Are there any routes that earn enough miles for a free ticket on that route?
#1
Original Poster




Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: coastal Croatia
Programs: BAEC Gold, M&M FQTV
Posts: 2,320
Are there any routes that earn enough miles for a free ticket on that route?
Not counting promotional miles, just miles for elite bonus or class of service bonus.
For example, as top tier elite on Air France, I earn 100% bonus miles on all flights. LAX to anywhere in Europe (outside of France) is around 6500 miles one way = 26,000 miles round trip in Economy (with my 100% bonus). A free ticket from LAX to anywhere in Europe is 50,000 miles. So it takes me two paid trips to earn one free trip. This probably gets to be easier on a mileage run, but I was thinking of more normal routings (i.e. no more than one unnecessary stop). Are there any routes where you can actually earn one free ticket (in the same class of service) for each paid ticket? Since this relates to earning miles and tickets with miles, I thought MilesBuzz! was appropriate.
For example, as top tier elite on Air France, I earn 100% bonus miles on all flights. LAX to anywhere in Europe (outside of France) is around 6500 miles one way = 26,000 miles round trip in Economy (with my 100% bonus). A free ticket from LAX to anywhere in Europe is 50,000 miles. So it takes me two paid trips to earn one free trip. This probably gets to be easier on a mileage run, but I was thinking of more normal routings (i.e. no more than one unnecessary stop). Are there any routes where you can actually earn one free ticket (in the same class of service) for each paid ticket? Since this relates to earning miles and tickets with miles, I thought MilesBuzz! was appropriate.
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist



Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: DCA
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Posts: 22,314
It's a bit mileage run-ish, but a NW or CO Plat earns 125% mileage bonus and could fly MIA-EWR-IAH-SEA-ANC-SEA-IAH-EWR-MIA for 11,616 actual miles + 13889 elite bonus = 25504 miles, enough to claim an MIA-ANC award.
#3
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend




Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: NY Metro Area
Programs: AA 2MM Yay!, UA MM, Costco General Member
Posts: 50,840
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by eefor jfp:
Not counting promotional miles, just miles for elite bonus or class of service bonus.
For example, as top tier elite on Air France, I earn 100% bonus miles on all flights. LAX to anywhere in Europe (outside of France) is around 6500 miles one way = 26,000 miles round trip in Economy (with my 100% bonus). A free ticket from LAX to anywhere in Europe is 50,000 miles. So it takes me two paid trips to earn one free trip. This probably gets to be easier on a mileage run, but I was thinking of more normal routings (i.e. no more than one unnecessary stop). Are there any routes where you can actually earn one free ticket (in the same class of service) for each paid ticket? Since this relates to earning miles and tickets with miles, I thought MilesBuzz! was appropriate.</font>
Not counting promotional miles, just miles for elite bonus or class of service bonus.
For example, as top tier elite on Air France, I earn 100% bonus miles on all flights. LAX to anywhere in Europe (outside of France) is around 6500 miles one way = 26,000 miles round trip in Economy (with my 100% bonus). A free ticket from LAX to anywhere in Europe is 50,000 miles. So it takes me two paid trips to earn one free trip. This probably gets to be easier on a mileage run, but I was thinking of more normal routings (i.e. no more than one unnecessary stop). Are there any routes where you can actually earn one free ticket (in the same class of service) for each paid ticket? Since this relates to earning miles and tickets with miles, I thought MilesBuzz! was appropriate.</font>
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist



Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: DCA
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Actually lots of examples in Mileage Run where a single trip in coach could generate enough miles to do that same trip in F!
See for e.g.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum...ML/004194.html
See for e.g.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum...ML/004194.html
#6




Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: hamburg
Posts: 1,390
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by GadgetFreak:
I was looking for a UA routing from JFK to Shanghai and someone noticed they had a routing of JFK-NRT-SFO-PVG. Rountrip on that is almost 36,000 without bonuses.</font>
I was looking for a UA routing from JFK to Shanghai and someone noticed they had a routing of JFK-NRT-SFO-PVG. Rountrip on that is almost 36,000 without bonuses.</font>
that would make my MP 1K complete.
were did you find this : JFK-NRT-SFO-PVG ?
all i can see is UA 853/857 JFK-SFO-PVG .
#7
Moderator: Southwest Airlines, Capital One




Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: California
Programs: WN A-list preferred, United Club Lietime (sic) Member
Posts: 22,846
On Southwest, every short-haul trip on an Internet Special fare is like a mileage run. I can fly 4 LAX-OAK round trips at $78 each and earn an unrestricted free ticket worth $300+ if I use it for a long-haul last-minute flight.
#8


Join Date: May 2001
Location: IAD
Posts: 6,451
Flying AS from the smaller points in Alaska to ANC-SEA-east coast (or vice versa) is about 9000 miles roundtrip... MVP Gold bonus at 100% puts it at about 18000, plus any booking bonuses (used to be 1K for online, notsure anymore). Free ticket is 20K miles and you save 1K by booking that online...
#9
FlyerTalk Evangelist


Join Date: Nov 1999
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I am flying YVR-SEA-NRT-BKK-NRT-HNL-SEA-YVR on a NW WBC sale fare end of the year. 18,000+ actual miles, 17,000+ CoS miles + 22,500 elite bonus miles. More than enough for a KQ BC ticket for intra-Africa or 2 EC tickets for the same (latter cost USD 500-800 each).
#10
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend




Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Programs: DL estranged 1MMer and lifetime gold, F9/CO/NW/UA/AA once gold/plat now dust, Spirit RIP
Posts: 42,178
Gleff had a good one with that ANC one. I did a BKK-NRT-GUM-CNS-GUM-NRT-BKK on a 25K award that totaled 13,000+ base miles; if it were a paid ticket with gold status, it'd earn 25,000+. CO was so unhappy they upped the award requirements. But you can still fly BKK-NRT-GUM-MAJ-GUM-NRT-BKK and have the numbers work out. Unfortunately the paid ticket would be expensive.
#11
Original Member and FlyerTalk Evangelist




Join Date: May 1998
Location: Kansas City, MO, USA
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Several years ago some NW employees were arrested for fraud. They had a racket going where they would find travellers who were not already receiving FF credit who had a ticket that would earn enough miles to get a free ticket, they would sign them up for Worldperks unbeknowest to the traveller, and collect the miles and free ticket. I believe they were caught eventually when folks started trying to claim retroactive credit for trips and learned that credit had already been collected.
#12

Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: AVL
Programs: AA, AS, SQ, Hilton Diamond, PC Platinum, National Exec
Posts: 727
I'm flying MHT-DTW-NRT-BKK-NRT-DTW-MHT on NW over the new year. Ticket cost only $650USD and I am getting approx. 20k worldperks miles. Very close to a free ticket and silver elite status for very little money.

