Flying high

Being manipulated by advertisers to buy something I don't really need is nothing new.  At least for me.

But I'm only now getting used to being so manipulated, knowing exactly how I'm being manipulated, accepting the manipulation -- and enjoying it.

Like most airlines, Alaska Airlines has an "MVP" status for flyers who accumulate a certain number of miles on Alaska and on partner airlines with which Alaska has some sort of treaty arrangements.  In recent years, this has been no problem for me.  I travel overseas at least once a year, which in itself -- together with the domestic flying I have to do just to keep in touch with family members -- has given me the necessary miles without my thinking much about it.

In 2014, for example, I traveled round trip from Seattle to Johannesburg on Air France -- an Alaska partner -- which alone gave me nearly all the miles I needed, and at a surprisingly low cost.

That -- and many trips by others like mine -- may have been the final straw.  The airlines are getting wise.  MVP status was intended as a special anointing for their valued business clients -- not a freebie handed out to moochers who used the internet to find low-cost, high-mileage flights for their once-a-year vacations.

As a result,  most of the major airlines have begun awarding elite status based on amount of cash spent rather than miles flown.  Alaska hasn't done that.  Yet.  But its partner airlines are allowing Alaska mileage plan members  only "partial credit" for flights bought at bargain rates.

This year, I flew to London on British Air, and to Beijing on Delta.  Until this year, those two round trips probably would have pushed me into MVP status easily.  But not this year.  British Air gave me only one-fourth of my actual miles flown, and Delta gave me only one-half.  As a result, as 2015 comes to an end, I'm scrambling around for enough miles to continue MVP status next year.

After adding up all the qualifying miles I've earned this year, and those anticipated for my remaining travel, I discover that I'll still fall 610 miles short.  What to do?  If only I needed a one-way trip between Seattle and Oakland -- a frequent destination of mine -- I told myself -- I'd be over the top.

To make a boring and crazy story short, I've booked a December Amtrak trip down to Oakland, arriving in the morning, and flying home that same evening on Alaska.  That will give me my MVP status, and also fulfill my recent craving for a train trip somewhere, anywhere.

What do I get out of this legendary MVP status for which I work so hard?  Not much, really.  I just like the idea, really.  I do get first crack at a certain desirable section of the cabin reserved for MVP flyers (I choose seat 7A whenever possible).  I get early boarding.  I'm allowed to check two bags without paying a fee.  I occasionally get bumped up, at the last moment, into first class -- an always unexpected treat.  I'm yanked out of the sordid cattle car of the rear section into paradise.  Sort of a secular version of the Rapture, I guess.

It ain't much, but I fly fairly often, and just the early boarding -- together with my TSA Pre-check -- takes a lot of the stress out of the experience.  And even if it didn't?  Well, I guess I just enjoy the quest for MVP, a quest that engages my competitive instincts.  I enjoy it,  even though I know it's ridiculous.