Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan - Fall Sale and mileage run question

Hi all,

So the AS Fall Sale ends today: http://www.alaskaair.com/content/deals/flights/fall-sale.aspx?SOC=FB_||20120821_SALE||

I'll need about 5780 more EQMs this year to reach MVP status for 2013, but I live in LA and finding a mileage run I can make on a weekend is proving to be a challenge with the way the fare sale is set up (I don't have any time off I can take for work during the week). Does anyone have any recommendations? Should I look for a weekend mileage run on AA or DL? I don't want to miss out on the cheaper airfares from the sale, and the best route (LAX to DCA) isn't possible to do in one day flying out of LAX.

Have you looked @ SAN to MCO?

Ooh, hadn't considered that route, thank you! There's a red-eye from SAN to MCO I can book on a Friday night and return right the next morning. That's 4,286 miles for $298, that's decent for a mileage run yeah?

I'll still have 1547 miles till MVP status, but a coworker told me when she was close to 25K miles but didn't quite make it, AS allowed her to count flights in Jan and Feb of the next year toward that status total. Does anyone know if AS does this all of the time?

Keep in mind the "target" is different on all-AS MVP goal versus a mix of AS and partners (5,000 more miles to MVP if there's a mix).

If you've already taken that into account, then by all means look at DL and AA as potential mileage runs.

If not, you need to look at only AS to make your goal.

Good point, yeah I have plenty of partner airline trips (majority of my flying this year has been on AA or DL actually), and a Saturday run from LAX to BOS on AA in September is a bit better - $278 ai for 5200 miles. I think I'll book that.

if qualifying with partners is the plan, you have plenty of options and no reason to book immediately. Your goal may help you justify a more enjoyable trip this fall.

Pad your routing with longer flights to make sure you hit your 5780 goal- better than waiting on the challenge in 2013 to get your status back. I think you'd revert to zero status Jan 1st 2013 until completing the challenge, so you'd miss out on bonus miles and UGs. Consider DL- even the slim chance of an upgrade can really sweeten a frivolous MR.

LAX-SJU on DL for 318 on Sep 21 (7660miles, 4.2cpm) is more than you'll need but probably one of your better CPM options and a cool destination. caribbean UG can be easy.

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's PWP wondrousdevice3.0: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0.0.583 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

That's true
BZE was wayy empty for UG's ;)

I need 3489 partner or AS miles and I don't see any bargains on the current sale list. Partners may be the way to go. That being said, I'm incentivized to achieve MVP before my Hawaii trip in November. :)

I'll still have 1547 miles till MVP status, but a coworker told me when she was close to 25K miles but didn't quite make it, AS allowed her to count flights in Jan and Feb of the next year toward that status total. Does anyone know if AS does this all of the time?

Absolutely DO NOT count on this being offered to you! Not worth the risk if it doesn't. And I've actually never heard of them offering this particular extension; usually, they will allow a "fallen" elite to do a challenge in the first quarter of the year to "regain" elite status, but it is separate from the mileage earned in the previous year and not offered (from what I recall being posted here) to previous non-elites.

And I've actually never heard of them offering this particular extension; usually, they will allow a "fallen" elite to do a challenge in the first quarter of the year to "regain" elite status, but it is separate from the mileage earned in the previous year and not offered (from what I recall being posted here) to previous non-elites.

As a data point, in 2011 I hit roughly 15k AS miles and 22.5k partner and was offered a challenge for Q1 2012 for MVP.

As a data point, in 2011 I hit roughly 15k AS miles and 22.5k partner and was offered a challenge for Q1 2012 for MVP.

Were you previously an MVP or just a general member?

Were you previously an MVP or just a general member?

Lifetime of just general.