Mileage Run Deals - Slow and steady or quick and painful..

I've always preferred to do mileage runs as quickly and as painfully as possible.. I'm taking my 2nd SIN run from JFK in january.. I prefer to get my flying out of the way as soon as possible with the minimum in airport stops..

Do you prefer the slightly cheaper Transcons, the really short 50 mile hops for segments or like me, the 40 hour round trips to Asia?

Just out of morbid curiosity of course

I prefer the marathons (aka runs to Asia or Europe)

I like the runs to Asia and/or Europe. Alot of miles accumulated quickly and hopefully on the cheap! I do like to stay at least a few days, if possible when I arrive.

Both... a few three day weekends in Europe are always fun and exciting, but then I have thrown in a couple of weekend shuttle runs on Delta... about $120 RT three day advance, each RT netting 3000 base miles with the current triple promo plus a web bonus.

Both:
2-3 runs to SIN/BKK and the rest transcons etc. I leave for SIN on Jan 1 to kick off 2004 qualification.

I prefer the domestic US runs. Routings are usually more liberal, and it usually churns out a better cents/mile figure. Also, domestic US runs can easily be done in a Saturday-Sunday combo, no need to take time off.

On UA, one SEA-SIN run can net about 20,000 miles for about $620. Three SEA-TPA runs nets over, 25,000 miles at about the same price ($209 a trip X 3).

It's also a lot easier to get discounts on domestic fares (like CS certs, 10% offs) than on international fares.

[This message has been edited by keithguy (edited 12-08-2002).]

If I'm going half way around the world, I'm going to stay a few days. All my mileage runs have been to the east coast (JFK, JAX, TPA, MCO) this last year. Right now SMF-BWI is out there for $164RT plus taxes that looks interesting for next year.

This year, it was all transcons & west coast hops with a dozen SEA-ORD rt's thrown in for good measure. Next year, I'm going to drop from 185k flown down to about 135-150k.

Have 4 SEA - europe MR's thrown in first quarter 2003 so that I'm not doing 2004 AS MVPG & AA EXP qual in Dec. of '03 (like I am this year). Thanks to y'all geniuses on FT, next year, same status on 2 airlines, less than half the cost & time flown.

I love the flying. All of it. Check-in, boarding, and security (usually) don't bother me a bit, and I absolutely love taxi, take off, cruise, landing, and seeing all the different airports. That being the case, and especially when I'm on a pure mileage run, and most especially since I do it all on weekends, I usually start on the first Saturday AM flight, do as many transfers in as many cities as possible, and return on the last flight either on Saturday (for, say, an ATL-MEM-MKE-DTW-PIT-DTW-IND-MEM-ATL run), or Sunday (for my upcoming ATL-MEM-EWR-MSP-SFO-MSP-EWR-MEM-ATL run).