FlyerTalk Forums - Couple starting questions

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Couple starting questions

So I do not want to be a bother and want to learn the in's and out's of this and hopefully help some other people out along the way...

Here is what I am reading right now:

Quote:

Step 3: Watch for fares. Two places to do this are this forum and the Travelocity Dreammaps Page. Is there a cheap fare near where you are or where you will be in the near future? Does it go a long way to someplace that there isn't a warrant for your arrest? Are these two places a good distance apart? Even better, do you recall someone mentioning on FT that really long routings are possible?

Alternatively, you can skip this step if you were planning some travel that isn't quite as flexible and you would be flying between these cities anyway (in this case it technically isn't a MR, but you may be able to heap on the miles by choosing a creative routing in the next few steps.

Step 4: Confirm the fare exists, and get details. Use Travelocity to find this fare (either by following through the link from Dream Maps or by going to the main page and selecting flexible schedule) and see if you can find some itinerary on it (even if it isn't one that will work for you). Now go to Expedia and try to get this itinerary for the same low price.

So to start am I looking for just a roundtrip fare at a "sale" price and then just fitting multiple connections in between the 2 destinations to try to achieve a similar price? That's where I am getting lost- on the initial research part... Also does living in a city that's a hub (cleveland) help or hurt your chances of having a goo MR? I am looking to get elite with continental so I was just wondering.

Thanks for any help anyone can shoot my way... Back to reading!

Welcome to Flyertalk, blackburn2413.

Thanks for making the effort to read the stickies.

What you are reading is valuable for someone who really wants to do a "pure" mileage run. You would just determine what your objective is: "I need 7,463 miles on Continental before Dec 31" and then try to find the least expensive way of getting those 7,463 miles. It might be a quick-turn trip to Europe, or a week spent shuttling between IAH and SAT.

For most folks getting started at this, I usually recommend that they start with trips that they are already planning, and try to add some (worthwhile) segments to that trip. This will just give you a feeling for whether you think this is really worthwhile. So if you are looking to go to SFO from CLE on CO, instead of taking the nonstop, take the connection through IAH or EWR (or both, if the fare rules permit it). There will be some frustration along the way and you may question why you didn't just take the nonstop. But I find this to be a way to ease into mileage running.

Using hubs as starting points for mileage runs can have positive and negative results. For example, if CO wants to beat up AA, CO might run a sale on fares from DFW and ORD. If AA wants to fight back, they might lower fares from EWR and CLE. The problem is that CO often doesn't get involved in this kind of stuff. Secondly, the "routing rules" on CO flights are often not very generous. For example, UA will typically let you fly all over the place to get from Point A to Point B, while CO will often limit the number of connections to IAH. With CO joining the Star Alliance, be sure to check out routing rules on UA flights.

Anyway, welcome to the world of mileage running. And thanks for doing some homework first.

Hey thanks for the help. I have been on a lot of forums and thats the one thing that bugs me is someone joining the site and expecting all the research to be handed to them. I am trying to do my homework :)

Thanks again for the help!

I've been lurking/reading for the last 3-4 weeks as well, and I'm still learning new stuff! There's a lot out there, but learning everything is half the fun :)

From one newbie to another, I've found http://www.farecompare.com/search/flyertalk.html to be helpful for finding potential MR routes. Then, read up on the ITA syntax and have fun. I've even found some routings on UA that were cheaper than the ones .bomb would list by using ITA. A nice surprise since I was just trying to extend a trip I needed to take anyway.