airways number. I checked in still under United and managed to get an exit row, then at the gate I had them swap out for my US Airways number. I’ll have to follow that and make sure it credits properly. I stayed at the Hampton Inn near DSM. It was late and I had a lot of work to do so I didn’t explore this hotel much.
Wednesday: Drove from Des Moines to Omaha. I had an afternoon meeting today and by this time I was already exhausted. I ate dinner at Upstream and got to the hotel at 9 pm and went right to bed at the Hampton Inn. I actually got upgraded but I think I heard the hotel was full. I didn’t even open my laptop to test the internet I was just so tired at this point.
Thursday: After my morning meeting I headed to the airport and took a direct flight home on US Airways (upgraded).
So:
3 segments credited to US Airways (I’ll try for Original Routing Credit for the 4th, but I don’t think I’m technically entitled since I chose to not take the flight, but I chose to not take it due to a delay.)
1 award redemption
3 stays at the Hilton family
1 Avis rental
This puts me at:
US Airways: 31 PQS/25,000 PQM – Requalified for at least Silver 2014
Delta: 45 MQM/36,000 MQM – at least Silver 2014
Hilton: 20 stays/29 nights – at least Gold for 2014
Marriott: 38 elite nights – at least Silver for 2014
Avis: 6 rentals – lost First for this year and not sure if I’ll get it back.
Can you please explain why you switched the FF from United to US Airways? What would have happened if you used only the US Airways? Thanks, and thank you for the article 🙂
I switched because it seemed that I was cutting of my nose to spite my face. Although United is easier to redeem with in my experience, i wasn’t entitled to upgrades, free Move up, or exit rows. I was planning for the exception rather than the rule. I changed to US so I can actually enjoy upgrades, etc. during my weekly travel.
As of right now, United and US Airways are still part of the Star Alliance and both have an agreement for earning status miles and segments. As such, barring other ways of generating status or excessive mileage running, there is usually only the need to accrue miles to one program. If I left that segment crediting to United it would have helped push back my miles expiration date (but there are easier ways to do that) but if I end up the year with only 59 US Airways segments I’d be kicking myself for the 1 orphan segment on United.
There are many people who manage to do mileage runs or credit card spending for elite miles who manage to get status in multiple programs in the same alliance. If it works for you and you have a reason, go ahead. If you mainly want to just get status from business travel it makes the most sense to choose either US or United and pool all of your miles and segments into that one program.