Spacemiles

[dianeduane]

It was only a matter of time.

"Move Over, Buzz Lightywar: Virgin Atlantic offers its frequent flyer members 'space miles'"

Frequent flyers are being offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become an astronaut under a newly launched scheme by Virgin Atlantic.

Members of its Flying Club loyalty programme can now convert their earthly miles into 'space miles' and earn themselves a trip beyond the upper atmosphere to join the 100-Mile High Club.

Members will need to earn two million miles on Virgin flights to be able to redeem them for a trip with Virgin Galactic into space. The adventure includes the three-day Virgin Galactic Experience, which will ensure that future astronauts can savour each second of their space flight. It will include 'g' acclimatisation, a flight in the White Knight spacecraft, and will take place in the US at the Virgin Galactic Spaceport. To date, there have been only 444 astronauts, but with the launch of commercial flights, the figure is expected to grow to many thousands.

Initially, flights will cost $200,000 per person but Virgin Galactic expects prices to fall over time.

All I want to know now is: (a) Can you move miles over from other airlines? (b) If not, when will Continental or Swiss take on Virgin as a codeshare partner? :)

Comments

[cjmr.livejournal.com]

Must find excuse to do lots of flying on Virgin.

[azurelunatic]

Ditto. Though that'll take a bit of doing -- do they even have flights in the US?

[penprickle.livejournal.com]

They have flights to and from the US, certainly, but I don't think they do national flights within the US.

$200,000, huh? I don't do a lot of flying, so I might as well start saving now...

[cjmr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, now that I think about it, saving up $200K will probably cost less in the long run than getting 2 million frequent flyer miles--even if Virgin does partner with a credit card or something.

On the other hand, I could sell my house...

But then where would I keep all my Diane Duane books? (grin)

[dewline.livejournal.com]

I'm reasonably certain they don't have flights to Canada. Well, maybe Toronto.

Which means that I've got a problem of my own. :-(

[mikailborg.livejournal.com]

The way I see it, I was $2 billion not so long ago, and $200K now... I think if I'm patient, I have a fair shot at seeing another couple of zeros dropping off the right of that number before this body gets too creaky to enjoy the experience.

Or $200K could just magically show up in my bank account around the time that ticket sales begin. That would be nice too.

[sebastian-tombs.livejournal.com]

That's pretty cool (and many more ff miles than I will ever accrue).