Mileage Run Discussion - Status/airline advice needed for 10-20 transatlantic flights.

From October I will be travelling about 10 times a year from AMS or DUS to TUL. I currently do not have status with any airline due to not having flown a lot the last couple of years.
I will be travelling in business class, although travelling economy for a flight <2 hours is acceptable.

I have devised a strategy to get status a.s.a.p. and hopefully save some money by paying economy and upgrading via status/miles. Inviting comments/advice!


AAdvantage Elite Status Challenge; one paid business class ticket AMS/DUS-TUL should get me past the 10,000 (AAdvantage Platinum) Elite Qualifying Points (EQP).
Now try to get a UAL Status Match challenge - hardest part will be to get them to respond to email/fax/snail mail. Two paid transatlantic tickets will get me to Premier Gold/*G status.
Instead of *G do a Delta status challenge.


Disadvantage of AA is that flying AMS or DUS to TUL will always require 2 stop overs. Advantage is that I can fly on BA with good lie flat seats. How is upgrade availability on AA?
Delta has a one stop option both from DUS and AMS. AMS is on a post-Northwest A330. From DUS according to Seatguru is on a non-lie-flat post-Gulfair B767.
UAL seems to be more expensive (€ 3400 vs € 2500 with AA) for discount business class tickets.

Again, strategy/comments/advice welcome!

your plan of plt challenge this year, get exp in 2013 & status match on ua, seems good to me.....maybe 1 will prove to be much better for you....you make the challenge w/ 1 trip in j....maybe fly 1 on ua & dl this year.....

without a lot more flying, it will be hard to maintain top tier on both in 2014....but you have said that you want to do ugs to save money.....10 trips on either should get you requaled flying in y...if you do 20/yr, you can do both if there any benefit to you...

i have no idea re dl....

i have alerted the mods for a move to get more exposure.....

i probably misread.....you mean 5-10 rts, not 10-20, so you will not be able to maintain top tier on 2 carriers....you need 7 rts in j to maintain exp....how many to requal on ua?

good luck....

10 RTs a year for at least 2 years.
My experience with US Air (not a party on this route unless they buy AA) re. upgrade availability has been pretty poor. Are there stats available measuring chance of securing an upgrade on transatlantic routes? It would be interesting to compare airlines.

From October I will be travelling about 10 times a year from AMS or DUS to TUL. I currently do not have status with any airline due to not having flown a lot the last couple of years.
I will be travelling in business class, although travelling economy for a flight <2 hours is acceptable.

I have devised a strategy to get status a.s.a.p. and hopefully save some money by paying economy and upgrading via status/miles. Inviting comments/advice!


AAdvantage Elite Status Challenge; one paid business class ticket AMS/DUS-TUL should get me past the 10,000 (AAdvantage Platinum) Elite Qualifying Points (EQP).
Now try to get a UAL Status Match challenge - hardest part will be to get them to respond to email/fax/snail mail. Two paid transatlantic tickets will get me to Premier Gold/*G status.
Instead of *G do a Delta status challenge.




I advise that you reconsider. Delta requires that you buy near full fare coach tickets in order to be upgrade eligible. Quite frequently, this can be as or more expensive than discounted business class. If you're only shooting for midlevel status wth Delta, what precisely is this going to buy you? (If you're going to fly these flights on carriers you're not actually interested in maintaining status with, you would be better off just flying Delta and skipping the status challenges...)

If you could make AA Executive Platinum, you'd have 8 systemwide upgrades good on any fare. If you make UA 1K, you'll have 6 systemwide upgrades good on W and up fares (for AMS/DUS, this is probably a few hundred dollar premium on the roundtrip price).

10 RTs a year for at least 2 years.
My experience with US Air (not a party on this route unless they buy AA) re. upgrade availability has been pretty poor. Are there stats available measuring chance of securing an upgrade on transatlantic routes? It would be interesting to compare airlines.

your aa route is ams-lhr-dfw-tul?

edit to add....unless your 1st trip is in business, you could put a coach itin on hold & call aa to upfare to a 1 eqp/mi itin which would get the plt on the itin above...

there are 2 kinds of ug's, swu/evip & mi + $ [25k mi + $350 i way intl], both on aa metal only i believe].....there is a fare code for each.....these can be checked using expert flyer, a paid service.....

if they are available, you can do it at booking, otherwise you can get on the wait list which is date/time of request w/i elite status tier....the earlier you book, the better chance you have.....

note that aa flies from fra, mad, fco etc, to bos, jfk, ord,mia,dfw,lax....maybe others, so you might be able to route using 1 world to use an ug over the pond....

if you do other work or play flying, using partners would get you eqm to add to the tatl trips & maybe cut the costs of getting exp....be sure to check the mi earning chart for partners.....they often are a fraction of the bis on flights outside the us...

I will suggest UA instead.

DL is great for connections. However, I don't really believe you love to earn SkyPeso.

AA is really sucks in connections (especially AA did not even have routes to AMS or DUS).

I will say UA is in between.

Thank you for the advice given! Very helpful indeed.
My first trip will have to be on AA for two reasons: they offer a Gold challenge without requiring current status on another airline; and their ticket is € 1000/US$ 1200 cheaper than the UA ticket. Ofcourse the extra stopover in LHR is a hassle, but will add only one or two hours to total travel time. AA/BA offer many more cheap business class flight options than UA from AMS/DUS.
Flying 7 times in business class will give me Exec Plat status with AA; the miles earned and the 8 SWU's will then enable me to upgrade the next 6 to 8 roundtrip economy tickets - a cost saving of at least € 12k.
I may try to get UA Gold challenge (but I hear UA does not reply often to requests to the dedicated email/fax number). An advantage of flying UA will be I can try the Dreamliner business class that will be flying on AMS-IAH in 2013.
Thanks again for your help so far!

swus are 1 way ugs, so good for 4 rts....

consider a plt challenge w/ a 1pt/mi coach upfare... it might cost as little as $150 more incl the agent fee, but the plt challenge costs more than gld........plt gets you admirals club access on intl itins & 2x rdm rather than 1 1/4....of course, you would get it half way thru the 7 j trips next year....

I advise that you reconsider. Delta requires that you buy near full fare coach tickets in order to be upgrade eligible. Quite frequently, this can be as or more expensive than discounted business class.

^, unfortunately...

swus are 1 way ugs, so good for 4 rts....

Correct. The 100k miles plus 50% business class bonus will be worth another 6 one way = 3 RT upgrades @ 25,000 miles + $350 each.


consider a plt challenge w/ a 1pt/mi coach upfare...
I made a typo; mixed up gold/plat/exec plat. Yes, will go for plat challenge; not for gold.