miles means something in and of itself, but there you have it. If you’re going to fly, you might as well have true road warrior status. Beyond the dubious accomplishment of logging all those miles, I can’t honestly say I know what the value of being “1K” really is. Much of the attraction is that I get access to a special phone number that presumably means I wait less on hold when I need something. I can start competing for upgrades to business class earlier than can the proles who only fly 50,000 miles (if you don’t fly that much, forget thinking about upgrades) and stand a decent chance of actually getting one. I get to board first. In theory I get more upgrade certificates faster though I’m not convinced that’s any longer the case. And I get all those miles that I can presumably use to redeem for travel unless I want to use them to fly business class to Europe, in which case there haven’t been those kind of seats available all year. That’s about it.

Air travel has of course gotten to be a much bigger hassle than it used to be. Some airports are better than others, but lately most have figured out how to meet the requirements for more thorough screening without sending