AS a Hongkong Bank credit card holder and a regular passenger of United Airlines, I was pleased to see their advertisement awarding mileage points for purchases made on credit cards. I am also glad to see that United Airlines has decided to follow the rest of the world's example by going metric and awarding one point earned with the scheme to one kilometre which equates to 0.62 miles. Unfortunately, they were only able to put this in the small print of the advertisement and have emblazoned the remainder with the mileage points that can be earned. What this means for the public is that they have to spend roughly $258,000 on their credit card before they earn the minimum award in the scheme, one free ticket within Asia. United Airlines and Hongkong Bank should get a lot of mileage out of this scheme, although the same can not be said for the mileage-plus members. ANDREW HUNT Happy Valley