Depressing Travel Story

I am leaving for Florida tonight to visit my grandmother and was reminded of a travel story. At the risk of writing about work:

My friend and colleague, Rolland, was a 30 year veteran of my company before he retired. He had worked in both Public Relations and Special Programs, which is code for “on the road all the time”. He is also an enthusiastic leisure traveler. He has been to all 50 states and is the best resource for “all of the places worth seeing” that can be found in a human being. He is the reason I went to Hoover Dam.

Rolland is helping us out with a project, and was booking his airline tickets just as I had walked over to do the same. He noted that United was only flying regional jets to our destination, while American was flying the big guys. Our travel agent, Nancy, asked if he would prefer American. He said, “I’m no longer a premier member at United, so it doesn’t matter which airline I fly.”

I asked, “But aren’t you a million mile customer?”
He replied, “No. I only got to 800 thousand-something.”

The most frequent traveler that I know hasn’t made it to a million miles. I am never going to get there.