Do I need help?
 

My wife will be starting grad school in JAX this summer. I'm staying in BTR and will be flying every other weekend there.

After doing some searching, it turns out that BTR-MEM-BHM-ATL-JAX-ATL-BHM-MEM-BTR is an allowable routing and its typically only pricing $50-75 more than your BTR-ATL-JAX-ATL-BTR.

I'm seriously considering this as an option. Nevermind the fact that the travel time will equal how long it could take for me to make the drive. Essentially, I'd be a segment diamond flyer by mid year.

Am I just stupid?

Depending on how much your wife would actually like to see you (I'm guessing she would), this could get you into a lot of trouble. Though you *might* be able to explain to her why you'd rather spend an extra 15-20 hours per weekend traveling instead of spending time with her, I doubt it. Add in the potential for delays/cancellations, and you'll likely have a very unhapy Mrs. lsugolfer...

Just my $0.02.

You would willingly fly three segments (one way) on a CR2 when you could do one segment on a CR2? I guess if I wanted to get somewhere to fulfill an obligation of visiting someone while minimizing the time spent there, I might go for that, but ugh, not with any frequency.

That said, if DM would be really useful for you (SkyClub, better IROPS protections at ATL), it might be worth toughing it out for a few months and then switching to the more direct routing. Something tells me you'd do it three times and then say it's not worth it and do a couple of MRs or even segment runs on mainline.

Have you factored in the added cost if there is a delay and you miss the last flight out of XXX?

Glad you asked!

I'd still be spending the same time there. I would be taking earlier flights or leaving at the same time based on her schedule.

troof.

When all is said and done, I know I won't be doing this every time. The purpose of the thread was that I crazily thought about this for more than 20 seconds. :)

So, given the miles you're going to accumulate anyway (without the extra segments -- 2000 x 26 = 52000), it seems like it would be worth it to do so instead of just flying a couple of mileage runs. $75x26 is almost $2000. I don't think you'd easily make up 73k miles with that money. Not saying it's impossible (particularly if DL reintroduces 2xMQM). Are you doing any additional flying? Or just these trips?

I travel for work/leisure about 12-16 segments a year.

Are these domestic or international trips? If the latter, a segment average of 3k miles for those 12-16 segments -- 36-48k MQMs, added to the 52k you'd get from going back and forth to JAX taking the short routing, plus some AMEX MQM would get you very close to DM, without all of the extra CR2 segments.

If those segments are 500 milers, then, ya, you're going to have to make up some ground :).

Domestic. Probably 3000 MQM avg RT.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

If the OP flies US (via CLT) or CO (via IAH), and credits the mileage to Aegean Airlines' FFP, he'll have Star Alliance Silver status after two roundtrips, and Star Alliance Gold after ten roundtrips. Silver gets free checked baggage on UA/CO/US, and Gold gets free lounge access, even on domestic itineraries. Details can be found in a thread on the FT Star Alliance forum.

Off-topic, did you play golf at LSU? Noticed your handle - if so, when? I played at Miss St. in the mid-90's. Sorry to hijack the thread. Good luck with the travel.

Negative. LSU Alum, though.

Cool. They had some good teams when I was in school. I have a friend who plays for them now. I always hated when we played LSU in BR in football - you always killed us.

you prob only need a solid 10 minutes with her each weekend.

she needs add'l cuddle time and time to listen.