A Year of Travel and an “Honor” I Didn’t Expect
Alaska Airlines recently granted me MVP Status. I was surprised when I received the email congratulating me.
In my view, the new status is not exactly something to celebrate. It’s something I’m embarrassed to admit as a sustainability advocate.
These mileage plans glorify air travel and encourage people to travel as frequently as possible. Some of the MVP perks are worrisome. These are just with the first level of MVP. The website describes higher levels to which we are supposed to aspire.
Free upgrades are a license to take up more space. The message is that you’ve “earned it” by being a loyal customer, but the fewer seats on a plane, the greater the carbon emissions per person. (I understand the lure of priority seating, especially for tall people who can’t fit into coach seats, but the practice rewards the highest emitters with permission to emit more.)
Airlines should be encouraging people to pack less stuff, not more. Additional weight in the cargo hold means the plane will consume more fuel during the flight. I understand people don’t like being charged extra fees on top of their plane tickets, but those who travel light should be rewarded.
I am not a frequent flyer. My air travel this year included:
A round trip between Seattle and Phoenix to present awards at a conference
A multi-city trip to attend a conference in Los Angeles and visit a client in New Jersey
A multi-city trip to attend Climate Week in New York (yes, I understand the irony) and a conference in San Jose, CA.
Justifying Air Travel
Three trips in a year was a lot of travel for me. I justified it for business and personal reasons.
I co-presented semiconductor industry awards for 3D InCites at the Phoenix conference and saw a long-time client in person. She and I have become friends over the years, and she invited me to share her hotel room. That and using miles to buy my plane ticket meant the trip cost me nearly nothing.
Two people I interviewed for Materials & Sustainability were presenting at the LA conference, and one invited me to her organization’s annual meeting the day before. The conference was for the 3D printing industry, a sector where I want to expand my customer base. I shared some takeaways in a blog post.
My client in New Jersey invited me to see her facility, and I used that as an opportunity to interview her employees as part of a Quick Start Marketing Assessment. That’s the type of project I would like to do more of.
Talking to employees in person at their workplace and touring manufacturing facilities helps me better understand how to help clients spread the message of how they are disrupting their industries in a positive way. If I can do that for more companies in the Pacific Northwest rather than flying across the country, all the better.
The New York trip was a great opportunity to make connections and find topics to write about. However, I wouldn’t have attended Climate Week if my older son hadn’t moved to Brooklyn earlier this year. I stayed with him and took the subway into Manhattan for events. While living in a big city isn’t for me, I appreciate the excellent public transit. I also enjoyed spending time with my son before flying across the country for my next event.
My flight landed in San Francisco (no nonstop flights between NY and San Jose), and I took transit to reach my destination. That trip took longer than hiring a rideshare, but I wasn’t in a hurry. The best part was taking the new electric Caltrain, which had started running that month. The ride is smooth and quiet and an excellent upgrade from the old diesel Caltrain I remember from when I lived in the Bay Area.
The Strategic Materials Conference in San Jose was right up my alley. The talks informed a blog post in October and more articles that will be published in future months. I loved networking with my people—other materials geeks who care about the environmental impact of their work.
Banking and More
The travel alone wasn’t what got me MVP status. The miles started piling up after I switched to using my Alaska Airlines VISA card almost exclusively earlier this year. I did that because I needed to close another credit card account and had already established credit in my name using the Alaska card.
I want to put my money where my mouth is and open a new credit card that isn’t linked to air travel. One option is the Climate Card from Beneficial State Bank. I opened personal and business checking accounts with that bank in 2022. I finally closed my Bank of America checking and savings accounts this year.
My next step will be to reevaluate all my investments. Moving money away from polluting industries and supporting sectors and companies that aim to undo some of the damage humans have caused is a way to make a positive difference.
I will also limit my air travel. When I travel, I won’t take advantage of an extra checked bag, but declining a free seat upgrade will be harder to resist.