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British Man Trades Frequent Flyer Miles for Space Shot
lvmoon writes "Start saving up your airline miles. Alan Watts, a British businessman, was able to use his 2,000,000 frequent flyer miles for a space flight, a ticket aboard a 2009 Virgin Galactic space flight." From the article: "Electrician Alan Watts said he flew to and from the United States on Virgin Atlantic flights more than 40 times in the past six years, earning him enough miles to take the trip into space with Virgin's space wing, London's The Sun newspaper reported Friday. The trip cost 2 million frequent flier miles, compared to the 90,000 miles required for a first-class flight from London to New York." Besides being funny, does this say anything about space travel in the 21st century? Is space is no longer the final frontier? I'm pretty sure Roddenberry didn't have frequent flier miles in mind when he came up with the Enterprise.
He's lucky too because he's got this free ticket in before the much expected hyperinflation in the air-miles currency.
This surprises some people but in fact, air-miles are a form of currency. They can be exchanged for real world goods and services and therefore have an intrinsic real world value. The problem is that the vast majority of air-miles go unspent. Since a constantly increasing amount of currency is chasing a limited amount of goods the value of the currency is constantly falling.
The fact that this guy was able to accrue two million air-miles doing a normal job tells you that inflation has already crippled the currency. I soon expect air-miles to be practically worthless.
Simon
Kosher or regular?
It's industrial civilisation's equivalent of the pyramids. Valuable at the time. But in the far distant future, they won't remember the asteroid we deflected in 2044. A weird result of a massive excess in resources, funds, and exuberance.
It's NOT the end of the world. It's just different.
Really. Different.
RS
Of the set of people who ever will travel in space, most of them already have.
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Electrician... Watts...
heh.
Now, instead of making fun of his name, his parents, his loong nose and cribbing about Virgin, let us behave like adults and congratulate him for being the first tourist to exchange miles for space. (literally).
Way to go Watts !
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
Is it just me, or do a huge number of people claimed to have purchase flights on the Virgin Galactic flight. For the last three years or so there have been sporadic news stories about celebrities, businessmen and just generally wealthy people getting their place on there, it makes you wonder if it isn't just PR on some of their accounts. What worries me more is about their preparations for the journey, astronauts spend years preparing to go into space and now it is being treated like a long-haul flight for some, I'm sure they will have some training but are they sure it is enough for the kind of forces that their body is going to experience while taking off?
As much as I hail Richard Branson for his innovation (as one of the few successful British entrepreneurs), I must add my view that for something like this, we really should leave it to the professionals before we are sure of what can and can't be done on commercial levels (after all, Columbia and the launches after that have only served to remind us of what a dangerous feat it really is).
Business Voyeur
By definition a frontier is just beyond or at the edge of geographic or human knowledge. As far as space is concerned it's pretty damn huge and I'm guessing that it is also home to some very unique environments that will challenge humanity. It'll continue to be a frontier for quite some time.
2M miles? 40 trips? US->UK? WTF?
Considering a circumnavigation of the equator is only 25k miles and London->Los Angeles is only about 5500 miles, it would take a LAX-LHR round-trip every two weeks without fail for six years to truly earn all that in real air miles. Obviously dude got most of that mileage by racking up credit-card miles as no sane person, regardless of business requirement, would keep up a travel schedule that ridiculous for that long without a break.
His last name is WATTs and he is a, fellow ELECTRICIAN. How awesome. I am an elctrician also. It looks like I need to start flying virgin air to get the 2 million frequent flyer mile electrician special. That is just awesome.
This story is from "The Sun".
That newspaper is the lowest of the low, the gutter press. Their normal faire consists of entirely fabricated stories and their conduct is entirely unethical. Do not place ANY credence to stories printed in this paper.
summary asks : does this say anything about space travel in the 21st century?
In 21st century, one would accumulate frequent flier miles from 40 trips to space to earn a single trip from US to UK.
Minerals? -- space has more than one can imagine
Space.... has SPACE -- using automated robots and orbiting factories to process raw minerals we will construct floating cities that will rival the best on earth
Why did Europeans colonise the Americas? I mean, look at the expense! :rolls eyes:
I been saving for over 10 years, waiting to find something good to spend my air miles on. So, Mr Branson, what can you offer me for my 2,537?
I hardly think that using frequent flyer miles to paddle around in near earth orbit is cause to lose all sense of wonder at the vastness of space and the endless possibilities that it represents.
"Cursed is he who rises early in the morning..." Isiah 5:11
Its cool and all but these are suborbital flights I don't know about you but when I first think of space flight I think of being in space for a hell of a lot more than a few minutes. Its a great first step but sounds more like an extended amusement park ride than actual tourism to me its as if you were to go on a cruise to the Caymans, they dropped you off on the coast for 5 minutes then you had to get back on and leave. If anything I am just happy that all these wealthy people are paying the first adopter fee so the rest of us can one day get a real space flight a lot cheaper, a lot longer, and probably a hell of a lot better.
I think the invisible hand of the market has its middle finger extended
--A wise old fart named SC0RN
"Besides being funny, does this say anything about space travel in the 21st century? Is space is no longer the final frontier? I'm pretty sure Roddenberry didn't have frequent flier miles in mind when he came up with the Enterprise."
...).
Perhaps not, but what he had in mind when he came up with Enterprise was space travel at speeds that take you to the stratosphere of a planet
in a another quadrant of our galaxy within a few years, not flights to earth's stratosphere.
I think your statement may be more suitable 300-2000 years from now (perhaps
Space travel is a temporary situation. It will cost too much and become unfeasible in the next 50 - 100 years.
You have that back to front. The current difficulty of doing space travel is temporary, because it is the result of poor strength of materials and poor energy usage.
Materials technology is improving at an extraordinary pace, and there is now a whole industry dedicated to manufacturing nanotubes of one form or another, despite this being only the beginning of work on nanoscale materials. Much greater things are on the way. And with stronger, lighter materials you can build much better space-worthy craft, not only hugely safer in the hostile medium but also able to withstand greater dynamic forces more safely. And more cheaply!
Then we come to energy. Contrary to the daily propaganda of environmentalists, there is no shortage of energy on the planet --- the surface of the Earth receives about 150 thousand times more energy from the sun than mankind is forecast to need by the year 2020. Our "energy problems" simply reflect our poor ability to harness that near-zero-cost energy, currently.
But that can change, especially in the context of space flight.
For a start, we can rise up through the bulk of the atmosphere almost without any energy cost at all, and many outfits are already experimenting with that, to the very edge of space.
And secondly, once up there, solar energy is freely available, and as long as there is still residual atmosphere around you, this gives you matter which you can use for propulsion, slowly building up speed as you skip through the upper layers. A relatively small amount of extra reaction mass is needed to boost the orbit out the final few dozen miles once you have close to orbital speed.
In due course then, on materials and energy grounds there is every reason to forecast a very bright and buoyant future for space travel. NASA-type costs are not required, as long as you're not in a hurry.
No, but Kirk had plenty of "frequent flier miles" with every alien female he could get his hands on, if you know what I mean
The sea changes color, but the sea does not change.
Is space is no longer the final frontier?
Near earth orbit is not space. The stratosphere is not space. You get me to terminal shock and I'll shell out some frequent flyer miles.
Since I joined the Fortran Standardisation Committee in 1999, I flew about 15 times to the continent on the Left Side of the Atlantic, and I consider myself an *in*frequent flyer.
I was surprised myself, about the the whole miles-buissness.
But than i looked into the papers of my airline, and there is TONS of stuff that boosts the miles.
Going first class? ==miles*5
Spending money for extra stuff(reservations, ect)? +xk miles bonus
using a senator card? Getting miles shoved into your ass for sneezing (figurtively spoken. IIRC, the highest bonus multipliers were like 10 or 15 or so. Like a pinball machine)
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
So he got 2 million frequent flyer miles from 40 trips. He could get a first class trip for 90,000 miles. So he could have got 22 free flight. More than one free flight per two paid ones. Are the frequent flyer systems really that good?
Well, unless you found another frontier beyond space, I'm gonna say no.
qntm.org
who is going to be first to join the 60-mile-high club?
Scotty! I ... want you ... to ... prepare to beam up our ... 20th century ... comedy ... collection!
Captain! I kinnae give 'em "The Waterboy"! She'll blow!
Fascinating! Captain, I believe they are flying the new ultra high seat density birds of prey with 15% less legspace. I thought only Cherry Galactic had them!
Dammit, don't do it, Jim! At least ask them for their sealed peanut bags. I'm running out of supplies in sick bay!
Besides being funny, does this say anything about space travel in the 21st century? Is space is no longer the final frontier? I'm pretty sure Roddenberry didn't have frequent flier miles in mind when he came up with the Enterprise.
That is 100% wrong. This is exactly what Gene Roddenberry had in mind. For a common person to be able to expiernce the wonders of space. Give props to him, we wouldn't be here without his vision.
Also... really slashdot...that comment is pure flamebait for this site.
'Truth' is linked in a circular relation with systems of power which produce and sustain it...
Thaaaaank You! cumagehn...
I can't wait to trade my frequent launcher parsecs for trips on Virgin Historic's time machines.
I can show you pix of the trips now if you're improbable enough to stand it.
--
make install -not war
Of course, he'll only be able to go if he books it six months in advance and the flight is on a Tuesday after 8 PM. And he'll have to fly coach (ie: cargo).
...they mean UP.
rj
Wait, he flew 40 times, got 2 million miles, and it's only 90,000 for another flight? So for his 40 flights, he could get 22 free ones? What the hell frequent flier plan is this?
>>Our "energy problems" simply reflect our poor ability to harness that near-zero-cost energy, currently.
My god, you're right! Energy is practically free!
Harnessing free energy must be easy!
Know what I like about atheists? I've yet to meet one that believes God is on their side.
The question though is would it be cheaper to kill a few million people in a neighbouring country or to go searching through space for water and minerals.
Find a big chunk of minerals and drop it on your neighbours.
You can't take the sky from me...
Is space is no longer the final frontier?
Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way up to suborbital flight, but that's just peanuts to space.
-- with apologies to Douglas Adams
I can throw myself at the ground, and miss.
Don't be pessimistic. The use of frequent flier miles to get a ticket into space means that spaceflight is finally here in a real sense. It's not just for governments anymore.
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
Since if you pay for this flight, and it only goes up 63 miles and back down, it would only accrue the typical minimum 500 mile most airlines give on short flights.
Now if you were going into orbit, it would be worth paying for because you would earn enough miles for another trip right there. You go a lot of miles on any orbital flight.
(In fact, it is amusing to point out that while the airline industry likes to point out that air travel is far safer than car travel in terms of deaths per passenger mile, the space shuttle is even better -- even though it's killed one out of every 15 people to go up in it.)
Has it been over a year since you last donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
While you are waiting to travel into space with virgin galactic, why not try my similar ocean voyages?
You are put into a canoe and pushed 20 feet into the atlantic on the end of a rope, then pulled back after a few minutes. It is far cheaper and simpler than those crazily over-complex 'ocean liners'.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
...what happens to the entertainment industry when half of the celeberties all board a ship and it goes into orbit and something crazy happens and it blows up?
"When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty."
But that's a bogus comparision: Frequent flyer miles can't be redeemed to get the equivalent of the highest avavilable fare for that
seat type. They can only be redeemed to get the junk seats that are left over on the unpopular schedules, usually on an indirect route
with multiple stops. (For comparison: If you are really prepared to pay the highest available fare for your seat type, you'll usually get
on the most direct flight, at the time you want, on the day you want, by the most direct route possible, and with the minimum of
restrictions about cancellation and alteration.)
At best, FF redemption tickets are barely better in convenience, availability, and service than the cheapest bargain tickets you can
buy for the route. When you use that number in your comparison, you'll see that FF miles have already suffered significant inflation.
On a side note: Frequent-flyer-redemption tickets aren't exactly free. You still pay the fees and taxes, and they are a significant
percentage of the cost of your ticket. I recently paid over $60 to redeem FF miles for DEN-ATL, where the normal discount price (think
lowest thing on Travelocity booked weeks in advance) would be about $225 (both figures include all taxes and fees, and both are for
internet-booked tickets). The out-of-pocket portion of a FF-redemption trip has increased over the years, and this is another
form of FF-currency inflation.
Space no longer the final frontier?
Has the United States finally collapsed?
End times?
Is your mother a whore?
What, I'm just asking.
Damn I'm in the Virgin frequent flyer club and I must have missed it!
8 174443458
http://www.breakingtravelnews.com/article/2006092
A) At the considerable height they will be at, they're in space. No, they will not be there long and they will not orbit.
B) The Virgin spaceship is a rocket. It is rocket-powered. It has significant thrust on takeoff, and the thrust is unmodulated, so it will be many Gs pushing them in to their seats. At ignition, it is horizontal, not vertical, so they save one 1G pushing them back against their seat. But since they are trying to reach space, the pilot pulls back on the stick and goes vertical very rapidly, at which point the experience is no different than being in any other rocket.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Don't accept any red shirt offered before the trip.
I wonder what 12 million pepsi points would get.
Have you read my journal today?
"Is space is no longer the final frontier?"
Shouldn't it be: "Is space no longer the final frontier?" - one too many ises there =P.
It's not a round-trip ticket.
is the human brain
Harnessing free energy must be easy!
Whether it's easy or not doesn't alter the basic equation.
Just like all other sources of energy, harnessing solar entails a fixed equipment cost, a system maintenance cost, and an energy source cost.
For solar, the energy source cost is zero, regardless of how difficult and costly it is to harness, and irrespective of how much our equipment costs and how much we have to spend on system maintainance.
That is, until the galactic overlords turn up and say that we're using their star's energy and must pay for it.