I tried to find a suitable answer here, but couldn't. Maybe someone can point me in the right direction.

Just saw the segment on Mileage Runners on CBS' Sunday Morning. But, what I just cannot figure out, is how a person can balance the mileage awarded to the cost of the ticket. Couldn't you just save the money you would spend on the tickets you didn't need and use it to fly somewhere you really want to go to?

Thanks for any clarification.

Welcome to FlyerTalk, dietofly!^

You may want to check out the Mileage Run forum, and especially the stickies there, which will have a lot of information. I think the best way to quickly demonstrate the usefulness is an example. I, for one, enjoy flying. For example I can usually book something like TPA-IAD-SFO-SEA-SFO-IAD-TPA for around $200, which nets north of 15K miles with elite bonuses. That means earning 120K miles costs me $1600. For 120K miles I can book a first class ticket on Singapore Airlines to Singapore and beyond, which usually costs tens of thousands of dollars.

Yep, what lucky said...
If I can only save fast enough to buy NYC to Singapore in first class which runs for about $12,000 nowadays.

Another factor is earning elite status with an airline. This has benefits which often can't otherwise be bought for any (reasonable) amount of money. That's not enough to justify flying in the first place, since if one isn't going to fly the benefits of airline status are useless, but if one's other flying adds up to (say) 48,000 miles with American in the course of a calendar year, they justify a cheap December trip to reach 50,000. The exact milestones vary from airline to airline, and most airlines have more than one with more goodies as you move up the ladder, but the idea is the same.

Thanks for the replies, folks. I'm starting to get the picture. But the money and time has to be available which may be a draw back in my case.

Any idea as to the percentage of people who travel just for the miles (non-business)?

You mean in the grand scheme of things? Very few, probably less than 1%, IMO.

dietofly asks:

Do you mean "travel just for the miles" or do you mean occasionally "travel just for the miles"?

I suspect that there are quite a few people who travel for work, find themselves just a few miles short of status at the end of the year and decide to take a mileage run to push them over the hump. I know last year our son left the office in December, jumped on a plane SEA/BLI/SEA, and was back in the office in a little over an hour, just to become an AS MVP. This year he got those $216 SEA/HNL AS tickets and flew to HNL with his girlfriend to get MVPG, and play in the sun for a week.

Hunki and I travel over 100,000 miles a year and have been in the status game for over 10 years now. Because we have been at it for a while, we no longer take any last minute "mileage runs" but we are very aware of making status for the following year, right from the start of each new year. We have both already booked close to 50,000 flight miles in 2008, spread out over seven trips. Six of those trips are to places we really do need to go, but one was just a wonderful opportunity to buy a great ticket to a country we had never visited, at a dirt cheap price, so we said, Why not?

There will probably be a point somewhere this year where a FlyerTalk party that interests us comes up somewhere in the world. Our decision to attend will be based on numerous factors:

How well do we like, or think we will like the destination?

Are we able to get reasonably priced tickets with one of the two airlines on which we hold status?

Can we fly in first or business?

Are there other FlyerTalkers whom we really like a lot attending?

Can we fit the trip into our schedules?

Do we need the miles to maintain our status for 2009?

So we don't really travel "just for the miles" but we sure consider them in making our plans. I suspect that there are a lot of people like us.

There are also folks who really do "just travel for the miles". They have no business travel and have to squeeze their trips into weekends so they don't get to spend a lot of time at their destinations. I suspect that there are a lot less of those folks out there, but I have met some.

WARNING: Do not pursue these ideas any further unless you are willing to accept the possibility of addiciton.

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like fun (if you have to travel for business, anyway) or have the bucks to do so.

As lucky9876coins pointed out, it doesn't necessarily take more bucks to play the mileage game. In fact, we usually end up flying much more, and in more comfort, for less total annual expenditure, than most other passengers.

Mileage Runners do very precise cost/benefit analysis, including figuring in their time (and the entertainment value of the trip). Personally I'd rather spend $300 flying to a town I've never been to, even if I don't really get to see the town, than spending the same $300 to buy tix to a football game, buy gas to drive to the stadium, pay for parking, etc., to sit outside in the cold for 4 hours. No one questions the logic or sanity of that activity, but people have a very hard time understanding what we do. (and that's good for us, because it cuts down on the competition for upgrades, cheap tix, etc).

I collect mileages on flights paid by my company in which my job requires air travel. Then I take those mileage for upgrades and awards, some of which are redeemed for leisure travel and some for company travel as well. I'm a part owner of the company myself so it doesn't hurt on my behalf to save the company some money by getting a cheaper ticket booked in a class and then upgrading it with the mileages.

Thanks. Seems like a need a job like that.

There are different metrics. Some people value miles at 1 � U.S. per mile, some value them at 2 � per mile.

So, for example, if 50,000 miles valued at 1�/mile is worth $250. If you can use it to get a $900 or $1200 r/t TATL ticket (Trans ATLantic), you're ahead of the game. If an MR (mileage run) cost you $150 and one day of your time, and gave you both mileage and kicked you up a tier in the FF program, you can calculate the benefit you got from the MR.

I'm so excited to find this site after hearing about it on the Sunday morning CBS news. As someone who recently started flying weekly for work, I'm sure I'll find invaluable info when I have some time to delve further. My first question is in regard to the elite status mentioned. I do the bulk of my flying on UA since they have the best (or most?) connections from FSD, a small regional airport. I've recently attained elite status, but am having trouble ascertaining exactly what that entitles me to on a given UA flight. I've read their website info, I've made multiple to calls to their Mileage Plus office and have gotten multiple answers to the same questions. It's starting to burn me to see empty seats in first class after asking for an upgrade and being told no, to the point where I'm thinking about switching to NWA, which also has decent connections from FSD. Any help or insight would be appreciated!

Ah, My Dear, you have come to the right place.

Take you questions to the United Forum and you will receive the most expert advice available on the planet, possibly the universe.

You have already learned Lesson No. 1--United Agents consistely give out inconsistent information. You need to meet them armed with the truth.

I sure hope you learn as much from, and have at much fun with, FlyerTalk as I have.

Welcome aboard. ^

One of the prime benefits is the pleasure of doing battle with the IAD RCC Matrons for your drink chits. Very entertaining! Just kidding.

Seriously though, as a result of status obtained in the past year flying mostly for business plus one quick mileage run, my wife has been able to travel with me to Australia on an award ticket, to London, Stockholm, and Amsterdam in business class on an award ticket, and to New Orleans in first class on an award ticket no notice for a funeral. We now have 360K miles in the bank which will buy us several international tickets in business or first, numerous nights of awarded hotels and rental cars at top properties from Marriott and Hyatt, etc. To do this, I flew about 125K miles this year plus 25 car rentals plus about 50 nights of hotel rooms. I would have had to fly most of this anyways for work, but where time allowed, I added extra segments like IAD-LAX-SFO instead of just IAD-SFO. I now fly in business or first most of the time and have received substantial value since those international business and first tickets are very expensive. When there is only one seat left and the weather is closing in, I almost always am the one to get it. These are some of the benefits, not to mention just the amount of the world you get to see. Traveling is much more comfortable. I will do it all over again in 2008 and generate about another 360K miles we can use to travel the world in comfort. I use a simple strategy. I just do what I need to in order to fly 10K miles per month. That is two coast to coast flights. If I can take an international flight, then I might only need one flight that month to hit my goal. This puts me over 100K miles in October, leaving plenty of time in case I come up short or get off pace for some reason (i.e. corporate travel freeze to make Q4 numbers). If you can fly transpac flights, you could do 100K miles in as few as 5 round trips from the East coast. Wait for fare sales, watch for fare mistakes, and you can do it pretty easily.