bmi diamond club - The most sane way to do a run on UA...

I've been looking at runs on UA recently.

In terms of the most stress-free trip (note this is not meant to be the most cost effective way to earn your miles, rather the easiest way) I suggest LHR-IAD (7354 miles r/t), mainly because this is the only UA UK route that has a daytime flight back.

Thus you can go out on Saturday day and back on Sunday day, meaning you don't have to sleep on the plane making the upgrade less important.

For a weekend in January UAUK spits out the following prices

£354 (V fare, non upgradeable w/ miles)
£420 (H fare, upgrade r/t w/ 60K UA miles)
£520 (B fare, earn 150% status miles on UA, ie 11,031, upgrade r/t w/ 30K UA miles)

If you're earning for UA, the B fare makes sense. If you're earning for BMI take the V fare (or find something cheaper through a consolidator - Travelocity is knocking it out at £299).

It seems easy to find Hilton family hotels (including the airport Hilton itself) for $80 on a Saturday night, so take your 1,000 DC points.

Most importantly, you could do the entire thing on UK time, not have any jetlag, and with the flights being daytime take your chances on the op-up.

eg, all times GMT (local in parenthesis):

Sat 12:00 depart LHR
Sat 20:10 (15:10) arrive IAD
Sun 14:25 (09:25) depart IAD
Sun 21:55 arrive LHR

Sorry if this is stating the bleeding obvious, but it hadn't occurred to me till just now. I was always put off MRs to the US because of the sleep disruption, and the chances of getting delayed coming back in overnight on Sunday.

Now where is a moderator to remove this OT thread from the BD forum... :p ;)

Anyways, jokes apart, definitely a reasonable way for a no jet-lag MR. And if you want to avoid the US customs/INR hassle then you could do a similar run on AC to YYZ, which also has a daytime flight back to LHR.

Is it O/T? Have bmi already left *A and no-one told me? ;)

YYZ a very good suggestion too, although £29 more expensive than the travelocity price above for the same dates.

I suppose it comes down to which carrier is nicer in Y. I've never flown AC. Looking at seatguru they have an "elite" section in "hospitality" class, only there's no extra space. Presumably *G have access to this? And can none-errorplan elites book exit rows? Row 19 looks OK on the 767.

Is it O/T? Have bmi already left *A and no-one told me? ;)Now now, we don't want to go down that argumentative road, do we my dear... ;)
YYZ a very good suggestion too, although £29 more expensive than the travelocity price above for the same dates.

I suppose it comes down to which carrier is nicer in Y. Can't really help you with the seating as I've never been in the back on AC. :o

Might be worth checking about booze though. It's definitely pay-for on UA, but is it free on AC...? May be a clincher for some. :D

I suppose it comes down to which carrier is nicer in Y. I've never flown AC

No elite section, no booze, no PTV (even on the shiny new A330s), few upgrades, more expensive Priceline hotels near YYZ, and it's colder in Toronto! Even my (British) college friend who now works at AC does not recommend AC to his friends...

Definitely liking your IAD suggestion though! Take the Friday pm flight, hire a car for a day, and that's some serious shopping you can combine with that MR! (if you prefer not to pay sales tax on your outlet shopping, do what I do, and connect up to EWR for an extra 1200 miles...)

This sounds like a good option for an easy run, but the cost per mile is very expensive, I reckon something like 4p (will be slightly less if you use a bmi credit card to pay for everything). This is very expensive for the miles, although there might be status achievement/retention issues which make it more worth doing.

there might be status achievement/retention issues which make it more worth doing

Oh, absolutely. I should have made clear. I wouldn't consider doing this unless I needed it for status, and could get what I needed without going to CA.

Oh, absolutely. I should have made clear. I wouldn't consider doing this unless I needed it for status, and could get what I needed without going to CA.
Hey, no problem, I kind of assumed something like that but just thought I would point it out in any case.

FWIW, those East Coast dayflights are excellent imo. I've only done one (BA IAD-LHR) but it was so much better than doing the overnighters that I will always try and use these options to get back from the East Coast. Just a shame that UA only operates the IAD route, although for BD afficionados there is the VS option from NYC: good for destination miles, but no status miles of course.

I kind of assumed something like that but just thought I would point it out in any case. You're quite right to point it out - clarity is a good thing.

Just a shame that UA only operates the IAD route, Couldn't agree more. In the old days (well, a couple of years ago) there used to be a daytime flight out of NYC (can't remember if it was JFK or EWR). I'm surprised they don't have one from ORD given they still have 3 rotations.

In the old days (well, a couple of years ago) there used to be a daytime flight out of NYC (can't remember if it was JFK or EWR). I'm surprised they don't have one from ORD given they still have 3 rotations.

United used to have a daytime flight out of JFK to LHR. That was in the days (2001-2) when they had 3 daily flights from JFK as well as a flight from EWR. Now they're down to a single daily flight from JFK...

The daytime IAD flight to LHR technically starts as a 6am flight out of ORD, witgh a change of plane and a one hour stop at IAD. You can also connect onto UA922 from a number of other places at JFK.

I've been on the daytime AC flight in the back and it was fine. Relatively light load, no PTV but a relaxing flight (even moreso now AC no longer have to send their European flights out of the evil infield terminal at YYZ).

For shopping in the immediate area of IAD I can recommend the large malls at Tysons Corner (many shops open until 10pm) and the Leesburg Outlet Village (not amazing by US standards but very close to IAD indeed).