Between my work as a travel writer, family vacations, and trips home to Australia, I had assumed a few years back that by the time our two children graduated high school they would be “million milers” through the Air Canada Million Mile Program, which gives those that reach this milestone an array of lifetime perks such as lounge access and flight upgrades–and as teenagers this status would have proved a real hit through their college years and beyond. But there were a couple of things I didn’t take into account. Firstly, Air Canada/Aeroplan changed the program, making it more expensive to purchases flights eligible for full mileage accrual. More importantly, I didn’t really consider their school and sporting schedules as they got older, which limits our long-distance family travel. And so with a 15-year-old and a 12-year-old, we still travel regularly, but instead of a freewheeling schedule of world travel, we more often find ourselves flying across the country to junior golf tournaments and driving upwards of 1,000 kilometres every weekend through winter for hockey.
I assume our kids will end up with their million miles eventually (unfortunately driving miles don’t count), but reaching the magic number will have to wait a few years until they set off on their own travels. On the other hand, Air Canada miles don’t expire for children, so that by the time they graduate high school, they’ll both have plenty of miles to burn through.