12:00 THE RISE-AND DEMISE?-OF FREQUENT FLYER MILES

I JOINED MY first frequent flyer program—American AAdvantage—before a trip to Australia in 1991. Sadly, I let those miles expire. Five years later I was out of college, flying regularly for work, and reading all the materials airlines used to send in the mail.

- GARY LEFF

Poring over the terms and conditions, I saw where I could earn 5,000 MileagePlus miles for buying four sodas in four different restaurants. I picked up 40,000 British Airways miles for getting someone at a Jaguar dealership to fill out a form saying my family and I had test driven a car. I went to a Bosley hair loss consultation for 10,000 Delta SkyMiles (I had a lot more hair back then). I bought Emmi cheese and enough magazine subscriptions to fly on the Concorde.

Growing up, I used to fly back and forth between my home in New York and where my dad lived in California. I would look at the first-class cabin longingly, thinking I would never be able to afford to sit there (and that I couldn’t fathom spending so much even if I had the means). Yet by earning as many miles as possible and being strategic deploying them, I've flown all around the world in business and first class many times over, enough times to have my favorite airports and lounges.

My favorite world airport is Singapore’s Changi Airport, for its food, butterfly garden, and the world’s largest indoor waterfall. In the United States, it’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, especially for its location. It’s reasonably easy to get to, get through, and get out of—it does the thing that an airport is supposed to do, which is help you get somewhere quickly. It also has my favorite lounge in the country, Capital One Landing, which is basically a José Andrés tapas restaurant rather than a traditional lounge. While the best lounge in the world is certainly Air France’s La Première lounge in Paris (the Alain Ducasse restaurant, spa, and car transfers across the tarmac between lounge and plane are amazing), my favorite is the Qatar Airways Al Safwa First Class Lounge in Doha, for its minimalist luxury, 30-40 foot ceilings, and the inspiration it draws from the nearby Museum of Islamic Art. It even showcases pieces on loan from the museum.