Gold Run 2: Blame Canada! It’s only a mileage run anyway!* - Locking in Gold for another year (with BMI, Air Canada, Continental and Aer Lingus) - BHX-DUB, DUB-LHR-YVR-IAH-LHR
(*I blame South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut for that)
Previous reports are at the back end of this trip report.
Welcome back faithful reader to yet another one of my infamous mileage run trip reports. And yes, it’s in Economy class with not a hope in hell of an upgrade.
This time, as opposed to United Airlines alone, it’s a veritable bevy of Star Alliance Carriers (and non Star Alliance carriers to come to think of it...)
And more importantly from me - no cheating here - it’s in the back all the way (and you know what, it’s nice to be back). The usual rules do apply to this trip report (in other words, bad humour, very bad puns, musical references that not man people get, random Youtube videos, and of course - GhettoIFE systems.
I'm actually going to put another plug for the trip report that will be on Ghettoife.com later today - if for one simple reason - I'll be fully able to express my thoughts with potty words.
3AM... Eternal.... (Yes, it’s the introduction)
**
The KLF still rocks me still alas .
Whilst not occupying my waking moments, this year is going to be one of the most important Star Alliance years for me as the final acts of BMI occur. The fact is, I need to renew my Star Gold again or face a life of idiotic luggage fees - and considering some of the luggage I travel with, this is not a bad idea at all.
And to be honest, I'd rather travel in back of a plane than face crippling luggage fees (which wind up costing as much as a trip or like this over a year).
To this end, I have been keeping an eye out on good fares, and whilst the was a very acceptable CO €202 fare, it was 2 days AFTER I had booked my Chicago trip fare. Which was a pain to put it bluntly as I couldn’t change the UA trip to nest it in.
So once again, it was... 3am, and I was browsing the Mileage Run forum when I saw a nice reasonable Dublin Fare to Vancouver, with a base of $148, taxes of $384, banking in at a grand total of $534.49. As exchange rates when this was booked were riding, high - the hammer fell and it was a matter of finding a route that appealed to my insanity - and my pocket.
A bit more fiddling, and I managed to force Orbitz to cough out the following itinerary:
DUB-LHR (BMI)
LHR-YVR (Air Canada)
YVR-DEN (United)
DEN-EWR-DUB (Continental)
Whilst routing back via LHR would had been fun and had generated a few more miles, 1) the times were wrong and 2) taxes pushed the fare into the $600’s
So here’s the map- laugh away down in back.
Map of course by the Great Circle Mapper-
www.gcmap.com
You think that’s of the planning section? Oh no. More is to come
.
Late September wound it’s merry way along, and I took my regular look at all the active PNR’s to see what had changed if anything, when I saw that there were two CO269’s to EWR. A quick look and Uh-oh. My DEN-EWR flight had been completely retimed so I’d see my Dublin flight long sailed into the sunset.
Grudgingly, I powered on Skype and dialled numbers. And I must congratulate the poor agent who had to go off to continental to get seats released, then off to Air Canada to reticket, then back to Continental to get the DUB tag-on leg sorted.
Originally, it was suggested I was diverted to Chicago, then off to Dublin on the EI direct flight. Whilst I would had been in with a chance of scraping BMI Gold, it wasn’t my first option. I offered a divert via EWR and the late BMI connection to DUB. However, the agent came up with a bit of gold and instead diverted me from DEN to IAH (Houston), then to London and then to Dublin. A net gain of 2000 miles before any bonuses, and the possibility of skipping the last leg if I felt the urge.
SCORE! 12500 miles. Now we’re back in Mileage run territory for the win.
1 hour later, and after being thanked profusely for waiting, my ticket was stuck back in the ticketing queue. However, there was one slight issue - I was originally requested the midday flight to Dublin. Alas, they rebooked me on the late evening flight. So I had a choice, 12 hours at Heathrow, another flight, a night in Dublin then home, or offload myself at Heathrow and go home with a 3 hour journey.
You’ll find out what I did later
So what does the map look like now?
Much simpler with Denver removed. However, something or someone is telling me New York (and the surrounding area) and me aren’t just meant to mix at all. Although intend to deal with that soon...
In terms of hotels, this is a difficult one to play really . Whilst chain hotels would be nice in terms of points, I don’t stay enough for me to consider mattress running. For Dublin, a cheap night a Travelodge during a €19 stay would suffice, however the Vancouver hotel would be a tiny bit of a challenge.
For Vancouver, I had the choice of burning a bunch of Hyatt points, or paying ICHG some money for once. And believe it or not, it’s a hard choice - least of all there’s the fact of paying money, or starting to “Crack the Case”. In the end, I plumped for Cracking the Case with some PP points. As part of CtC, this is one set of the two Saturdays required, and 2 nights from the 10 I need. Which is nice.
Right enough chatting - onto the flying part