Maximizing mileage to FCO
 

Hi all,

I'm going to be flying MSN-FCO in not too long and am trying to maximize my EQM earning potential on this trip. So far, I think the best I've found at a reasonable price (this is for summer time) is NWA with one way being a B fare (~12350 EQM). Routing is through MSN-DTW-AMS-FCO.

Anyone have any tips for squeezing out some more miles? I tried to route through SEA (ie MSN-MSP-SEA-AMS-FCO), but nwa.com won't let me do so.

Partners are ok, but don't seem to reveal many more miles (since most fly direct from their hubs to FCO, and don't require the transfer in AMS).

Thanks in advance for any tips!

NWA.com won't do more than 3 segments in one direction. If you could go direct from MSN to somewhere else (like MEM) that'd be more likely to work...

Possibly you can get an extra segment in there connecting in MXP before getting to FCO on AZ.Not many more miles though and don't know if worth the effort.When going to EU/Italy I try to maximize segments in the US more than in Europe.

Not true.

Click multicity. Try MEM. On a B fare, I'd try IAH and ATL as well.

At least hit MSP.

Uh...

NWA.com will not show itineraries that require in excess of 3 segments to get from A to B (or B to A). Yes, one can use multisegment to *force* such things, but then one is going from A to B to C, and none of those bits can, in NWA.com's little mind, be more than 3 segments *each*.

Sorry if I wasn't sufficiently clear before.

(This is, incidentally, my greatest peeve with NWA.com. I fly some seriously long itineraries at times, and you simply can't do, say, ITO-NBO - which I've done twice now - without it requiring 4 segments.)

Thanks for the advice so far guys.


I've been trying with multicity to force it. Example: MSN-SEA...SEA-FCO...FCO-SEA...SEA-MSN. Trying that, though, I get an error...

MSP is probably a given. Would like to do MSN-DTW-MSP-AMS-FCO, and could probably work that out.

The thing with ATL is that I think DL flies directly from ATL-FCO, which reduces mileage, because it cuts out the AMS-FCO leg. I haven't run the numbers on this, actually, so I don't know what the net mileages are (MSN-ATL-FCO vs. MSN-DTW-AMS-FCO).
I guess I could always do MSN-MSP-ATL-FCO, or something like that, with the domestic legs being on NWA, and the TATL on DL...

So...many...options....

Have you tried NW MSN-MSP-NRT-SIN + KL SIN-AMS-FCO? :p

Too bad you can't route it via SVO... Or can you? ;)

You know, until the Yxx-OTP fares came up, I would never have thought of that, but apparently, a bunch of people managed to add SVO stopovers!

Only issue there is that flight schedules from SVO-FCO are somewhat more limited than AMS-FCO, as far as I know.

Just for fun, I tried, but nwa.com doesn't like that one bit, and the best I could get on ITA was on ANA, pricing out at around $4400, with a routing of MSN-ORD-NRT-PEK-FCO (PEK-FCO on Air China). Too bad that you can't limit ITA searches by alliances.

That itinerary does slightly remind me of the potential for a MSN-CLE/IAH/EWR-LAX-HNL-GUM-CNS (or similar) roundtrip this summer on CO :).

There are 3 flights a day (all are codeshare btw SU and AZ). E.g., today:

SU281 - 8.30 a.m. (arrives FCO at 10.40 a.m.)
AZ549 - 5.50 p.m. (arrives FCo at 7.45 p.m.)
SU283 - 7.30 p.m. (arrives FCO at 9.35 p.m.) - now, DL46 from ATL comes in at 4.13 p.m. so that would be the flight to connect to ...
Now, is there a ST fare that lets you route via -ATL-SVO-FCO (ca. 6900 mi one way)? (LAX-SVO-FCO is 7500+, but the LAX flight comes in too late...)

On ITA I can pull up MSN-ATL-SVO-FCO r/t for around $1865. DL and AZ itinerary (15160 miles).
Also available is MSN-CVG-CDG-SVO-PRG-FCO-SVO-ATL-MSN for $2216.60, but with some horrible connections. This one is DL, SU, OK, and AZ, but not worth it...
Unfortunately both are a little too pricey compared to the $1300ish fares I can find on shorter routes.

One interesting option may be MSN-DTW-BDL-AMS-FCO, as long as the AMS-FCO flight is on KL, it would result in either 5000 or 10000 bonus RDM with their BDL-AMS promotion, and significantly cheaper, last time I checked. Only problem is the TATL 757 leg...ughh...

Actually you can, it's just a little cumbersome
 

msn :: af,am,az,co,dl,ke,kl,nw,ok,su+
fco :: af,am,az,co,dl,ke,kl,nw,ok,su+

Yeah, I should have clarified, this is the ITA Web interface I'm using...

ITA's query language works on the web interface... in their web help there's a page titled "The ITA Route Language" that explains it all.