Need Help With this Itinerary
 

I need some help finding the lowest upgradeable fare for an international assignment I am starting in a few weeks. Any help would be really appreciated.

MSY - MAN
Departing either Sunday March 17 or Saturday March 16

MAN - MSY
Departing Friday March 29


I have tried searching on my own but am having trouble figuring out what is the cost of the upgradeable fares. I know all about HoKeY, and yes it is a crock of s**t but this project has a limited run and I want to use my own miles to upgrade because the company won’t pay for BF.

Thanks!

looks like $1,105 to me...

You have to call CO.

or

if you go to Travelocity and go to "Fare Listing" you can plug in the city pair, date and airline and it will give you all the available classes.

There will probably be about 8 H fare classes, but each depends on availability and days you travel.

- HobokenFlyer

Princess -

Given your name on here, I probably already know the answer, but allow me to ask this... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Is it worth the extra money and mile to play HoKeY on such a short flight? Looks like the lowest fare is around $650 in Q. In all reality you are looking at 6-7 hours in the air on the long haul. Why not take your Plat u/g on the domestic legs and save the money and miles for a real reward?




------------------
Bad Gordon!

No Freddie for you!

my my princess, have we gotten spoiled riding up front???? J/K

mrs duxfan is the same way... she's only silver, so guess who rides in back when there's only one seat to be had.... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

duxfan-

I am considering sitting in coach and just saving the miles for a vacation. The only reason I was considering HoKeY was because the company would pay for the ticket and all I would have to do is cough up the miles for the upgrade. It sounds like the difference in price is going to be significant and my client may yell foul over an $1100 ticket. The reason I wanted to fly BF was because this flight arrives on Monday morning and I need to go straight to the office. Flying all night and going straight to work sounds like torture. I think what I am going to do is just fly over on Saturday and use Sunday to recover and find my way around town.

I am going to be making this trip every 3 weeks for the next several months and am trying to decide how I am going to survive this. My work has always been domestic, that's why I chose CO as my airline of choice. Now I am wondering if I should possibly jump ship while it is early in the year, and earn status on AA. The Plat/Gold challenge probably won't do me much good since it is based on Qpoints, and my flights would be discounted economy.

I'm new to this point thing, so someone correct me if need be.

MSY-ORD-MAN round trip is 9290 miles. On a discounted MRTC fare thats 4645 Q-points, you'll need 20000 Q-points if you get comped to Gold and take the challenge to Plat. 4 trips equals 18580. 2 r/t's to DFW would put you over 20000 (minimum 500 Q-points per segment). Depends on how many trips you'll make in that time, but it might be time to bring another Int'l type over to AA!

Well if your business takes you to MAN the last week in June, I will be there for a trade show for a couple of days, I usually fly over a sat night and give myself one day to recoup.

look at it this way princess, it's approx. 9K miles to MAN (MSY-EWR-MAN) with your plat elite, RT you will earn roughly 20K miles. So, it's either a wash on a 1-way UG or just 20K miles to UG RT.

If you look at it that way, it might seem more palatable.

- HobokenFlyer

You know Manchester is hosting the Commonwealth Games in July? It's like the Olympics for the British Empire. So if you are there then, make sure you got a hotel reservation!

Princess, jump ship with me, I'm considering the challenge since its early in the year and Int'l destinations are in my near future. I will as soon as I re qualify for plat on CO the first week of April.

TrojanHorse -

I have only been going to DFW since the beginning of the year. I haven't even made silver so far. Maybe I will fly CO across the pond till I make CO Gold, then I will try for the AA Challenge, just in case my travels become more domestic again. I feel so attached to CO it is hard to cut the cord. The thought of coach on any airline gives me the heebie geebies.

Do you think not being able to fly BF is a reason enough to quit work?!

HobokenFlyer -

Do you fly this route alot? Are Saturdays or Sundays generally less crowded? When am I more likely to have an empty seat next to me?

I may be wrong, but according to the FewMiles' AAdv website (last time I checked), the challenges are: is 5000 points for Gold, 10,000 for Plat. You can sign up for both challenges and forget the comp, but you wouldn't get the Gold bonuses and upgrade points until you qualified for gold. IF you have time to get a Gold comp, you would get bonuses (and those points that count for upgrade stickers) on first flight. Just make sure to sign up for Plat Challenge before first flight.. Princess, on discount Y for this route only, you would qualify for Plat on your first leg of 3rd R/T (I think..lol). Now, the only problem is the AA routing; I am not familiar enough with AA yet to know their routes/planes..

Fishbait -

You are correct. I confused miles and points. 10000 points are needed for Plat, on a discounted coach fare, you'll earn .5 points per mile. Thanks for straightening me out!

Continuing the AA challenge confusion.. I have a few questions:

I understand how the point system works, but how long do I have to meet this challenge.. i.e. the rest of 2002?
If so am I only gold/plat for 2002 and NOT 2003?
I take it you can NOT qualify by segments on AA?
I have less than 5K in my AA account, would I be better off signing up from scratch for a whole new FF account and taking any sign up bonuses?