I am finally within 1K reach - all I need is 8,292 miles (8,300 just to be safe).

Currently, I have 78,600 EQM and will have another 13,108 miles by Thanksgiving (giving a total of 91,708 EQMs). Based out of San Diego and would like to fly out from SAN or CLD.

Since I do not have any vacation days left, I can leave Friday evening/Saturday and return back on Saturday/Sunday (any weekend until Nov. 22 is fine). Not too sure if this is attainable, but would like to spend $400 or less. Spending a night in another city is fine if necessary.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

PS: Tried a SAN-SFO-SEA-IAD-EWR//LGA-DEN-SAN routing for $375 but still does not allow me to reach 8,300 EQM.

To get 8300 miles on a transcon, you're gonna have to work up/down the coasts or zig-zag through the middle. Think about using IAD as a hub to connect two FL cities if you can construct a proper fare. For example, you might be able to do SAN-SFO-LAX-MCO-IAD-FLL and back; that would yield a little more than 9600 EQMs, provided you could get decent fares and avoid horrible layovers. Another option is the zig-zag - for example SAN-DEN-IAH-ORD-MCO-IAD and back - that yields 8800 EQMs (hope you like RJs and TED if you try this one). You get the idea.

Looks like UA has some fares from SAN-FLL and SAN-MCO for 239++. Not sure about availability and routing possibilities, although I'd imagine that they'd allow four transfers in each direction, allowing 10 segments total.

Good luck!

One possible solution depending on your desperation and a little leeway with departure / budget...

USAir (don't hate me for suggesting it) has a fare from LAX to Dublin for around $450. It goes up to about $560 from SAN. It's available leaving 10Nov departure, 11Nov return. Or you could get sick for a day or 2 to hang out in Dublin. The 12th is a federal holiday as well if you work for someone who gives you the day off.

Routing through CLT or PHL earns about 11-12k EQM round trip. May be able to force a few other connections, not sure.

Hopefully you can find something on UA metal but if there are no other options and you really want 1k...

USAir (don't hate me for suggesting it) has a fare from LAX to Dublin for around $450. It goes up to about $560 from SAN. It's available leaving 10Nov departure, 11Nov return. Or you could get sick for a day or 2 to hang out in Dublin.

Thanks for the US Air suggestion. I have been on US Air twice this year and that's twice too many :p. I am seriously considering that suggestion since that is the only one that will fit into my schedule.

Think I'll fly through LAX since that's 2 less sectors on US and 1 more on UA.

Can't call in sick. I just started my new job and I don't really want to call in sick when I just joined the company.

Looks like UA has some fares from SAN-FLL and SAN-MCO for 239++.

Thank you. The problem with this fare is getting L class availability for my dates.

how about the HNL sale, there might be some availability out of DTW/ATL this year, i know there was some yesterday for november. combine it with an e-cert and you can get a boatload of EQM for a few hundred.

As far as I can tell the LAX-DUB trip is all on US metal. May be able to find a USAir flight operated by United but I don't even see any LAX-CLT direct flights on UA metal.

If anyone can find a way to get some of that trip on UA though that would make the idea of it alot less painful. It's probably available other weekends as well, that's just the one I'm looking at because of the Monday holiday.

The Hawaii sale is a good idea as well - cheapest flights I'm seeing SAN-ATL for weekend travel is around $300 by itself though.

As far as I can tell the LAX-DUB trip is all on US metal. May be able to find a USAir flight operated by United but I don't even see any LAX-CLT direct flights on UA metal.

If anyone can find a way to get some of that trip on UA though that would make the idea of it alot less painful. It's probably available other weekends as well, that's just the one I'm looking at because of the Monday holiday.

The Hawaii sale is a good idea as well - cheapest flights I'm seeing SAN-ATL for weekend travel is around $300 by itself though.

yea I see Airtran is at the 300$ mark, everyone else is higher. I'm going to wait 30 days before booking though and see if prices come down at all. If all else fails, I'll try to use a 15k award from UA to get there.

you should try lax-lhr the way the united website has it set up is lax/sfo/lhr/sfo/lax comes to around 12k elite miles and for $545 I just flew it Monday and Tuesday and it was not that bad.

you should try lax-lhr the way the united website has it set up is lax/sfo/lhr/sfo/lax comes to around 12k elite miles and for $545 I just flew it Monday and Tuesday and it was not that bad.

I am already taking a SAN-LAX-JFK-IAD-LHR-LAX-SAN trip during thanksgiving. :p Fares to London are about $610 on UA now.

As far as I can tell the LAX-DUB trip is all on US metal. May be able to find a USAir flight operated by United but I don't even see any LAX-CLT direct flights on UA metal.

There is only one segment you can fly on UA for Nov 10-11 weekend. You can take either UA 192 on Saturday morning or UA 196 on Friday evening to PHL. You can't book these flights through usair.com however. You need to go through orbitz.

Not the best MR I can do, bu I've hold a SNA-LAX-BOS-LGA//JFK-LAX-SNA for $319 (around 4.8 cents per mile). Now I am about 1,700 miles short...maybe a roundtrip to PHX from SAN will work. This way, I will be able to use my 500s on the JFK-LAX flight and I have only one US Air segment.

PS: I am booked in L and for some reason, I recall getting a T class fare earlier this year for only $279 all-in!

did you go to farecompare.com and check what the cheapest UA flights out of SAN are? i'm on SAN-IAD-PIT-IAD-SAN in late november for 163.00 a/i

did you go to farecompare.com and check what the cheapest UA flights out of SAN are? i'm on SAN-IAD-PIT-IAD-SAN in late november for 163.00 a/i

You meant $263? $163 is a deal.

I can get $260 all-in for Dec. 1 returning the same day.

Here are the published fares for SAN-PIT:

http://www.farecompare.com/flights/-UA/-SAN/-PIT/schedule.html?travelDate=20071111

i meant 163...i guess that fare sale is over. i did buy it a while ago.

then again, if you got the cash, you could just get the Z fare sale to europe like I did..SAN-SFO-IAD-ZRH-FRA-SFO-SAN, something like 20,000 eqm, for 2300$ in C class on that nice little Z fare :)


edit: use this: http://www.farecompare.com/search/flyertalk.html?departure=SAN&p=1


find the best fare, then start plugging in city pairs and see how you can maximize the routing..

I was going for the LAX-SYD-AKL $1,400 C-fare deal until I changed my job (just started this Monday)...so no vacation days for now! Thus the need for MR! :p

Thanks for the link. The problem with UA is getting L availability this late in the year.

I would have gone to IST if I have not purchased my LHR tickets for Thanksgiving.

I agree that L availability is sketchy, you might have to step up a fare bucket or two to get the EQM you need. it appears you will have to pony up some extra cash if you do wanna reach 1K..i've given up trying to reach 1K this year, especially since the DEQM promo never came through for us UA fliers. as it stands, i'll be at around 80k EQM by december 31st, i'm at 53k now with two trips still to go.

what about the promo ex-SFO to IAD or JFK? it's a bit more $ but you can at least catch the PS 757/767 between SFO and JFK, 2050$ in Z class but the 200% earning might get you close..

as it stands, i'll be at around 80k EQM by december 31st, i'm at 53k now with two trips still to go.

Why don't you take a trip to IST and another trans-con to make 1K since you are already that close? A roundtrip to IST yields about 15k EQMs and cost something like $650.

I am spending about another $500 to get 1K. $310 to JFK and back and around $200 to Tulsa from SAN. The cheapest 2,000 miles I can get is SAN-LAX/SFO-PHX and that will cost me $140. Not too sure if it's worth it to fork around $60 plus another trip in the future to get the 4 extra e-500s.

i simply don't have time to take any trips, even with one day turns. i'd love to get 1K but unless a killer deal comes along, better than the IST sale, it just doesn't look like its gonna happen. i'm ok with 1P, and i'll be flying more next year so i'll probably get 1K then. i already have 2 trips and ~15k EQM planned for january :)

I am around 79k right now - could have ended right there, but figured that I should at least try for 1k. Hence the MR to London during Thanksgiving (bad choice by the way...the USD has depreciated so much lately that it's so expensive to be in London) and another to NYC and TUL.

I will not travel a lot for work this year, but I am hoping that I will travel more next year. 1P is great - the best benefit is you get to avoid the ICC! :p

Nothing planned for 2008 yet, although I should. IST looks good except I do not have any holidays in Jan. and I am taking a week off to Asia in Feb.

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