Suspicious?
 

Hey everyone~

Not sure if I'm posting this in the right forum, if not my apologies..

I just took my first MR last week (DSM-DEN-PHX-DEN-ORD-DSM) and it worked out so great I've booked another one in a few weeks. I've been telling some friends of mine about it, and I'm pretty much hearing things like "dumb", "stupid", "money-wasting", which I pretty much expected :)

BUT, someone did say something that got me thinking, that MR's could be "suspicious". Indeed, traveling around all day not spending more than an hour in any airport can look pretty suspicious. Especially after 9/11, I'm wondering if any frequent MRunners, especially those doing int'l runs have run into any security trouble. I'm considering a MR to LHR at some point, and don't know how I'd explain to the customs folks that I'll only be in the country for a few hours . . .

Have you been to the Mileage Run forum?

I'll go ahead and move this to the mileage run discussion forum.

Regards,

Flipside

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=634740

Amazingly poor customer service by Delta in that message.

Your time and money are yours to spend as you see fit.

If someone has a problem with your legal activities, I suggest you let them know where they can go and what they can do to themselves. Nothing less.

No, I've never had any trouble doing a mileage run. On the few instances that someone has noticed that I have an unusual travel pattern and ask about it, the questions usually seem to be more out of curiosity than any belief that I am up to something nefarious. I explain what I am doing, they give me a look that says, "Ah, one of you people," and everyone moves on.

Agreed. I also have no idea why a mileage run to several different airports would cause any suspicion whatsoever. Doesn't seem to me that the 9/11 terrorists were doing anything that would even remotely resemble a mileage run.

Mike

Moreover 9/11 has nothing to do with mileage running or most other things it is usually associated with.

When someone uses the phrase "because of 9/11", I interrupt with "Talk to The Hand" (or The Finger) because I will not accept this excuse.

Sounds like someone may have forgotten about 9-11.

In order to prevent this thread from getting closed or moved, I'll try to keep on-topic, but as it relates to the OP's original question, why should OP's trip or any mileage run be viewed as suspicious and what does it have to do with 9/11?

Mike

:td: :td: :td: What does 9/11 have to do with spending my own money on air travel? That statement has nothing to do with it. I doubt anyone has forgotten what happened that day, but air travel with my money has nothing to do with it.

Talk to The Hand.

couldn't have said it any better ^. (and on occasion, you will get a customs/immigration/airline/security person who will give you a "oh, you're one of those, huh?" with a smile.) let 'em eat cake and fly (er, m/r) your brains out :) (and if you're like me and a few other f/t'ers/mileage runners, you might just end up on televison ;))

Not only have I not encountered any questions, last year a GA saw me get off a plane and walk straight to her podium and ask for a BP on the return flight of the same plane. She said "making a connection?"

I have no idea what she was asking so I said yes and she printed the BP.

I went through FRA in Feb and stayed just 2 hours. No one blinked an eye.

This happened before 9-11, for what it's worth.

I was doing something like a mileage run - it was a fare that allowed so many coupons/flights for a flat rate, and I had arranged an extremely circuitous routing in order to maximize the miles from the number of flights available, including one pair of segments that essentially dropped from the upper midwest down to Texas and went back up again. Stopover in Houston was about one hour.

I got off the plane, wandered around for a little while near the gate, then sat and read waiting for the flight to be called. From time to time I noticed one guy looking at me, and when the flight was boarding, he and another man came over, showed airport security credentials, and asked if they could ask me some questions.

I had no objection to hearing questions (although I might, in the proper circumstances, object to answering them), and so when they asked about my unusual routing I explained. They in turn explained to me that when the "unusual" routing came to the attention of the "authorities" (I didn't ask how that came to happen), they felt it looked like a courier or smuggler run, and had observed me to see if there was a "brush-past" or "hand-off" to someone or if I got or left something at a "dead drop".

I guess it could look like smuggling or spying (industrial or otherwise) from the routing and short layover, and that in itself could be suspicious.

I've never had a problem with an MR. It's my money, and I'm paying for tickets according to the airlines' own rules. I'm not doing anything wrong.