Mileage Run Discussion - Your MR CPM Bite Range!

So I've been lurking around for some time and seeing the dynamics of MR throughout the years.

I don't think there was a thread like this around (and if there is, I must not have seen it :eek: )

So here it is:

Assuming that you don't need to reposition (or that the repositioning cost is already included) and an immediate turn-around is available (or otherwise, if you're the type to do mini-vacations of out MRs), what's the highest CPM you'll typically pay to do your MR?

Let me start off with my bite ranges:

SkyTeam / Delta - < 3.5CPM
OneWorld / AA - < 2.8 CPM

I'm based in US-East, if anyone is curious

Let's share your experiences over the years and talk about how stingy (or generous) we are to these airlines :D

if i can make something out of it by visiting friends/family or a cool place, i will take a trip i wouldn't normally take at 5cpm.

turn and burn is very subjective, last year i was 2500 miles short of gold at the end of the year and went PHL-DEN-PHL on december 14th to round it out and paid ~7.2cpm. i don't do strict MRs throughout the whole year, I get to Q3ish and then see where i think i will be at the years end. if its clear i am going to be short of requalification i target the sub 4.0cpm level and easy trips (nothing international, high segment count regionals preferred for me but everyone has their preferences).

if i can make something out of it by visiting friends/family or a cool place, i will take a trip i wouldn't normally take at 5cpm.

turn and burn is very subjective, last year i was 2500 miles short of gold at the end of the year and went PHL-DEN-PHL on december 14th to round it out and paid ~7.2cpm. i don't do strict MRs throughout the whole year, I get to Q3ish and then see where i think i will be at the years end. if its clear i am going to be short of requalification i target the sub 4.0cpm level and easy trips (nothing international, high segment count regionals preferred for me but everyone has their preferences).

wow, 7+cpm is high for my taste

It all depends on upgrades. 5-6 CPM was fine for me on AS with close to 100% upgrades.

Normally i go for 4CPM or under. 3.5CPM or less i have to book regardless if i really need the miles or not. I'm willing to go higher for long haul international, it can save me from flying the same domestic itin 4 weekends in a row. Nice to knock out close to an entire elite tier in one long weekend.

For a pure MR:

<4cpm and I will think about it if it suits my available dates (usually Saturday same-day turn) and i like the routing.

<3cpm I am definitely interested and will be a lot less picky.

<2cpm and I will bend over backwards to get in on the deal, mostly for personal satisfaction.

Equipment flown, likelihood of upgrades, lounge access, transit airport all come into play too.

As soon as it's a VR, all bets are off and I will happily pay 5cpm if it gets me to a place I want to go.

And I concur with ddrost1 that sometimes all bets are off. One year I miscalculated and needed 1000 miles for gold status. Paid 12cpm in late Dec for a quick turn but IMHO it was $120 well spent.

wow, 7+cpm is high for my taste

PHL-DEN-PHL at 7.2cpm was about $330ish if i remember right. especially in light of the changes to MP post merger, with E+ at booking only for gold and above, it was $$ well spent. equally important was the fact that i departed at 7:45am from PHL and was home in time for dinner with the mrs. on the ~1hr turn. i'm sure i could have found something cheaper to accomplish the same thing, but in mid-december it's kind of a matter of waving the white flag and just gettin' 'er done.

I've only done one pure MR in the past 4 years (SEA-ORD-MIA-ORD-SEA). it was under 4CPM but my ORD-MIA flight was CXL'd so I ended up on next flight back to SEA and with a trip-in-vain from AA. Got full EQM as well as full refund.

Now, I don't do MRs. I want to spend some time wherever I'm going. Now, I can go to just about anyplace and be entertained, so I'm open to options. I just target <6CPM avg across all my trips in a year and I'm good with that. Past 2 years with plenty of vouchers and other credits have reduced the CPM to make it ~4.25CPM each year

I don't think I've ever done a pure MR. I usually like to spend a few days on the ground wherever I go. I generally won't bite over 5cpm unless it's a place I really want to go. 3 or under (and it's a time I can go and a place I'm interested in) and I'm going to try very hard to make it happen.

I prefer international destinations (I've seen much of the continental US already, just not as interesting to me), which means I fly a lot of coach. I'm to the point now where I don't mind it very much (although my one successful op-up NRT->DTW was a very welcome one coming off of a 7 hour SIN transfer).

I aim to average out my whole year of travel for less than 6cpm (this includes personal vacations that are dictated by the family). I'd jump on anything less than 4cpm in the current environment if it fits my schedule, and change my schedule if its less than 3cpm.

I used to do pure MRs, but not that my wife has gotten a bit of the FF bug too, we try and make a little vacation of it. Unfortunately, that limits us to weekends because of our mutually exclusive work schedules.

I have yet to do a pure MR. I've taken to tacking on mileage runs to trips I'm already planning to take, and looking at what I've started calling the mCPM (marginal CPM).

For example, this December I'm flying to LAS from SBA. Cheapest roundtrip would have been $360 on US, for 1420 miles when credited to UA (no 500 mile minimum). Instead, I'm flying SBA-SFO-CLE-MCI-CLE-SFO-LAS on UA to get there, leaving a day earlier, and returning LAS-PHX-SBA on US for $461. Total mileage is 7422, or 6002 additional miles for $101 more. So my mCPM is 1.68.

I did something similar last year to reach silver, and this year it'll be to reach gold. Last year is was an mCPM of 2.8.

<2cpm now.

Anything under 4 CPM gets my attention, but this year I haven't been able to do better than 3.5 CPM. I'll consider other factors, though. If I can get 10k PQM in a weekend, I'll gladly pay 4.4 CPM (and have done). But at the lower end of 3 PQM and below I'll take it just to take it if I can fit it in my schedule.

I won't touch anything above 5 cpm, and will gladly bite at 3 cpm.

And I bought 11 of the LGA-PDX routes at $117 each (~2 cpm, depending on routing).

But to be fair, the math changes for MRs to places I wanted to go. For example, the PDX
fares were perfect - I get a whole day in PDX to wine/eat, and fly back on the red-eye.

I want an overnight in a real bed, so I'm willing to pay more to go to podunk-y cities with cheap hotel rates, combining a mileage run and mattress run all together.

Also, it must be a weekend, so I'm willing to pay more for that.

How much? Absolute terms would be a hotel + air cost of (ideally) $350 or less. I'd like to get the best application of miles out of that.

Where do you find the miles that a segment gets you?

Where do you find the miles that a segment gets you?

For UA, you can go through the booking process and not complete it, and it'll show you how many miles each segment is. Not sure about other airlines.

Alternatively, milecalc.com and gcmap.com are good tools, though sometimes off by a mile or two from the airlines.

Under 5 CPM I'll consider - ex-ANC its a bit spendy. Sometimes its higher or lower - like to spend some time at the destination- if DCA is under $400 on AS... I'll probably fly it. Adding the companion cert can help- especially for peak travel.

3 CPM is threshold for EQM partner carriers - AA & DL specifically - and if I can get a codeshare operated by AS...better ;)

Under 2 CPM and I ponder adding something besides AS+partners but haven't bit yet :p

Where do you find the miles that a segment gets you?

The airlines will tell you the normal miles flown. Elites usually get a minimum of 500 miles, and there are other factors (certain fares on partner airlines earn less, business fares earn more).

I suppose it makes me out to be the amateur that I am, but I am not concerned with cents per mile. I am only concerned that the run be a place where a single female can travel alone, without hassle, and most places that get the nod get it because I find out that there is easy walking/hiking/public transport and no need for a visa (or very easy to get a visa). I consider it a run if it is not a "pure" birding trip, just as others might consider it a run if it is not a "pure" business trip. CPM is not the issue, good fares to safe places without ridiculous visa requirements or unsafe to travel alone/have to rent car is what eliminates a great many destinations for me. There are countries that want tourism, and there are countries (and I freely admit the USA is one) that do not welcome tourists and would prefer they go someplace else and they price their visas to give idiots the hint to go elsewhere...For such countries it is irrelevant to me if the airline offers a great fare if the country itself wants me to pay off a third party visa hustler and put money in somebody's pocket who is not helping the environment of that country. I prefer to go where I am wanted and where my money might help a real person, not just a big airline or a crooked third party visa company that pays bribes or whatever they do to get you a visa. This actually saves a lot of time, as I am never tempted to spend much time investigating runs to Russia, mainland China, etc.

Not interested in runs where you just turn around at the airport. To me that's just sad. It has its place but it does not interest ME...So I'm sorry and I hope it doesn't get me struck from flyertalk but I am not here to get the bottom dollar price. I am here to get a GOOD price for desirable and fun places. The cheaper the better but a cheap ticket is not the whole story.

In other words, many issues stop me from buying a ticket. Price is only one thing that stops me from buying. There are lots of cheap tickets I am happy to let slide by because life is too short for "hassle." Only on flyertalk would people be jumping through hoops to go to Burma for absolutely no reason other than a cheap ticket...!



So I've been lurking around for some time and seeing the dynamics of MR throughout the years.

I don't think there was a thread like this around (and if there is, I must not have seen it :eek: )

So here it is:

Assuming that you don't need to reposition (or that the repositioning cost is already included) and an immediate turn-around is available (or otherwise, if you're the type to do mini-vacations of out MRs), what's the highest CPM you'll typically pay to do your MR?

Let me start off with my bite ranges:

SkyTeam / Delta - < 3.5CPM
OneWorld / AA - < 2.8 CPM

I'm based in US-East, if anyone is curious

Let's share your experiences over the years and talk about how stingy (or generous) we are to these airlines :D

It all depends on the destination. If its purely a MR<3cpm seems best. But often its a great deal to somewhere new and interesting, in that case I'm less sensitive to pure cpm.

what's the highest CPM you'll typically pay to do your MR?

I have never spent more than $.05 per EQM on a mileage run. This year with some dollar cost averaging I spent $.0328 per EQM on mileage runs. I could have done it cheaper if I wanted to compromise on my basic criteria for this hobby:

1) Same day turns preferred (to minimize overnight expenses)
2) Only weekend/holiday itineraries (no time off from work)
3) Limited red eye flights (just don’t like em’)
4) At least 6,000 miles per itinerary (to reduce the total number of runs required)

I also try to stay ahead of the curve with my MR planning. I have UA1K booked for 2012, and ~60,000 eqm's already booked for 2013. Yes; this takes a flexible schedule, cash flow, and faith you will be able to make these flights.

And I bought 11 of the LGA-PDX routes at $117 each (~2 cpm, depending on routing).Yup - I bought a bunch of these also. ^ One of the best pieces of MR advice I was ever given was when you see a good fare BOOK AS MANY AS YOU CAN AS FAST AS YOU CAN. You have 24 hours to sort it out, and cancel those tickets you choose not to keep.


SunLover

Man you guys are lucky. I would kill for anything under 5CPM. I'm New Zealand based and the cheapest I ever see is 7CPM longhaul. Otherwise domestic runs around 15CPM

Ouch!

This thread got me to thinking so I went back and looked at my average CPM for my 2012 MRs. By the end of this year, my average cost per mile for just over 41,000 PQM of pure mileage runs on UA will be 3.98 CPM. Two of them had a higher CPM because of positioning flights, which I was happy to do because each meant 10,000 PQM in one weekend.

My 2013 is starting to average out to 3.4 CPM. I'll need about half as many PQM so let's hope I can hold that average or better...

I also try to stay ahead of the curve with my MR planning. I have UA1K booked for 2012, and ~60,000 eqm's already booked for 2013. Yes; this takes a flexible schedule, cash flow, and faith you will be able to make these flights.


WOW. I think it's ludicrous to fly 60K miles each year as MR's just to maintain status. I don't know UA tier's at all but for DL, 60K is half of Diamond which is highest elite level. So it is definitely not an efficient way to spend time or $$ if you must MR 50% of the miles needed to achieve your status. Just seems crazy to me. But that's just me. :p

This year, I will fly the most MR's ever (23K miles) to hit DL Platinum. And even that (only 3 trips required) felt like overkill to me, but I really wanted to hit platinum this year to see if the benefits outweight the expenses.

1 cpm or less for RDMs, 2 cpm or less for EQMs. That has been my range for the past 8-10 years, and though prices are higher right now, I see no reason to change it.

I have never spent more than $.05 per EQM on a mileage run. This year with some dollar cost averaging I spent $.0328 per EQM on mileage runs. I could have done it cheaper if I wanted to compromise on my basic criteria for this hobby:

1) Same day turns preferred (to minimize overnight expenses)
2) Only weekend/holiday itineraries (no time off from work)
3) Limited red eye flights (just don’t like em’)
4) At least 6,000 miles per itinerary (to reduce the total number of runs required)

So are most/all your revenue miles MRs?

I never want to fly 6k+ a day; I'd rather limit it to 3k, and I try to get my trips to places I'd actually like to spend a part of a day (or even a whole night).

True, I did fly SFO-PDX-EWR-LIR the other day (including red eye), but that's not my preference.

I also try to stay ahead of the curve with my MR planning. I have UA1K booked for 2012, and ~60,000 eqm's already booked for 2013. Yes; this takes a flexible schedule, cash flow, and faith you will be able to make these flights.

Yup - I bought a bunch of these also. ^ One of the best pieces of MR advice I was ever given was when you see a good fare BOOK AS MANY AS YOU CAN AS FAST AS YOU CAN. You have 24 hours to sort it out, and cancel those tickets you choose not to keep.

I have 27k booked for next year; I'll be around 53k end of this year (but 1K wasn't my goal this year for various reasons).

This thread got me to thinking so I went back and looked at my average CPM for my 2012 MRs. By the end of this year, my average cost per mile for just over 41,000 PQM of pure mileage runs on UA will be 3.98 CPM. Two of them had a higher CPM because of positioning flights, which I was happy to do because each meant 10,000 PQM in one weekend.

My MRs comprise 25% of my revenue travel this year on UA; they were 3.5 CPM. My father unfortunately lives on an expensive short-haul route (51.3 CPM for the trips we made, but lower published fares are available for the upcoming season, though no flights are on the schedule), so my overall CPMs for 54k will run 10.2 CPM.