Originally Posted by
masonuc
What's frustrating to me is that I live in DC and I will easily get 3 points -- East, West, Shuttle. I hate Mileage Runs but would do one if relatively easy and inexpensive to get the 4th. But there is really NO option for that. I can fly to Baton Rouge or Melbourne through Charlotte, or Plattsburgh through Boston. But those routes, or doing a quick return to Carribean, would be a huge pain -- would be a whole day lost. Maybe I could do it for $300 or so but I'm better off just paying $700 (or whatever) to buy up to CP and not waste a whole freaking day flying to the middle of nowhere only to turn around. If I lived in Charlotte or Boston, it would be a different story.
Probably a difference of about $700. Everyone values $700 differently, I guess. For those with more money than time, the promo might not make sense. I guess the only downside would be if, for some reason, they don't offer buy up next year, or the price changes considerably.
I think the promo works best for those who are not currently CP but have a status higher than they expect their 2010 mileage to take them. If you're a Plat with 18k miles, or something, this is a boondoggle. You get higher status immediatley without having to wait to buy up next year, and you save the buy up fee. I think it's also great for people (like me) who managed to get to silver, but are not at 25k. I move to gold immediately with one mileage run and don't have to worry about accumulating any more mileage this year. I can use my flying dollars on trying to get status on other airlines for the rest of the year.
You're sort of in the opposite position. You're already CP so getting the status immediatley upon doing your HSJ doesn't help you, and you'll have lots of miles this year anyway, so a buy up is easy. That said, being in DCA makes it pretty easy.