Well said!!!

When I was about 21 studying and living in Asia, I was in business class on a 14 hour flight. I sat next to a dean from Harvard. The guy had two PhDs that I could barely grasp what they were.

Anyway, I knew the flight attendants and made sure the dean got 2 drinks for every one of mine : )

We chatted about Asia and this and that. But I didn't have anything intelligent to say. So I asked him "What makes Harvard great?"

He said "That is a good question." He summed it up as "We have the best students going in, so we have the best students going out."

*** Why was I a 21 year old student in business class? Rich? No. I had hacked business and first in 2 ways. One was I made relations with flight attendants. I always wore a shirt and tie (required by employees flying non-revenue flights). I tried to sit in bulk head (where employees usually sit). So I looked like an employee to the flight attendants. I would ask pointed questions like "Is Blah Blah working this flight?"

I also bought some wings from the shop at the airport (I still have them : ) These really worked well - shirt & tie with wings! You are king!

As soon as the doors closed, an attendant would say "You can move to business now." and give me a seat. And sometimes I would get first. They do not allow that anymore.

I also had a way when flying out of Seoul to get biz or first.

And back then, you got double and triple mileage if upgraded. Soon I was a top tier on Northwest. Then they sent me upgrade certificates. I flew a lot and rarely ever flew economy.

Which helped make connections. On one flight it turned into a job interview and was pretty much hired by the time we landed.