Just looking for decent ideas for a *A MR on or around Thanksgiving out of WAS since I have that time free this year. Seems like Turkey day would be a great day to fly or volunteer a seat so that would be ideal.

OTF

Not sure if its what you had in mind, but LH has some very attractive business class fares for the Thanksgiving week. Check their website for business class specials...

how many mi do you need?

I don't the the miles as much as I want to give up my seat for multiple legs. No way am I getting to the next level before Jan 1.

YMMV, but my DH had great luck on Lufthansa a couple of years ago. He got bumped once at IAD, and twice in Frankfurt for a total of 800 euro plus a free flight.

Greetings, when you know what you are doing, send me a PM. I live very close to you (just down the GW) and, if I am in the country, am looking at doing an MR around that time. My preference is UA or CO, with LH next.

I'll keep an eye peeled on this thread and elsewhere for suggestions or to shamelessly steal ideas I need to work out a 14,000-mile turkey trot out-o-IAD

I wouldnt plan on getting bumped on thanksgiving day. I travelled on thanksgiving day last year and the plane had several open seats.

If anyone is doing any mileage runs out of the WAS area please let me know.
I think I'm going to need between 5,000 and 10,000 miles to acheive 1k for next year so considering doing 1 or 2 mileage runs in the next 3 months. Flexible on the route, dates. Looking for a UA/CO or *A airline.

Thanks.

Agreed. The day to get bumped is Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and, I think, Sunday afterwards. Thanksgiving Day flights I've taken are surprisingly calm and relaxed and the airports have been fairly empty.

I just did one to ANC. IAD-LAX-SEA-ANC-SEA-IAH-DCA. Started on the 1230 flight out of Dulles on a Friday afternoon and was scheduled to be home at 430 the next day. ANC is a quick (30 min) turnaround, but you get enough time in SEA to go to the Anthony for some chowder for dinner, or wherever else you fancy. And at IAH, you can see about getting a VDB b/c there's a later flight that gets you to DCA at 8pm. Comes out to 9100+ miles, and I paid 451 a/i for it. Not a super cpm, but very convenient.

As a 1P, I was #7 of 26 for the IAD-LAX leg, and got upgraded on the SEA-ANC and IAH-DCA legs. The plane from SEA-ANC-SEA-IAH was the same...one of the new interior 737-900s. Exit row seating when I wasn't upgraded. Plus, since some of the legs are CO, you could "Elite Maximize" if you wanted to, for 7.5cpeqm. Again, not a great MR deal, but I basically bypassed 75k got 1k on one flight (plus $$)

Good info, brianfromwa. Thank you for sharing it here. Can you (or anyone else) please comment further on how to make the "elite maximize" deal work, especially when mixing UA and CO legs? I know what it is, but does it come up if you're booking through UA, or do you have to go through the CO site? I've read about it a bit over the past few weeks, but haven't jumped on it yet. No problem if you don't want to go into it.

Thanks again for sharing the info you've already posted

Cheers!

Log in to your OP account on CO.com. Search for your reservation using the CO confirmation number that should so up on your United.com reservation page. It should show the combined UA/CO itinerary w/ your UA MP #. Add your OP #. You should then be able to select the OP Maximizer button. After you select the OP Maximizer, you will be given a choice to add "OP Elite Maximizer". Load your credit card information and you are good to go. Just completed all of the steps on a DCA-CLE-CLT-RSW reservation in November. OP Elitze Maximizer cost was 6cpm...

Good Luck!

Thank you vandy96. I appreciate the help.