3 Million Flight Miles on UnitedCustomer Loyalty – Hard to Earn, Easy to Lose
When I crossed 3 million actual flight miles on United Airlines, I wanted the occasion not to be like Ryan Bingham in George Clooney’s Movie, “Up in the Air” where he was on a business trip from St. Louis to another middle America City. I also never meet an individual who play the role of Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga).
Thus, I choose to fly to one of my favorite golf resorts: Bandon Dunes to play Sheep’s Ranch, Old MacDonald, Bandon Dunes and Bandon Trails. Bandon, as usual, was great.
I have been a loyal United Airlines customer for 30 years. I have stayed over 6 years of my life in Marriott Hotels. Considering all of the other airlines I have flown, particularly in Asia and Europe, and the vast number of different hotels I have stayed, I speculate that I may have flown over 3.5 million miles and have spent over 10 years of my life sleeping in hotels away from home.
As an aside, The United experience was disappointing. When I crossed one million miles, I received an engraved iPod. At 2 million miles, I receive a lifetime membership to the United Cub valued at $450 per year. At 3 million miles, on the flight I received a snack box and no offer for a drink. In the ensuing week, I had 35,000 flight miles credited to my account.
As I am clearly in the fourth quarter as this is my 27,135 day living. Hopefully, I am not playing in overtime or sudden death as it remains a passion to guide golf course owners to financial prosperity.
Wistfully, I have come to realize that may not happen as I truly hoped. Not because of the hard work that was expended, the fabulous insights that were provided or sincere desire to see our client’s gofl course financially thrive but for a simple barrier – the inability of a human being to embrace and implement change.
We have a professional friend, now a daily fee golf course owner, who has managed impressive facilities for large management companies and sits on the Board of Directors of many of the allied Associations.
