Greetings! I fairly new to FlyerTalk, and have a couple of questions for all of you veterans that fly NW. First, let me give a little background on what I am trying to do...

Started a new job in late Oct. that has me traveling on NW as frequently as many of you. The problem is, I am usually flying fairly short hops from MSP to places like DSM, OMA, MCI, FAR, MKE, etc. I read NW's new EQS guidelines with excitement, but then realized I am at somewhat of a disadvantage because I am in a hub city and the corporate travel department puts me on non-stop flights. I am non-elite now, but would like to qualify as quickly as possible. Furthermore, while I can make GE on segments this year without any additional effort, I would really like to make PE to get as many upgrade opportunities as possible.

I was playing around with Expedia, and found some pretty creative travel routings on NW that could help make this happen. As an example, for the first weekend in Feb., I found ORD-DTW-PHL-MEM-RDU-IND-PHL-DTW-ORD for $295. Adding the flight I would need to buy to get from MSP-ORD, it would seem I could bag 10 EQS in one weekend. Of course, that assumes I could convince Mrs. Emw9000 this is a worthwhile use of my time and money, which is an entirely different challenge.

So, here are my questions:

1. Is there anything in the fine print that would prevent me from getting credit for all these segments on one ticket? I couldn't find anything on NWA.com that said 'no', but wanted to run this by the experts on this board and get your input.

2. If one of these segments is delayed or cancelled, and the gate agent is unsympathetic to my obsession with earing EQS, am I out of luck if he/she rebooks me on a more direct routing? Because of this risk, is doing a segment run worth it in the first place?

I would appreciate any comments/answers that you can provide. Thanks!

I was thinking of the exact same things you were looking at. However, I was discouraged at the class fares that were needed to accumulate segments. It seemed you needed to fly first, biz, or full fare coach. Did you check that?

Yes, in 2005 NW will credit EQS for all fare classes, which is why I am considering doing this. Any feedback out there on the original question? Will a fare routing like mentioned in the original post really work for EQS?

Well, a bit of searching here and on the NWA site would give you the answer you need:
From Earn Miles: Northwest & Airline Partners:So, if you buy any ticket anywhere, with the above fares, your segments will count. Fare roiuting as little to do with this unless you route through a partner.

Also, see following thread: "So are you going change your flying habits with the new 2005 segment rules? ".

A segment is a segment. As long as you can ticket it, it should count. The only exception I can think of would be "direct" flights, which should only count as one segment even if you have to change planes. For example, NW3179, which goes MLI-DTW-ELM, will only count for 700 EQMs and 1 EQS--not 1000 EQMs and 2 EQS like it would be if it had two separate flight numbers.

The answer to your other question is also yes. Like all convoluted MRs, segment runs can get short-circuited by a "helpful" GA if you have a delay or misconnect. The CoC obligates NW to get you to your destination, not to give you the EQS's you hope to accumulate. That said, it doesn't mean you shouldn't go for it. To discourage you would be a grave violation of the FlyerTalk code of ethics.

Are EQS mileage runs realistic?

Not for me, I am away from home about 175 days/year on business.

I cannot imagine the trouble I would get into with Mrs. RC if I did EQS Mileage runs.

Perhaps for those of you who don't fly much, it may be ok, but if you fly as much as I do, you probably wouldn't consider EQS mileage runs.

RC

I'm not a big fan of segment runs.

First, with the current taxing scheme, each segment can add taxes and PFCs, which may increase your cost by up to $10 per segment, so adding 4 additional segments can start to get costly, especially if you multiply that by a number of tickets throughout the year. I cringe when I see people wasting time and paying more taxes to book en route connections (e.g., BOS-DTW-MSP-SFO which is only ~45 miles more than a simpler, more efficient BOS-DTW-SFO).

Second, while segments can push you towards status, they can't buy you any award tickets. Nobody's ever been successful cashing out 50 segments for a business class ticket to Paris.

So, my thinking is to go for status by mileage, and only add segment(s) if there is a significant increase in mileage/EQM earned that would offset the additional fees paid, and the time spent.

I would much rather see a NW flyer go BOS-EWR-DTW-SFO over BOS-DTW-MSP-SFO. Even with the 50% EQM hit on the BOS-EWR CO segment, it's still net overall more EQM and more mileage earned since EWR is out of the way.

With that said, I think there is a time and place for segment runs. If you're x segments away from status, you might as well just do it.

Thanks all for sharing your thoughts. I empathize with the previous comment about being gone 180 days/year and having a hard time getting the Mrs. to buy into the concept of doing mileage runs. That said, if I can bag 8-10 segments in one weekend, I should only have to do 2 or 3 of these during the year to get enough segments to go from GE to PE at the end of the year. I think I can sell Mrs. Emw9000 on this because she would get upgraded with me 5 days out when we travel on vacation.

I think I may fly out of FNT instead of DTW some weeks to add segments, I fly all short haul trips but at least 2 segments per week.

Making GE by segments next year should be no problem, I'll probably have to work at it to make plat though. I would guess I'll be somewhere between 80-90 segments flying nonstop from DTW every week to wherever they send me...