Almost all airlines have some type of frequent flyer program designed to reward individuals who fly their airline repeatedly. While I've collected them periodically, I've never really obtained anything substantial using my accumulated frequent flyer milage. When I set out on my adventure back in January of 2011, I had a goal in the back of my mind to finally achieve some type of elite status on an airline this year or the next. I have worked with many business people who had either silver or gold elite status, and I imagine bypassing a huge lineup or getting the odd free flight is a pretty great ...

I do tons of flying compared to most people. The last few years haven't been as busy as normal, but for a while there I was getting on a plane on average of about once a month to go somewhere with work. I chronicled some of my trips over the last few years here. One of the things I've always sort of snickered about on planes is the need to still blatantly point out that smoking is not allowed on a plane. I always thought it was fairly self-evident that one shouldn't light anything while sitting on top of several thousand pounds of kerosene, but apparently I was wrong. It turns out some idiot on ...