Sydney
Hard to believe that less than a year ago was Carl Brothers' 3,000,000th mile on United, and it's already time to celebrate his 4,000,000th mile on United.
United flight 863, the same as Carl's 3MM flight, from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia (SFO-SYD), was Carl's choice again. This time the celebratory group was even bigger, with easily 30 fellow frequent fliers on United helping Carl celebrate his achievement of lifetime Global Services on United by flying 4,000,000 miles on UA. We had a gathering in the Polaris Lounge beforehand, then moved to the gate, where not only all of Carl's friends could gather, but also we got greeted by the pilots and flight attendants. Alex, a fellow friend of Carl's, even got United (I think it was United?) to loan him an inflatable koala suit (!).
Purser Amy Hurst-Kownacki helped craft and distribute gift bags to the entire plane (!), several close friends of Carl's helped with even more swag, and it ended up being a terrific display of friendship and team lift that clearly started long before we got to the airport tonight. (I, uh, just showed up, so I take no credit.)
About the only hiccup was some massive delays, first for some last-minute cargo that had to be loaded, then a mechanical issue that fortunately was resolved before the crew timed out.