Did You Do a Mileage Run or Mattress Run in 2015? Survey
Dec 22, 2015, 7:18 am
#16
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1MM, Marriott LT Plat, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 184
I scheduled an overnight SFO-IAH-PBI-EWR-SFO on UA with a free Chase Marriott night to hit 75K. ($299)
After hearing rumors about changes to UA MM, I added SFO-ORD-IND-IAD-SFO which left at 6AM and returned at 1AM. ($265 - $100 voucher). By coincidence, the two MR wound up back to back with Friday in between.
When I got to ORD I changed my ORD-IND-IAD to ORD-IAD. Both runs were first all the way except for EWR-SFO, where the Incredible Hulk was in the middle seat and ORD-IAD where the middle seat was blocked (select seats showed it open, seat map showed it occupied).
After hearing rumors about changes to UA MM, I added SFO-ORD-IND-IAD-SFO which left at 6AM and returned at 1AM. ($265 - $100 voucher). By coincidence, the two MR wound up back to back with Friday in between.
When I got to ORD I changed my ORD-IND-IAD to ORD-IAD. Both runs were first all the way except for EWR-SFO, where the Incredible Hulk was in the middle seat and ORD-IAD where the middle seat was blocked (select seats showed it open, seat map showed it occupied).
Dec 22, 2015, 7:18 am
#17
Join Date: Sep 2015
Programs: AA, DL, UA
Posts: 1
Mileage Run
Did my first, a MCO-MIA-GRU-MIA-GRU-DFW->MCO, two weeks ago for AA EP. 18K EQM, $983.
Yeah, pricey, but handled between 7:30am ET Sat and 5:10am CT Monday, so less than 45 hrs.. Was J or W the whole time.
Yeah, pricey, but handled between 7:30am ET Sat and 5:10am CT Monday, so less than 45 hrs.. Was J or W the whole time.
Last edited by OttoDog; Dec 22, 2015 at 1:32 pm
Dec 22, 2015, 7:27 am
#18
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2008
Location: CHA, MAN;
Programs: Delta DM 1 MM; Hz PC
Posts: 11,169
Did the survey - answered no to all. I did however do some "airport runs".
Aug 1st 2015 Dayton - Minn St Paul
Aug 1st 2015 Minn St Paul – Anchorage
Aug 1st 2015 Anchorage – Cordova New airport
Aug 1st 2015 Cordova – Yakutat New airport
Aug 2nd 2015 Yakutat – Cordova
Aug 2nd 2015 Cordova – Anchorage
Aug 2nd 2015 Anchorage – Atlanta
Aug 3rd 2015 Atlanta – Dayton
Aug 21st 2015 Dayton – Atlanta
Aug 21st 2015 Atlanta – Buffalo, NY New airport
Aug 22nd 2015 Syracuse, NY – La Guardia New airport
Aug 22nd 2015 LaGuardia – Greensboro, NC New airport
Aug 23rd 2015 Greensboro, NC – Detroit
Aug 23rd 2015 Detroit –Syracuse, NY
Aug 23rd 2015 Buffalo – Detroit
Aug 23rd 2015 Detroit - Dayton
Aug 1st 2015 Dayton - Minn St Paul
Aug 1st 2015 Minn St Paul – Anchorage
Aug 1st 2015 Anchorage – Cordova New airport
Aug 1st 2015 Cordova – Yakutat New airport
Aug 2nd 2015 Yakutat – Cordova
Aug 2nd 2015 Cordova – Anchorage
Aug 2nd 2015 Anchorage – Atlanta
Aug 3rd 2015 Atlanta – Dayton
Aug 21st 2015 Dayton – Atlanta
Aug 21st 2015 Atlanta – Buffalo, NY New airport
Aug 22nd 2015 Syracuse, NY – La Guardia New airport
Aug 22nd 2015 LaGuardia – Greensboro, NC New airport
Aug 23rd 2015 Greensboro, NC – Detroit
Aug 23rd 2015 Detroit –Syracuse, NY
Aug 23rd 2015 Buffalo – Detroit
Aug 23rd 2015 Detroit - Dayton
Dec 22, 2015, 7:52 am
#19
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 3
Short MR
My wife and I needed miles for UA Silver and Gold respectively: I needed 32 PQD and 101 PQM which UA wouldn't not overlook, despite a long list of transgressions, highlighted by a bag that went to Tel Aviv instead of DEN which only got found due to persistent calling (it had been tagged with someone else's name, they kept looking for it under my name), an unplanned 24 hour vacation in CLE, and being chintzed on PQD/PQM coming back from VIE on our honeymoon. My loyalty is questionable at best.
So off we went: DEN-IAH-DFW-DEN. Had a late lunch at the Pecan Lodge in Deep Ellum, crashed at the Hyatt Regency below Reunion Tower, woke up and back to DEN in less than 24 hours (barely). Also got to see Chuck Norris w/his family in IAH on his way to SFO.
So off we went: DEN-IAH-DFW-DEN. Had a late lunch at the Pecan Lodge in Deep Ellum, crashed at the Hyatt Regency below Reunion Tower, woke up and back to DEN in less than 24 hours (barely). Also got to see Chuck Norris w/his family in IAH on his way to SFO.
Dec 22, 2015, 7:53 am
#20
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: NYC-BNA
Programs: Lifetime Plat/4mm miles, Starwood, HiltonHonors
Posts: 657
In this, my 16th and (intentionally) final year as executive platinum on AA, did zero MRs, and it felt good. No more FRA for lunch! The rules and the culture around elite qualification are changing, and not in a manner that I prefer to participate in anymore. So I'll be flying less and hopefully, enjoying it more. (Platinum for life status will help.)
Dec 22, 2015, 8:18 am
#21
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Amsterdam, Asia, UK
Programs: IHG RA (Spire), HH Diamond, MR Platinum, SQ Gold, KLM Gold, BAEC Gold
Posts: 5,072
Kind of mattress run. I chose my long weekend August break to be 4nights at IC Budapest as I needed 3 IC nights to keep my IHG RA status.
I always take a 3-5 night long weekend in August, but I had to choose a destination this year with an inexpensive IC hotel , else I would have chosen a different destination if I had already stayed enough IC nights
I always take a 3-5 night long weekend in August, but I had to choose a destination this year with an inexpensive IC hotel , else I would have chosen a different destination if I had already stayed enough IC nights
Dec 22, 2015, 9:17 am
#24
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Hermosa Beach, CA
Programs: AA EXP, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 67
Day in Santiago
I was 35K miles short of requalifying for AA EP as of October 1, without doing a few trips to Europe this year. I had several other trips planned but needed to make up the difference so I jumped on a LAX-JFK-GRU-JFK-LAX sale I found for $602in early Nov. It was down and back with about two hours between the GRU legs. Turned out that I couldn't get a Visa in time for transit through GRU so AA was extremely helpful and re-booked me on a day trip to SCL.
Arrived SCL at 6:30am, showered and reset in the awesome LanChile Lounge (totally modern & chic vs. the dated Admirals Club with wood fixtures everywhere), spent the day exploring Santiago, had a great meal and then returned that evening.
Final Route:
LAX-JFK-MIA-SCL-MIA-JFK-LAX
15,364 miles total $0.039/mile
For 2016, I'm stalking a LAX-LHR-JHB-LHR-LAX to get 24,384 miles for just under a grand.
Arrived SCL at 6:30am, showered and reset in the awesome LanChile Lounge (totally modern & chic vs. the dated Admirals Club with wood fixtures everywhere), spent the day exploring Santiago, had a great meal and then returned that evening.
Final Route:
LAX-JFK-MIA-SCL-MIA-JFK-LAX
15,364 miles total $0.039/mile
For 2016, I'm stalking a LAX-LHR-JHB-LHR-LAX to get 24,384 miles for just under a grand.
Dec 22, 2015, 9:28 am
#25
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: PDX
Programs: AA Ex Plat, Alaska MVP Gold 75K, Hertz Gold 5*
Posts: 197
Did my first ever MR back in October.
PDX-PHX-BOS-DFW-BOS-DFW-LAX-PDX
Shooting for AAExPlat in 2016. I know the bennys aren't as good as they used to be but I don't care. I'll have to do MR's for about 50k miles over the course of the year. I'm really looking forward to it!!
PDX-PHX-BOS-DFW-BOS-DFW-LAX-PDX
Shooting for AAExPlat in 2016. I know the bennys aren't as good as they used to be but I don't care. I'll have to do MR's for about 50k miles over the course of the year. I'm really looking forward to it!!
Dec 22, 2015, 9:55 am
#26
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 3
Best way to calculate flights for MR?
Probably off-topic in this thread, but what tools do folks use to calculate their MR itineraries?
For the DFW trip above, we used Google Flights, as we had a limited set of weekends to find the cheapest UA flights that would give us the right amount of miles to tier up.
For the DFW trip above, we used Google Flights, as we had a limited set of weekends to find the cheapest UA flights that would give us the right amount of miles to tier up.
Dec 22, 2015, 10:16 am
#27
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Antwerp
Programs: BA Gold, AA PLT, Hilton Diamond, IC Platinum Ambassador
Posts: 17
I did 2 mileage runs in November-December, total of 25 flights. First one was a weekend return to Hawaii (AMS-LHR-LAX-HNL), flew out of AMS on Saturday morning and returned from HNL on Sunday morning, back home on Monday night.
Second one was a 7 day haul in economy for a ridiculously low price I flew the following: BRU-FRA-OSL-LHR-MIA-DFW-SFO-DFW-HKG-CGK-NRT-JFK-DFW-LAX-DFW-MIA-LHR-WAW-ZRH-BRU.
The 2 trips combined got me a total of over 120k in AA miles, which I'll use to do birthday trip with next year :-)
Second one was a 7 day haul in economy for a ridiculously low price I flew the following: BRU-FRA-OSL-LHR-MIA-DFW-SFO-DFW-HKG-CGK-NRT-JFK-DFW-LAX-DFW-MIA-LHR-WAW-ZRH-BRU.
The 2 trips combined got me a total of over 120k in AA miles, which I'll use to do birthday trip with next year :-)
Dec 22, 2015, 12:02 pm
#28
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: FLG
Programs: AA ExP, UA Platinum, Marriott Platinum, IHG PlatInum
Posts: 88
Long non-traditional MR
While I've done short MRs in the past when I was 1k PQMs or less short of silver (once for US, another time for UA), this year I was in trouble. Most of my travel is leisure, and in 2015 most of my travel was free using miles. So in August I realized I'd be about 14.7k PQM short of keeping silver on UA for 2016. While the standard perks for silver have been whittled away for all airlines in recent years, there's one perk of being elite that has made it worthwhile for me to keep, even at silver: being able to talk to better customer service at the dedicated 800-number (or getting my emails routed to them) has served me well over the last few years. I have gotten thousands of "sorry" bonus miles, more than $1k in "sorry" vouchers, kept my silver a few years ago even though a flight I had booked on Austrian was in a non-qualifying fare, and gotten reaccommodated in tight scenarios on multiple occasions.
So when I realized that without a lengthy MR I'd be losing my silver status next year, I went into action, both in terms of finding a suitable MR, and of convincing my "accountant" (i.e. my wife) that I needed to do this. While I was able to convince her that we needed to keep my silver status, I wasn't able to convince her that I should do a traditional MR trip. She thought I was crazy for even thinking it for a trip that long (obviously she hasn't seen some of the posts on this thread
). I eventually had to "compromise", which meant doing an actual trip to visit a place (and stay for a few days) and to take her with me.
We'll be doing the following trip, departing on 12/25 and returning on 12/31: PHX-SFO-HKG-SGN-NRT-DEN-PHX. Depending on whether the ANA/Air Japan SGN-NRT flight gets counted (the rez page shows it counting; the etkt receipt page says it doesn't), I should get 14.9k or 17.6k PQMs. If I had done it as a true MR, I had found airfare as low as $789 rt in Y. Given that I had to push it to the holidays to accommodate my wife's schedule, that went up to $1221pp, plus I had to burn 75k IHG points and use my free IHG Chase night to stay 4 nights at the IC Asiana in HCMC (for a 5* hotel, not a bad deal at all). So while it's no longer a true MR trip, the fact that I wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't for wanting to maintain my status makes it qualify in my opinion.
Happy holidays to all, and safe travels!
So when I realized that without a lengthy MR I'd be losing my silver status next year, I went into action, both in terms of finding a suitable MR, and of convincing my "accountant" (i.e. my wife) that I needed to do this. While I was able to convince her that we needed to keep my silver status, I wasn't able to convince her that I should do a traditional MR trip. She thought I was crazy for even thinking it for a trip that long (obviously she hasn't seen some of the posts on this thread
). I eventually had to "compromise", which meant doing an actual trip to visit a place (and stay for a few days) and to take her with me.We'll be doing the following trip, departing on 12/25 and returning on 12/31: PHX-SFO-HKG-SGN-NRT-DEN-PHX. Depending on whether the ANA/Air Japan SGN-NRT flight gets counted (the rez page shows it counting; the etkt receipt page says it doesn't), I should get 14.9k or 17.6k PQMs. If I had done it as a true MR, I had found airfare as low as $789 rt in Y. Given that I had to push it to the holidays to accommodate my wife's schedule, that went up to $1221pp, plus I had to burn 75k IHG points and use my free IHG Chase night to stay 4 nights at the IC Asiana in HCMC (for a 5* hotel, not a bad deal at all). So while it's no longer a true MR trip, the fact that I wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't for wanting to maintain my status makes it qualify in my opinion.
Happy holidays to all, and safe travels!
Dec 22, 2015, 1:02 pm
#29
Join Date: Sep 2005
Programs: AC MM E50 , Former SPG, now Marriott LT Plat
Posts: 6,281
I did not do a mattress run per se, but I did do several 1 night stays in separate
properties in the same city, rather than a 2 or 3 night stay in the same property
so I could get my SPG stays up to qualify for my Life time Plat ( which I qualified
for this year).
properties in the same city, rather than a 2 or 3 night stay in the same property
so I could get my SPG stays up to qualify for my Life time Plat ( which I qualified
for this year).
Dec 22, 2015, 1:37 pm
#30
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 87
It seems like a MR doesn't make as much sense on DL, with their rollover MQMs. MR really only make sense for those living at a hub, or an airport offering several options on a carrier, which mine does not.
FWIW, I made PL on DL this year the hard way. I have 88,764 MQM's on 82 segments. That includes about 5k in rollover MQMs and 5k promotional MQMs (CC). My employer only allows economy seats as well, so no bonus MQMs for FC.
Also hit 75 nights at Marriott to retain my platinum status there as well.
It would be great to make Diamond on DL, but it seems like it is just too hard without international travel, or the long trans-con flights.
FWIW, I made PL on DL this year the hard way. I have 88,764 MQM's on 82 segments. That includes about 5k in rollover MQMs and 5k promotional MQMs (CC). My employer only allows economy seats as well, so no bonus MQMs for FC.
Also hit 75 nights at Marriott to retain my platinum status there as well.
It would be great to make Diamond on DL, but it seems like it is just too hard without international travel, or the long trans-con flights.