Is this good for a MR on NW and could I have done better?
 

I haven't done a MR before and to be honest, I haven't had the need. Now I find myself in a situation where MR's might be in my future, and at the very least, if I have to go from A to B anyway, I might as well get the most out of it.

I'm not currently flying for work so this is strictly on my dime. As my work flying stopped, I dropped from Plat to Silver. I would at least like to try and keep Silver.

I need to fly from FLL to PHX in September. I had a little flexibility but not much. The fares were varying quite a bit between airlines and the best I could get for the dates I need was about $271 on CO. Of course, that also meant 50% EQM's. Not really helping the cause very much. NW was in the $400's.

Anyway, I was looking through the mileage run threads and found some info about ITA software. Using that, I started playing around with connections and came up with FLL-MEM-MSP-PHX-MEM-BNA-DTW-FLL for $322 a.i. booked on nwa.com. Works out to about 5.17 cpm for EQM's and 3.45 cmp for RDM's (including Silver Bonus - 2.3 cpm if I was still Plat :()

Like I said, I have to go to PHX anyway so whether I get 6K miles, 3K miles, or 0 miles, I have to go. I'm curious though to see if, all things considered, this is a decent deal as far as MR's go and also if I could have done better. I'm just trying to judge how well I used the ITA software, etc. I didn't think to look at the fare rules to see if I could add in more connections, but given the timing of the flights, I'm not sure I could have anyway.

Thanks for any thoughts and/or suggestions.

Picking up 2500 real EQM for $50? Doesn't seem so shabby.

"..make lemonade" :D
(and mind any 'direct' flight-numbers)
/.

That's essentially what I was looking at. It actually works out as about 4000 EQM extra for the $50. I would only get ~2k flying CO but I get about 6k with this routing. Also, no direct flight numbers so I'm ok there.

Double check the fare details to see how your trip is broken down. My hunch is that you are booked on a circle trip using the FLL-PHX, PHX--BNA and BNA-FLL fares averaged.... possibly snagging part of the $138RT PHX-BNA.... in which case, you can opt to connect through, say, DTW down to BNA, then head back through DTW to FLL for a few extra miles at the same cirle trip fare. To really optimize, though, you should know the composition of the fares you are using: if the FLL-PHX is relatively low, you may want to triple-check for availability on that through fare for your return. Or, if routing via BNA is better cost/mile, then try to force that into the outbound. Without knowing the dates or fare breakdown, though, it's tough to accurately advise you.


However, if you're looking to save a bit of cash, you may want to check out the possibility of combining the $100 round trip NW Orlando-PHX with a $9ish FLL-MCO Spirit flight. (MR purists: there can be use for the ultra-cheap budget carrier promotions among Mileage Runners traveling with the majors.) If the moons, etc. align, you may be able to get close to the same mileage for half the price.)

Viajero, thanks so much for your reply. This is why I'm going to try to make it to the next seminar. I got lucky finding this. In fact, I had a CO ticket booked and had about 30 mins left to cancel when I found this.

How do I look up the fare details? I did notice that the first 5 segments are the same fare basis, kr7w8n, and then the last 2 are kr14w8n. When I clicked on the fare basis on nwa.com, I see lots of info, but I'm not sure that this is exactly what you're referring to.

My question about doing better was asked with the thought in mind that perhaps I could have gone via DTW to BNA and then via DTW to FLL. Although for this trip, I wouldn't have had time anyway.

Thanks again for the thoughts. At least I know that I have a lot more learning to do. :)

You would see the fare breakdown a series of different "Fares" listed, like "Fare A(1)". Each of these will have an origination and destination city (and will link to the fare rules, which describe flight restrictions / numbers / as well as maximum numbers of connections). From there, one can be a little more creative at getting from the origination city to destination city. The previous poster is suggesting that if the itinerary is pricing out PHX-BNA, then BNA-FLL, one could go through DTW and/or MSP and/or MEM once on the way to BNA and could go through DTW and/or MSP and/or MEM once on the way to FLL. This would ordinarily be prohibited as "backtracking" if it were a normal one-way route.

Even if constrained for time, connecting in MEM and picking up the extra two segments (and 1,000+ EQM) could still work.

So, for those of you suggesting the other stopover points, i.e. DTW, I take it that if applicable, ITA will list it. So, let's say I check NWA's website and it's not bookable there.

Short of using a site like Orbitz or Travelocity, have any of you had success calling NWA and talking them through booking the fare when you know there's availability in the given fare class (when the website did not allow you to do so)?

I ask this question from the standpoint of never having booked a MR and still learning. Thanks for reading!

I just recently did this, however it is usually not able to be found by an agent. I found a fare on ITA from ATW-MSP-DTW-GRR and back for $177 when online at NWA it was showing at $278. I had to call NW and give the flights and have her put it together and she was able to get the $177 fare. She was surprised at the fare vs. what she could find in the system.

All depends greatly on the agent you get also. Sometimes you can call the NWA Website support and get some success.