Help! Need to earn 3,200 UA miles flying SFO-DEN in one day
 

G'day All,

I'm close to requalifying for 1K this year, but need to earn 3,200 miles to finish it off. I'm arriving in SFO on 09/Nov and want to fly SFO-DEN on 10/Nov.

The question is - how can I earn 3,200 miles flying SFO to DEN on UA?
I have a $300 UA voucher (as compo from a delayed LAX-SYD flight some time back) which I can put towards the ticket cost, and I don't mind paying a little more on top of that :)

Any ideas for clever routings?

Cheers
Greg

If you have the time to fly across the country and back, then that's easy. Otherwise it'll take something drastic such as SFO-IAD-DEN, and I don't think that's allowed. Simple detours up to SEA/PDX or down to LAX/SAN just isn't enough.

See if you can book SFO-SEA-DEN-SEA-SF0. That would give you 3,404 miles for the day.

I'm not exactly sure where the cheapest east coast or midwest destination would be, but if your end destination is Denver this might work:

Find somewhere on the east coast or midwest with a $200ish rounnd trip fare from SFO. Book SFO-ORD-XXX-ORD-DEN-STOPOVER-SFO so you'll get the 3200 miles in the trip ending in Denver. Since DEN is a $55 stovover fee on any trip that involves a legal connection in Denver, this would be perfectly legal and you could just throw the end of the ticket away (or book it for another time).

I played around and found MKE for $509; I'm sure you could do better. Routing is SFO-ORD-MKE-ORD-DEN for 2400 EQMS.

United Airlines Flight UA134 on a Boeing 767 (jet) in coach class
Departs San Francisco, CA (SFO) Sat, Nov 10 8:50a Arrives Chicago, IL (ORD) 3:01p

United Airlines Flight UA6062 on a Canadair Reg. Jet (jet) in coach class (operated by UNITED EXPRESS/SKYWEST)
Departs Chicago, IL (ORD) Sat, Nov 10 4:05p 44 min
Arrives Milwaukee, WI (MKE) 4:49p

Milwaukee, WI to Chicago, IL: 66 miles 53 min
United Airlines Flight UA5891 on a Canadair Reg. Jet (jet) in coach class
(operated by UNITED EXPRESS/SKYWEST)
Departs Milwaukee, WI (MKE) Sat, Nov 10 6:16p 53 min
Arrives Chicago, IL (ORD) 7:09p

United Airlines United Airlines Flight UA959 on a Boeing 737 (jet) in coach class
Departs Chicago, IL (ORD) Sat, Nov 10 7:50p 2 hrs 38 min
Arrives Denver, CO (DEN) 9:28p

Sure it is. It's a simple open jaw. Though it certainly won't be cheap at this point...

Can Be Done for $507
 

Flight 1 Information – Sat 10 Nov 2007
US Airways
Flight 1533 Departs: 7:20a
San Francisco (SFO) Arrives: 3:07p
Douglas (CLT)
Coach | Aircraft: 321 | 4h 47m
[ Layover in Charlotte, NC (CLT) for 2h 58m ]
US Airways
Flight 2208 Departs: 6:05p
Douglas (CLT) Arrives: 7:28p
Dulles Intl (IAD)
Coach | Aircraft: CR7 | 1h 23m

Flight 2 Information – Sat 10 Nov 2007
United
Flight 933 Departs: 9:45p
Dulles Intl (IAD) Arrives: 11:33p
Denver Inter.national (DEN)
Coach | Aircraft: 320 | 3h 48m

Airfare Taxes & Fees Total Cost
Orbitz $478.00 $29.00 $507.00 select

I priced out a SFO-SEA-DEN depart 10 Nov (one night stay) return DEN-SEA-SFO on 11 Nov for $461.60.

I think this is a better fit for the gurus over in the Mileage Run Forum; moving this thread there. Good Luck!

FlyinHawaiian, Co-Moderator
United Mileage Plus Forum

What I'd do would be to look at the 10:30 redeye out of SFO to
CLT, connecting perhaps to FLL and then Ted to DEN.

I don't know if this can be booked as UA numbers and even if
so whether your voucher would be usable, but I'd save the
voucher for next year and take, say:

1109 SFO CLT US 784
1110 CLT FLL US 989
1110 FLL DEN UA1531

On Orbitz, 14 hrs, $335 a/i.

nov 9 10:30 redeye sfo-iad-tpa-45min turn-den ns $378 all UA and ted. Use your 300 voucher and with the airplane as a hotel it will basically be free. 4500+ eqms and you will be in den at 1:44 in the afternoon