Is it just myself who thinks MR's > $200 all inc are not a deal?

note: I'm mostly referring to the lower 48, canada, mexico and the carribean

as my title states, I'm always looking for MRs and for me the number that I care about is all inclusive of taxes. Anytime I see anything that is > $200 all inc pretty much excludes me from even considering the MR.

That pretty much leaves me at a base fare of $158 before the $42 in taxes kick in domestically for a one stop MR. I know that each stop adds roughly $5 which I can live with.

It seems like these types of sub $200 a.i. fares used to happen regularly with transcons but no more. If they do they are like T/W only or something bizarre like that.

Anyway, I was just wondering what you consider your cut off cost wise on a domestic MR?

Most people don't have a cutoff for the absolute price, but by cents per mile, basically your "bang for your buck". For instance, if you spent $200 to get 4000 miles, your 'cpm' would be 5. For most people, this isn't very good. However if you spend $1000 to go, let's say JFK-SYD and get ~40000 miles with bonuses and everything, that works out to be 2.5 cpm, which would be a better deal in most MRs' eyes, and in fact, most strive to find a MR with below 2 or 3 cpm.

Of course, it all depends on your personal finances and what you're comfortable spending....

I consider MR's part of my entertainment budget. I agree on an absolute $ max on mileage runs. Comfortably I'd like <$300, otherwise I have higher utility spending that money on a relaxing vacation instead or great concert or theater tickets. I don't get much of a relaxing vacation trip for $250, so I am fine with investing the money on a MR. I also incorporate cpm into the equation and try to get < 3 cpm.

I bought a $480 15,000 mile MR on all FC legs for the winter. That's more than I'd care to spend though. I could have a nice quick vacation for that money. The MR is refundable, so I still have an option to cancel it if I have enough miles at the end of the year to maintain my airline status.

I bought a $480 15,000 mile MR on all FC legs for the winter. That's more than I'd care to spend though. I could have a nice quick vacation for that money. The MR is refundable, so I still have an option to cancel it if I have enough miles at the end of the year to maintain my airline status.

Does it involve MSY and IAH, perchance?

Hee hee hee. I will be eating and drinking myself silly in FC from IAH for 24 hours! Now that's entertainment!

Hee hee hee. I will be eating and drinking myself silly in FC from IAH for 24 hours! Now that's entertainment!

From what I hear, only the SLC-ATL segments have proper food. However, as for drinking oneself silly, I'm with you :D

I don't have an absolute cut-off as you can miss great deals. There is no way there will be an East Coast to Hawaii RT for less than $200, for instance.

You have to see what you can get, and calculate up the miles. I like starting early and zig-zagging over to the West Coast, then bouncing up and down there a couple times if I can before heading back. Can rack up a lot of miles and EQMs doing that. Or a did a series of simple West Coast and back via DFW for $216.40, but there was a bonus giving me an extra 100% miles, so that was worthwhile too, but your auto-cut-off at $200 excludes any of that.

It's your choice, but that is an arbitrary cut-off rather than a ratio-based one which would allow you to do something a little more expensive but really better value.

YMMV,

Steve

It always depends. If I'm four segments short of 1K, then I'd spend more than $200 to reach that threshold. If I've already got a trip, then adding a segment or two usually isn't a big deal. I usually add another segment to my business trips (at the same price) for the extra 500 miles and a segment.

Depends on whether it's a pure MR or a visit to friends. Pure MR it's 3 CPEQM or lower, but visiting friends I'll go as high as 5 CPEQM. My town is fairly inexpensive to fly out of, but some people report consistently high prices from their city, so the threshold for "good deal" is not fixed in stone.

I don't have an absolute cut-off as you can miss great deals. There is no way there will be an East Coast to Hawaii RT for less than $200, for instance.

Although it is rare it can happen:
BWI-HNL $241 CO in 2006
http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=642777&highlight=baltimore+continental
ATL-HNL $132 UA in 2007
http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=494168&highlight=atlanta+honolulu
I like to wait for this sort of deal. However, if is getting into December and I need some miles, I will stretch my budget to reach my goals.
I agree, low PPM is the way to make a decision

I don't have an absolute cut-off as you can miss great deals. There is no way there will be an East Coast to Hawaii RT for less than $200, for instance.


There was also an AA deal back in 2005 I think for ~$150 r/t NYC-HNL that I did for Memorial Day weekend.

And lots of folks went to LCA and OTP for ~$200. Maybe not HNL, but arguably better - and in J no less.

The general rule of thumb is that a RDM is worth about a penny and an EQM/MQM/whatever is worth 2-3 cents. The UA fare to AKL isn't worth all that much to me from an earning perspective as it is on a different alliance than I normally collect on and I'm going to span the new year in AKL, so I won't even make silver on the carrier for a year, but I still consider it a good value.

generally I don't need to do MR's, work pays for 80% of my EQM's and personal travel for things I want to do (that are not MR's) account for the other 20%; that said and done, I will do a transcon or a MR to a decent location if the price is right. I basically set that price at $200 (if its 205 or something thats fine, 200 is not a number set in stone but a number I use as a benchmark) again domestically speaking

Hawaii, can be had for cheap but its far and few between and I would pay more for that trip from IAD

For me though, to do a pure MR for the sake of getting miles that I don't necessarily have to have and to put my self thru a transcon and back without basically leaving the airport, a fare better be darn good.. darn good to me is $200 all inc.

the whole point of this thread was that I seldom see these fares, they pop up occasionally but get pulled really fast. Other fares like $198 transcons are not that good to me when you factor in taxes. Int'l fares could be free and I'm not sure I'd consider them good once you factor in taxes (again speaking for pure MR's)

the whole point of this thread was that I seldom see these fares, they pop up occasionally but get pulled really fast.

Last year AA regularly had SFO-DCA for $130-150+, but haven't seen those this year. I ended up paying $198+ for a trip later this month.

I did four SFO-OMA/OKC trips in May at $158+ (looks like they're still around, too), as I just wasn't seeing anything better out there, and didn't want to wait until year end to do all my flying. Each of these worked out to over 5,000 base miles with the routing I used.

Haven't seen SFO-JFK under $200 base in a long time.

MR's work for me as I use the miles on more expensive routings. I'll be in Buenos Aires in September on miles, and have a 150K One World award to Asia and Australia booked for 2008.

With the exception of coast to coast, I rarely ever pay over $200 per trip. All of my travel is personal. The first being destinations I like to go to(MIA/FLL, TPA, LAX, ORD, DCA/WAS) in which I look for a cheap ticket on AA and go. The second is strict MRs that I can do in a day because I have no real desire per se to stay overnight and spend the money for a hotel. However, I often might have time to go explore for a few hours (like recently on a LGA to CMH mr.) And occasionally as in the case of Columbus I find a very likable city (who knew!).

I sort of agree with TrojanHorse and the last post by newyorkgeorge. I guess it depends on whether it is a pure MR, where the destination doesn't matter, and one that has a desirable destination where a hotel stay may be involved. My MRs all fall in the domestic category and are pure MRs because I incur no hotel and no out-of-pocket costs since I burn airline vouchers for the travel. My last MR was to BOS last December, just to bump me over to US Platinum. In the past, I have done multiple MRs to MSY, TPA and MCO, but work and time constraints limit my MRs to the short weekend trips with contingencies should there be a misconnect. If I had to pay, I probably wouldn't go more than $200 anyway, unless it was a high value destination like HNL.

A key distinction should be made between Mileage Runs and Status Runs. I agree with TrojanHorse, if were to fly purely for RDMs, it better be darn cheap. Flying for EQMs, though, is a different story. By backloading some transcons at the end of year -- and taking advantage of UA's DEQM promo -- I'll maintain 1K status with a low overall spend. My personal cutoff is $0.04 CPE (cents per EQM). Higher than that, and I wait; lower than that, I consider it seriously. Lower than $0.035 CPE and I pounce. I'm factoring in not just the RDMs but the benefits of the CR-1s and SWUs I'll have next year.

I won't do a MR just because it's a good price. I have 925,000 miles still left to burn between AA/UA, and will be picking up another 50k between now and when I stop being 1K on 2/28/07. Why do I need another 5k because of a "good run?" It's likely that the miles are going to devalue before I can use them, so "good" will become "meh" especially after adding the value of time.

I do MRs when I need to hit a status goal, such as topping off mid-tier status or (this year) getting my 10k EQM each quarter as a 1K for my two CR1s. Until the taxes went up, I would aim for 3.5-4c/EQM (so 1.7-2c/RDM) for pure status runs, or $30/segment if I was qualifying on segments that year. Now, it's probably closer to 5c/EQM, especially if I can do it on a weeknight.