Good points. I have mostly turned down VDB vouchers because, either

a) I was en route to a client, and could not afford any delay
b) I was on my way home, and just wanted to get back. An overnight delay would be particularly unpalatable.

The couple of times I have accepted VDBs (worth 200/400USD), they found out they had enough room after all. In one case I lost my good seat!

But I can probably learn to strategise this whole thing better (especially with FT help)!

The main reason I want to earn some VDBS is that I want to minimise my main annual expense - buying economy tickets to the UK for my wife and I, that I then use CO SWUs to upgrade.

A secondary reason would be to enable me to fly MRs.


My next target (using the new CO/UA rules) would be to hit either 150,000 or 200,000 miles next year, in order to earn SWUs. Four of the the SWUs would be used as above, the other ones would be used either for family members visiting from the UK, or to upgrade myself on a MR.

I won't know the target to hit PPlat/GS, I have little control over that, but I have learned how to maximise my spend while still obeying company rules, so I remain hopeful on that score.


I imagine that my mileage runs could work a couple of different ways.

First, I could start padding return trips.

Second, connecting two weeks of work. Say I would be spending 1000 bucks in week one and 1000 bucks in week two for work trips. I might be able to find a MR that connected the two weeks over the weekend for a total of 2000 bucks.