Last Second Elite Qual Advice Request
 

I just found out 2012 is going to be heavier than expected travel year. I'm a CO Plat, on pace to finish with ~80,000eqm...

What are the easiest / cheapest options to get up to 100k by end of year?

Thanks FT'ers!

Rick

my method ...
 

Come out to Hong Kong to party it up and get my qualification.

If you are on the West Coast, the cheapest will be two trips to Europe in Y. If you are on the East Coast, you need to go TPAC and probably add some. Fares are low this time of year so it shouldn't be too expensive.

Alternatively, an orgy of buying First Class tickets will give you the EQM and might even do GS while you are at it.

I Am Doing My Homework!
 

I just read this: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milea...lick-here.html

So I am doing my homework, and realize my OP was a bit hasty.

Here are a few of my circumstances:

• I have ~80,000 eqms
• My goal is 100,000 eqms by Dec 31
• I can get to anywhere in the US on my company's dime on Thu night, but need to be back in a US hub by Sun evening
• I can travel pretty much any weekend between now and end of year
• My goal is to achieve 100,000 eqm's as cheaply and painlessly as possible (so flexible budget)
• Non-airline travel would also be very interesting to me (I seem to remember in the past you could get EQMs at end of year for buying magazines and flowers... has this ended, can't find on UAL.com or CO.com)

Thanks again!! I'll keep doing my homework, but look forward to any suggestions!

Rick

A trip to HKG through EWR would get you over 24,000 miles.

Look on the Mileage Run forum.

You can pretty much do quick mileage runs on transcons three weeks in a row, which should net you close to 20K. For example, EWR-IAH-SMF, or JFK-SFO-TUS. The latter has been going for $250 all-in.

Can probably be done for less than $1000.

There is an EWR-FRA-CPT (Capetown) in the MR forum that is $840. The FRA-CPT is in LH on a K fare, so be sure to credit to Continental and not UA.

You can route through YYZ for $5 more, so it would be EWR-YYZ-FRA-CPT which according to Great Circle Mapper nets 20,224 EQMs. If you are ok with the slightly less EQMs of EWR-FRA-CPT, then I would recommend flying that one as the elite bonus should take the RDMs above the YYZ routing.

Don't know if you can make this happen in 3 days though.

Was this thread moved??
 

Thanks so much to replys thus far... I'm looking into the capetown idea... just trying to figure out if the benefits of 1k over plat are worth $1,600 an entire weekend, and the harassment I'll get from friends and family for flying to cape town and back without actually seeing anything outside the airport...

Also - Was this thread moved? I was pretty sure that I posted to the consolidated UA/CO board... now it's in the old CO board...??

Take a family member with you and have them pay for the hotel. Go for two days, chill out, fly back with more miles and a memory.

Why $1,600? Gotta bring the SO?

It should be $850 after taxes all-in. Limited availability in December, so it may be pricing out higher.

Are you seeing $850ai RT?? I assumed the $850 was one-way... where are you pricing this? I used kayak.com which referenced Vayama.com... If I could do it for $850 I'd probably jump on it!

Thanks so much for helping me out with this!!

Well, availability is SUPER slim pickens right now. It looks like it is the return that is drying up first.

Two date pairs that are working:

Depart Tuesday, Nov. 29 and return on Tuesday, Dec. 6

and

Depart Wednesday, Nov. 30 and return on Tuesday, Dec. 6.

Both of those itineraries are pricing out at $835.20 with tax all-in (Roundtrip :D) and should produce 19,366 EQMs, and since you are a plat, 38,732 RDMs.

Doing a few searches to find slightly more expensive but more convenient days in a sec...

Short turns that work for $835:

Wed. Nov. 30 - Mon. Dec. 5
Fri. Dec. 2 - Tue. Dec. 6

These dates work for $1,028 RT:

Depart Thursday Dec. 1 at 6:10 PM, return on Tuesday, Dec. 6 at 1:51 PM. Time on the ground is 57 hours.
Depart Saturday Dec. 3 at 10:05 PM, return on Friday, Dec. 9 at 03:45 PM.

Note: There are some pretty nasty layovers with all of these. Between 10 and 14 hours in Frankfurt on the way there.

And God help your soul, but I just looked and you could day a "same day turn".

$835.20 all-in:

Depart Friday Dec. 10:05 PM Arrive back in EWR 1:51PM Monday.

Depart EWR Fri. Dec. 02 10:05 PM - Arrive FRA Sat. Dec. 03 12:00 PM
Depart FRA Sat. Dec. 03 10:05 PM - Arrive CPT Sun. Dec. 04 10:10 AM

Depart CPT Sun. Dec. 04 07:00 PM - Arrive FRA Mon. Dec. 05 05:15 AM
Depart FRA Mon. Dec. 05 11:05 AM - Arrive EWR Mon. Dec. 05 01:51 PM

You can also do Saturday-Tuesday.

They might as well call this the zombie itinerary.

You can buy elite miles. I don't know the current rate but even at 9 cents per mile ( I think it's less) it would cost you $1800 all in.