Let’s say that you had lots of miles to burn. Would you consider using a half million of them on a flight simulator experience?
United is auctioning off the chance to take a Behind the Scenes Flight Simulator Travel Experience.
While this experience sounds really amazing, it comes at an extremely high cost. A few days back I was looking at this package . The winning bid at this point was a little over 200,000 United miles. I checked in again a few moments ago and the bid is now up to a whopping 502,000 miles.
This sounds a bit crazy and way to costly if you ask me.
Prior to visiting the Delta Flight Museum a few weeks back I was checking out the museum’s website. While looking around I saw that you could pay to do a one hour flight simulator experience on a Boeing 737-200 full motion flight simulator. It costs a pricey $395 but can be for up to 4 people. The experience consists of a 10- minute pre-flight briefing, 45 minutes of fight time, 5 minute review and a DVD of the experience to keep.
While I’d love to try out the simulator, at $395 it’s still way out of my budget!
United’s offer of bidding for the flight simulator includes a short trip for 2 to Denver where the experience takes place.
The Flight Simulator Experience includes:
- Flight for 2 in United economy
- One night hotel stay
- Shuttle between hotel and training center
- Up to 2 hours flying in flight simulator
- Tour of the B767 & A320 simulators
- Meet with reps from Flight and Emergency Procedures Training
- Lunch
So what do you think– is it worth bidding on the Flight Simulator Experience? While I think it sounds amazing, for me (and I am guessing most of you) it’s way too costly and a ridiculous amount of miles to spend.
If you’ve had a chance to try out a flight simulator, let us know what it was like in the comments below.
Find out more or go for it and place your bid on the Flight Simulator Experience here.
The auction ends June 11.
DaninSTL- Agreed. I definitely would not spend a half million miles on a simulator. That’s an interesting idea you have. Is going to a university to try out their simulator really an option?
RM- Thanks for serving the country! That is definitely an interesting perspective. Work for some could be pleasure for others!
As a military pilot required to complete 18 hours of simulator training a year on top of my actual flying requirements, I wouldn’t pay a dime for more simulator time. In fact, I’d probably pay to get out of some of my sim time requirements.
Not worth it to me. What is half a million miles worth? A lot. Many of the universities that have commercial aircraft flight simulators only charge about $150 to $250 an hour. Just enroll in a course or sign up to use one. I’m sure it’s not all that easy but it’s better than a ton of miles.
If you were fortunate enough to pay $95.00 for this event in Atlanta back in 2010, you would have had flight simulator time — plus a whole lot more, including being an actual gate agent for a day, meeting with airline executives for five hours, participating on a tour of the technical operations center, participating on a tour of the operations control center, and dinner events…
Brian- That DL event sounded amazing and a real bargain! If it ever happens again, I’d love to take part in it!