Frequent Flyer Miles Take You to Space?

An anonymous reader writes "Pan Am might be gone and there isn't a Hilton in space yet, but you will soon be able to use your frequent flyer miles to at least come close to the final frontier. This article on SpaceRef.com details a new Space Adventures and US Airways partnership, where US Airways dividend miles may be cashed in for Space Adventures programs, most notably their sub-orbital flights that are expected to begin by 2005. Cost: only 10,000,000 miles. More reasonable totals can get you a zero-g parabolic flight, or a Mach 2.5 flight on a MiG-25. Space Adventures is the outfit that's been arranging trips to the ISS. One small problem though, is that they don't actually have a sub-orbital craft yet."

Comments

Bet those seats go quick.

[Yoda2]

The way the airlines are limiting the use of miles with blackout dates, etc., I'll probably have enough miles by 2005 to actually book a flight.

Good luck booking a suborbital on Thanksgiving though!

Re:Bet those seats go quick.

[sacherjj]

And it is a good idea to test the new sub-orbital craft with people who are buying with FF-miles, because they probably don't have the cash to purchase the actual ticket in the first place. This means that their family probably doesn't have the money to sue the company when the new test plane... umm... ...doesn't work.

But it doesn't say...

[dipfan]

.... how many air miles do you need for an upgrade to first class?

don't actually have a sub-orbital craft yet

[MrFredBloggs]

Jumbo jets are sub orbital. In fact, my mates scooter is, isnt it? Its certainly sub-light speed!

Re:don't actually have a sub-orbital craft yet

[Tasty Beef Jerky]

Are you saying sound hasn't earned 10,000,000 frequent flyer miles?

Hell no

[rho]

I'm not trading in 10 million miles for a spin on the Vomit Comet. What do they serve for refreshments, a kick in the groin?

More time in a plane. Great.

[Kushana]

I would imagine that after spending 10 million miles (400 times around the world) in a plane, the last thing I would want is to spend my miles on a plane trip.

Overbooked

[macdaddy]

I'd hate to get overbooked on a space flight. You spend 3 months planning to leave your house and pets (and kids!) alone for a couple weeks and boom!, you find out that you're flight was overbooked 5:1 and you have to take an alternate flight in a year.

Excuse me

[Saint Aardvark]

But how can you use air miles to travel into space, which is clearly a vacuum?

A little more fact-checking in the future, please.

Hmmm...

[NiftyNews]

Hey Jeremy, who is this Lance Bass guy and why is he flying around the world 7 times next week?

Re:Tourism In Space Will Never Work

[decipher_saint]

"bone loss"

"Excuse me, stewardess? I beleive I had 206 bones when I boarded, now I only have 198 and this packet of crisps, I will never fly Delta again!"

Re:Miles

[Tackhead]

> Delta has had similar premium offers - tyopically high end vacations or a chance to fly a 757 simulator.

"Why yes, Abdul, you earned so many frequent flyer points from all those last-minute first-class one-way tickets you bought last year, of course you can fly the 757 sim! Where to, sir, lower Manhattan or DC?"

Not only would space tourism cut launch costs, I'd say putting Abdul on a Russian RLVs that has yet to be designed, let alone flight-tested, would be safer for all of us :-)