January 6, 2013 – My best redemption ever!

No daily buzz today as I am taking some time off to concentrate on some really urgent and important work projects. Hopefully, God willing, I can continue the buzz posts tomorrow…We will see, thanks for understanding and for reading.

Mr. C and Mrs C came to see me back in 2007. Mr. C asked me the most challenging questions, it was very clear he had done his homework. He had done very well over the years as he rose up the management ranks of one of the Big Three companies. At the same time, both were two of the most gracious and down to earth people I have met. Near the end of the meeting I asked them: “Why do you want to hire me, you have done very well on your own all these years?”. And Mr. C said: “The only reason I am here is because I have been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, I don’t know how much longer I am going to live, I want you to take care of Mrs. C when I am gone, I need to find a good trustworthy professional to take care of her”. Wow, talk about being direct, huh?

As we got to know each other better I really enjoyed working with them. Mr. C knew so much (he was retired, career was in Finance) I was looking forward to our meetings because I always learned something from HIM! I started thinking of him as my father, always dishing out wisdom and life lessons learned.

So, where am I going with this? Mr. C did not like to travel much. Mrs. C’s dream was always to go to Hawaii with Mr. C. So I burned some Northwest Worlperks miles (yeah, back then there was no Skypesos crap to deal with, the Platinum line wonderful csr’s in MN handled it all, oh those were the days!) and flew them on First Class. They LOVED it! Mrs. C still tells me how she cherishes the memories of that trip. She now wants to travel more and always asks me for advice:-)

So…sometimes, in this miles/points world, you just can not be so anal about it ok? Sometimes you just gotta go with your gut, do what is right and what makes you feel good inside and make other people happy. So, don’t worry about trying to get the biggest bang for your miles like so many of you do, screw the calculators and the dillemas whether to buy or burn miles and make some people happy. Travel memories are precious, giving other people travel memories are even more precious!

Mr. C passed away a few years ago. Mrs. C is in good hands, rest in peace Mr. C!