Dieuwer

I see a lot of threads saying something like: "SFO-ORD, $100 r/t , 3 cpm!!"
People very well know you won't be getting 3,692 miles. In fact, United and others moved to system awarding miles based on spend. In this case, for a person with no status: 5x$100 = 500 miles. A far cry from 3,692 miles.

So why keep people spreading lies in the Mileage Run Deals forum? At least, it should be made clear the miles you get is a multiple of the base fare and only "elite qualifying points" are based on flight distance.
In the case of United, using the acronym "cpm" is clearly fake as "cpm" stands for "cents per mile", not "cents per PQM".

wh6cto

PQM stands for Premier Qualifying Miles. So not a lie.

It's easy to earn award miles. There's great credit card programs thru Chase that let you do that without even flying at all. The more costly part of participating in an FFP is qualifying miles, which is based on distance. That's where we really put in the effort to fly. And that's why it's called a Mileage Run. We determine how cost effective it is by calculating cents-per-mile.

As you point out, UA gives award miles based on PQD, which is generally your cost minus taxes/fees. For a general member, this is a fixed 5 miles-per-dollar, and more with higher status. There's no point reporting this, because (1) the rate is different based on status, and (2) for any membership level, it's always going to be the same.

AdamNP

Mileage runs are not about RDMs, at least not to me, and not to a lot of others. Yes, they were a great extra, but that gravy train is gone. Every mileage run I've ever done has been about status qualification, which actual miles still matter for.

We do need some new acronyms though, especially for EQD/dollar. That is the new game, at least for AA, low fares for long flights on partners. I booked a CX flight that will earn nearly 3.6EQD per dollar spent.

usuario

More accurately, the cpm numbers posted are cents per flight mile. It's always been the case.
Depending on various factors (carrier, program, status, travel dates etc.), EQM/RDM numbers have never been guaranteed to be the same as flight miles.

It's reasonable to assume that most mileage runners know the difference between them and are aware of rdm earning rates. The primary motivation of most of mileage runs are EQM anyway.

For casual flyers who just look for flight deals and don't care what mileage run means, cents per flight mile is still a decent metric of how good a fare is for long haul flights.

So it's informative for everybody and misleads nobody -- I don't think there are a lot of users ignorant about EQM and program details, but really care about how many RDMs they earn and get upset when it's not the number posted in the mileage run forum.

usuario

EQDD? Sounds awful but still better than EQDPD.

yuel

So what is a good cpm for you?
cause a good fare does not depend on cpm?

usuario

The 5 cpm threshold in conventional wisdom for mileage runs is still a pretty good rule of thumb for long haul flight deal hunting.
There are certainly other factors in play, like season, route, tax and carrier, but usually fares within 5cpm are good enough deals if someone is just booking a casual vacation. Anything much lower than that is a no-brainer.
Another factor is routing, but casual flyers usually aren't interested in crazy itineraries so lower cpm achieved by this are automatically excluded by them.

IAN-UK

CPM also stands for an airport in California, characters per minute and a host of other things. So essentially it means what you want it to mean.

However, convention in the FT environment is that it's cents per mile.

Quite clearly the SFO ORD trip at $100 will cost you 3692/10000 = 3.7 cents per mile. There were earlier, simpler, times when that metric equated snugly with the miles you would earn in your FFP, and those miles would count towards travel entitlement and stays qualification.

Sadly, the new levels of sophistication in FFPs means those relationships no longer hold, are long gone.

It behoves members to understand the relationship between the miles travelled, fare paid and existing status in a programme. That's kind of basic for amy miles collector. Surely you do not expect posters to list the permutations of earning benefits within and among frequent flyer programmes?

cpm - cents per mile - is simply a convenient metric all can use to assess the value of a trip within their airline's programme. But if you'd prefer only the fare be listed, allowing you to burrow around for distances to calculate the benefits accruing, then you might like to put forward that suggestion ...

xolinlevh

'Cents per mile', your misinterpretation of what type of mile this refers to is not a lie, simply your failing to understand what this thread is about. No one flies to earn miles (not since the switch to rev based mile generation), its all for EQM/PQM/status miles.

Dieuwer

Basically, you're saying the forum no longer really is "Mileage Run Deals" but "Status Run Deals".

xolinlevh

Premier Qualifying Miles
Medallion Qualifying Miles
Elite Qualifying Miles

These are just a couple frequent flyer programs, most airline programs refer to the requirements for status as variations of 'miles' flown/earned. So milage run deals is a perfectly logical title.

Dieuwer

Fair enough.

golfingboy

We can safely say that the focus has definitely shifted in that sense, however, I'd point out that there are still opportunities to earn decent amounts of RDMs particularly on well priced premium fares on partner airlines.

This paradigm shift is still new, but definitely something to explore about the MR forum once the dust settles after 12/31. What constitutes a good deal? What is the goal of the MR forum? Maybe should change to a forum where we all share incredible deals where we can go to exciting destinations at a great price point rather than focusing on mileage accrual for award purposes and create a new status run deal sub-forum?

Some airlines still do credit based on distance flown although more and more are starting to reduce accrual rate for lowest fare classes.

Kmxu

The status run, mileage run, or whatever is called, will be history for United flyers after 2Q 2017 when United rolls out the "Basic economy" fare, which will earns zero PQD, PQM and LTM (life time miles). You will have to book higher fare classes to earn these status "symbols."

yuel

The great deals forum was created for that reason years ago

That's is 99% true, I don't see anyone flying 5k miles for $150 and earning 5k, which is the definition of mr, to earn rdm and status, not this eqm....BLA BLA BLA, I wanna see someone redeem eqm for bus award, it's just a status run