CJKatl

Earlier this year I was going to BUF for work. It turned out to be much less expensive to fly back from Toronto than BUF, and it had been awhile since I'd been to Toronto, so I figured what the heck. I had my car searched. It was a bewildering experience. The day before I had driven to Niagara Falls without issue. They opened my suitcase and checked every compartment of the rental car. They also asked to see my flight information from Toronto back to ATL.

I did a MR this year which included a short stay in Shanghai. My hotel arranged a tour. There were two other guys on the tour, one from India and one from NYC. They guide asked each of us whether we were there on business or pleasure. I said pleasure. The guy from NYC then said he was there on a MR. I broke out laughing and admitted to him that I was also on a MR. The tour guide had never heard of such a thing.

silverthief2

Crossings can be a crapshoot. Family and friends have been able to sail through before, whereas other times they've had to be searched extensively.

Back to the OP's question, it really depends if you think these runs are worthwhile. Personally three RTs to HND are a lot more butt-in-seat time than I'd be willing to devote for a MR unless I was on the cusp of DM (I am not) and this would be the best way to push me over. But if those are the prices you're seeing, they are quite cost-effective (value of your time not counted).

dinanm3atl

Will echo everyone. It's up to you and your situation. Is it worth it for some? Yes.

I end up doing one mileage run of some type most years. Sometimes I don't.l It is worth it to me.

BenA

Ah. I read FT from mobile lately, so I don't see people's status, programs and home city anymore and was inferring from the departure airport. I barely even see usernames (which would have helped here!)

I haven't been hassled for a mileage run since being approved for NEXUS. If you live in a border state and plan on doing this once in a while, it's a very worthwhile investment - otherwise, you'll be spending a lot of time in queues.

Keep in mind Canada does have some boneheaded regulations, and they can vary at the provincial level. I got screwed on my last trip bringing back two extra bottles of wine. Even though they were merely transiting British Columbia for only three hours, I had to pay duty. And BC taxes wine at 85% of value (seriously, that isn't a typo, and it applies to retail wine too!). And there is no officer discretion involved - the guy collecting the duty thought it was as unfair as we did. Fortunately it was a 5€ bottle of French rose, so it was a cheap lesson to learn, but wow. Makes the flexibility CBP has on choosing whether to collect small amounts of duty seem positively reasonable.

BHammy

Another reason to do a MR when you have time and money (beside the previously mentioned perks at level and flying patterns), even if you already have status - is that is your flying patterns might change in the coming year - or you know you won't have the time or money to do a MR.

I've done MR the past two years - turns out I didn't need to last year as I had a couple of additional trips come up last minute that took care of my status push to DM, but a trip to Alaska with two of my daughters to see the Northern Lights (less than a month after seeing the Southern Lights) was TOTALLY worth it to me!

This year, a different daughter went to SIN, then KUL and REP with me - she gained Silver and I renewed DM to get more GUCs for my wife and I's bi-annual LAX-SYD hop. Now I'm 55,000 miles over for next year - again, totally worth it as I have 4 trips that have been annual for the last 4 years that were cancelled...odds are, I won't have to take a MR in 2017....but I probably will