Indeed!

In fact many MHD's work better on carriers other than AC or *A partners. It depends on where you want to go, and which airline has a hub in the destination of your choice. In this case MIA is a big hub of AA, and they may well be your best bet.

'Course it means you'll be collecting oneworld/AA miles/points instead of *A/AC. But that can be a good thing sometimes.

Yup. Every time I do searches for MHD's, I seem to come up with better pricing and routing using AA. I'm constantly considering switching from AC to AA. It's a very complex decision, though. Each time I sit down and do the analysis, AC seems to have the edge. It wouldn't take much of an unfavourable change by AC (or a favourable AA change) to make me defect.

Shareholder - would you mind telling me (here or Email fine) of the contact details of the travel agent you booked with? I'd like to try & book one, and I can foresee avoiding a tedious conversation if the agent is familiar with the MHD concept!

Actually, it takes no special skill to construct a MHD on the part of the travel agent. (On the part of our resident experts, KH and BB, the skill level is at the epitome of travel planning.) For that reason, I do not wish to pass on the name of the gentleman who did mine.

Just work out the itinerary that suits your needs, then walk it down to any travel agent in the city. Have him or her put each segment into the computer, then calculate the fare, which the res system does automatically. Quite honestly, and meaning no disrespect, I don't think the agent I used still understands the principles of the MHD even after going through the process. It is unlikely he knows the subtleties well enough to be able to construct a trip for you on his own. (I did not reveal everything to him becuase I did not want to entice him into starting this as a specialty, raising the profile more than it already has been by the Globe article, and leading to AC or MX making further changes. Any expertise and understanding resides solely out in Vancouver and Calgary with our resident experts.

So I just suggest you run a few things past us on this board. ie where exactly you want to go, when you need to be at your required destinations, and how many days you have to travel before or after those dates. As you are in Toronto, you will have to travel into either YXU or YOW to start the trip because you cannot start a MHD in this city. Tha's why I will be taking a VIA train up to Ottawa (I am already well into building up my VIA Preference account) the day before, meet some friends for dinner, overnight at a hotel (for some more points), and do a couple of business meetings through the morning. I then officially begin my MHD in the afternoon, en route to YYC for a business meeting the next day. [I am hoping to convince a couple of those Alliance MPs who played the real MHD on Parliament Hill a couple of years ago — the Senator Andy Thompson fiasco — to serenade me in the MLL at YOW, since Thursday evening is generally when they fly back to their ridings for the weekend...] This side trip to YOW or YXU has to be factored into your time and budget, of course.

Already the MHD has paid off in other ways. The same client now wants me to stop into their YVR office and meet with project staff, so I will have to do a date change to my return ex-YVR, permissible without charge. So what started off as a somewhat more costly trip — a one day Calgary trip for project meetings on what would have been an $1800 economy ticket — has now taken on the character of a real bargain for the client, even though I will be sitting in the front cabin all the way.

Also, don't forget to do your final segment with a stop-over in YYZ and an onward flight to YOW in the short term future. Then cancel that segment once you've returned and use it for a future trip to that city. (You have a year from the date of issue of the ticket to use the coupon.) This is why I chose YOW, since I am likely to have business there in the near future. Or you can save that segment to get you back to do another MHD.

Important: Just don't book the trip YOW-various cities-YYZ [end], because if your ticket doesn't take you back to YOW, the fare jumps into the $4K+ range.

You are in fact obligated to use the coupon, so make sure you do, sometime within the year, even if you simply take the train back the same day.

It's important to fastidiously adhere to all the rules, especially given AC's recent "crack down" on things like flight coupons and upgrade certificates. I imagine throw-a-way ticketing might be in their sights in the near future.

I agree with Ken completely on the matter of the final segment. That's why I stress this point. The Board is not here to encourage people to commit fraud, which not using the segment and following all the rules associated with the MHD entail, would be. We don't want to lose the legitimate opportunities the MHD provides in cases where we are unable to take advantage of advance booking fares. So don't spoli it for the rest of us. I have already made arrangements for additional meetings in YOW [and YUL] so this segment will be used the following week, as permitted by the fare rules.

"Fraud"?? Really? That's somewhat difficult to believe. It sounds a bit like ordering a meal in a restaurant that includes dessert and being accused of fraud for not eating the dessert.

If this is fraud, then I'm in trouble. Several times I've bought websavers and thrown away the return portion. Am I likely to be arrested for this?

Also, there can be many "legitimate" reasons for not travelling on the final segment. For example, the flight is delayed so rather than wait you decide to complete your trip with another carrier.

While it is unlikely you would ever be charged criminally, it is certainly possible. AC*SE once posted an explanation as to the hows and whys.

But even if you aren't charged, you might find one day that AC wants you to pony up for the difference between the return web saver fare and the normal one way fare (read full Y fare) before they let you travel any more. Alternatively, you might get the Robert Laurie treatment, and have your FF account cancelled and your points revoked. You might even be banned from travelling on AC. There have been a number of each of these types of responses in the past.