Well I'm finally going to LHR for 9 days this month. I've flown 2 carriers (AA & CP) on 2 plans (AA & CP) towards the promotion. My flight to LHR is on CP.

I'm trying to find a strategy to get some bonus points. I don't think 5 carriers is practical at a reasonable cost, but I'm willing to be convinced. My target is to pay up to $0.01 per point for the bonus.

I can see lots of ways to get 4 carriers at a reasonable cost in time and money, but not 5.

The obvious way to get 4, would seem to be BA LHR-MAN, and then either AY MAN-ARN or CX MAN-AMS. I could go out on Saturday and back on Monday (see BB, spend a day at the destination!) and get a cheapish return fare (to be precise, C$284.94! Although Travelocity then only shows fare-code info for MAN-LHR and claims it's "C" -- business class!?). $284.94+hotels+transfers for 100000 points. But I lose most of Saturday and Monday in transit.

I could actually spend up to $1000 on this (all-in) and still be within my bonus budget. I'm including hotel costs at the destination since checking out of my London hotel for the weekend is (a) a pain, and (b) could screw up a weekly or "free day" rate.

What's frustrating is that LHR-MAN is so short and frequent, I could do it on a same-day return for about $350 (C$312.28 according to Travelocity a few days ago). I could even do it the day I arrive (as the third carrier it would give me 50000pts)! (No I don't think I'd really want to, but I'd already be in Heathrow.)

YOW-LHR on CP76: AR 0920
LHR-MAN on BA1392: LV 1145, AR 1240
MAN-LHR on BA1395: LV 1430, AR 1520
then on to the hotel in London.

Fare code is BAP, the price is now $311.07 (ticket went from $260 to $259). If security issues allow me to check my bag at LHR, I could leave it in a locker for six hours. Consider this a points flight and a probably-can't-check-in-yet-anyway flight.

But I can't find any way to get reasonable connections on IB, AY, and/or CX to get two more!

Finnair's only Spanish destination seems to be Barcelona, and that from HEL. I rather go to ARN, but I can't find a decent connection between IB LHR-BCN and AY BCN-HEL anyway.

CX flies out of AMS and CDG at 0700, so no connections are going to be possible there (unless there's a redeye somewhere). And I still end up flying BA LHR-MAN as part of that itinerary. AY flies LHR-HEL itself, but codeshares with BA (which I think doesn't count for CP promo) on LHR-ARN. I could fly LHR-HEL-ARN, but that just duplicates (or eliminates) the benefit of LHR-MAN!

BTW, there's no particular reason to go to ARN rather than HEL, except wandering the web the Wasa sounded good!

So, am I right that 5 carriers isn't do-able with decent connections? Is it worth doing the MAN side-trip on arrival (ignoring the fatigue factor)? And should I forget the fourth carrier, too?

Any advice gratefully appreciated.

Thanks!
andrew