ryman554

I just noticed I'm at 985,500 lifetime miles. Nice round number. Kinda. I want another one. You can guess which one.

Coming up, I've got either:
11,398: SFO-FRA-SFO, or possibly (if SDC works wonders)
11,758: SFO-MUC / FRA-SFO

which means I would like either:
3102 or 2742 more BIS miles before (or in conjunction with) the above trip (in J) to hit my 1MM on the nose.

Who can come up with a reasonably priced, weekend excursion, in the next couple of weeks or so, oiut of SFO (but willing to use miles for one or more segments) to get me there?

SFO-ORD is 1846, so that's too much
SFO-DEN is 967, so may function
SFO-IAH is 1635, which is tantalizingly close.
SFO-SEA is 679, times 4 is 2716...

I'm sure I'll come up with a suitable prize -- slightly better than Karl Kastle's voice on your voicemail -- if I manage to pull this off with the help of one or more of you -- and assuming I don't get sent somewhere on business in the month of June. (SFO-TYO-SFO being one possibility, SFO-TPE-SFO being another. Extra credit for looking at these possibilities)

rmadisonwi

I don't know if this counts as reasonably priced, or a weekend excursion, but SFO-ABQ is 896, SFO-ORD is 1846. 896 + 1846 = 2742.

mahasamatman

Don't forget the 500 mile minimum, so you could also look for 2602, 2102, 1602, ... for the first option or 2242, 1742, 1242, ... for the second and just add one or more short trips or segments.

sosptuba

Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!

rmadisonwi

Found the other one. Make your way to South Bend, IN (could use miles to fly there or to ORD, then take the South Shore Line train from downtown to SBN).

SBN-EWR: 636 miles (unfortunately, looks like only one flight per day, 6 am)
EWR-DEN: 1604 miles
DEN-LAX: 862 miles. Then make your way from LAX-SFO (miles, other airline, take the train).

636+1604+862 = 3102

CaptainMiles

I have a few for you.

Fly SFO-DEN 967, then fly to IAH not crediting to UA (fly someone else of fly UA but credit to a partner or don't give a FF number at all), then IAH-SFO 1635. 967+1635=2602. Add a 500 segment anywhere and you got your 3102.
--or--
Fly SFO-ABQ 896, then fly to DEN not crediting to UA. From DEN do a quick round trip to LAS 2x629. Then fly DEN-SJC 948. 896+629+629+948=3102, you're done. Celebrate your million miles on the CalTrain home from SJC.
--or--
Fly SFO-PHX rt 2x651=1302. Then go to YVR for 800, and you have 2102. Return back from YVR on AC to avoid earning million miler credit. Now you only need 1000, which is an easy round trip to LAX or LAS or some other place cheap.

There are many other such combinations.

If work sends you to Tokyo or Taipei in the meantime, just fly ANA or EVA Air or Asiana for better service and to avoid getting million miler credit.

Please us know how you do it. Screenshot of your Million Mile accomplishment would be super.

And I will be expecting something better than Karl Kastle's voice on my answering machine.

mahasamatman

I think that's supposed to be Carl Carlson.

CaptainMiles

Carl Kasell

ryman554

OK, I should have looked that up. Now I'm humiliated for all eternity (or at least if I manage to call into the show...)

rmadisonwi and CaptainMiles Where do you all find these so quickly? You got a table of united legs and associated mappings somewhere to share?

Eternal thanks....

skywardhunter

Keep this thread going, this looks fun! I've never flown UA and am on the other side of the planet but following out of interest, OP please do report back on the final outcome and hopefully a screenshot of 1MM on the dot!

eng3

Do you count as 1MM at exactly 1000000 or at 1000001?

CaptainMiles

Not at all. Here is how I did it.

First I looked for simple round trips from SFO. Pulled up the Star Alliance route map, routes from SFO, sorted by distance, to try to find something about 1551 miles. Now, the *A distances are not the same as UA's distances, so it took plugging likely candidates into UA.com. Nothing at exactly 1551. Puerto Vallarta would have been nice and cheap at 1553, but it would put you 4 miles too far.

So a more complex solution was needed. You said you wanted it reasonably priced. So I pulled up skyscanner and looked up cheap flights from SFO. There are the usual suspect (LAX, LAS, etc.) but then DEN, PDX, SEA, YVR, PHX, etc. And I also looked up cheap segments from DEN and LAX and SJC and SMF, figuring those would be easy for you. I pulled the distances of those segments from united.com and could not come up with anything at exactly your numbers. But there had to be some workable combination. So I wrote a little program to do it. Computers are always faster than humans anyway. As I started feeding it segments, at first it could not find anything, but then after a few numbers is started coming up with solutions. Now some solutions were totally impractical because you could not connect segments logistically, but then some like the ones I showed you started to appear.

I did not feed the program any sub-500 segments because I knew I could solve for 3102, 2602, 2102, etc. and the 500s would be easy to add. Here are the segments I used.

DEN-IAH 862
DEN-LAS 629
DEN-LAX 862
DEN-PHX 602
DEN-SFO 967
SFO-ABQ 896
SFO-AUS 1499
SFO-DFW 1465
SFO-IAH 1635
SFO-PDX 550
SFO-PHX 651
SFO-SLC 599
SFO-YVR 800
SFO-YYC 1018
SJC-DEN 948
SJC-IAH 1608
SMF-DEN 910

BTW, you can see from these numbers that one obvious solutions is a single DEN-PHX (602) and then 5x500. But logistically that can be a bit to a pain, so I did not propose it. Although thinking about it... you could do DEN-PHX-LAX-SFO (602+500+500) followed by two SFO-LAX roundtrips.

Good luck. Let us know how you do.

rmadisonwi

I used gcmap.com, drew some range circles around various hub airports, and looked for cities that came close, then started pecking around.

One issue is that UA's distance in some cases (particularly to/from EWR) is off by a couple miles from gcmap, so some would look good, then turn up short. The SBN-EWR-DEN-LAX route looked like it was 2 miles over on gcmap, but then I checked UA and it wound up being exact.

Didn't think to look at the Star Alliance site.

catocony

SFO to DFW/AUS/SAT would work at 1,465 - 1,504 each way.

Do non-stops since time is money.

ryman554

Thanks, but how does that help get to exactly 1MM? Doesn't add up to the required numbers, unfortunately.

Hitting it right on the nose is part of the fun!