Since I am getting married this weekend I think I am allowed one sappy somewhat non informative but possibly inspirational post. To accomplish this we’ll need a bit of a backstory and some context. In advance, thanks for taking the time to listen and read through this, it means a lot to me and as the knot closes in on being tied it’s nice to remember how it started and how in the hell we’ve collected over 1,000,000 miles in the last four years…..
I am a born and raised New Yorker. Laura, my fiancé, is a born and raised Englander. Laura was a former UK top five junior tennis player and it carried her to the United States for college where we in fact did not meet. Sigh. Though I have no impressive numbers next to my former tennis career I too grew up an avid player and keep up with the game to this day. By chance Laura moved to New York just minutes from where I grew up to become a professional at a beautiful private club. If you play tennis in any capacity you know that it’s a small world. Well, just in time for Laura to decide she had enough of New York and was moving home to England, we finally met through friends in our small little town on Long Island. Yep, Laura was leaving just when we met. What the hell! We had a very short window in which to hang out and we chose to do so virtually all day every day for that time. Days later, she’s gone. 4,356 miles apart.
Now I am in love, Laura is in London and I am in New York. We promised that if feelings held we would come visit each other, as many people do. I DID. I’ve been collecting miles since childhood and since childhood, as a music industry professional I traveled very frequently. As such I had accumulated a nice chunk of Delta miles and elite status to boot. After a month I flew to London on a whim and we hit it off better than ever before. As our life changing visit in London began to wind down we made plans to find a way to come see each other every month one way or another, whichever city. I told Laura, who was less inclined to collecting miles, that flying about earning miles with one airline and that occasionally spending a couple extra bucks to stay with an airline can be well worth the expense because miles are valuable. In no time Laura was enjoying lounges, better check in, faster security and all the little perks which make flying across the pond every month a much happier experience. Between the two of us we crossed the pond more than twelve times in our first year together. About a year in as my career changed it became harder and harder to pay for flights. Enter those miles I’d been saving. In one of the best trips of my life I was able to attend the London 2012 games on a ticket using miles and spend an incredibly memorable week together. I also got to fly business home! The desire to never be too far apart for too long never faded and we kept up this tight rope act for a few months further until I convinced Laura to move back to New York. Hooray!
Flying brought us where we are today and I am so thankful. Some would say that after all that travel (in economy) that one might not want to keep it up. From the beginning we decided that we’d like to see the world and that seeing it together would be the best way to do so. After accumulating all those miles, grabbing a couple credit cards each and earning miles through things we do every day like eating, drinking and sleeping we’ve managed to see every continent together, none of which has happened in economy. Flying continues to be a happy part of our love story.
Thanks Guys. Lots of Love. Gib // GSTP
