After a few years of PLAT/EXP, my work travel dropped off a cliff this year--so much so that I'm not even on track to maintain GOLD next year. Nevertheless, American Airlines sent me a requalifying challenge email to maintain at least Gold by hitting 5,000 EQ POINTS (not miles) by year-end.

I've spent some time on ITA Matrix and elsewhere looking for a good way to get the 5,000 EQP, but (i) I'm a complete newbie to the science of mileage running, and (ii) all the good deals are deep discount fares that only give .5 points per qualifying mile.

Can anyone help me find some possible MRs that would get me to my 5,000 EQP by year-end without having to fly 10,000 miles to do it? Basic parameters are:

AA (or qualifying oneworld)
DFW-based


Dates are generally flexible through year-end, but weekend/long-weekend preferred. Same-day would be great, but overnight is doable, too. My work is flexible enough I could basically spend a work-day working from 32,000 feet on my laptop if necessary.

Any help would be much appreciated.

mpc

Not an expert, but the fares that will earn 1epm/mile flown are more costly than those that earn.0.5. So it will be fly 5000x2 cheap or a bit more and get it over with. Why not head over to the Premium Fare thread. Maybe you can find a premium cabin fare that will meet your needs for less than 5000 BIS.

Thanks--I'll do that. In the meantime, it looks like my post was moved, but I can't tell where!!

Looks like it was moved to FlyerTalk Forums > Miles&Points > Mileage Run Deals > Mileage Run Discussion.

As I am always interested in a good MR from DFW, I will be watching the answers.

The problem you face is that you're in the middle of the country, so knocking out a 5,000-mile trip will be difficult. If it were me, I'd do something like fly DFW-SFO, then SFO-SJU on the discount fares. You could do it all without a hotel stay if you spent two nights on planes for under $700.

I am booking a DFW-SEA-LAX-DFW for $285 right now. It's a discount fare so the points aren't that great but it's good for miles Close to 3700 and, more importantly, gets me there and back in the same (albeit very long) day.