Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Traveling and Status

In the past week and the weeks to come, I will have clocked 17 days of travel in 23 days.  That means I will have travelled more than 70% of the days and slept in my own bed only 6 of those nights.  I am not at the level of George Clooney's character in "Up in the Air" but maybe after all this year's travel I might feel like it.  This also means that the blog post will be limited...again.
 
Travelling has its perks such as loyalty rewards programs. As of today, these are the statuses I hold in loyalty programs.  I don't know if I should be proud or sad.

American Airlines: Platinum Status
-note-worthy perks: double miles, four free 500-mile upgrades for every 10K miles traveled. 

Marriott Hotels: Silver Status
-note-worthy perks: not sure. late checkout?
Based on this year's work schedule, I will probably hit Gold status by July.

Starbucks: Gold Status (this wasn't achieved as a travel perk)
-note-worthy perks: a free drink on your bday, one free drink for every 15 drinks purchased, free refills on tea and coffee while in the store.

Gap Card: Silver Status (okay this isn't a travel perk either)
-note-worthy perks: free basic hemming at Banana Republic, free shipping

Here's a quick tip when traveling and renting cars.  Do you know how to determine which side of the car the gas tank is on?  If you look near your odometer there is a picture of a gas pump.  Next to the picture of the gas pump is a little triangle. If the triangle is on the right side of the gas pump, your tank is on the right and vice versa.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tip on the gas tank. I certainly did not know that. In fact, the first time I filled up my Suzuki, I didn't know how to open the gas tank cap. Now how bad it that?

Hope you get enough rest with all those trips.

M&DT

Erika said...

Lauren, you are turning into my boss! She has platinum/diamond/whatever-other-rare-earth-minerals-one-can-came-up-with status for air and hotel loyalty programs too since she travels a lot, including international travel. Funny enough, she ALSO told me that tip about the gas tank (although I actually knew that before she told me) while filling up a rental car on a recent work trip.

I'm getting close (I have been on 2 separate 4-day trips in the past 3 weeks) but have yet to really travel enough to see any significant perks, only the drawbacks of being travel-weary and behind on email. :P Where are they sending you anyway?

genkitummy said...

I thought traveling would be fun, but extended travel is not as fun. I've been in Boston, MA since April 18th and got to go home for Easter. Will be here for another week. Then I'm in Grand Rapids later on this summer for about one month.