Hi all.

After several years as AA EXP, I've pretty much not flown at all in 2007 and had resigned myself to making one trip across the pond this year to see the in-laws, dropping to plat in 08 and requalifying same year. Then I came across the current AA/MasterCard promotion, offering 50% off coach fares Nov 1 to Dec 14.

Some quick sums showed that I could use that to earn BIS miles at a rate of around £20 ($40) per thousand (2c/RDM) and I decided to scope out what a 6 weekend status run would look like, building on the 14K from my planned trip in October.

With a bit of variety thrown in, the schedule looks like this, all Saturday departures:

Nov 3-5: lhr-jfk-mia-eze-jfk-lhr, 17680 miles
Nov 10-11: lhr-lax-hnl-lax-bos-lhr, 16443 miles
Nov 17-18: lgw-dfw-sea-dfw-lgw, 12861 miles
Nov 24-26: lhr-jfk-mia-gig-gru-jfk-lhr, 17109 miles
Dec 1-2: lhr-jfk-dca-dfw-sea-ord-lhr, 12189 miles
Dec 8-10: lhr-jfk-sju-jfk-lhr, 10098 miles.

Total - 86380 BIS miles for (these are my best guess prices for the MC discounts, after testing a couple of routes by calling) £1,815 (£21.05/K BIS or 2.1c/RDM)

No hotels needed, except for DCA and SJU and only 2.5 Mondays off work. I could get that down to no hotels at all and only 2 days off by replacing the last two with vanilla SEA runs, where I can stay with friends at no cost.

Of course, this does mean four Mondays landing at LHR/JFK and going straight to the office:eek:

As I say, I've tried to mix in some variety (I get a day each to play tourist in EZE and GIG, and evening in SJU but only an hour and a half in HNL) so not all flights yield the best rate (ranges from £17.82/K for EZE to £25 ish for SJU, but there's a guy there I owe a beer).

I've also left out one higher value but more punishing option - I priced a LON-LAX-ZRH rt, nov 16-19 at £466.80 for 24K BIS.

I'd appreciate thoughts on (a) whether I've come up with a good value plan, and (b) the survivability of the schedule - once I started I'd have to finish!

Then I came across the current AA/MasterCard promotion, offering 50% off coach fares Nov 1 to Dec 14.

OK, this is the first I'm hearing of this promotion, and a search here and on aa.com yielded nothing. Do you have any kind of link to this promotion?

To answer your question though, YES you are insane.
You set the bar pretty high man. :)

OK, this is the first I'm hearing of this promotion, and a search here and on aa.com yielded nothing. Do you have any kind of link to this promotion?

It's for UK (or possibly European) MasterCards only. There's a thread on the Aadvantage forum http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=700596

I must say, it's nice to finally see a promotion for which those of us with UK billing addresses are eligible :)

A "bold" move. :p

That still leaves you just under 14k short of re-qual for ExPlat. Is that covered with the "minimal" flying you have already done this year?

As I'm not eligible for that promo, I haven't looked into it, but is it a blanket 50% off the fare, or are there restrictions that need to be taken into consideration?

Will those reduced fares be in fare classes you can use your eVIPs?

Just out of curiousity, what is your anticipated flying next year? If it's still very reduced, do you need to do all this, as you will soft land down to Plat next year anyways. Sure, go ahead and do what you can to build miles towards lifetime Plat--that's my goal too (though at a slower pace ;)).

More power to you.

Steve

That still leaves you just under 14k short of re-qual for ExPlat. Is that covered with the "minimal" flying you have already done this year?

I think he is getting the 14k otherwise.

. . .I decided to scope out what a 6 weekend status run would look like, building on the 14K from my planned trip in October.

It's for UK (or possibly European) MasterCards only. There's a thread on the Aadvantage forum http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=700596


Thanks. Maybe I need to get a UK card.

Another factor that I just ran into which may sway your decision... Brazil does have a tourist visa reciprocation fee of $125 US with GB... right? Make sure you add that into your cost per mile fees.

Another factor that I just ran into which may sway your decision... Brazil does have a tourist visa reciprocation fee of $125 US with GB... right? Make sure you add that into your cost per mile fees.

Nope. UK citizens are exempt, as are citizens of many other countries (though not the USA). Full list: http://83.170.97.93/consulate/visa-exemptions.pdf

Hi all.

After several years as AA EXP, I've pretty much not flown at all in 2007 and had resigned myself to making one trip across the pond this year to see the in-laws, dropping to plat in 08 and requalifying same year. Then I came across the current AA/MasterCard promotion, offering 50% off coach fares Nov 1 to Dec 14.

Some quick sums showed that I could use that to earn BIS miles at a rate of around £20 ($40) per thousand (2c/RDM) and I decided to scope out what a 6 weekend status run would look like, building on the 14K from my planned trip in October.

With a bit of variety thrown in, the schedule looks like this, all Saturday departures:

Nov 3-5: lhr-jfk-mia-eze-jfk-lhr, 17680 miles
Nov 10-11: lhr-lax-hnl-lax-bos-lhr, 16443 miles
Nov 17-18: lgw-dfw-sea-dfw-lgw, 12861 miles
Nov 24-26: lhr-jfk-mia-gig-gru-jfk-lhr, 17109 miles
Dec 1-2: lhr-jfk-dca-dfw-sea-ord-lhr, 12189 miles
Dec 8-10: lhr-jfk-sju-jfk-lhr, 10098 miles.

Total - 86380 BIS miles for (these are my best guess prices for the MC discounts, after testing a couple of routes by calling) £1,815 (£21.05/K BIS or 2.1c/RDM)

No hotels needed, except for DCA and SJU and only 2.5 Mondays off work. I could get that down to no hotels at all and only 2 days off by replacing the last two with vanilla SEA runs, where I can stay with friends at no cost.

Of course, this does mean four Mondays landing at LHR/JFK and going straight to the office:eek:

As I say, I've tried to mix in some variety (I get a day each to play tourist in EZE and GIG, and evening in SJU but only an hour and a half in HNL) so not all flights yield the best rate (ranges from £17.82/K for EZE to £25 ish for SJU, but there's a guy there I owe a beer).

I've also left out one higher value but more punishing option - I priced a LON-LAX-ZRH rt, nov 16-19 at £466.80 for 24K BIS.

I'd appreciate thoughts on (a) whether I've come up with a good value plan, and (b) the survivability of the schedule - once I started I'd have to finish!

IF you can fly longer routings on the same fares, meaning more flying at a time, you could get your CPM significantly lower.

I take it that is not an option?

If the promo applies to only UK origin flights, under 1.5 per RDM should be doable (with strategic routings, choosing routings you manually verified availability in the lowest fare class applicable, choosing the maket with the longest routing on a CPM basis).

If the promo applies to all AA flights, under .75 cents per RDM should be quite doable. Again, the CPM would require back to backs in the best market that comes along...not convenient weekend trips.

Assuming your schedule cannot be more flexible, what you have sounds fine.

Personally, I wouldn't do it. Your CPM is too high.

Only you can decide what EXP is worth to you.

Why is it worth that many flights? Will you enjoy that much flying?

I would be worried about arriving for work after that many miles.

I think he is getting the 14k otherwise.

I feel dippy for missing that. :rolleyes:

Nov 3-5: lhr-jfk-mia-eze-jfk-lhr, 17680 miles
Nov 10-11: lhr-lax-hnl-lax-bos-lhr, 16443 miles
Nov 17-18: lgw-dfw-sea-dfw-lgw, 12861 miles
Nov 24-26: lhr-jfk-mia-gig-gru-jfk-lhr, 17109 miles
Dec 1-2: lhr-jfk-dca-dfw-sea-ord-lhr, 12189 miles
Dec 8-10: lhr-jfk-sju-jfk-lhr, 10098 miles.

Total - 86380 BIS miles for (these are my best guess prices for the MC discounts, after testing a couple of routes by calling) £1,815 (£21.05/K BIS or 2.1c/RDM)

Do you mean 2.1 English cent/RDM? Or American cent? Your RDM should be at least double (100% Plat/ExPlat bonus) the BIS/EQM, so it should be half the 2.1 English cents/RDM. Does that come to about 2 US cents/RDM?

...actually it does pretty close.

Since the OP is based outside of the US, the comp upgrades on domestic US flights isn't a big deal. Soft landing to Plat won't lose a lot else (other than the "legendary ExPlat Desk" :rolleyes:) other than the eVIPs.

While the cpm isn't great, it's still up to the OP. The vast majority of us little people aren't worthy to watch wanaflyforless's planes take off, so we can't all achieve his level of ability in mileage acquisition (though I did keep my 2006 figure to US$0.009993 cpm :cool:)

And it is noted that the OP is mostly restricting himself to weekends/minimizing time off from work, so adding more segments is probably not a readily available option.

Steve

Thanks chaps :)

To answer a few points:
1. Yes, I'm limiting myself to weekends, as for some reason SWMBO thinks I should spend my vacation time with her, rather than random strangers in airports... As surmised, that rules out some of the more creative routings.

2. That said, I can use a few days, hence having considered lhr-jfk-lax-jfk-zrh-jfk-lax-jfk-lhr. But it scared me.

3. My trips to the US do tend to be multi-city, so the comp EXP upgrades are, in fact, very useful.

4. As is EXP priority when redeeming VIPs; especially when travelling with SWMBO, which is when I tend to use them.

5. Yes, the going in to work off a flight thing is a bit of a worry, but I'm reasonable confident that the routings I've picked will give me enough shut eye to get one day in before a very early night.

6. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I unforgivably mixed currencies. To clarify, my figures for cost per thousand BIS/EQM are in Sterling, my figures for RDM in US cents (NB we have pence in the UK, it's those communists in the Euro countries who have Euro-cents).

Still grateful for more comments. Nobody has opined yet as to whether I'll end up mad, dead or just forgetting the whole thing ;)

Have you done long, mileage run type routings before? It is really easy to read about all the crazy itinenaries posted by other people, but actually doing so many of them in a short amount of time is something else.

I personally am okay with anything under 24 hrs w/out a hotel break, but from experience I would NOT do any more 40-50 hr trips (especially in coach). Last year, I did some of the NYC-HNL-Europe-HNL-NYC trips on NW/KLM (~$500 for 50K miles). Due to status with Skyteam, I was able to get the best coach seats for the transatlantic flights, eg exit row/bulkhead, and upgrades on the domestic segments. I spent a couple days in Europe before heading back, thinking I could get some sightseeing done. I ended up spending a lot of that time recuperating (not to mention I got sick like after the first round of flights and sudafed isn't 100% effective in removing congestion so the multiple takeoffs and landings were quite painful).

Anyway, this isn't to discourage you, since I don't know how hardy you are on airplanes. Definitely, there are others who have done similar schedules and survived. I seem to remember that someone else on the AA board also did multiple weekend transatlantic trips to renew EXP in 2 months. However, I think there is a reason why there aren't more stories in the same vein!

Have you done long, mileage run type routings before? It is really easy to read about all the crazy itinenaries posted by other people, but actually doing so many of them in a short amount of time is something else.
Good point! I've done plenty of 24 hour-ish trips, but usually had a hotel break on longer runs.

As I've got until end of August to book the MasterCard discounts, perhaps I should look for a cheap-ish back to back run between now and then, try it out and see how I fare. It'll add to my overall cost, but better that than trying and failing halfway through.

Of course, finding anything cheap in August is another matter...

Just out of curiousity, what is your anticipated flying next year? If it's still very reduced, do you need to do all this, as you will soft land down to Plat next year anyways. Sure, go ahead and do what you can to build miles towards lifetime Plat--that's my goal too (though at a slower pace ;)).

A good question that is still unanswered. Just what is the goal here? Lifetime status, redeemable miles, etc? The OP didn't fly much this year. Will he even be able to use this status? Are next year's travel patterns significant enough to warrant the time/financial expense of 86K in mileage running?

A good question that is still unanswered. Just what is the goal here? Lifetime status, redeemable miles, etc? The OP didn't fly much this year. Will he even be able to use this status? Are next year's travel patterns significant enough to warrant the time/financial expense of 86K in mileage running?
Terribly sorry, old chap. Thought I'd made it clear that not flying much this year was a blip & I'd be back to normal next year - the phrase "dropping to plat in 08 and requalifying same year" was meant to be a bit of a clue...

Yikes! Please don't beat me! ;)

Yes, you're insane, but I mean that only in the best possible sense of the term. :)

If and when you do this, let us know how you feel after weekend 6.

Mike

Yes, you're insane, but I mean that only in the best possible sense of the term. :)

If and when you do this, let us know how you feel after weekend 6.
Thanks Mike. In truth, my resolve is wobbling a bit. I'm wondering about slipping in a couple of slightly more expensive Aug/Sept runs, to lighten the load a little...