RetiredSFOATC

Hello friends: Still getting my feet wet on FT, but really enjoying the information, the good humor, and the experiences that are posted here. I'm hooked (perhaps a bad thing...!).

Anyway: Today's project - can anyone direct me to an FT thread or another resource for the best ways to accrue status-qualifying miles? I'm assuming that the baseline is simply to accrue as many EQMs (or segments) as possible by flying AS. But I keep seeing other suggestions here and there (partner bonuses?), which makes me think there are other tricks of the trade. I'm MVP - but might have a shot at MVPG for 2020 if I plan it right. What are the best ways one can do this, including thoughts about a mileage run? Am I correct that MVP bonus miles DO count towards status? I think I have seen both sides of that question. And just to clarify - I am not really looking for everyday miles to use later, although one of these days I hope to burn some of those - just EQMs for this conversation. Most of my flying is not for business, BTW.

On a related front, is it just me, or did AS change the page on their reservations site - when it offers you a choice of flights, I think it USED to show mileage earnings; I don't see that anymore. How do people plan their trips (for mileage purposes) without that information being provided?

Thanks in advance, and apologies if these things are clearly addressed someplace that I should have found in my searches.

eponymous_coward

"Best" is impossibly vague to answer because do you mean "least amount of money" or "most comfortable even though it costs more"?

You could fly some transcons in cheap AS Saver Y and get MVPG thanks to being in California, or you could fly BA F to India and drop a few thousand on one trip. Up to you.

https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.c...-trip-flights/

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals-372/

No.

RAD_PDX

T-cons are a good start. Also, sub $200 mid-cons (MCI, STL, OMA...) in first class can be good as the I/P fare bonus does yield bonus EQMs.

CalanMan

Hi RetiredSFOATC, welcome to FlyerTalk. Everything eponymous_coward said was correct.
Alaska doesn't show this, though other airlines do. Once you have selected an itinerary, it will show you the number of miles flown for that itinerary. But that's not the same as the miles earned, as it doesn't include any bonus miles, neither class-of-service bonus miles which do count towards elite qualification, nor MVP bonus miles, which do not. To make that number even less useful, it's pulled from a different database than what is used to calculate mileage earning, and it is often a handful of miles off from what actually posts. Never more than 6 or 7.

I find the most fun/useful tool for figuring out what flown mileage will be is gcmap.com, where you can easily see multiple itineraries at once: Great Circle Mapper It will also often be off by a handful of miles.

milecalc.com is usually closer, and it has lots of built-in tools that let you account for things like bonus miles and minimum milage per segment: MileCalc :: The Ultimate Mileage Calculator for Frequent Flyers Of course, it's less fun, less pretty, and only lets you look at one itinerary at a time.

And, of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't point you to Voldoo's Status Calculator Tool: AS Status Calculator Tool I use my own custom solution with all the hacks my heart desires, but this is an excellent tool for beginners.

beckoa

Find a friend and use a couple companion certs :-:

nearlysober

Sadly, they do not.

AS Elite bonuses for MVP (50% bonus) MVPG (100% bonus) and 75K (125% bonus) only give you bonus RDM (Redeemable Miles), not bonus EQM (Elite Qualifying Miles).

You have to be mindful of RDM vs. EQM.
RDM just puts more miles in your bank for future spending, while EQM is what gets you to the next level.

There are ways to get bonus EQM earn rates through which fare-class you fly.

Looking at AS's Earning Chart - every flight on AS is going to earn you at least 100%. The more expensive coach fares do earn bonuses, as well as first class.

So lets say you flew a 500 mile F fare on AS as an MVP:

500 EQM & RDM earned for the flight.
375 EQM & RDM earned for the 75% F class bonus
438 RDM earned MVP 50% Bonus
875 EQM earned for the flight.
1,313 RDM earned for the flight.


With partners, the earning chart gets a little more complex and may include multiple types of bonuses.
Looking at BA's Earning Chart for example, they have two different categories of bonuses.

The first thing to be aware of here is that with partners some fares earn less than a 1:1 miles flown to miles earned ratio.
You need to be mindful when buying online about what fare class you're getting yourself into, as a "good deal" may not be so good if you're expecting 100% miles flown.

The second thing with partner airlines is that there are sometimes two bonus categories referenced.
The Class of Service Bonus effects your EQM earning rate.
The Additional Bonus is just extra RDM miles.

So lets say you flew a 500 mile A fare on BA as an MVP:

EQM Earning:
500 EQM for the flight
750 EQM for the A class bonus
1,250 EQM earned

RDM Earning:
500 RDM for the flight
750 RDM for the 150% A class bonus
1,000 RDM for the A class additional bonus
1,125 RDM for your MVP 50% Bonus
3,375 RDM Earned

jinglish

One consideration that nobody's mentioned yet is that qualifying on partners requires hitting a mileage threshold than qualifying solely by flying AS. You'll only need 40k EQM accrued on AS flights for Gold, but if you're using BA to close that gap, your new target will be 50k.

Flying for Fun

You have incorrectly calculated the Elite Tier Bonus. The Bonus applies only to the base miles. You don't earn additional Elite Bonus miles on the Class of service bonus. Base miles are calculated as a percentage of miles flown based on the accrual rate for the class purchased, up to 100%.

The easiest way to calculate RDM is to add the percentages Base%+COS%+Additional Bonus%+Elite Bonus%. Similarly, EQM is Base%+COS%

In your example flying 500 miles in BA A would yield 100%+150%+200%+50%(Elite) = 500% × 500 miles = 2500 RDM . Similarly, 100%+150% = 250% × 500 miles = 1250 RDM.

I have updated the calculations in your examples below. If you are flying a class that accrues at less than 100% the Elite bonus is proportional. If you flew 8,000 miles in EK U class (50%) You would earn 4,000 EQM/RDM and your MVP Elite bonus would be 2,000 RDM for a total of 6,000 RDM.

James

RetiredSFOATC

Good question, @eponymous_coward. I guess I mean, "most efficient", e.g. best comfort for the money. That said, I can hole up even in the worst seats for a couple of hours if there is a payoff somewhere. But you've helped with that perspective, and thanks for the links also.

RetiredSFOATC

Thanks for that, RAD_PDX, especially the mid-con part. Hadn't even thought that there was such a thing as sub-$200 F seats. Will research. I am in PSP, but with 3-4 AS nonstops per day to SFO that are generally pretty affordable, I can connect on to those mid-con destinations you mention without a lot of trouble - just have to find those good fares.

RetiredSFOATC

Thank you for the suggestions and links, @CalanMan - I will familiarize myself. As an aside, I wrote to AS CS asking a similar question (how to pre-calculate mileage earnings) and they said I should "call them on the phone". How terribly 20th (19th?) century!

And thanks also for the welcome.

VegasGambler

If you enjoy traveling internationally, I would say that premium cabin sale fares on partners offer the best value for a comfortable flight.

When I'm looking, I usually consider sub-$1000 to Asia in premium economy, or sub-$3000 in business to be "good deals", although you could certainly hold out for better ones.

Once you get MVPG status, you get a 100% bonus to base miles, which makes these trips much more lucrative in terms of RDM as well (which makes the premium cabin cost a little easier to justify) If you have status with another airline, AS matches with no challenge, so you should take advantage of that and start racking up those bonus RDM earlier. The RDM really do add up quickly; you will have enough miles for long-haul premium cabin award trips in no time.

RetiredSFOATC

Thank you @Flying for Fun and @nearlysober. That's the kind of technical stuff I'm looking for.... I appreciate all the detail. For the record, I am trying to maximize my EQMs. I have what I think are a bunch of RDMs, and redeeming them (in comfort) is not as easy as it used to be (I know, "understating the obvious!"). I'll save those questions and recommendation requests for another thread.

RetiredSFOATC

True, and good catch, @jinglish. With that 10K difference, that's easily one big transoceanic RT I could save right there. And then there are segments. Being in CA, I can often fly short hops for not a lot of $$. I will probably get MVP by segments first this year, in fact, I've got 22 of those already. Not so sure about 30 more by Dec. though.

RetiredSFOATC

Thank you @VegasGambler. I love flying internationally, but the "home fires" make that difficult sometimes - though for a great deal for a great trip, I'll take that challenge. And when I was UA 1K for several years (not anymore), I was pleased at how fast the RDMs accumulated unexpectedly. Still, with class of service bonuses, I can see how EQMs can also accumulate. I'm mostly interested in those EQMs in this case. While I like to use RDMs when able, I'm finding that the perks I particularly care about are things like upgrades, early boarding, extra help when things go wrong, and so forth. MVP has been pretty good with those things, but I can see how MVPG is much better. Since redeeming awards is not easy, especially to the places I like to go in the classes of service I want to travel, it's the immediate gratification I'm mostly interested in. One last question for you: How do you like to track those premium cabin sales on AS partners? Do you sign up for email campaigns from all those carriers?