Mileage Run Discussion - Help stockpiling segments on UA

Hi folks,

Could use some advice here - SFO based UA Platinum (barely hit 75k miles last year) looking to maintain that level of status for 2013. I travel for work more or less every week, the problem with 2012 is that I've traveling SFO-LAX each week. So I'm racking up segments but not much in terms of miles. I will likely be doing this route through the end of July.

Currently I'm at 28k miles and 38.5 segments for 2012. I should be around ~55 segments and ~35k miles or so by the time I'm done here in LA.

What are the best strategies in terms of doing mileage runs to add segments? Is this generally easier than mileage runs dedicated to mileage? It's possible that I get a project further away for Aug-Dec, but not guaranteed.

If I'm at 55 segments and 35k miles at the end of July, would it be easier to shoot for Plat via segments or miles? I realize that specific fares/routes will influence this answer, but in general, is there usually one way to go here?

Thanks!

You'd need 35 more segments or 40K more miles.

Mileage runs out of SFO have been more expensive lately (let's say 4 CPM to be safe) but I've seen several segment runs in the $35/segment range.

Segments: $1225
Miles: $1600

You can usually get 6 segments/day from SFO. Let's assume these are only 500 miles each, so you'll get 875 award miles per segment or 30,625 total award miles. If you flew 40,000 miles you'd get 70,000 award miles.

Ultimately it comes down to 39,375 extra award miles plus your extra time for an increased cost of $375. Based on this I'd go for miles, but segments would work better if you're short on time or money.

lots of 4 seg rts sjc/oak-lgb/sna/sba, etc on us....they seem to be the low bidder.....

edit to add....you can also get 4 segs on us between sfo & lax on us....of course, you don't the 500 min mi iirc....

You'd need 35 more segments or 40K more miles.

Mileage runs out of SFO have been more expensive lately (let's say 4 CPM to be safe) but I've seen several segment runs in the $35/segment range.

Segments: $1225
Miles: $1600

You can usually get 6 segments/day from SFO. Let's assume these are only 500 miles each, so you'll get 875 award miles per segment or 30,625 total award miles. If you flew 40,000 miles you'd get 70,000 award miles.

Ultimately it comes down to 39,375 extra award miles plus your extra time for an increased cost of $375. Based on this I'd go for miles, but segments would work better if you're short on time or money.

Thanks for the analysis! :D

Where / what tools and sites do you generally use to find good/great fares on those 6-segment trips? Just using UA's site I find it difficult to try and mandate additional segments, unless I am just searching for too-common routes.

Thanks for the analysis! :D

Where / what tools and sites do you generally use to find good/great fares on those 6-segment trips? Just using UA's site I find it difficult to try and mandate additional segments, unless I am just searching for too-common routes.

Use ITA Matrix and in the advanced routing field put: "ua ua ua+" - this will look for UA fares with at least 3 segments on that route. Then to book it used the advanced search on UA.com plugging in the exact cities that the Matrix spits out.