Pre-1/15 Mileage-Burn Stories
 

1/15 is approaching fast, and it's time to book before The Changes come. There's a "Burn Baby Burn! Help your fellow FTers burn those SkyPerks miles!" thread, yet that talks about helping others. Let's talk about how we helped ourselves... :)

Just booked (in the last few minutes) an open-jaw DTW-FCO/AMS-DTW summer mini-vacation, with every expectation of failure. No availability as GM, remembered to sign in as Plat... and got the exact flights preferred/desired... in Saver WBC! Pre-purchase "Cost Summary" displayed this info:

This itinerary is available for 100,000 miles. Without redeeming miles, this trip is currently available for $9,959.93. Purchase this fare instead of redeeming miles.

A new RDM redemption record. Was looking forward to breaking $10k... oh, well, maybe next time. Short just about 8000 RDMs, to re-book a Japan mini-vacation, will probably pay the purchase/transfer fee(s), just to get that flight booked by 1/15. Then... the assimilation may, or may not, begin.

Nice - enjoy your trip!

I just booked 4 Y seats MSN-XXX-CUN for March and my annual July trip to AMS. Before Christmas booked 4 RT for family.

Burn, baby, burn.

And another big middle finger for DL. If I had any better option out of MSN... but I don't, so I renewed my WC membership for 3 years and figure the landscape might change between now and 2012.

Well done
 

I have 2 WBC BOS-MSP-NRT-HKG return on the books. I got them (120K saver biz awards) on the first try with changing just one date by a day. I am thinking about killing the second one and booking 2 WBC BOS-AMS for me and a friend in early spring. I am so going to miss Northwest and Worldperks.

helped my mom/sis (no status) get SEA-VIE ZRH-SEA for summer! they just had 50K...so now the account is clear however. saved 10K they didnt have if i were to book using delta 3 tiered system.

I will be booking in the next few days a IAH-CAI r/t in business, and possibly (2) IAH-BKK r/t's in business as well.

Delta, ugh. *shudders*


-K

Booked 3 IND-DTW-AMS-CPT/EBB-AMS-ATL-IND in WBC and two IND-JFK-SNN for the summer...it is time to burn :)

Just booked 3 long weekends to DEN at PerkSaver----3x 25K a pop for some ski weekends throughout the winter. Good thing I got the Epic Pass and some friends to crash at out there.

Probably going to book and SLC weekend too, maybe a Tahoe weekend too.

BURN BABY BURN!

Long walk from CPT to EBB, there... ;)

I've gotta think a little bit about whether I want do HNL-NRT-HKG/CAN, or fly a friend FCO-AMS-EBB, or fly EDI-AMS-NBO with my daughter to see the baby elephants at Sheldrick, or what. :)

I was "Santa" this past year -- flew the mother-in-law, sister-in-law and nephew out for Thanksgiving and both my brothers to Europe in December (one in WBC, one in Y :) ) for a mini-family reunion (my folks and I were already going to be there).

I'm not down to zero, but I'm as low as I've been in 10 years.

Update: Just burned 75K more, sending She Who Must Be Obeyed back to visit her mother and bringing the sister-in-law and nephew out for a summer vacation.

That being said, since I'll probably switch my Amex card to the Delta Amex Plat, I'll probably have to move all my Amex Rewards over to SkyMiles so I'll again have too many miles.

I booked 2 RDU-SIN in WBC for next fall to burn through the last chunk of miles. I wasn't interested in trying the new 370K level to Asia that is coming soon. :td:

I booked a PHX-EZE RT. 1/2 Biz (AM), 1/2 Y (CO). I'm hoping to rebook the Y portion when I get a chance to call into NW. 70k spent.

Update:I called up the elite NW line a few days later, and got a DL Biz return. 90k total. :)

I'm off to Istanbul in the fall. All Air France metal. Nothing but cobwebs left in my WorldPerks account. Any Skyteam activity from this point forward gets put on my Alaska Airlines account.

In November, I flew CVG-DL-CDG-x-AF-LHR-x-IT-BLR-DEL-x-KL-AMS-x-NW-MSP-CVG for 120k miles. The x's represent stopovers and/or layovers long enough to leave the airport for the day. I paid cash for an S2 ticket from DEL-KTM. It was a total blast.

I rid myself of 47,500 miles on a trip to Costa Rica on the day before NW instituted their fuel surcharges in September and 30,000 miles on a round trip domestic upgrade so I could ride with a friend home for Thanksgiving (poor use of miles, I know).

After I received the e-mail regarding the most recent "enhancements" I booked GFK-MSP-AMS-LYS and return in Coach on the outbound and WBC on the return. As for the rest of my account, I'm keeping a reserve of ~40,000 miles in case I need to go somewhere in an emergency and the $150 "close in" fee seems reasonable.