Originally Posted by
flarmip
That's quite a good number of TPs for an ex-EU. Could only really be improved by adding on an extra domestic leg on the return from the US, but that might put you over the MPM even with a +25% mileage supplement.
You do have to consider the cost of positioning flights and hotels though. You're probably looking at £2k in total, plus the cost of hotels whilst you're over in the US.
From experience, combining a TATL with a domestic transcon (let alone a second domestic US flight) is rather tiring as it leads to a long day. I'd see if you can add an overnight change in NYC or PHX.
I did originally plan for a night in NYC but opted not too in the end as the airport hotels around JFK never really appeal to me, and I didn't fancy a more central hotel for what would likely have been a 6am or so flight the next day. So I went for an extra night in San Francisco instead.
I don't need the TP from an additional domestic leg on the return so chose to leave that out, and a Transcon straight after a TATL doesn't worry me given that I'll have a couple of hours at JFK to stretch my legs. I did HNL-LAX-PHL-LHR last year with not much more than an hour between flights, yes it's fairly tiring but I'd take than over the 13 hour KUL-SYD in Y that I did a couple of months ago any day!
I'm budgeting about £2.5k overall but that's fine, and I'm just treating the final LHR-HEL-AGP at the end as a mini city break after a couple of nights at home before I get the BACF AGP-SOU (my home airport) back to finish it off.
I've done a few TP runs now, I think I'm actually looking forward to this one more than most of the others.