YVR-LIM in NOV - mile accrual tips?
 

I'm trying to get to LIM to do accrue some miles and throw in an Inca trail while I'm at it. There might be a LIM-CUZ rtn trip in there too FWIW.

By year end I will have 88,798 miles. I know SE is quite devalued but I think I might as well push for it this year, and then never again. So, I need 11202+ more!

With the change of basic international fares to Tango instead of Flex, it's super tricky to do this at a not-nasty cost and still accrue miles. Aiming for Nov 4-14, but some flex could be Nov 2-7 and Nov 13-15 back.

I found UA YVR-IAH-LIM-IAN-YVR (10208) $1143 + if i can get LIM-CUZ-LIM on TACA I get +1000 = 11208. Not a lot of buffer for later in the year if some other routing gets changed slightly.

I found AC in flex YVR-YYZ-LIM-YYZ-YVR for $1344 with their AmazingRace 15% promo. 11858 miles which is a decent buffer. This seems pricey but right now it seems the best option.

I found some trips on TACA but they have nasty layovers in San Salvador.. plus I'm not completely sure if TACA (part of AVianca) will get me my miles; the Aeroplan fine print is hard to decipher.


The best option looks like the AC one but because I've never tried a mile-run before (and I know this doesn't qualify given that the cost is by no means a deal) - I thought I'd ask for help. Any suggestions? Any secret routings to LIM I should look into?

(Currently E75K if it matters)

Are you sure you wouldn't rather just do a UA YVR-SFO-PVG-LAX-DEN-YVR for $748 and 15217 miles Nov 2-4?

With SE secured, use the money savings and try and get a set of cheap tickets (WJ or anyone) to Hawaii for the real vacation Nov 5-? :D

I've done the exact AC route YVR-YYZ-LIM-YYZ-YVR before the Tango / Flex issues in November 2011. Loads were super light and e-upgrade cleared immediately at the T - 4 window. Only about 8 in the J cabin on the way down, and 12 on the way back so I'd say unless things have changed, odds are great for an e-upgrade.

I had difficulty (read it was impossible) to book Taca online for the LIM-CUZ portion (again in 2011). I ended up taking LAN instead because their site actually worked and would click through to the payment screen. Taca was not part of Star Alliance at that time, so maybe things have improved.

Best of luck.

thanks for the replies - very helpful

I've been reading more and more and I think I've unconvinced myself about SE! It's pretty radically worse than it used to be and I'm not sure worthwhile chasing. This way I can go to Peru (and Hawaii!) at much lower cost and just choose convenient connections or pay for business class rather than for "points that might get me business class."

I did YVR-IAH-LIM on UA and it was fairly cheap from what I recall.... they used the new planes on the IAH-LIM portion so that was much better than flying AC. I also got the travel agent to book TACA for the LIM-CUZ portion for an extra 1k aeropesos....and they upgraded me to J which was a nice bonus.

Now don't quote me on all the fine print, but I accrued miles and AQS (which I wasn't expecting) on my YVR-YYZ-BOG-MDE flights last week YVR-BOG was AC metal while BOG-MDE was Avianca (AviancaTaca) and yea I got them no problem.