Mileage Run Discussion - How much do you spend on MRs a year?

Hi everyone!

Im just getting my feet wet with miles and points. So im starting to look into MR and Im curious how much people are spending per year? Having just graduated college and having a wife still in college our budget isnt huge. So Im wondering if I could even afford to do enough MR to gain status.

Also my local airport is PDX, if I was going to start the MR game, which airline would be best?

Thanks everyone!!

Hi everyone!

Im just getting my feet wet with miles and points. So im starting to look into MR and Im curious how much people are spending per year? Having just graduated college and having a wife still in college our budget isnt huge. So Im wondering if I could even afford to do enough MR to gain status.

Also my local airport is PDX, if I was going to start the MR game, which airline would be best?

Thanks everyone!!

First, welcome to FT!

I'm spending $300 on a segment run to reach elite on DL this year. It's actually $700, but the other $400 is because my wife enjoys flying and wanted to come along for the ride and we're spending a night at our MR destination to make a trip out of it, so I'm chalking that part up to entertainment.

For me, MRing isn't something to do from scratch, just for the purpose of reaching an elite status. Rather, it's a way to nudge you over a threshhold if you're going to be close enough by flying you'd be doing anyway. After all, if you're MRing just to get status and not flying a whole lot otherwise, then the very trips where you'd enjoy status are the ones with no other purpose than to get it. At that point, just take 2 meaningful trips instead of 20 MRs and buy the class of service you want on those trips.

As for airline, again, I'm with DL because it's the most convenient out of ATL for the business and leisure trips I already take. But as a hub, ATL is actually miserable for MRs. Still, I do them because on all the flights where I'll be enjoying my elite benefits, I'll be flying DL based on price and convenience.

Just my two cents - it's all one big happy cost/benefit analysis based on what you enjoy doing with your time/money and what matters to you. There are of course, folks with a radically different point of view from my own:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-skymiles/1374969-yes-i-love-mring-delta-double-diamond.html

Hi everyone!

Im just getting my feet wet with miles and points. So im starting to look into MR and Im curious how much people are spending per year? Having just graduated college and having a wife still in college our budget isnt huge. So Im wondering if I could even afford to do enough MR to gain status.

Also my local airport is PDX, if I was going to start the MR game, which airline would be best?

Thanks everyone!!

w/o mr's, what trips have you done & have planned for the rest of the year....

i don't think of mring as a game....its done in cases where one has flown 40k & has no trips planned for the rest of the year....then does a 10k mr to get/keep mid tier elite status...

i don't do them any more, but have spent up to $2500 in the past......often, i went to see something for a day or so rather than a true mr.....

The only one I've done was earlier this year to get a head start on AA EXP requalification during a DEQM promotion. I paid $298 RT for a JFK SFO MR which yielded about 10.4k miles.

Hi everyone!

Im just getting my feet wet with miles and points. So im starting to look into MR and Im curious how much people are spending per year? Having just graduated college and having a wife still in college our budget isnt huge. So Im wondering if I could even afford to do enough MR to gain status.

Also my local airport is PDX, if I was going to start the MR game, which airline would be best?

Thanks everyone!!

Hey, welcome to Flyertalk! My approach is to do a rough guess of travel each year around the start of the year... so back in January, I said to myself, okay, I know I'm going here in February, I'll have a work trip in May, I want to go on vacation with the boyfriend in July, I'll visit my parents for Thanksgiving, etc. Once I have all that, I can put in some rough mileage estimates and then I know how close I am to the status level I want to reach (in my case, 100,000/mi per year, but of course I can adjust that goal down to 75k or 50k if need be).

Once I know roughly how my year looks for travel, then I can start looking for MRs to fill in the gaps.

I rarely do a MR with a short turnaround (like, LAX-ORD, sit for an hour, then ORD-LAX same day)... I'd rather at least find a long weekend trip, or some other benefit (seeing friends, seeing a new city, etc). I recently did a 5-hour mileage run to Las Vegas just for the purpose of eating at a great buffet. ;-)

This is a good system for me because it lets me stay flexible... if there's suddenly a great DEQM offer that shows up, I can jump on it and make some headway on my goal. But if not, I still have things mapped out. And the best part is, with just a little bit of planning as I've described, I can avoid the mad rush for miles in November/December (which are just miserable times to travel, anyhow).

The only one I've done was earlier this year to get a head start on AA EXP requalification during a DEQM promotion. I paid $298 RT for a JFK SFO MR which yielded about 10.4k miles.

WOW-- nice! That's 2.8 CPM... very impressive.

thanks for the insight everyone.

It helps clear up some things i didnt quite understand regarding MRs. I didnt realize most people were doing them on top of their business trips which now that I think about it makes total sense.

I dont fly that much, about 2 times a year, but my wife and i are planning a rtw trip for next year and i was looking into gaining status to make our travels a little more luxury.

So im starting to look into MR and Im curious how much people are spending per year?

Generally accepted mileage run earning levels:
Less than $.05 per EQM is acceptable
Less than $.04 per EQM is good
Less than $.03 per EQM is very good
Less than $.02 per EQM is excellent
Less than $.01 per EQM is ultimate

This year with some dollar cost averaging I spent $.0328 per EQM on my mileage runs to achieve UA 1K. I could have done it cheaper if I wanted to compromise on my basic criteria for the hobby:

1) Same day turns (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)


Also my local airport is PDX, if I was going to start the MR game, which airline would be best?PDX is a focus city for Delta, so someone other than DL probably makes the most sense. UA periodically attacks PDX with some pretty cheap transcon fares. And you should also monitor SEA when hunting for MR worthy fares.


SunLover

thanks for the insight everyone.

It helps clear up some things i didnt quite understand regarding MRs. I didnt realize most people were doing them on top of their business trips which now that I think about it makes total sense.

I dont fly that much, about 2 times a year, but my wife and i are planning a rtw trip for next year and i was looking into gaining status to make our travels a little more luxury.

Just about all of the benefits that having status provides can be purchased for a single trip for much less than MRing to get that status.

More to the point though, it sounds like you'd be much better off gathering as many redeemable miles as possible and flying on award rather than paid tickets.

I generally follow sun Lover's cpm guide. I also generally avoid MR's that are pure flying. When I'm staying somewhere I enjoy, even if only for a night, 5cpm moves up from acceptable to good.

Hi everyone!

Im just getting my feet wet with miles and points. So im starting to look into MR and Im curious how much people are spending per year? Having just graduated college and having a wife still in college our budget isnt huge. So Im wondering if I could even afford to do enough MR to gain status.

Also my local airport is PDX, if I was going to start the MR game, which airline would be best?

Thanks everyone!!
Well it depends what status level you want to achieve. This year I might spend like $1000 to get gold on United through the challenge. You will notice some people quote the great CPMs, but then they have all this extra cost they didn't account for.

Hi everyone!

Im just getting my feet wet with miles and points. So im starting to look into MR and Im curious how much people are spending per year? Having just graduated college and having a wife still in college our budget isnt huge. So Im wondering if I could even afford to do enough MR to gain status.

Also my local airport is PDX, if I was going to start the MR game, which airline would be best?

Thanks everyone!!

I spend between $2-$3k a year on MRs.

A couple of questions you should ask yourself:

1) Why do you want status?
2) Is it worth the cost to have status?

Since you have a limited income and there are two of you traveling, you might not want to spend that much on status and instead spend it on a nice vacation for both of you.

. . . Since you have a limited income and there are two of you traveling, you might not want to spend that much on status and instead spend it on a nice vacation for both of you.

If you fly at least 2 x TATLs / TPACs, which you pay out of your own pocket, it becomes worth to have status. Paid F will run you some $20k. Upgraded with SWUs/GPUs/etc will cost you less than $10k including MR costs to get to the status. No brainer there.

Hi everyone!
<snip> Having just graduated college and having a wife still in college our budget isnt huge. So Im wondering if I could even afford to do enough MR to gain status. </snip>

If you fly at least 2 x TATLs / TPACs, which you pay out of your own pocket, it becomes worth to have status. Paid F will run you some $20k. Upgraded with SWUs/GPUs/etc will cost you less than $10k including MR costs to get to the status. No brainer there.

How is it a no-brainder to spend $10k on flights you may not want or enjoy? Sure, you can quote the $20k 'list' price for F and say you're getting it for half price (+RDM and other things), but if someone's stated clearly that their budget is tight do you really think it's a good suggestion that they spend $10k on something that is clearly a luxury?

For those that it works for, great. But look closely. Don't focus on having 'saved' $10k since you never would have spend that anyway.

Also my local airport is PDX, if I was going to start the MR game, which airline would be best?



AA constantly has Y-UP fare sales from the west coast to SJU, STT and other Caribbean destinations. With careful planning you can hit BA Silver for as little as ~$800.

BA Silver translates to mid-tier status on all oneworld airlines, which would provide you with business class check-in, priority boarding, baggage handling, lounge access, waived baggage fees etc etc.

I'm at the level where I feel like these are not MRs anymore but actual trips.

It sort of became my fun time. Not sure if it's easy to pull this apart and narrow down the $$ for it.

Maybe I spend like 5k$ a year on some tickets but then again I ask myself, would I have gone elsewhere?

Usually $0 as I prefer to travel for the sake of actually traveling though last year I shelled out $400 to requalify for Star Gold.

Another "zero" answer. Frequent-flier miles are always a consideration in choosing where and how I travel, but so are the destination itself, schedule, cost, hotel options, and other factors.

I have taken trips motivated principally by the need to accrue some more elite qualifying miles, but I always go somewhere I am interested in and always spend at least one night at the destination.

I've never done a MR in my life but will be doing one later this year to get to EXP.

Most of my miles are from biz travel (3/4 on AA). Since I am AA Plat I spend a fair amount in 500mi stickers (probably $3k or so per year) to upgrade.

It will cost me $1300 (it is in F) and will net me an extra 13500 miles to make EXP which will save me a lot in stickers plus get me some SWUs.

I will have done three MRs or "jogs" this year...each between 8500-9000 EQMs. I do not pay out of pocket for the airfare - I leverage my strategy of getting bumped on oversold flights to stockpile $400 Delta Vouchers. I have use 3 of these to purchase airfare, and have 3 more in the bank for any late in the year or early next year runs.

My "jogs" are to places that I want to go - and can get there for under the $400 voucher amount. I budget $150/trip for food and hotel - I am generally at my destination location for ~18 hours.

I fly enough to make Platinum on Delta and A+ w/CP on WN through work - so the extra miles will either get me very close to Diamond or give me a 40-45k mileage head start towards next year.

My next two runs:
PHX-LAX-JFK-SJU-ATL-DTW-PHX - overnight in SJU (18hrs)
PHX-LAX-JFK-SJU-JFK-LAX-PHX - overnight in SJU (18hrs)
-Both of these cost me nothing out of pocket for the flight...$100ish for the hotel
and $50 for food etc.

Almost all of my trips are MR or quick weekend get away's. Looking on my tracking spreadsheet, nearly $5K spent so for travel through the end of this year. I went overboard this year. I'll be at 40K on AS and 160K on UA by year end.

I will have done three MRs or "jogs" this year...each between 8500-9000 EQMs. I do not pay out of pocket for the airfare - I leverage my strategy of getting bumped on oversold flights to stockpile $400 Delta Vouchers. I have use 3 of these to purchase airfare, and have 3 more in the bank for any late in the year or early next year runs.

That's a great trick... I think Lucky (of the blog One Mile at a Time) was working that hard last year, intentionally putting himself on flights that he knew were likely to call for volunteers for bumps.

I did two MRs last year to qualify for silver because I only really decided to commit to one program in late November.

I'll be doing two more this year, but they have overnights so aren't strict MRs anyway. The two I did last year were pure same-day turns.

Total (for the flights) for this year is around $480.

How is it a no-brainder to spend $10k on flights you may not want or enjoy? Sure, you can quote the $20k 'list' price for F and say you're getting it for half price (+RDM and other things), but if someone's stated clearly that their budget is tight do you really think it's a good suggestion that they spend $10k on something that is clearly a luxury?

For those that it works for, great. But look closely. Don't focus on having 'saved' $10k since you never would have spend that anyway.

I think the one thing we all have in common is that we actually ENJOY flying especially in the front of the plane. You also do Mileage Running with a goal in mind and not just for the sake of flying. You MR to get/maintain/enhance status. Also I'm not really sure anyone spends anywhere near 10k on Mileage running especially since MR pride themselves on taking advantage of the most cost effective fares.

I tend to do more Mileage Jogs than pure Mileage runs taking advantage of good fares and making a weekend or mini-vacation out of them. That being said I'm doing JFK-SJU-JFK-SFO-MSP-JFK-SJU-JFK in 36 hours over 9/7 -9/8. :)

I tend to do more Mileage Jogs than pure Mileage runs taking advantage of good fares and making a weekend or mini-vacation out of them. That being said I'm doing JFK-SJU-JFK-SFO-MSP-JFK-SJU-JFK in 36 hours over 9/7 -9/8. :)

I'm just going to El Salvador that weekend. :P

I'm just going to El Salvador that weekend. :P

Now I'm Jealous...;)

I'm new to MRing, but I'm planning on two RTs from RDU-LAX this year to hit DL gold. I'm already getting my travel plans for next year, and I have a lot of domestic travel in the schedule, so my hope is that GM gets me a better shot at upgrades. It'll cost $450 or so in total, but I have a $400 voucher I need to burn on myself by January anyway, and no time to take a real vacation as we have some major construction going on right now.

I probably do one "pure" MR a year-- this year being EWR-IST in November.

However, I do "covert" weekend runs to see my parents twice a year (making me a good daughter) and to see my kids in SFO and OMA once or twice a year (making me a good Mom). I like to think I'd do it even if I weren't after status but I have to admit it was elite status needs which started these thoughtful visits. Does that make me a bad person? :D

Hi everyone!

Im just getting my feet wet with miles and points. So im starting to look into MR and Im curious how much people are spending per year? Having just graduated college and having a wife still in college our budget isnt huge. So Im wondering if I could even afford to do enough MR to gain status.

Also my local airport is PDX, if I was going to start the MR game, which airline would be best?

Thanks everyone!!

This is my first year hitting EXP with AA (100k EQM by August 15)... last 2 years I sat at Platinum and the year before I was Gold. I would say that I spent about $1500 to fill in the gaps to get to EXP this year. I am already looking at booking some January MRs - but I need my work travel schedule to come out before I do that.

My "best" MR this year was over a 4-day period using a DEQM promo...

Day 1: MIA-DFW-LAX
Day 2: LAX-ORD-CVG-ORD-LAX
Day 3: LAX-ORD-CVG-ORD-LAX
Day 4: LAX-DFW-MIA

Total EQMs was 23,142 for $630... or just under .03/mile

I think it all depends on how much you are going to travel the following year and see how patient you are to get the deals. Make a point of checking mileage run deals forum at least 2 times a day and simply skim through looking for your airport code... mark the forum as read each time you check so you don't waste time on your visit here.

As for what airline is best, I would say that you have to see what airline services your airport best... OR, select the airline you want - and STICK with it... sometimes you will have to pay a little more for certain routes, but in the end, it's nice to get emails up to 100 hours prior to your flight that you have been upgraded for free :D

I am partial to AA - it serves my area and destinations.

Hope this helps!

My husband and I have both done MRs at end of year to qualify for status, if necessary. Another reason he will MR is to replace international EQMs with equivalent domestic EQMs at a cheaper rate.

For example, during the DEQ11/DEQAA promo earlier this year, he did a mile run ORD->SFO RT, which offered triple EQM. He received 11,076 EQM for $219.40 ($0.01/EQM). This allowed us to book a business class award ticket for him to Egypt instead of booking a paid coach ticket, as he had covered the EQM for that ticket with his MR. Additionally, we saved around $800 on those EQM. Yes, we burned RDM for that award ticket, but it was worth it!

So, if you have the time to MR and there are good fares and promos going on, it can be a great way to gain status and travel internationally more comfortably too!

Generally accepted mileage run earning levels:
Less than $.05 per EQM is acceptable
Less than $.04 per EQM is good
Less than $.03 per EQM is very good
Less than $.02 per EQM is excellent
Less than $.01 per EQM is ultimate

This year with some dollar cost averaging I spent $.0328 per EQM on my mileage runs to achieve UA 1K. I could have done it cheaper if I wanted to compromise on my basic criteria for the hobby:

1) Same day turns (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)

SunLover

I have a question about how most people figure CPM

If the trip is 5,000 miles & costs $300 then obviously it's .06 CPM
HOWEVER, if it's a 1K that earns double Mileage then they earn 10,000 miles & its .03 CPM. so when you post a good deal is it always just the base miles you are talking about or does it include bonuses. I assume .06 is not s great deal but .03 is pretty good

Am I correct?

I have a question about how most people figure CPM

If the trip is 5,000 miles & costs $300 then obviously it's .06 CPM
HOWEVER, if it's a 1K that earns double Mileage then they earn 10,000 miles & its .03 CPM. so when you post a good deal is it always just the base miles you are talking about or does it include bonuses. I assume .06 is not s great deal but .03 is pretty good

Am I correct?

For RDMs, yeah, but most people are looking to acquire PQMs, and those aren't doubled.

I have a question about how most people figure CPM

If the trip is 5,000 miles & costs $300 then obviously it's .06 CPM
HOWEVER, if it's a 1K that earns double Mileage then they earn 10,000 miles & its .03 CPM. so when you post a good deal is it always just the base miles you are talking about or does it include bonuses. I assume .06 is not s great deal but .03 is pretty good

Am I correct?

As deirdre said, usually CPM is referring to EQMs (since that's what counts for status). So even a 1K would still say that a 5000 mile trip for $300 is 6c CPM. The only thing that would change that is when the airline is doing a double-EQM promotion (or triple!!), then obviously the math changes.

I've found that once I got status and the airlines started adding on bonus (redeemable, not qualifying) miles, I stopped keeping close track of the miles in my account because they just keep coming. I mean, in the last month I've probably added 15k in redeemable miles just in bonuses, add-ons, credit card use, etc. Those are awesome but the number that I keep track of... the only one that matters to me, really :)... is the EQMs, and making sure I earn at least 100,000 of them by the end of the calendar year.

It reminds me of when I was on a diet that required me to get to a certain amount of protein, fat and carbs every day. It turned out that paying attention to protein was the most important, since almost every food that I was eating had some fat and carbs so I would end up reaching my daily targets for those, but I had to "work" to hit the protein goal every day. Kind of the same thing... as long as I "work" at hitting my EQM goal, plenty of RDMs will come along the way.

More to the point, if you're looking to buy (edit) RDMs, you can buy up to 100k a year at 3.5 cents per (or cheaper if you buy them against a booked trip), so any trip you want would have to be cheaper than that if you only care about RDMs. Rarely is a MR a good deal strictly for buying RDMs. Unless, of course, you already bought your 100k and need more.

More to the point, if you're looking to buy EQMs, you can buy up to 100k a year at 3.5 cents per (or cheaper if you buy them against a booked trip), so any trip you want would have to be cheaper than that if you only care about RDMs. Rarely is a MR a good deal strictly for buying RDMs. Unless, of course, you already bought your 100k and need more.

Do you mean "if you're looking to buy RDMs" ...? If not, I thought EQMs couldn't be purchased except in rare and unusual circumstances (like, you're offered a special EQM buy-up deal in a targeted email)... I'd love to be wrong, though :-)

More to the point, if you're looking to buy EQMs, you can buy up to 100k a year at 3.5 cents per (or cheaper if you buy them against a booked trip), so any trip you want would have to be cheaper than that if you only care about RDMs. Rarely is a MR a good deal strictly for buying RDMs. Unless, of course, you already bought your 100k and need more.

For UA you have to buy RDM and pay for the Premier Accelerator to get EQM. My current offer on a booked trip is 12.5 CPM for EQM

Do you mean "if you're looking to buy RDMs" ...? If not, I thought EQMs couldn't be purchased except in rare and unusual circumstances (like, you're offered a special EQM buy-up deal in a targeted email)... I'd love to be wrong, though :-)

Yeah, brain fail. Thanks for the catch.

You can buy PQMs against any booked trip, though. I haven't checked in a couple of weeks, but my rates ran 6-7.5 cents per plus 2.0-2.51 cents per RDM that you had to buy at the same time, giving a total range of 8.11-10.6 cents per bought PQM.

I may not keep up on those rates as I'm far more likely to buy RDMs than PQMs because there's no way I'm going to be buying 20k PQMs this year.