Originally Posted by
ExtonUS
Still doesn't add up. 200k is a lot of mileage and at just over ten cents a mile there is no way that is even in heavily discounted J. Definitely sloppy reporting. He might be sitting in business class but he isn't paying for it.
Not true.
By the time my year is finished, I'll end up with 54,000 flown miles of premium-cabin PAID travel...That gets me 81,000 EQMs. I'll have an additional 16,000 miles of paid economy, throw in 5,000 EQMs from spend on the legacy United Signature Visa and I'll finish the year with 102,000 miles.
I spent $12,050 on 96,000 flown EQMs, that's $0.125/mile on A LOT of paid premium cabin travel. That's not buy-ups. And I could have done it cheaper, but I wanted to be sure to hit the 1K PQD threshold, so I grossly overpaid for Christmas and Thanksgiving tix (in Y, due to all RJ service)--so that skews the numbers upward even further. In reality it's more like $0.119/EQM overall if not for those two overpaid holiday trips which are both nearly $0.30/EQM.
Some of my best value tix in 2015:
RT paid first (A) from the midwest to Hawaii for $1600.00 ($0.11/EQM)
RT paid business (P) from the midwest to PVG/HKG for $2400.00 (The one-day DL/UA/AA sale-from-each-others'-hub fare war) ($0.09/EQM)
RT paid first to Vegas (3-4 times) for ~$700 R/T when Y was $500+ ($0.11/EQM)
...And others. It's not quite $0.10/mile...But close enough that a 'professional' (not me) could do it--I just book when I see a good deal--that's all--could be for a trip a month from now (that's when I usually give up) or it could be 5, 8 or 11 month ahead.
None of my trips were mileage runs--just keep an eye on the premium fare forum and when a true deal comes along to someplace I'm going, I book it...I am fortunate enough to know every business trip of mine at least 1 year, sometimes more in advance. I can also plan my vacations with my family around those trips as well.