Stats and More Stats (But Who's Counting?)

Our 2009 United Airlines EQMs (Elite Qualifying Miles)* to date:

Kathy – 201,450 (Kathy buys our flights on her UA card and earns additional miles)
Brian - 195,297

*This becomes complicated since UA is now running the second of two “double qualifying miles” promotions. During the first promotion we flew to Australia so we earned a lot of bonus “qualifying miles,” which are credited to our accounts only to achieve status, not to use as “points” for flights. Complicated? A bit, and that’s why we spend so much time on FlyerTalk learning how to maximize the benefits from United’s Mileage Plus program. At last count our actual miles flown total well over 120,000.

We've also flown 66 flight segments or legs on UA - those are actual flights from takeoff to landing and business flyers who make a lot of short flights are able to earn their status through segments, which is why UA provides those stats. For example, SEA-SFO-ORD-LHR consists of three flight segments. In other words, we've taken off 66 times and landed 66 times so far in 2009. We're so happy those number match up so well.

We also just requalified for Diamond status with Hilton, earning us bonus points and giving us access to lounges, usually quite lovely places in foreign Hiltons, if not so much so in the U.S. Even when we stay on "points" the stay counts toward the total, which helps us to amass numbers.

Updating one of our early posts here - how many countries we've visited - using the criteria laid out by the Travelers' Century Club, our new list is below. As of mid-September 2009 we've visited 73 (and been "in transit" in two others), but as we said the first time around, hey, who's counting?

Pacific Ocean
Australia
Hawaiian Islands
New Zealand
Tasmania
North America
Alaska
Canada
Mexico
U.S. (continental)
Central America
Costa Rica
Guatemala
Panama
South America
Argentina
Brazil
Colombia
Uruguay
Caribbean
Antigua & Deps. (Barbuda, Redonda)
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Cayman Islands
Dominican Republic
Leeward Islands, French (St. Martin)
Puerto Rico
St. Barts
St. Kitts
St. Lucia
St. Maarten (formerly Netherlands Antilles)
Turks and Caicos Islands
Virgin Islands, U.S. (St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas)
Virgin Islands, British (Tortola, etc.)
Atlantic Ocean
Azores Islands
Bermuda
Cape Verde Islands
Iceland
Europe and Mediterranean
Austria
Belgium
Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Minorca)
Czech Republic
Denmark
England
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland (Eire)
Ireland, Northern (Ulster)
Italy
Luxembourg
Malta
Monaco
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Russia
Sicily
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey in Europe (Istanbul)
Vatican City
Wales
Africa
Egypt
Morocco
Senegal (sitting on plane during refueling)
South Africa
Swaziland
Middle East
None
Indian Ocean
None
Asia
China, People's Rep.
Hong Kong
Japan (in transit only)
Singapore
Thailand
Turkey in Asia