MaxFlying

You don't actually need a stopover, just using the multi-city for connections will solve too.

arf04

I'm kind of in the same boat--about17-18k AGM short of SE on the year. If I hadn't flown WestJet so often, and if my wife and I had just sucked up a J fare on one of our TATLs (we ended up buying an LMU anyhow bother ways...) I would have been a lot closer. KenH makes a compelling case for a mileage run, but at the same time for me spending 3-4 days traveling seems like a big commitment of time that I don't really have and that I'm not sure I can hack given that I feel like I've spent way more time on planes this year than ever before and it's stopped being fun (oh to be back in the days when every opportunity to travel was an exciting one!
!). A TPE mileage run is possibly workable at the end of the month at $1608 out of YQR, however.

Two questions: for those of you who have been to TPE, would a 24 hour stop there be enough to do a quick touristy recon to get a falvour of the place? And, are the benefits of SE so great that an inconvenient MR would be worth it? I rarely use lounges these days and all the upgrades I've received this year were due to latitude bookings, PE TATL so the domestic connector was upgradeable at booking, or Flex domestic bookings that I upgraded and as those flights weren't that long J wasn't that important (though nice). There were maybe 2-3 irops situations where a concierge would have been helpful, but as one was in J I was able to resolve easily and the others weren't too trouble so to sort out either. Thoughts...

24left

@arf04
IMO and from MY experience, benefits are no "so great". Some benefits are useful and have been helpful. Keep in mind not all SEs have the same travel patterns.

As for doing a MR, there are different views on that as well, but Ken is absolutely right.

I would never consider NOT doing it if I were that close. There is nothing wrong with taking a long weekend and doing a short trip. Contrary to what some airline executives think about people who do mileage runs , those who do are paying for their seat.

A couple of years ago, I was short a few hundred miles and took a trip to somewhere I had never been and the scenery was awesome and the net result of both the miles and the adventure were well worth it.

DNAwizard

Good to know. I was not aware of this. Thanks ^

canopus27

Same!

Cow, I know there's always caution about saying too much about mistake fares ... but can you share how you found it? FT? PM?

KenHamer

They weren't long hauls.

But the fare, routing, airline and even the destination are gone now (almost.)

SEA-PHX-PHL-SJU, on US. You could mix and match US and UA flights, and use some alternate connections like CLT and SFO. And I could reliably priceline a usd $40/night rate at a Marriott (Courtyard I think.)

Sometime I would drive to SEA late Friday evening and hotel there (with free parking), again through priceline.

KenHamer

Geez I hate FT's "Mobile website."

Inadvertent duplicate.

capedreamer

Ah gotcha. ^

KenHamer

As I noted earlier things have changed enough that you need to re-evaluate the logic.

But I was once stuck in YYT during a blizzard just before Christmas. The country was awash in news stories of people being stranded for 4, 5, even 6 days, including over Christmas.

As an SE I was "stranded" for a few hours.

An then there was the time I was delayed in BOS due to snow in YYZ. The concierge pro-actively booked me on every YYZ-YVR flight for the rest if the day an told me whenever you get to YYZ just go to the next YVR flight and get on.

So you can probably see the trade-off of being away from home for a few weekends.

KenHamer - former long-term SE (Snow Emergency)

canadiancow

I woke up to numerous emails and messages about it, and it was plastered all over https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/premium-fare-deals-740/ (specifically [FARE GONE] Ana yvr - syd $559 rt).

And of course, since I know the difference between Z and P, and what EF is, I was able to book it long after everyone was screaming "IT'S DEAD IT'S DEAD".

arf04

Thanks for the thoughts. TPE return would definitely do the trick, and at $1600 out of YQR it's not all that bad price wise. I'm struggling to find the time later this month when I'd need to do it. It would be easier for me to do several single day returns to anywhere in NA to get the miles, but that looks to Ben impossible, especiallly at that price. When UA used to fly out of YQR there were often killer deals through DEN and ORD that probably would have helped. I miss having those flights!

arf04

Duplicate post.

capedreamer

Decided to pull the trigger on this. YYZ-YVR-TPE-YVR-YYZ with a 1h 45m turn in TPE (I feel like @canadiancow!). Came to US$1,298 and used an eCoupon I had to bring the out-of-pocket charge to US$1,180.

Per gcmap and considering the 125% AQM earning rate for N fares, this should get me 20,140 miles (does anyone have a more accurate estimate?). That will get me to 99,178 miles at the end of the year, which makes me a bit nervous.

For my repositioning flight, I used an AP J redemption on SFO-YYC-YYZ-YOW-YYZ-SFO to work in a couple days at home in YOW over American Thanksgiving.

So I'll be in air quite a bit between Nov 22 and Nov 27 :

Nov 22: AC8568 SFO-YYC CR7
Nov 23: AC158 YYC-YYZ 763
Nov 23: AC103 YYZ-YVR 77W
Nov 23: AC11 YVR-TPE 789
Nov 24: AC12 TPE-YVR 789
Nov 24: AC182 YVR-YYZ 789
Nov 25: AC472 YYZ-YOW 190
Nov 27: AC473 YOW-YYZ 320
Nov 27: AC759 YYZ-SFO 320

DNAwizard

Nice! Lots of flying indeed.

The YYZ-YVR-TPE trip in PY will get you 20072 AQM exactly:
- YYZ-YVR = 2078 base + 520 (25% COS) x2
- YVR-TPE = 5950 base + 1488 (25% COS) x2

Have fun

capedreamer

Thanks! @24left had kindly informed me of that as well. So that would have gotten me to 99,110.

Decided not to take a chance and redeemed some AMEX MR points for a same-day SFO-DEN turn on UA in G. Should earn 967 miles (@ 50% for the round-trip) and get me to 100,077.

Please let me know if I'm missing something!