Perks

Being on call for 11 days at a time can be a drag, but to every downside, there are some positives. Last week was a good week flying wise. I racked up over half of my monthly mileage quota and got to see more new and interesting places. The highlight of the week was getting my first trip into LAX and getting to have lunch with one of my best friends that I had not seen in months. My good buddy moved to LA last October and I haven't seen him since then. When I got on the ground at LAX, I gave him a call and we went to the In and Out Burger right next to the airport. He was gloating because the rugby team he plays for had just won the Division I National Championship. http://www.santamonicarugby.com/ So congrats to you Sands, awesome job!!!!

Another perk of the job is the Amex card. For $75 a year, you can sign up to collect points that you can use to get free hotels, trips, airline tickets, televisions, ect. For only 450,000 points you can get a 42in plasma TV. Personally that's what I'm gunna save up for, but that's gunna take a few years. Rumor has it that as a Capt. you'll spend around $200,000 a year on the card. That's a lot of points. I even heard of a lucky FO who happened to be at the same FBO as one of our 737's. The Capt on the 737 was in a hurry to leave the airport and didn't want to wait around for the fuel truck, so he asked the FO if he'd put the fuel order on his (the FO's) Amex. The plane took $14,000 in fuel and the FO got a couple free plane tickets with the point accumulated.

I sign up for as many points programs as I can. Typically I'm in a hotel 20 nights a month, so it pays to belong to all the rewards programs. I'm hoping that by the time I get married and its Honeymoon time, all airfare and hotels are paid for with Amex and hotel points. That's not going to be for a while, so I have plenty of time to save up points.