Originally Posted by seaskybound
I am planning my first MR. I am not a miles collector but have temporarily rellocated to Israel and would like to do a MR to requalify for AA EXP which I will need very much when I move back to the USA. I need 19500 qualifying miles.
I want to make it a short vacation (2-3 days) and go to GIG (Rio) also maximize my VIPs and I have found the following MR out of BRU
BRU-ORD-MIA-GIG-MIA-LGA/JFK-BRU if there is upgrade inventory I will only need 2 VIPs for the trip (great VIP usage each for 2 long int'l segments) comes to $800 all AA metal
I can also fly TLV-BRU-TLV for $400 but on SN and no qualifying miles
Overall price wise I am fine but will be 2000m short.
I have seen these funny MRs with many more segments and have no idea how to book them or check for them. How do you add those segments (in general but also speciffically for this route such as an ORD-LAX-MIA workaround)
You indicate that this routing would leave you 2000 miles short of the 19,500 you need, implying that it would earn 17,500 EQM. I ran it through Great Circle and got 18,443, so either I'm doing something wrong or you are closer than you think.
You could pick up the rest of the miles you need by flying TLV to BRU on a miles-earning airline. For example, flying IB through BCN will get you 30% of 5,000 miles, or 1,500 miles, for $578.30 all-in. Would this put you over the top?
While this seems like the best alternative to me, as you are flying to BRU anyway so you don't have to spend extra time on a plane in what already seems like a full weekend, you could try to shoehorn in a seperately purchased trip on AA inside the U.S. if unable to add more segments. What suggests itself is AA ORD-FLL for less than $120, but see how nutty that looks? You would end up flying BRU-ORD-FLL-ORD-MIA.... The ORD-FLL-ORD portion would be in coach. I would pay the extra $20 and take the IB through BCN rather than endure that - end up with more time in GIG.