THE Lowly Peon

Traveling, and a Very Pleasant Side Effect to Frequent Flying 
08 February 2010, 9:26am

I'm a premier member on star alliance. this doesn't mean much, except that I get free upgrades to economy plus, i dont need to wait to board, and my name is higher on the list when they give out free upgrades. a few other perks, but those are really the most noticeable (until I get premier executive, hopefully by the end of this year!).

they gave me a simple card with my name and mileage plus number. for years they've sent it to me and I tossed it since the number has always been on my credit card. but lately I've been traveling enough, and don't want to flash my credit card around, that I've started keeping that new membership card in my pocket when I travel.

the best part: most people have no idea what those different levels of status mean.

I just arrived at Beijing and there was a huge line for check-in. there was a totally empty line for star alliance gold members (this means you've flown 500k in the last calendar year, and only miles you sit on a plane count, no credit card earned miles, etc). I flashed my premier (platinum) card at the guy and asked if I could go in that line, and he said, with a big brown nose, yes please! welcome sir!

does this count as some kind of identity theft? or just extra points for being awesome?

[Note: I wrote this at the Beijing airport and just posted it now, copied and pasted from Simplenote]