Originally Posted by
jareckik
I will b flying about 4-5 Tran-Pacific r/t and some domestic flights back in the US next year. That seems like a lot to me but at that rate it will be years before I can afford to purchase an international F class ticket with only miles. Am I missing something or do I just not fly as much as I feel that I do.
I'll give an example based on what I'm most familiar with (and has nice roundish numbers) -- flying SFO-NRT is a bit over 10,000 miles roundtrip. With United, a saver business award to Japan is 120,000 miles -- so it'd take 12 trips to get there free up front (well, middle or above
) using the base miles you earn. However, most airlines give a bonus to elites -- United gives a 100% bonus to Premier Exec & 1K on most fares. Reach those levels and it'll only take 6 trips (earning 20,000 per trip). Add in some credit card spend or other bonus offers (shopping, hotels, tax payment promos, etc) and it should be possible for you to get such an business award in a year with 4/5 RT.