aerolulu

Hi guys,

Looking for some help to do my first MR. I'm based out of MIA and would need about 7,600 eqm.

I was wondering how you start searching for one. should I take one of those MIA-LAX recent fare for instance and try to add intermediary flights or extensions? say LAX-SEA-LAX or LAX-DFW-LAX then back to MIA? Would that be the easiest to get the miles I need? I'm gonna have a newborn soon so I would prefer to squeeze than within a day starting around thanksgiving if possible...

With the AA/US merger, should I consider maybe some MIA-PHL-*** and back?

Am somewhat available during weekday but weekend preferred. Overnight not an issue.

One last question, is it worth spending some 500 mile upgrades when doing an MR? I think that if I book as one trip, I would need to have 500 miles for all segments of the trip right?

Any leads would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks folks!

Geauxtigers

*****

trekker954

Agree with Gaeu, but for my second itinerary (mileage 4340), I'd jump on a flight to Vegas. There are some Nov. dates for $187, even a weekend.

Madone59

+1. It's not getting better than that.

aerolulu

Hey guys...

Wanted to get back to the group. Unfortunately, the dates for the MIA-LAX-MIA were not an option as I'm grounded until newborn comes. I think the earliest I could fly is around Thanksgiving as I mentioned, pretty much open until the end of the year. I was thinking there might be some good deals on Thanksgiving night?

Just to be sure:
1. the EQM I must accrue is on a calendar year basis?

Also, considering the mileage benefits accrued as elite does not count as EQM, the way I see it, the only reason I'd go for platinum is to get 100% bonus for the first 50k miles next year? If I were to stay gold, I'd get 25% bonus or 12.5k miles. So the cost of the MR should not exceed the estimated value of 37.5k miles, am I getting this right?

fedechat

Did you check the MR section? what about The Flight Deal, if you want to get a lower cost per mile, you need to check at least twice a day and reserve your flight the same day you see the deal, cheap airfare only last a couple of hours, sometimes a day or two.

Since you only need 7800 EQM, you can take 1 or 2 flight to Denver, is 3400 EQM for $110.20 (Dec 6) or 116.20 (Dec10) and 1 or 2 MIA-BOS for 116.20, in total you will need to take 3 flight and spend at least $350.

Keep checking and buy something now, in the last couple of days, I saw great deals like MIA-LAS for $156 or MIA-DEN for $110, which is around 3.5 cents per mile, or the regular sales like MIA-ORD/BWI/LGA/LAX/CLE/BOS for 4.4 cpm (more or less). Just read how to use the basic functions of ITA Matrix

Good luck

Fed

aerolulu

Thanks Fed. This helps. I've read a bit on ITA and been using it. Just not at a crazy level. I'm subscribed to the flight deal. Pretty awesome MIA-BOS fare of $74 R/T today but too many nights required.

I'll keep an eye open!

If somebody could confirm that I'm right about the benefits of going after platinum. Is it really just to gain 38k bonus miles that I would otherwise not get when I start flying next year?

Thanks!

aerolulu

Hey guys, so I've been searching for a little while now on what I could get out of MIA. I've even found a friend who's in the same boat that I am. Needs same amount of EQM. Right now, weekend of 12/11 to the 12/13 seems to be the best time to do a run.

I've searched flights using google flights out of MIA and it seems that my best option is a MIA-PHX-SEA-ORD-CLT-MIA for about $328. That's 5.4 CPM. Not bad but 1. it does not get met the 7500 miles and I'm sure I can get a better CPM. Is there some better destinations/stops I should consider?

Thanks!

flyingeph12

I expanded on your MIA-SEA idea and got this. I believe this is over 8,000 miles, and is about 4.7cpm
https://www.google.com/flights/#sear...=ONEWORLD;eo=c

aerolulu

This is pretty awesome. Can I ask how you found you could add NYC airports in there? You just tried or is because it's common to add that area for a leg?

Thank you!

flyingeph12

I started out by thinking that in order to get over 7,500 miles, you would have to add a SEA to Northeast city with a connection in the south (DFW or PHX or maybe LAX), i.e., something ~3200-3300 miles. Northeast to Miami is ~ 1,000 miles, so your outbound needed to be at least 3200 miles. So I thought it would be best also to go all the way to the west coast, i.e., LAX, and then up to SEA in order to maximize mileage on the outbound.

With that in mind, I tried NYC, BOS, WAS and PHL, and just happened to find something that worked to NYC. Google Flights makes this trial and error process super quick and efficient.

aerolulu

Well, good to see what goes through a trained mind. Makes me learn faster. Thanks flyingeoh12!

Ritz

Hopiong you can help me out. I'm thinking of doing a one-way return from MIA to PHL - and was looking for very similar search parameters as you. Was wondering what exactly you input into google flights to find the mileage run possibility you generated.. thanks!

flyingeph12

I am not sure exactly what you are looking for. Are you simply looking to maximize CPM? Do you have date restrictions? I am not sure what you mean by a "one-way return."

Generally speaking, I would think about which destinations from PHL and MIA have low fares. Google Flights's one-way search is useful for this exercise.

For example, PHL-DFW has at times this year been very low because of Spirit. I tried MIA-DFW-PHL and ended up with this for ~5cpm. Playing around a little more could yield something better.
https://www.google.com/flights/#sear...=ONEWORLD;eo=e