925

It takes 21 days and $9618 to do it thru repeated JFK-LAX-JFK or vice versa, but atleast you can easily sleep in your own bed every night (if you live in LA or NYC). No way to stack them denser though.

925

I sure can't see how.Sharing is what makes it all fun. Keeping it to yourself doesn't encourage the rest of us to sharpen our skills!

Please post a sample itinerary that gets done in under 15 days, all in premium class, all under $10K.

925

Can you please show an itinerary that reasonably comes close to this claim? How much? How fast? I understand that I could do the same thing locally here, but I don't think it would be affordable or time efficient, and it would mostly be in regional jets. I couldn't do 100 successive regional jet flights in a short period of time. Can you?

wanaflyforless

If there is a 0% chance this contest will happen, then what you say makes sense. I am not 100% sure this won't happen yet.

But if I play, it will be with the goal having the whole ordeal costing me $0because I win.

Why would I want to give my work away to my competition to use against me?

I have already made EXP in 18 days for $3K. With a $10K budget, the game gets more exciting.

Planning would take me weeks of time. But be a lot of fun...so I would do it.

If flyertalk/someone will sponsor me, I will perfect (and publish) an 8 day plan.

925

OK, let's see that itinerary then - the one you have already flown - that won't spoil the contest.

Oh, you tempt me... I don't think EXP in 8 days is practical. Even if you fly 66,667 premium class miles, you only have 192 consecutive hours to fly on commercial AA/OW flights. The tough part is the inevitable layovers. Let's say each flight is almost 7500 miles (like ORD-DEL or LAX-SYD), that earns almost 11,250 EQP and takes at least 14 hours. Given a very aggressive 90 minute turn-around, that is 15.5 clock hours for 11,250 EQP, or 726 EQP per clock hour. That means you have 138 of the 192 hours in 8 days in the air and the minimum turn-time. That assumes you start at 12:01AM on 1/1, and don't lose many nights when no flights are scheduled to fly. And you are going to do this for $10K. On OW scheduled commercial flights.

Another way to look at it is that you have to have to earn a total of 66,667 Premium Cabin BIS Miles in 8 days. That is 8,334 pc BIS per calendar day, or 4,167 miles one way on a turn. I guess there are a bunch of routes that would likely work on, except probably not many that start between 12:01AM and 11:59AM on 1/1, so you would lose a half a day unable to fly. LHR-SEA-LHR leaves at 1405 and returns at 1200, and would earn you 7,176 EQP per leg, requiring only 14 legs, or 7 days of nearly continuous travel on the same boring route over and over. But where do you find seven round trips in J for $1429 per RT? Or, for that matter, where do you find EQP at a dime per EQP?

I think the only way to earn that many miles flying primarily internationally is with a DONE around-the-world itinerary. I have seen some creative xONE itineraries for 66,667 BIS or more, maybe even on into the low 80K BIS. But I have never seen a routing that fits the xONE rules that could fly that much during 8 consecutive calendar days. I would really enjoy trying to fly that one! You could do a shorter DONE and then a bunch of US domestic legs and possibly get it together. So maybe you could perfect such an itinerary, and perhaps you squeeze it into the price, though likely with a high positioning cost (which should be included in the $10K allowance).

And I guess there might be a short, inexpensive premium class route where you could make it on segments. But you would have to do 6.25 round trips each and every day. And that would be some of the very most boring flying ever. Total drudgery. Can you imagine having to hear the safety talk 100 times in 8 days? I just can't imagine the boredom of flying 100 segments in 8 days. And the round trips would have to average $200 per round trip. I doubt it. Where can you find a $200 round trip on a premium class ticket? On a route that has at least 7 round trips possible each and every day?

I can free up the first 192 hours of 2008. And I can likely scrounge up the $10,000. I'm willing to spend the time in the premium cabins. If I can get you sponsored, what do I get if you FAIL to perfect the itinerary? Or we fail to to be able to fly your itinerary in 8 days or less?

By the way... can you earn 1K in 8 days for $10,000 or less?

Eli Gorin

Flights do not have to be on AA metal to earn miles towards elite status, so here goes:

1 Jan - BA 016 - SYD-SIN-LHR - 4:40pm - 5:30am+1 = 10,684 miles
2 Jan - BA 279 - LHR-LAX - 10:05am - 1:10pm = 5442 miles
2 Jan - AA 7364 - LAX-SYD - 10:30pm - 8:00am+2 = 7509 miles
4 Jan - AA 7319 - SYD-LAX - 11:30am - 6:00am = 7509 miles
4 Jan - AA 169 - LAX-NRT - 11:45a - 4:40p+1 = 5451 miles
5 Jan - CX 505 - NRT-HKG - 6:20p - 10:35p = 1822 miles
5 Jan - CX 251 - HKG-LHR - 11:55p - 5:05a+1 = 5970 miles
6 Jan - BA 7372 - LHR-SIN-SYD - 11:15a - 7:35p+1 = 10,684 miles
7 Jan - QF 021 - SYD-NRT - 10:05p - 6:10a+1 = 4859 miles
8 Jan - AA 5822 - NRT-ORD - 12:00N - 8:20a = 6284 miles
8 Jan - AA 289 - ORD-PVG - 10:55a - 3:25p+1 = 7055 miles
9 Jan - AA 288 - PVG-ORD - 6:00p - 5:20p = 7055 miles
9 Jan - AA 046 - ORD-LHR - 8:05p - 9:45a+1 = 3953 miles
10 Jan - QF 032 - LHR-SIN-SYD - 11:15a - 7:35p+1 = 10,684 miles
11 Jan - CX 138 - SYD-HKG - 10:20p - 5:00a+1 = 4585 miles
12 Jan - CX 580 - HKG-CTS - 9:45a - 3:15p = 2131 miles

CTS = Sapporo... figure you might need a beer after all that travel.

Mileage was calculated through Amadeus GDS. Total estimated mileage is 101,569 miles. And all this in coach.

Price on this is ~$21,842.81 in coach, non-refundable... $100 change fee may apply. Business will run you around $65,173.81. First is around $95,763.81. But then again, if you fly in biz or first you wont need to do all these flights to make EXP.

Dr. HFH

I'd be interested in seeing that one for $3K. If you PM me, I promise to keep the secret. I absolutely will not be participating. Can't get away in January at all.

A bit of playing around just now on the computer, and I can easily see how to do it for less than $10K in premium cabins, but I don't know about the one week part. No matter how you look at it, it's a lot of flying.

Dr. HFH

Yes, but you can't get any AA credit for BA transatlantic.

Blueboys999

Have a look at (includes a number of your posts):

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=586688

Might not be available in the future but I did it this year.

Hagbard Viking

Would that be premium cabins only spending only money or does it assume using eVIPs and miles to upgrade?

Hagbard Viking

Anyone entering a contest like this has lost their sanity already before the flying starts, so what does it matter?

Kiwi Flyer

The weeks of time planning presumably is to get the optimum itinerary. An upcoming DONE4 of mine almost meets those parameters and wouldn't take much tweaking. But I'm sure it is far from optimum.

wanaflyforless

Exactly.

Planning to calculate the absolute fastest possible.

I said 8 days without the time spent planning - 7 days is probably possible but I'm not positive and would find out (having explored every option I can find).

The itinerary would probably include a DONE4 + a few other tickets for schedule maximization.

925

Dr. HFH - How do you see it being done in premium classes for under $10K - dying to get some pointers!

Dr. HFH - Just a minor quibble - You can't get AA credit for BA transatlantic from London to the US. Canada-London can, and I think non-London to US can.

Blueboys999 - Yes I do remember that delightful fare! Thanks!

Hagbard Viking - I assume the premium cabins will primarily come from the DONE. If you used VIPs, you would certainly have to include some cost factor in the $10K amount, and they wouldn't earn 1.5x EQP.

Kiwi Flyer - Does your itinerary easily collapse to 7 or 8 consecutive calendar days?

Wannaflyforless - I am pretty serious. If you want to PM me, feel free! Do you just want to build the itinerary? Or do you want to fly it too? I am thinking it would be nice to pick up BA Gold along the way as well (with a few carefully chosen flight credits).

To all: I am enjoying this very, very much! Thanks to all!

Kiwi Flyer

One of my DONE4s is just a shade over 9 days, including stopovers, for over 60k flown miles. Not at all optimised for most miles in shortest time.

925 - optimal routing for BA earning is different to the optimal routing for AA/QF/etc earning, and different again to fastest or furthest distance routings.