GrizShel

I am having trouble even figuring out what are some possible routes to get the needed Northwest Worldperks Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) for two persons to get to the next level of elite status, one still needs 5800 miles, the other a little less. I just want I some ideas of what are some good routes to search. So far I haven't even been able to pull up any domestic fares that have enough miles from bwi, iad, or dca - but surely there are some out there?

Just to give you an idea of what we are looking for:

-- Goal is to spend under $300 per person (I hope that will be possible).
-- Travel dates are fairly inflexible - Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays are the best, a couple of weekends in October or November might work.
-- 2- or 3- day minimum stay requirements are ok, at least for the holiday periods.
-- Trip(s) probably must be over a weekend, but might be able to include a friday and monday if necessary.

Specific suggestions are great of course, but mainly I could use pointers on what route searches I should be doing (domestic or international from WAS) are most likely to yield some itineraries with the requisite number of EQM at a reasonable cost. Or is it very possible we will have better luck splitting this up into two or more roundtrips to minimize cost?

SomeGuy

Where are you based out of? DL has tix at about $140 SYR-TUS that would get you what you need.

GrizShel

Let me repeat:
So far I haven't even been able to pull up any domestic fares that have enough miles from bwi, iad, or dca - but surely there are some out there?

So, preferably, we are looking for flights out of one of the 3 WAS airports.

CaveatEmpty

You DO have these bookmarked, right ?? /.

UpgradeMe

Have you visted the Mileage Run forum?
Have you read the stickies at the top of that forum?
Have you used the tools referenced in those stickies?

Yub

Even though you are based out of WAS, it might have been worthwhile to book the SYR-TUS trip. This was on a DL B-fare, which gives 150% NW WP miles. SYR-ATL-TUS-ATL-SYR would yield about 7,000 EQM for about $140 RT all-in with no minimum stay, and even might have been possible to do a same-day turnaround.

I was still able to find some of these as of an hour ago on delta.com, but looks like they have all been pulled.

More details on this fare: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=587506

I booked this one myself starting/ending in TUS, so I'll either be making a trip from SNA to TUS just to do this MR. From WAS, getting to SYR might not have been cheap, but BUF was running about $140 all-in on NW.

Yaatri

USe dream maps or such to find a fare you can live with. Look at the fare rules and use allowable routes to build a multi-city trip.

GBadger

Man, if I lived in DC I would have totally jumped on the SYR-SEA/TUS deal on DL. WAS-SYR driving is about 5-6 hours if I recall correctly?? And a relatively easy drive at that!

Unfortunately I'm a little farther away... I did consider hopping on a $88 ORD-BUF flight...

Yaatri

BWI-LAX for $352 with 5860 EQM, leaving Friday, back by Saturday night.

SchmutzigMSP

The OP is dangerously close to asking for help on a specific itinerary, which is prohibited in the MR forum, but I don't know about here in the NW forum. That said...

You have a lot of time. 5800 EQM is not that tough to attain with almost 4 months left to get it. If WAS is your home airport, that's one RT from the WAS area to the West Coast and then one more RT flight to anywhere on NW/DL, assuming you credit to WorldPerks. There are some nice fares from WAS to Florida in the $117+ range, so you might look at doing 2-3 of these. You can also look at DL fares, too, without worrying about fare classes.

Also, take the suggestion provided by others and read/study the stickies in the MR forum to learn about tools and techniques for planning a MR.

LAXRuss

Another way to rack up mileage out of the DC area is to fly Washington DC to Los Angeles on Alaska Airlines via their Seattle hub. DCA or IAD to SEA, change planes then on to LAX with a through-fare ticket. Last time I flew that route, not on a mileage run, but because NW did not have red eyes that arrived in Washington as early as AS on the date I flew, the roundtrip mileage was a little more than 6,500 miles. You just have to look closely at the AS fares and availability for that route-- sometimes their website seems to price that routing out as two trips (probably because it is very circuitous), other times it seems to price out for the same price as their LAX-DCA non-stop. That happened in the instance I bought the fare and it turned out to be one of the highest mileage accruals I think I have ever received for coast-to-coast non first class travel. In addition, you can always try to use your AS elite upgrades when you check in for those flights.

Yub

Just curious -- what routing did you use to get 5860 EQM? I'm planning to go LAX-BWI next month and could use a few extra miles. I used to be able to get some additional miles by backtracking between DTW and MSP, but that doesn't seem to work anymore without breaking the fare.

trekwars2000

You can't back track from the west coast to the east coast on any cheap fares on NW. I have that problem trying to get the most EQMs when I fly LAS-CMH which I do a lot.

Most of the time, I do a LAS-MKE-DTW-CMH which is just over 2500 EQMs one way.

Now I don't know about the flight schedule b/w MKE and LAX (other than the fact that there is at least 1 daily flight) but I'd try a DC Airport-DTW-MKE-LAX which should get you about 2750 EQMs one way. You might even be able to do something like a DC-DTW-midwest city (take your pick, BNA is usually a good one) - MSP-LAX if you can find a fare rule that will allow the 4th segment, most fares I run into only allow 2 stopovers.

So I would check a lot of stuff through MKE.

Yaatri

DCA-ORD-MSP-LAX-MEM-ORD-BWI

trekwars2000

That is only 5387 miles, hardly 5800+.