US Airways Dividend Miles - Help with a MR

Hey folks -
After 6 years it would appear that my days of traveling may be winding down. Can't get into detail yet, but its all for the better. I'll miss the perks (yeah, there were some, even with US) but I'm going to enjoy not spending my time in airports.

I have one last shot at making a MR, at least before I drop to plat at the end of the month. I have to be in Boston next week and I was toying with two options...
A) Tack on a trip to Europe next weekend (lived in Pairs and would love to grab a bite on Saturday night and head home next day)
B) something domestic with lots of stops

So I have two questions:
1) how do people find affordable fares? I can start adding segments, but I'm at a $2,000.00 ticket pretty quickly
2) how do you do it logistically - if I try my paris trip, for instance... ric-bos-cdg-ric then the web site says that I cannot do a multi leg trip that returns to the same city.

Thanks, looking forward to a whirlwind trip!

You're doing an MR now? As a CP for 6 years I'm sure you know that the mileage calc is done Jan 1-Dec 31, despite status continuing until Feb the year after your status applies. I must be missing something here, or else you're dropping the PP next month regardless of what you do now. If it helps, there's not much difference b/t PP and CP.

I'm not trying to save my status, I understand how that works. I'm trying to do the MR while I'm still a CP.... the other motovator is that I have this company-paid trip to boston to work with.

In terms of status, it would be nice to at least get to silver for 08...but really I'd like to add some miles to my account.

Check this thread out (in the Mileage Run-Deals) forum:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=785896
This deal has been active for well over a month, and there have been FT'ers going almost every weekend. There's a group of us going this coming weekend; shoot me a PM if you can't figure out how to book, or if you do and want to meet others over there. We'll have about 6-7 people this Fri/Sun.

You also may want to move your thread to the Mileage Run-Discussion forum for some better responses. As the first link indicates, your best bet for a MR may not be on US for the best price.

Otherwise, you usually need to book fares at least 2 weeks out to get the best pricing. Buying now for next week is a bit close in.