I was shocked to discover I had only 9,300 or so EQMs heading into requalification season; I looked at my history and it was near normal, but I had more award flights than usual. Looks like that was the most affordable thing to do with the high demand months.

So I'm doing four trips between now and year-end on the $19 fares to at least get the 20K (IAH, PHX and LAS), with 3 of those as mini-trips and one as a pure MR...wish I could stay longer on the trips and it's the cheapest time of the whole year for LAS on weekdays, but am too busy with work. Would likely go for the 50K like last year if they did a multiplier deal; for me the big 50K advantage is booking the stretch or exit seats at the time of booking. Am usually very light on bags, with the carry-on at 20K a real "must" for a benefit. Flying to Asia for 2 weeks on 3 separate occasions as an air courier in the 90s and being limited to carry-ons only was a crash course in traveling light.

Looks like I've got $209 total in all the tickets, with a $38 RT MR to PHX "wasted" because I later booked the same dates for a short trip to LAS. Though if a workload crunch gets bad enough I could always take the PHX one and not do the LAS one. I like the early December trips out there, though; about the only downside is the shorter days. I try to do MRs only if I have to, but 'tis the season.