AAdvantage ExPlat fast-track diary Day 22

Confession. I am on drugs.

Confession. I am not Catholic, although I feel like I should be after all the nonstop coverage of the pope’s visit to the USA this week. My dad is Catholic, so I am not too far removed from the faith.

“I’ve got the spirit, lose the feeling, let it out somehow†– Ian Curtis

After the peaks and valleys of my two trips to Europe this month in the chase for flying 30,000 miles to reach the fast-track vaulted status of AAdvantage Executive Platinum, I needed to scale down the highs and lows that have kept me from sleeping for much of this month.

Thanks to the miracles of modern medicine I had twelve hours of sleep in the past 17 hours. I had to pop a tiny pill to get some essential sleep. The drug was prescribed to me for back spasms, but I have only taken it a couple of times before due to its strong effect.

I am feeling rather flat right now. As in a flat tire that prevents me cycling up or cycling down. As in a flat river meandering calmly through the course of my day. I feel like Huck Finn floating down the Mississippi in the fog, praying a river paddleboat steamer doesn’t come upon me and smack right into my drifting raft, leaving me adrift in the big muddy.

I feel like Riggan in Birdman.

Riggan: Listen to me. I’m trying to do something important.
Sam: This is not important.
Riggan: It’s important to me! Alright? Maybe not to you, or your cynical friends whose only ambition is to go viral. But to me… To me… this is – God. This is my career, this is my chance to do some work that actually means something.

Keeping it Real

We write a good line as travel bloggers about all the places we go and can go with our miles and points and our lovely hotel suite stays and first class seats and free drinks and gourmet food we consume.

All those benefits are true and obtainable to the frequent traveler or savvy traveler who learns how to play in this game of luxurious travel in the miles and points world.

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This is September 24 and I have flown nearly 29,000 miles in economy class during the past 22 days on 18 flight segments.

Some of you look at this map and perhaps think, “He must be on drugs.â€

Some of you look at this map and think, “WTF is he going on about? I flew more miles than that last week!â€

My next flight to Europe is less than 72 hours away. I applied for an upgrade on the San Francisco to Chicago flight using four AAdvantage 500-mile upgrade certificates. The upgrade has not yet confirmed.

In five days I will be AAdvantage Executive Platinum after landing in London next week.

My drugs will stay in California.