THE NEW film "Up in the Air" features George Clooney as Ryan
Bingham, a very frequent business traveller. Mr Bingham
supposedly spends 323 days a year on the road, and when he gets
"home" to Omaha, Nebraska, he lives in what is essentially a
hotel suite. But our protagonist is not without goals. Mr
Bingham aspires to one day reach ten million miles on his
American Airlines frequent flier account—a number that will,
among other things, allow him to meet AA's chief pilot, "Maynard
Finch" (played by the wonderful, ubiquitous Sam Elliott).
Meeting Mr Elliott is all well and good. But airmile junkies who
see the film probably aren't focussing on meet-and-greet
opportunities. Mr Bingham's membership in AA's "secret"
Concierge Key club is another thing entirely. Joe Sharkey
explains:  In the world of Mr. Clooney’s character, the highest
fliers are invited into status clubs that airlines don’t openly
promote, like American Airlines’ Concierge Key or United
Airlines’ Global Services....  Airlines like to admit that t