Advice for a Newbie
 

I am fascinated with the idea of doing MR's. Spent a lot of yesterday reading up on Millage Runs and the different routings that people take. I am currently a GM on United, and don't really want to get to any status level with them (Premier would be nice), but thinking about doing a MR over a weekend for fun (am I crazy for wanting to do a MR for fun?). I am in Chicago so I would be flying out of ORD, and want to do this all on United. I was intrigued with the idea of flying out Saturday morning, and taking a red-eye back Saturday night, putting me in around 1 am on Sunday, so I accomplish the Saturday stay-over, but don't have to stay the night anywhere.

Any suggestions on routing in and out of ORD without needed to spend the night anywhere?

Thanks for the help.

ord-hnl spend the afternoon at the beach redeye home

hi mlx52, i'm based in ORD too and am very interested for a MR. lets keep in touch if we find anything. =)

Welcome
 

Welcome to world of craziness, but it is fun, took 5 days to SIN with Mrs.

Your post is rather unclear about a some things. First you say you DON'T want to get status on UA, but then talk about doing a MR on them.

Personally, I don't like pure MR's. I like to see new places and relax a bit. I'll try to work a weekend trip somewhere and have some fun while I'm there.

Remember to keep your costs down, and that you generally need 25k in a calendar year to get to the first elite level. An inexpensive trip to Singapore would get you 18 or 20k of miles in one trip, but Singapore is fairly expensive these days, if you going to have to stay for 3 or 4 days.

Confirmed MRer here.

How about taking 944 ORD-FRA on a Saturday afternoon and 945 FRA-ORD on Sunday morning (same plane so you can't miss it if you're late in)? I've done it - 2 hours at FRA, just enough time to get your passport stamped and have a couple of beers!

Welcome to the world of MR'ing. Almost everyone you know will think you're crazy, but as we've discussed on here many times, the real craziness is not doing MR's.


I don't want to be rude but I see, with regular frequency on these boards, new members that say "I'm new to mileage runs...please somebody give me an itinerary to get a lot of miles cheap and easy." Simply put, putting together a MR requires you to read the FAQ's several times and keep your eyes open for deals. It takes me several hours to put together a good MR and can't just randomly have one ready for you to do.

Welcome to this hobby and have fun!

I am not interested in getting any particular status on United. I just find it very interesting to see how people come up with obscure routing to maximize the number of miles traveled. It's not so much of getting a certain status, nice side-effect, but more of, can I figure out how to fly in and out of ORD without spending the night in a hotel, on a reasonable fare.

My only question at this point is: If you aren't seeking status, is there any reason why you want to fly UA and not any other carrier?

Halothane

Dole,

I understand what you are saying, but I have been guilty of a similar post because even after reading the FAQ, lurking on the boards and playing with the ITA software for hours on ends, I was not able to find the same 2 cents per EQM that others were. I have posted deals that I found, but was just soliciting some ideas for starters. Do you have any suggestions on how to do this within the confines of good board etiquette? Obviously I am not asking anyone to be my travel agent, I am just want some starter ideas of where to look.

Thanks,

Scott

I wasn't looking for, book this route at this price, kind of suggestions. More of United runs lean on xyz route, or stay away from this route. I have read the FAQ's and will admit that I have a lot more to learn, I think my initial post was also to reassure myself, that even though my family gave me the strangest look last night, it still was a good idea.
I was able to find ORD->IAD->MCO->DEN->SFO->ORD, 24 period of flying, but no hotel for $530. Little more than I want to spend, but gets me around 5,700 miles.

What's the point of earning 5,700 miles if you're not going to try and obtain elite status? I'm just a little confused. UA and AA are typically the easiest to do a true MR on. That is more than I would pay for 5,700 miles. With some work (namely using ITA) you can generally come up with some pretty decent mid-cons with some unusual routings for ~$200.

Halothane

I have lifetime Plat. on American, and hate flying MD-80's. I wanted to get some flying time on United. This is more of a challenge to myself, to see if I can come up with a cheap fare that maximizes miles. Crazy, I know.

One thing you could do is remove the redeye no hotel obstacle you have put in your path. A $59 priceline hotel with a $299 flight is cheaper than what you have found so far. A lot easier too. also there's really not very many cheap flights around right now, better to do MRs in spring and fall Good luck

Scott,

The OP is being reasonable and I'm happy to see posters like him. What I was cautioning him to steer clear of is being one of those new posters that comes to the board and literally says "gimme an easy MR....I don't feel like investing the hours in reading the FAQ's" which is very different than doing the homework then asking detailed and targeted questions.

I understand what you're saying about trying to get specifics of the fares others have posted.


OP,

I would go to UA site and using the muli-city option construct a routing using as many cities as possible. For example, if one is trying to go from IAD-CMH, instead of taking that direct flight you would fly IAD-ORD-CMH. Another example, there is a direct ORD-PVD flight, but I recently flew ORD-RIC-IAD-PVD for about the same price as the direct.