The Autumn Run - Mixing Business with Pleasure with UA and US
LHR-ORD-LAX-LAS-(LAS-PHX-LAX-LAS)-SFO-LHR
Or "Go on... add me to the volunteer list please 
"
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Previously...
LHR-BRU-LHR ... or "How do you burn a £50 BMI voucher without too much pain?"
MAN-ORD on BMI (29/10 ... or Did Kevin Make it to ORD?)
Kevin goes for a little mileage run on UA - ORD/CMH/IAD/EWR/ORD
ORD-MAN in BMI Premium Economy (with Pictures)
Kevin’s American Adventure – MAN-ORD-SEA-ORD-MAN (4 flights, 2 weeks) in Y..
ORD - MAN in BMI Premium Economy: How hard can a PE product drop? (also random moans)
LHR-PHL-SEA, SEA-PHX-ORD, ORD-PHL-LHR - In Y, Come and be scared with US!
LHR-SFO-LHR - If you're going to San Francisco - SFO MegaDO Trip report
Gold Run - Mr Kevincm goes to Washington with EI and US
Long Haul Commuter Run - LHR-IAD-ORD and back with UA
Saying Goodbye to a Friend - Travelling for the wrong reasons - LHR-PHL with UA (Also on
GhettoIFE.com - expanded)
The BA Y+/Y Class Long Haul Experience LHR-BKK/SIN-SYD and back on a bargain fare (Also on
GhettoIFE.com -Expanded)
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WARNING: This is a LOT longer than I thought it would be when I started putting keyboard to screen. Sorry!
Do I really need to introduce this report? Oh very well then! 
. This was going to be the usual Autumn audit of Economy class travel (for those of you who have forgotten, it's the back of the plane, seats are upright, minimal space, etc etc etc) However, circumstances changed as things on the ground moved along. Be prepared for a few surprises than normal in this report...
Again - this will be a post a leg, with airports and maybe some sights thrown in . Additional Coverage will follow on Ghettoife.com over the next few days - there's a LOT more content to go on!
And now - the prologue
(you might wish to skip this bit if you want to get to the meat of this report. Those who wish to understand my madness may continue at their own risk).
So after returning to the after the never to be repeated
BA Ashes Fare Sale, I realised that my regular October photography trip to Chicago was coming up again... which meant time to look at tickets. More importantly, it was time to examine where I was in the race for re-qualification for 10/11 (providing Diamond Club exists by the point of writing).
A lot of this madness was explored on the blog, but to recap.. Now I was planning a simple LHR-ORD-LHR with a mini mileage run originally. But then BA had to go and launch a LHR-LAS direct route. Why is that relevant? Well lets see, a bunch of BA board members would be aboard requiring people to "drink" with (uh-oh....).
So the route became LHR-ORD-LAS and back... Then one 3am morning (my traditional zombie time) I thought... lets add some fun to this run... How much could I push the ticket to?
Initially I was pricing this in lots of segments, and in the first instance, these were coming up cheaply. However towards when I actually started booking the trip, a lot of availability had dried up completely, and the "direct" flights were a lot cheaper than the segments (in fact, the only set of flights I could toy with were the ORD-LAS segments). However, tagging a trip onto San Francisco at the end of it made no difference to the price - with the extra miles that route gives (even though the pain of 10 hours in United E-), it seemed worth it.
Map as ever - Great Circle Mapper -
http://gc.kls2.com
But there is still the matter of a few missing miles to hit *G for the year. The current situation would had left a gaping hole of 1300 miles or so. Adding more segment in would had been extremely costly alas (increasing costs by at least £200). Even Backtracking to ORD would had hurt in an attempt to keep everything in "V".
Two options were available - either a segment run to the East Cost with United, or a segment run on the West Coast with US Airways. Both were looking good until I realised the amount of work I needed to do upon arriving in Chicago - so the East coast run was ruled out in favour of a Two state hop from Vegas. Whilst cutting down time there - I can always visit Vegas again - retaining Gold is a LOT harder...
Map as ever - Great Circle Mapper -
http://gc.kls2.com
So that's it - seats assigned for all runs (even after a little discussion over the phone with US Airways), and E- assigned for all the United legs as BA drained some of that cash earlier this year.
What could possibly go wrong?