Where is John Wilson?

by John Wilson

Happy Thanksgiving! It’s nice to be off the road for once, even when not traveling means traveling home.

Parkersburg, WV

by John Wilson

I know I haven’t been keeping this up lately, and I apologize. It’s sad how I get good ideas for posts while I’m traveling (I’ve been traveling alot lately) but then I never get any of it written down…

Travel Clubs
My new favorite hobby is to track my travel club memberships and status. My company is nice enough to let us retain our own points as we travel. Since I recently moved into a position that requires a large amount of travel, I figured it would make sense to join some of these clubs.

At first I thought these memberships were gimmicky and would never amount to anything – and I’m not convinced how much they are worth monetarily yet – but then I found the true value of these memberships – putting quantitative value to business travel.

It’s a scoreboard for the business suit type.

Unless you are Ryan Bingham, you probably don’t enjoy business travel. Hanging out in a flying tin can with recycled germ-laden air being hosed into your face for two hours, crammed between two folks who could use more deodorant and less donuts, it is probably not your idea of a good time. For me, however, something about racking up the travel segments* to get closer to the next step in the Delta travel caste system makes it all seem worthwhile. Silly I know, but it’s the small things that make not sleeping in your own bed a little easier to deal with.

It’s kind of like AA for business travelers… Hi, I’m John and I’ve been a Hertz Gold Member for 5 months, 4 days and 12,824 points.

Here are the current memberships that I’m doing time with:

• Delta SkyMiles – 2 segments* from Silver Elite (this one garners the most attention)
• Hertz Gold – a few rentals short of 5 star
• Hilton Honors – Silver VIP (woo hoo free newspapers and gym use)
• Marriott Rewards – we don’t really stay here, so no hope
• AMEX Rewards – this can fuel all the other memberships

Seems silly, but it’s all about quantifying that time in the flu-tube.

*I’m a “segment qualifier” or someone who doesn’t move up the ranks via miles flown but segments taken.

Picture by Wexdub via Flickr.