Flight #17: LAS-EWR, UA 581, 757-200, N504UA, Ch9
Scheduled: 1044p-625a Actual: 1040p-613a. Flight on-time, upgraded 3.5 days out
Flown Miles: 2227 EQMs Running Total: 86459 Delta to 1K: 13541
So after the short weekend, I was back out to Newark to start another mileage run. In fact that is where I am sitting now typing this up (Big EWR UC). This flight ended up being a very short 4h9m (compared to the 5h33m westbound Saturday morning) but still long enough to get some decent rest. When I was in the Vegas UC before this flight I had the agent SDC me from LAS-EWR-PHL-IAD-DEN-LAS to LAS-EWR-IAH-DEN-LAS (EWR-IAH on int’l 767-400). Ironically, if you look at about every flight today they are wide open with the exception of my stupid 1230p IAD-DEN flight (packed 757-300). I did this for a few reasons: 1) Get off regional jets in the NE corridor; 2) Have a shot at open middles/upgrades on the DEN mid-con flight and; 3) Get out of the northeast as soon as possible. (As you can see I’m still stinging a bit from the missed connection on Friday) As it turns out a simple SDC changing EWR-PHL-IAD-DEN (3 legs) to EWR-IAH-DEN (2 legs) took the agent almost 25 minutes, having to reissue the ticket multiple times. It’s interesting to note that my fare was a LAS-PHL fare and I did not need to keep PHL in my routing when I SDCed this trip.
As I said, the flight was quick and uneventful. There was a bit of chop about 45 minutes east of Vegas on the flight but that settled down after about 15 minutes. Nothing to really report about the flight other than it was another packed redeye out of Vegas. Remember that I mentioned that Vegas was losing a decent amount of it’s redeyes in this winter season; well, tonight there wasn’t even an IAH 1am redeye, just this EWR flight and the 1130p CLE Airbus. I guess that is smart by UA to only fly 2 full redeyes this time of year. Interestingly enough, by the end of January, mid-week, they are back to 2x IAH redeyes. Actually the schedule cutbacks impacted this mileage run for me in the fact that I had a 6300 EQM SLC run booked as early as March and due to the fact that every LAS-LAX/SFO late flight was cut from the schedule, leaving me with a 6 hour connection to the IAH redeye, I just cancelled the flight. When I finally rebooked it I booked this quick PHL MR instead (same dates).
While I have about 40 minutes before my next flight, I guess this would be a great time to talk about CPM and my criteria for booking mileage runs. I am generally very picky about my runs and have a pretty firm under 4.0 cent/eqm criterion. There are some things that would drive up that number and allow me to book other flights, but I am basically looking to get 6000+ EQMs in one shot (24 hours, redeye out, back the next evening) for under $240. This generally involves a LAS-SFO/LAX 7pm flight connecting to the ORD/CLE/IAD/EWR redeye and then flying down to FL. Coming back it is generally harder to book the 4-6p transcon so I normally end up just flying FL-IAD/CLE-LAS.
At times, having vouchers can actually dictate the need to book a more expensive flight. End of year constraints can dictate having to book more expensive flights (my BOS mileage run last Friday was $310 before a $100 voucher). Earlier in the year I am a lot more picky about flying mainline flights on bigger planes to increase my upgrade chances, but later in the year those luxuries have to be forgotten. In addition, the SLC trip ends up on a decent amount of larger RJs, but when you are flying almost 7000 EQMs for under $180 it is also tough to be picky. (Though in my defense when I originally booked the SLC trips the IAH-SLC legs were all 737s, they got schedule changed to RJ145s).
Well, it looks like I’m already upgraded on the IAH-DEN leg (there are like 5 people seated in E+ at this time). After grabbing an aisle seat and my new boarding pass from the lounge agent, I discovered that the DEN-LAS flight is oversold by 8 right now. I had him add me to the volunteer list. Seeing as that is the last flight of the day DEN-LAS (again schedule cutbacks), I will start researching alternate flight options that get me home prior to the midnight flights via SFO/LAX before my EWR departure.