Upgrades!

I had my first taste of upgraded travel this week and I want more! My company has worked with Hertz to have the fee for Hertz #1 Club Gold program waived. For some reason I had trouble accessing this program initially and therefore had to actually wait in line to pick up my rental car (the horror)!  However my membership finally kicked in on this last trip to New York.

Words cannot describe the delight I experienced when I saw my name in lights on the board as you walk into Hertz indicating where I could find my paperwork and car. Mere moments later I was in my (baby blue Nissan Versa) car and on the road. But not before I snapped a picture of my name on the scrolling marquee above my car. An hour or so later I arrived at the Mahwah Sheraton to discover I had been upgraded there as well! Ok - so the only difference I noticed was a nicer couch, but still - I'll take it!

This past year I didn't take the upgrades situation too seriously, for most of the year I wasn't traveling that much.. Sure - I tried to be consistent in the airlines I was flying and the hotels I was staying in, but I probably could have been better. So now I'm taking it much more seriously and I have the tracker to back it up. I"ll be monitoring my progress towards various status levels on a recurring basis. And attempting to be much more consistent with the airlines and hotels I book with.

I'm close to reaching the first level of status with United and should hit it by year's end. I've been told I can call and explain that I've started a job where I will be traveling multiple times as week and ask for them to bump me up. But I sort of feel like that's cheating! Although ask me in a few months and I have might have changed my mind about that...