When United first started Mileage Plus, a domestic roundtrip First Class upgrade, including Hawaii, was just 10,000 miles. UA also gave a "class of service" bonus to anyone flying in First Class, even if upgraded using miles. I used to fly ORD-HNL and would upgrade with miles. However, the roundtrip would accumulate over 10,000 miles. So for every ORD-HNL upgraded roundtrip, I recouped my original miles. Furthermore, as a result, I always had at least 10,000 miles available in my account to upgrade my next trip to Hawaii.

I also did the same when flying to Europe. Just 10,000 UA miles got me a Business Class upgrade on Pan Am. As with Hawaii, the roundtrip, including all bonuses, earned me another 10,000+ UA miles. This enabled me to recoup my original 10,000 miles spent for the upgrade. Those were the days!!

[This message has been edited by Neal (edited Feb 12, 2004).]

In late 80s, there were a slew of triple miles promotions....and these were the days before you had to show ID for flights.

Soooooo, imagine having every male you know, flying under your name for the duration of triple miles promotion. Maybe paying them $25-$50 for their trouble/cooperation.

Not exactly an award or reward, but rather strategic UTILIZATION of a reward!!

Think 15 recruits and about 250K of mileage for maybe $600.

My vote goes out to the SAS "Fly 5 get 5" award when they were promoting the Star Alliance in 1997.

Each member had the same qualifier with mild variations: Fly at least one paid flight on each of the original 5 *A members (UA, LH, AC, TG, SK)

For your trouble, SAS gave you a free RT for 2 people on EACH of the 5, systemwide, with one stopover permitted in each direction.

PLUS - you didn't have to credit the qualifying flights to your SK account.
I gave up my UA number, and qualified for their bonus as well (50K miles)

I took in Vancouver, Toronto, London, Copenhagen, Oslo, Tel Aviv, Beijing, Bangkok, Perth and Buenos Aires...

I agree Fly-5 with SAS was really something... you had to mail in boarding passes so you could actually credit to UA and then send bp's to SAS (they didn't have a problem with this, the UA FF number was on the bp). I think I spent $600-700 for the 10 intercontinental tickets plus UA credit plus 100,000 mile bonus on UA for flying all Star members!

my all time big five in chronological order:

88 triple miles, what started it all for me

Chart House RTW promo (see previous post) (1996)

SAS Fly 5 combined with UA 100K promo (1998)

Latin Pass Million Mile (a nice even number!) (2000)

KLM status match/mileage match (2002)

some aren't awards per se but these are the ones I remember (there have been some great nonflying deals (Kelloggs, ValueMags, et al) but I see those in a different category

I agree that the KLM Mileage Match is the definite winner for me. Spent a little over $1100 and ended up with the equivalent of 83 Business Class round trips between Europe and the US. Plus KLM has reduced awards under which one could fly from LAX to AMS to SEL for 45,00 miles rt. in Business.

The Latin Pass Million was also one of my favorites as well.

The best deal after the KLM mega comp is still ongoing. WebAwards are awesome. Just got back from flying Washington-Seoul roundtrip in J via AMS for only 45k. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/eek.gif


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Man, this thread is depressing.

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Back in 1989, Northwest had this deal for students -- get an Amex card and receive two NW certs. for $99 RTs anywhere domestic. You could earn miles on the RTs, so after two years of this (4 RTs), you could have a free trip after four really cheap ones.

I remember that travel agents hated these things. It was the old system in which agents earned 10% of the ticket price. The certs. made extra work for them, and they only got $10.

In 1976 I did a 3 week pass on Allegany for $179 (depart before noon on weekdays, anytime weekend, unlimited segments, except no stopover in the same city more than once.) No FF plans at that time.

In 1984, Eastern had redeyes from ORD to SFO for $35?. Only carry-on baggage.

[This message has been edited by gfowler-ord-1k (edited Feb 13, 2004).]

Are you sure about that? I remember it being from ORD to Houston or somewhere else in Texas. I don't recall Eastern ever flying the ORD-LAX route but I could be wrong.




[This message has been edited by Neal (edited Feb 13, 2004).]

BA in the Benelux had a promo offering a free concorde trip for 10 segments in Club Europe back in 1999. There was no limit to the maximum so each 5 returns in Club Europe was good for a minimum of 120000 miles. (trips were just round $300 each so for $1500 you got a heck of a lof of miles). I was doing these trips several times a week so it was quite rewarding http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

How about the promo that some consider to be the true beginning of air travel awards?

In the late 70s, UA had just resumed service after a system wide strike and needed to lure back their customers. At that time, air fares were still regulated and were fairly inexpensive, especially in Coach. One way fares were exactly half the price of a roundtrip to most anywhere in the USA.

For about one month after the strike, flight attendants handed out one "half off" certificate to each passenger. There was no limit to the amount you could accumulate and then use later. I remember a First Class ticket on UA from ORD-LAS was something like $188.00 or $376.00 roundtrip. Using the certs, I flew ORD-LAS roundtrip in F for just $188.00 and did this numerous times.

I believe AA matched UA and did the same thing. They too, needed a boost due to that DC-10 disaster near ORD besides having to compete with UA.

You are right, it was ORD-SFO. I corected my above post.

I am surprised that no one mentioned what I think was one of the best deals of all time. On the original award chart for Marriott they had, as their top item, award PZ for 360,000(?) points, which I earned my first year in the program (I took the award in 1987). Included in that award was *all* of the following:

1. Four airline tickets anywhere on the system (I took 2 TWA to Vienna and 2 Continental to Austrailia).

2. Three 10-day hotel stays, specifically allowing *reservations* for *suites*.

3. Three 10-day car rentals, mid-size.

4. AND, 2 people on a 7-day European cruise (we did the Greek Islands) because Marriott owned Sun Line Cruises for a brief period.

Whilst not as cheap as some listed here I thought the following was a great use of 150,000 AA miles in Oct 2003.

SNN-LHR : EI J
LHR-YYZ : BA Concorde
YYZ-LGA : AA F
JFK-SCL : LA F
SCL-GIG : LA F
GIG-LHR : BA F
LHR-SNN : EI J

Given that the miles cost me $2,300 to accrue on holidays last year, and the trip would have cost me $18-23k to purchase (depending on my country of residence), I felt it was a good deal. Thankfully I'd only previously claimed 1 AA award before discovering FT and more efficient uses for my miles.

For me,the best award was USAIR's Concorde RT award JFK/LHR on BA for 125K miles.

The old Delta Medallion award: 2 First Class tix from anywhere in the USA to Hawaii for 75k miles.

I also miss the PSA system awards for 10k miles. It shouldn't take the same number of miles to fly down the coast as it does to go transcon.

Exactly when was Concorde running from London to Toronto? Typo? ;-)

We made good use of the NW $99 certs in '89 and '90. Unfortunately, they did not serve NC back then, so we had to drive to DCA or GSP.

As part of the retirement "celebrations" there was a once-off flight from London to Toronto on Oct. 1, 2003.

[quote]I am surprised that no one mentioned what I think was one of the best deals of all time. On the original award chart for Marriott they had, as their top item, award PZ for 360,000(?) points, which I earned my first year in the program (I took the award in 1987). Included in that award was *all* of the following:
1. Four airline tickets anywhere on the system (I took 2 TWA to Vienna and 2 Continental to Austrailia).

2. Three 10-day hotel stays, specifically allowing *reservations* for *suites*.

3. Three 10-day car rentals, mid-size.

4. AND, 2 people on a 7-day European cruise (we did the Greek Islands) because Marriott owned Sun Line Cruises for a brief period.
[quote]

I believe this was after you returned some parts of awards for points. It was an amazing period, and made me a fan of Randy for life.

Wow, freak, that's an amazing award. Was Marriott earning back then similar to today? (e.g., 10+ points/dollar) That is a HUGE pile of loot for $36,000 or less in hotel spending.

I still think Marriott's 250,000-pt. travel package (a week at any Cat6 Marriott in the world + 120K FF miles) is a pretty good award. There are only a handful of Cat7's, so "any Cat6" flies in most corners of the world.

Holiday Inn Priority Club's first year... I think it was 75 stays gets trip anywhere in world. (I could be wrong on # of stays/nights, but it was amazing)

I remember that one...one of my Sales guys got extremely active in that period and stayed at Holiday Inns. After his trip to Europe I found out how he got it. For whatever reason he really slacked off after the promo ended....

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Ah, for the 1980's.

I agree about the Marriott reward with the cruise and the 4 coach tickets almost anyplace, including Australia.

As for Holiday Inn, yeah 75 points (one point for 1 or 2 nights, 2 points for 3 or more nights). We spent a lot of time moving between hotels. I got 150 points. Each 75 was worth 2 coach RTs almost anyplace (Pan Am), 2 weeks at a Holiday Inn, and free car rental for 2 weeks. (I got a Mercedes).

Even Avis had a deal. Maybe 7 rentals, and you got a free ticket to London, a 2 for 1 cruise, and other stuff. This was about the time of the Holiday Inn deal, so we also spent a lot of time returning cars and picking up another one.

Also great was the new Braniff offering to match your miles on any other carrier if you flew New Braniff 6 times. Spent a weekend going between Texas cities for a few $100, Braniff matched my Delta balance, and I received 2 business class to Hong Kong (via London and Dubai on British Caledonian), 2 F to London, and 2 coach to HNL (Transamerican Air IIRC). Also double dipped miles in United.

The original special deals were also great. United had something like take maybe 10 flights in a couple of months, and get a free domestic ticket without any mileage deduction. The great thing was that it included Hawaii AND in any available class, so we went F. And that was when F really was first class.

Just to respond to Piniped (and anyone else asking) - Marriott points were not only about the same, but somewhat easier. You got 20% bonus for the right car rental and 25% bonus for the right airline. So, with Elite bonus, normally about 15.5 points/dollar.

And the cruise on Sun Line was *great*. I forget the cabin category, but it was *not* for the worst. It was an outside cabin. And the quality of the food was excellent.

Also earned points for taxes, and there were plenty of opportunities for bonuses.

Both Air Canada and CPAir/Canadian Airllnes had some extraordinary awards in the early days of their programs [1984 to about 1990]. And with competition, lots of promos that made earning those miles much easier than these days. Logging 200K a year on one and 100K on the other carrier was quite common, with no Mileage Runs necessary. Of course, there was no such thing as elite status in those days, so a mile was a mile was a mile.

CP's best was 2 First Class tickets to any destination it flew for 160K points, or 2 Business Class for 140K. And besides the flights, one also received a week's stay in a suite at a partner hotel, and a week's luxury rental car. These could be taken any time, and not just in conjunction with the flight awards.

AC's best was 2 First Class seats to any destination for 150K, 2 Business Class for 120K. [CP also had this award.] And it came with the same hotel and rental car awards at no extra cost.

In both cases, the two tickets could be used by a couple travelling, or for two separate trips by the same person.

Ah, yes, those were indeed the days! My wife and I travelled the world in style for five or six years on such awards. And there were plenty of tickets left for family gifts too.

In more recent times, I think CP's best award was the 125K for a First Class BA or CX seat to South Africa or Australia/NZ. Each award required two longhaul overnights in each direction, a great way to sample these two carriers' superb front cabins.

And last summer AA ended its best award, which was 140K for a First Class CX award to these same destinations for the same reason.

It will be interesting to read the March issue to see what awards Randy decides rates.

In the late 80s Canadian Airlines had a great reward for 45,000 miles - Buy one ticket (any class) and get another ticket free in the same class. These awards were valid on British Airways as well as CP for First, Club or Economy. They could be used either as companion tickets or for sequential trips by the award holder.

Thanks everyone for your input. You will all be interested to know that the article is complete and you can read Randy's Top 10 selections at http://www.insideflyer.com/articles/...e.php?key=1585

Also, if you think he missed any good ones, please feel free to comment as such using the "Sound Off" feature at the bottom of the article.

Couldn't have done it without all of you...thanks again.

A great reward that just ended on Amtrak was the 1800 Flowers 3x points promotion. You received 10 points for dollar spent before the triple bonus...so a dozen roses would cost about $50, and then you'd get 1500 points...halfway to a free ticket (in the Northeast).

When you consider that a roundtrip tix between PHL and WAS nets you between 280 and 400 points while spending between $74 & $125 each way...the $50 for 1500 points is a heck of a deal.

My girlfriend has received TONS of roses during this promotion! :cool:

You know, initially I was surprised to see that someone had revived this thread two-and-a-half years after the last post. But then I read the new post and I thought, what a tragedy, the article was finished in 2004, and here someone comes along with the best reward/award ever, hands down.

wow, I'd love to try that one, and I guess one could call it a real mileage run!!

Anyway, I recall a few years back when US Air was about to merge into AA and for a short while, if you were going to book an award ticket on AA, you could give them any amount of US Air miles to add TO the amount needed for the award and they would combine the two when booking it! Example: If you had say, 56,843 US miles and you were going to book 2 RT tickets on AA that needed a total of 100k to fly, they'd take the US miles and the remaining 43,157 AA miles from your account and you were all set! I thought that was pretty awesome and I was also able to take advantage of a few flights using the system at the time.

:)MM

USAir to AA
 

And those miles counted toward's AA's lifetime mileage requirements.

People may look back at today's starwood program - where for only 2,000 Starwood points per night you can get a level 1 hotel for weekend stays - with no black out days - as one of the best awards out there. Enjoy it while you can.

My two are a bit more mundane. In 2001 cathay offered this deal of like 40,000 american miles to hong kong and 5,000 miles to some other asian points. It made it possible for me to fly from washington to bali for 45,000 miles.

Then there is the cheap round the world flight i took business class for like 80,000 or 90,000 miles, which is considerably less than the 300,000 miles round the world trips are supposed to be. then again it was a trip to vietnam going east from washington to newark to singapore to ho chi minh city and returning west thru japan and chicago. I basically got bragging rights to have done an around the world trip. (by the way, the same trip was available for coach for like 60,000 miles)

oops i didnt realize how old this thread was

from reading this thread, i'd say >

- KLM allowing you to effectively triple your total miles

- BA's 175K RTW with Concorde

After the KLM match, a great deal was award tickets redeemed not to actually fly but to book flights on full planes to line up bumps that provide vouchers.

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: ^ ^ ^ ^

My best by far was BA R/T between JFK and LHR on Concorde, with onward travel to anywhere in Europe in Business, for a promotional 62,500 miles. Which is how I took my two flights on Concorde (went to Greece for two weeks). This was in 1997. On the way back, got an extra special treat on Concorde as the pilot let me sit up in the jump seat for landing!