Japanese Mileage Junkies

[Mulboyne]

I've met people like this girl. One flew to NY one year just so she could keep her mileage card. Barking mad. They start by collecting miles that are freely given by airlines but end up with a status fetish whereby they pay through the nose to "stay important". No different from a girl flushing her salary away in a host bar.

Japan Times: On a wing and no fare
When Momoko Sasaki goes traveling, she literally "goes an extra mile" to enjoy perks that few of her peers have likely ever dreamed of...[W]ho is she? The answer lies in a shiny black card Sasaki takes out from her purse -- her membership card for a major U.S. airline's frequent-flier mileage program. Not just any mileage card, of course, but the kind only those who clock 100,000 air miles or more a year are entitled to...more...

[AssKissinger]

That's amazing that someone would fly from Tokyo to NY if they didn't have to. I hate long distance flights.

[Maths Dude]

Mile-collectors do heavy-duty math before buying their flights, dividing the discount ticket price by the number of mileage points they can get.

Is simple division 'heavy-duty' math?

[Charles]

Mile-collectors do heavy-duty math before buying their flights, dividing the discount ticket price by the number of mileage points they can get.

Is simple division 'heavy-duty' math?

Actually, routing for optimal milage points is more than heavy-duty math, it's in the same class as one of the great insolvable mathematical problems, The Traveling Salesman Problem. Come on, these milers are trying to solve some of the same route-optimization problems that the airlines have spent millions trying to solve.