Dreaming about Miles and Points, Plus Enter Day 9 of the 12 Days of Giveaways

chalkboard with math symbols and math formulas
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I know the title of this post sounds fluffy, but I don’t mean it in the way of daydreaming about aspirational travels where you take a shower onboard a luxurious flight, and then enjoy a romantic candlelight dinner at a tropical island resort. Those are fun dreams (and realities!) too, but I’m curious if I’m a little bit nuts for actually calculating miles & points in my sleep.

a table and chairs on a beach
Park Hyatt Maldives

I was just visiting family in the mountains of North Carolina to celebrate a graduation, and I woke up very early one morning after a crazy dream.

In my dream, I had been in Business Class on a long-haul flight (I know, if it was a dream it should have been First). When the flight landed I was still lying fully outstretched in bed with the pillows and blankets out.

a bed with pillows on it
First on Etihad’s A380

In real life, aside from this not being allowed the thought of ever being unprepared to dash off the plane would stress me, but in my dream I was still lolling about in my pajamas and not even trying to pack up my stuff. I took so much time, in fact, that I ended up being the last person onboard.

A curious thing happened next. As I was gathering my belongings, I spotted new crew coming onboard, one of which started placing new blankets in a deep red hue on each of the seats. I was offered one, along with a drink, and when I acted surprised the flight attendant laughed and said, “Oh, you didn’t know? If you stay onboard a flight until the very end you can simply take the next one for free, and earn double EQM (Elite Qualifying Miles) for the latter flight on any alliance partner.”

My brain started racing, and I asked where the flight was headed. She replied that the aircraft was bound for Kuala Lumpur, and that the new crew onboard meant an airline change as well, and I was now flying on Shanxiese Airlines.

two hands holding wine glasses with a sunset in the background

Perhaps I was feeling nostalgic for the days of double and triple Elite Qualifying Miles (DEQM, TEQM) promotions I enjoyed with American and United Airlines once upon a time when there were no minimum spend requirements to maintain status, and you could rack up a whole slew of miles that could easily be redeemed. Or maybe I was wistful for the seemingly more frequent days of “very good fares” when airlines honored them.

a close-up of a message

Whatever the reason, I then started thinking of all the possible routes. The rules seemed to include that the first flight had to be on a widebody aircraft originating in the US, so my mind started making lists of which routes would offer the cheapest initial cost, and which flights positioned me properly to utilize my preferred (cough non US airlines cough) where I could maximize comfort and earn EQM’s (for free!) to far-flung destinations. Seth with Wandering Aramean even has a tool where you can search for widebodies within the US, though I didn’t have that available during slumber of course.

I wracked my brain trying to think of what alliance Shanxiese Airlines was in, and came up empty (probably because the airline doesn’t exist).

I woke up excited, crunching numbers in my head of actual route mileages and calculating mileage earnings for the different programs.

Then I realized it had been a dream, just a dream, and I was sooo disappointed.

This dream wasn’t anywhere near my first one about miles and points, nor the first time I’d woken up in the middle of calculating my way to lifetime BA Executive Club Gold Guest List status (or something similar). It made me wonder though.

Today is Day 9 of Magic of Miles 12 Days of Giveaways.

a gnome on a branch

To enter today’s contest for a chance at a 25 use GoGo Internet pass, airline pajamas, or travel swag galore, let me know in the comments below about the following –

Do any of you dream of miles and points? Calculate out strategies for maximizing mileage earning while you slumber (perhaps using a combination of imaginary and real data?) or redeem using real-value redemption charts? Or am I just a little off my rocker?

a gnome in the snow

If you’re just joining now at Day 9 of the Magic of Miles 12 Days of Giveaways, click here to read full contest details.

Today’s Magic of Miles contest ends at 9pm PST tonight. Good luck!

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43 Comments

  1. I dream of earning miles and points for every step I take and every keystoke i make. There is always a follow up dream of all the new places I get to visit and the free gogo on the flight to research things to do at these new places

  2. All the time! I love the good ol’ days when you earned based on how far you flew, never had to worry about special earnings or partner flights 🙂

  3. Or maybe a bit off your rocker. Reminds of the tweet somebody said from not long back (don’t remember who), “I just dreamed of flying in Lufthansa First Class … I’ve never flow Lufthansa First Class … stupid bloggers!”

  4. Besides not dreaming of miles and points, I haven’t remembered that level of detail in any dream that I can recall. Your rocker must be fairly stable for that, I’d guess.

  5. I haven’t (at least lately) done a ton of mileage and airline point calculating lately, I always have some loyalty program points schemes running in my head. My dreams tend to be less the calculation (accountant style) but more the way to earn aspect. In my dreams I will be engaging in activities to earn unspecified amounts of points. For instance (add wavy dream lines and music here): If you ride this uncooperative camel down through the picturesque Swiss village to get to the cable car, I will meet you there (you will get a certain mileage reward upon depositing camel at the cable car gift shop). I will be arriving as soon as I can hitchhike a ride with the snowboarders being towed by the green car driven by the off duty flight crew. They will give me a ride as long as I buy us all lunch when we get to the summit. The cafe there has amazing bratwursts. Then when we get to the summit cafe I will be awarded our two flight tickets to Iowa. And so on…… Anyway, I guess the point is that such dreams are normal.

  6. Wow – you remembered a LOT about your dream! I can’t say I’ve ever had a sleeping dream about free miles and flights – maybe DAYdreams!

  7. No dreams about calculating and strategies….that is too much real life involved there and I would wake up exhausted if I dreamed about that as well.

  8. I do have dreams about travel which includes points and miles, but I cannot think of specific dreams that revolved just around points and miles. There was always travel, flight, hotel or destination as the main focus of the dream.

  9. I love your dream and the amount of details you remembered. You are not off your rocker. What an awesome way to wake up!

  10. I don’t think you are all that crazy. It is completely natural to incorporate something you spend a lot of time thinking about into your dreams. I haven’t had a lot of mileage based dreams, but have had dreams about general flying conditions. Really good dreams can be difficult though when reality presents itself upon wakening.

  11. I am sure I have dreamed of it at some point, but not any time in the last years. It is a natural thing to do if it is something you actively work on and think about when you are awake.

  12. I dream of the days (in a galaxy far away but not so long ago) when you could actually find sAAver award space on American Airlines with the miles they make it increasingly difficult to earn flying but will gladly sell for more than they’re worth. Isn’t that kind of the definition of a pipe DREAM?

  13. Free miles are my favorite thing! Who wouldn’t dream about going somewhere with free mileage?!
    But my “plane” would go to the Maldives in a large flatbed suite…:)

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