Can't get the hang of it
 

Ok,
I have tried and I just don't get how to do this. When I put in my origin (OMA), and a destination I do not get multiple stops like I see shown here.

Are you booking seperate flight segments or what?

I only get stops in Memphis or Minneapolis since I'm using NWA.

Do you track specials or do you just pay full price, which I cannot do just to get the miles.

I only have weekends to do this and think I need to wait until the beginning of the year since you have to accumulate the miles in a cal. year to have them apply to Elite on NWA.

I still have a ways to go to get the handle on this.

Thanks

MeWantMoreMiles

MeWantMoreMiles, If you ever have questions give me an email since I am also based out of OMA. I don't do alot of flights on NWA but do some but I try to keep track of the specials. It is possible to find multistop connections but it is a little harder from OMA. I have been looking at asia trips on UA but keep seeing cheap NWA flights to asia and also to europe. You would probably have to miss either some fridays or mondays but you could pretty quickly rack up some miles.


------------------
Robert

I would suggest you go the Northwest Airlines message board, here on FLYERTALK. There is LOTS of information on booking, earning miles, etc.

I want to start racking up the points starting Jan 1. For NWA you need to hit 75,000 for Plat. Elite in a cal. year.

If you have anything good on NWA let me know, maybe we could do a run.

I don't do much on UA but I can always start.

Missing a Friday or a Monday will not a big deal in a couple months. I will be with this new company 6 months then and time off will multiple faster.

I'm in West Omaha, you?

South by 60 and Q. My email is in the profile.

------------------
Robert

The trick is to use the "multi-city" option on the booking engine. Use nwa.com so you get 2000 miles for your first trip and 500 after that. Pay with a Visa (before 12/31 I think) and get another 1000 miles.

You forgot DTW as a hub too.

What you do is put in cities besides the hub. For example, if I want to go to SAT and grab good miles, for my segments I put in PHX-EWR, EWR-SAT, SAT-CMH, and CMH-PHX. This forces the engine to route me through hubs, since that's how the hub and spoke system works. The actual trip generated by these pairs was PHX-MSP, MSP-EWR, EWR-MEM, MEM-SAT, SAT-MEM, MEM-CMH, CMH-DTW,& DTW-PHX.

Do a search for "mileage run primer" and read what tvl4free posted, it's enlightening.

Good luck.

BUt does that give you a good price? I don't want to pay a huge fare by hitting multiple stops.

I did the search for Mileage Run Primer and it came up with 0 hits. I must have done something wrong or looked in the wrong forum. I will try later after work when I have more time to play with it.

Thanks

MeWantMoreMiles

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum...ML/000027.html

And anything tvl4free posts will be helpful!

Price? In my (limited) experience, it's a crapshoot! Sometimes you get a ridiculously low fare. Sometimes it's ridiculously high. Sometimes it won't price at all. Just keep playing with it.

robv and Mewant, I'm in NW Iowa and fly out of Oma, Sux, Dsm as well as Msp. Might be interested in NWA mileage run next year as well.Made silver this year and will be interested in getting to gold in 2003.

Lets keep in touch.

OK. From what I understand, you have to hit each level each year right?

Once you hit silver (or whatever level) you have to requalify each year.

Is there a program where once you hit a level you don't drop if you don't have activity?

I don't know if getting to a certain level is what I'm looking for. It will take me close to the year to get to the level and I don't know if I would fly and take advantage of the level much since I don't get alot of time off nor want to pay high rates for flights.

I think I'm just looking to get the miles so I can get free flights once I get enough miles.

I'm still interested in the MR though, would be fun. There are others here from the same area (OMA) and I'm sure would have interest also.

MeWantMoreMIles

From OMA (or most midwest cities), look at flying on CO to the west coast (SEA/SFO/LAX) via FLL.

Book it using the multi-city option as:

OMA-FLL (early morning)
FLL-west coast city (late afternoon)
west coast city-FLL (redeye)
FLL-OMA (afternoon)

This will get 8500-10000 (depends on west coast city and which intermediate hubs are used) status miles (for NW or CO) for $250 or less over a single grueling weekend.

In general, the way to get extra miles on NW and CO domestic runs is to look at the valid routings for a fare and then book using the multi-city option strategically leaving out intermediate cities (usually hubs) that the will get filled in automatically.

Thanks, I will look into this and start to think about my 2003 runs.

Anyone else in the OMA area that wants to make some runs in 2003?

MeWantMoreMiles

Yes, I was able to do PHX-MSP-EWR-MEM-SAT-MEM-CMH-DTW-PHX over a Sat and Sun for $193 plus $35 for a Priceline hotel in SAT.

And yes, you must requalify for status every year on NW. Even if you're Plat, if you don't fly at least 25k the next year, you drop to no status.

Edited to add: 7,189 base miles + 50% Silver bonus + 2,000 miles first time new nwa.com purchase + 1,000 miles visa purchase + 1,000 Mileage Mania miles (35 points, couldn't use kiosk for check-in due to 4 segments, so lost 5 points there, but won't matter anyway because I won't make the 50 point threshold) = 14,783 miles. This equals 2.68 cents per mile (cpm) before bonuses and 1.31 cpm after, not a bad deal. The reason for the trip was primarily to get Gold, not miles - everything next year is double miles, yeah!

FYI, try this cool mileage calculator when dreaming of trips.

[This message has been edited by Western Airlines (edited 11-11-2002).]

So what kind of miles did that trip get you?

MeWantMoreMiles