aerochrome

Hey all, first post here! Looking for some help to close out my year and get status for the first time.

*Departure Airport: LAX (Or any SoCal airport)
*Miles Needed: 15,335 MQM.
*Required Spend or Budget: For sure need $1200MQD. Cheapest would be great, but would love to find deals in premium economy/biz class.
*Available Travel Dates: Weekends and most weekdays October - December.
*Required Meta or Codeshares okay*: Codeshares are perfect

canuck_traveler

You could fly China Eastern, Oct 21 - 23, LAX-SIN, $486, about 19000+ MQMs, $1600 MQD, economy, other dates available at similar prices

Kenneth Taylor

I am new to this forum. I am Platinum Delta but am going to fall short this year. I am probably about 25000 MQMs short (despite Amex) and am interested in spending a weekend or two to do a Mileage run to get the MQMs. I need some help. I can only travel over a weekend but am OK with spending the whole weekend in planes if needed. Can someone help me get started? I originate in Atlanta btw

rbAA

Probably the best place to start would be the Mileage Run Discussion forum:

DL/Sky Team: 2019 Consolidated Mileage/Status/Challenge Runs help needed

canuck_traveler

25,000 miles on weekend only travel will take you a few trips. For example, an ATL-KOA run will get you about 9000 MQMs (prices are as low as $745 in basic economy, out Saturday with immediate turn in Kona and getting back to Atlanta Sunday afternoon/evening.) An ATL-ANC run will get you about 7200 MQMs (prices can be as low as $644 in basic economy, out Saturday and back by Sunday morning.) You could do a ATL-ICN-ATL trip which would get you about 14,000 MQMs (leaving shortly after midnight on Saturday and getting back to Atlanta Sunday afternoon) but that would cost in the $2000 range.

For about $1400 and part of a Friday evening, you could do a run to Santiago, Chile and get about 15,000 MQM. For example:

Delta, Friday Nov 15 (8:30pm departure), ATL-LAX
Aeromexico, Friday, Nov 15, LAX-MEX-SCL (depart LAX at 11:59pm, 2 hours in SCL)
Aeromexico, Saturday, Nov 16, SCL-MEX-LAX (arriving in LAX on Sunday at 9:25am)
Delta, Sunday Nov 17 LAX-ATL (departing LAX at 11:35am, arriving in ATL at 6:48pm)

Delta ticket, $517 (Main Cabin), Aeromexico ticket $850 Similar prices for other dates

ht2791

Hey I'm looking at an MQD run out of LAX as well. Can you help me understand your math? I'm seeing 17684 miles (gcmap.com) round trip (lax-pvg-sin). Based on the economy class Y (25%) or B (20%) or M,E,H (20%) shouldn't we net 4421 MQDs or 3536 MQDs? I read your post that the ticket would be purchased through China Eastern.

canuck_traveler

Thanks for catching a typo..........

For that $486 price, the booking class for the LAX-PVG-LAX portion is T so only earns 5% MQD (12996 x 5% = 649.8). The PVG-SIN-PVG portion is B which earns 20% (4754 * .20 = 950.8) Total MQD = 649.8+950.8 = 1600.6 (not 1500 as I posted earlier.)

You would be correct if you are able to get a better booking class for the trans-Pacific portion of the trip.

Yes, you can buy the ticket on the China Eastern US website or on Expedia.com or other online travel agencies (I normally buy MU tickets from Expedia because it lists the booking class and so I can see what I am buying. The China Eastern website also lists the booking class but I don't feel comfortable buying directly from them.)

newending

Hi canuck_traveler!

I never came back to properly thank you for your mileage run recommendation a few months ago. I'm back once again to try to finish off Platinum this year!

*Departure Airport: SJC/SFO
*Miles Needed: 19,768 MQM
*Required Spend or Budget: ~$700 if possible
*Available Travel Dates: Weekends are best but if that isn't an option weekdays are good too. Any date before 10/23/19.
*Required Meta or Codeshares okay*: Anything's fine, only need MQM

If it comes pretty close to the 19K required I can do a trip to LA or something.

Thanks again!

MSPeconomist

If the person doesn't care so much about cost, there are some longhaul international routes in D1 or PS (both earning 150% MQMS) that earn a lot more MQMs in a weekend, although one would need to look carefully at schedules, depending on whether a three day weekend is OK. However, I'm not aware of anything that's far enough to get the full 25,000 MQMs in one trip from ATL, although there could be some possibilities, especially with creative routing.

canuck_traveler

A SFO-SIN run to Singapore on China Eastern will get you about 19,400 MQMs but while there are tickets in the $675 range, the connections are not great and will require 3+ days of travel. e.g.Oct. 11 - 14. Depart at noon on Oct 11 and get back to SFO at 9:30 Monday morning with 7 and 8 hour connections in PVG as well as 17 hours in Singapore.

A run from Los Angeles isn't that much better but the connection times are shorter and you will get the needed mileage. e.g LAX-SIN, Oct 20 - 22, $543, 20127 MQMs.

newending

Thanks for the quick reply canuck_travler!

I found a flight for $442 roundtrip from SFO-LHR that will earn 11,942 MQMs. With that, I would only need 7826 MQMs with ~$300 budget remaining. Would you be able to find anything in that range? If not, I think I'll have to suck it up and do the long connections.

canuck_traveler

The SFO-LHR deal looks great. Maybe it would be much easier to do two of those runs.

I don't seem to see anything for 7826 miles in the $300 budget range. Sorry.

If you able to fly after Oct. 23, then Virgin Atlantic has some flights to JNB for $741 which will earn you 21,000+ MQMs

ht2791

Got it - The expedia tip helps in seeing the booking class while booking. Thank you for breaking down the math!

canuck_traveler

There are some LAX-JNB fares on Delta in the $834 range for dates in November.

Also some deals on Virgin Atlantic LAX-JNB, $762 in Economy Classic and $982 in Economy Delight (earns 25% MQM bonus and 25% MQD) for November

madrigalbna

Hello all, first off thank you for your assistance. Based on travel on Skyteam airlines I have planned through the balance of the year it appears I will end up about 25,000MQMs short of Diamond this year. My budget is very flexible on fare price.

I am seeking a mileage run plan preferably in business or premium economy to get around 25K mqms, can even be done in separate trips if needs be with a one or two day stopover. Simply looking for the best cpm I can find (even open to route suggestions that I may keep in the future for weekend holidays and to just rack up some mqms)

Based on my residence MQDs do not apply to me so I am only seeking MQMs, home base airport is SJU but any airport within the US is fine for me as I have so many points on so many programs to burn I can always just book a reward ticket to any city to begin my mileage run.

I really appreciate all the help.

Cheers