The Joys of Elite Status

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm proud to note that my frequent travels for work have netted me the top tier status on United (well, except for that pesky Global Services level): 1K. This means I have flown 100,000 miles in a calendar year and why yes, that is a lot of flying.

So what does 1K get me? The biggest, most immediate benefit is that I get to board first - before The Huddled Masses™ - on a low-cost red carpet. That's certainly nice. I also get a higher priority on upgrade lists, a private 1K website (meh), and a shiny Mileage Plus card that says "1K" and hopefully has my last name spelled correctly.

But there was another benefit I wasn't quite aware of: better customer service. I was checking in for a flight this past week and something on United's website went kablooeyblammo and I couldn't check in online. So I called United and feared the worst, for their entire attitude towards customer service to me in the past had been, "Who cares? Not us."

Surprisingly, my experience was not only way better but it was almost awesome. The people I spoke with mostly solved my problem but were kind, courteous, friendly, and even thanked me multiple times for being a frequent flyer. I was impressed and happy to get it but then I thought, "Geez, other people really don't get great customer service, do they?"

Well, too bad. I've advanced beyond all of you Regular Folks and while I'll be one of 284 1Ks on my normal flights, I can still look down on you. Neener-neener!