First MR: Is this good or bad?
Feb 10, 2007, 9:24 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: DSM, BKK or anywhere with an airport
Programs: UA 2P, HH Gold
Posts: 1,018
First MR: Is this good or bad?
Well I've been thinking about this for a while, but its hard to find good deals out of DSM. Here's the run I was thinking of taking:
UA:
DSM-DEN-PHX-DEN-ORD-DSM
$240; all L class (LRNX)
3181 Miles earned.
UA:
DSM-DEN-PHX-DEN-ORD-DSM
$240; all L class (LRNX)
3181 Miles earned.
Feb 10, 2007, 9:27 pm
#2
Join Date: May 2003
Location: ATL/MOO (Many Others Often)
Programs: DL GM (2MM), Lifetime Marriott Plat, Hilton Gold, IHG Plat
Posts: 2,456
$0.075 a mile is not very good at all. Opinions will vary but sub .03 is a good target. If you have status and get bonus miles that helps but we tend to judge a good MR around here based mostly on status miles earned.
Your orgination point does make it hard. Hang in there though. It's a disease...be careful!
Your orgination point does make it hard. Hang in there though. It's a disease...be careful!
Feb 10, 2007, 9:28 pm
#3
Join Date: May 2006
Location: EWR
Programs: Sexy UA 1K
Posts: 985
$240/3181 ~= 7.5 cents per mile (cpm)
If you could accomplish < 4 cpm, that would be awesome...^
Looks like you will be doing UA ???
Try utilizing the 500 minimum rule and bounce between LAX and SFO.
If the actual flying distance is < 500 miles, then you will get 500 EQM, that is the 500 minimum rule.
If you could accomplish < 4 cpm, that would be awesome...^
Looks like you will be doing UA ???
Try utilizing the 500 minimum rule and bounce between LAX and SFO.
If the actual flying distance is < 500 miles, then you will get 500 EQM, that is the 500 minimum rule.
Feb 10, 2007, 10:56 pm
#6
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: NRT / HND
Programs: AA EXP, NH Plat, Former UA 1K
Posts: 5,634
I run into similar issues. It is hard to do good UA mileage runs from this area. If you are just going for status and not redeamable miles (and have extra MP miles to spare) you could use some $75 e-certs to bring the prices down. The issue with mileage runs on the $75 e-certs is that they don't allow multi-city routings. Its tough to get more than 5-6 segments with the e-certs. You could always drive down to KC... Des Moins is less than 3 hours drive from the airport. We have much better fares than DSM but you'll still run into the issue that I have; you're starting in the middle of the country and UA routing rules aren't very generous about letting us connect in IAD to fly to LAX for instance (where Continental gives all kinds of MCI-EWR-West Coast options). Typically UA cheap fares don't even allow MCI flyers to connect in ORD to get to the west coast.
Feb 10, 2007, 11:46 pm
#7
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: SMF
Programs: UA Gold, 1 MM
Posts: 11,632
I agree that it's not the best MR but I also see that DSM is not a great place to start a MR. Still, you should be able to get a lower fare than $240 and many more miles if you're willing to book a few connections.
I just did a simple ITA search and found an 8 segment run (4 segments each direction) that would yield 4680 EQMs for $224 (LE211NNX). Without giving away the store here, routing through DFW is allowed on this fare.
Good luck!
I just did a simple ITA search and found an 8 segment run (4 segments each direction) that would yield 4680 EQMs for $224 (LE211NNX). Without giving away the store here, routing through DFW is allowed on this fare.
Good luck!
Feb 11, 2007, 6:59 am
#8
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: IAD, DCA
Programs: UA-Plat, Marriott-Plat, AAI, AAII
Posts: 3,758
Agreed that living in the middle of the country basically screws you for MRing. But even from the edges it is very hard to get below $0.04/mile these days. At least not for MRs that fit a normal schedule. You might try getting to LAX any way possible and doing the LAX-IAD-MEX-IAD-LAX MR for ~$240.
Feb 12, 2007, 1:30 pm
#10
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 483
Hmmm, I flew on an USAirway flight which is about 180 miles.. and i credited that to KrisFlyer... And 180 miles is what i got... so i guess the minimum rule only applies to some airlines only...
Feb 12, 2007, 4:53 pm
#11
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Washington, DC, USA
Posts: 1,883
it's not a great mileage run.
from dsm i'd look at several possibilities on ua when the fare is right.
one is to florida. going dsm-ord-iad-wherever. That would give you more miles.
then look at secondary california airports, like sna, ont, smf (sacramento) or even sfo or lax.
a dsm-ord-lax-sfo or some others would offer better miles.
as far as the one you mentioned above, you might be able to make it more reasonable by routing though ord instead of denver would add i believe it's like 700 miles. each way for the same price. and you might even be able lax in to the routing. I'm not sure
from dsm i'd look at several possibilities on ua when the fare is right.
one is to florida. going dsm-ord-iad-wherever. That would give you more miles.
then look at secondary california airports, like sna, ont, smf (sacramento) or even sfo or lax.
a dsm-ord-lax-sfo or some others would offer better miles.
as far as the one you mentioned above, you might be able to make it more reasonable by routing though ord instead of denver would add i believe it's like 700 miles. each way for the same price. and you might even be able lax in to the routing. I'm not sure
