crazyhorse

One thing I've never heard of people doing are mileage runs on WN and for good reasons. However, I am going to be precisely 3 flights short of qualifying for A List Preferred status at the end of the year.

So, my question to the community is - Is it worth it? I am seeing several MDW-DTW/MSP/etc flights for ~$90 which would probably set me back by ~$270 - $ 300 or thereabouts and I dont know if I'll necessarily get back enough in the form of WN points to recoup the $300 since most of my fares are WGA and usually in the $200 roundtrip budget. I know airlines like DL etc sometimes give a couple of grace segments or allow MQMs to be purchased. Does WN offer anything similar?

willbaude

Last year, I started flying a ton of WN flights in mid-September, and I did a mileage run the last week of September to earn basic A-List status-- totally worth it. Preferred might be a tougher call-- how much do you expect to fly next year?

longhorn11

If you're doing enough revenue flying next year to make the 100% point bonus worthwhile then yes go for it. The WiFi has been worthless when I've been on it, I've always had to wait until I'm on the ground to use my hotspot device.

IflyfromPHX

IMHO - the point bump from 25-100% would easily pay for itself during the course of the next year...if you are flying enough th almost make it...it certainly would.

Michael El

+1 You could probably do a mileage run in about eight hours. Buy three separate tix MDW-STL, STL-DTW, DTW-MDW or MDW-MSP, MSP-MCI, MCI-MDW or MDW-STL, STL-SDF, SDF-MDW. Check fares on one of your upcoming days off and let us know how it goes.

toomanybooks

Say your average flight is $100 to make the math easy.

Three MR flights in 2012 will cost you $300.

As A-List now, you will get 1800 WN plus 450 (25%) = 2250 in 2012.

Next year, assuming 20 WGA flights which is about where you are now, you will spend $2000 and get 12000 points for flying plus 12000 bonus. But if you don't do the proposed three 2012 runs, you'll get 12000 plus 3000 for A-List anyway. Difference 9000.

So your net will be 11250. Plus a few points for the credit card spending. That is under $200 value, plus you have wasted some time. Unless you value the so-far crummy wi-fi, think you might get better service in 2013 as A-List Preferred, or believe that WN will add benefits/bonuses for Preferred next year (a reasonable chance IMO), looks like it might be of marginal value at best. And that return goes down in 2013 if you start cashing in your points for travel.

STL is $81 each way. If you could take 1 RT and a one-way and get back from STL cheaply (Amtrak?), you might be there.

Surprisingly few sub-$100 fares anywhere right now. I note BWI-MAN/BOS for $75, but don't think that helps you. This might give you some leads: http://travel.southwest.com/specialo...l?id=112407214

Maybe something will pop up on DING. You could always take a quick weekend vacation somewhere and figure that it "really" isn't costing you much.

If you will fly Anytime or BS much in 2013, these calculations are off and you ought to go for the 3 flights probably.

This exercise illustrates how bogus WN's elite levels are. Most every AA or UA flyer with any intelligence would pay an extra $300 in an instant for MRs to get to the respective top statuses. On AA, the jump from Plat to ExPlat is worth arguably at least a couple thousand dollars for the 8 systemwides alone. WN Preferred really should be a bigger jump in benefits from A-List.

tusphotog

+1. I'd definitely go for it if you're that close.

nsx

For cheap flights you probably need to travel by December 20. After that the only deals might be on Christmas Day itself.

ElmhurstNick

It looks like I might have to do a MR to retain A+ this year, as a whole bunch of my December travel evaporated or got dumped back into January. Fortunately, I have the double point promo out of MKE, so I'll be able to buy BS MKE-MSP and WGA back (I'm qualifying on points, not segments) and have it be less painful.

Total cost will be $348 and I'll end up with 10128 extra points worth $169. I like to go to Milwaukee anyway, so the drive time and gas isn't an issue. Given that I will earn at least another $400 worth of points next year by being A+ instead of A-, it's annoying but worth it, especially because the amount I'm short is from taking a bump on a BS flight this spring to save my employer $250 and make myself $200. At the time, I was on a WN BS/AT barrage, but lately I've been on all WGA fares.

This is the first time in about probably six or seven years that I have to do a pure MR on any airline to retain status or earn a status-related benefit, so since I'm net positive with the bump money, I'm ok with it.

joshua362

I'm in the same boat for A List +, so close. MKE double Pts is a great idea, is that targeted? Went round and around the web site looking for it without success. Are there any others? Where to find?

Thank you.

toomanybooks

In your WN account, there is a link for "Promotions." The MKE one is the only one showing up for me now. That said, all the fares I could see ex-MKE looked really high.

NOTE: "Bonus points will not count toward A-List and A-List Preferred qualification. Bonus points will not count toward Companion Pass qualification."

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joshua362

Found it, thanks TMB, would have never found it without you. Moot if it doesn't count for TQP, thanks for pointing that out.

expert7700

I'm confused by this. If you volunteered, you received compensation PLUS they should have put you on another flight. Once you flew that other flight, you would have received the full amount of points from your original confirmation.

If something else happened (maybe they had to have you fly full fare if business select was full, and you got less points) I'd be on the phone to the dallas 214 area code rapid rewards line. It's very likely that they will post the difference between the points you were going to get with your original route and what you ended up with.

ElmhurstNick

Good news and bad news:

1. You do get points and TQP even on a ticket rebooked through a VDB. I thought your earning basis was reduced to $0, it's not.
2. The agent had rebooked me onto the next flight into the lowest fare, and it turned out that there was an $89+ WGA ($100 all-in) available even with 0 day advance on the next flight. I had assumed I'd be rebooked at my AT fare of $203.
3. The remaining $103 credit from my original fare was why the points weren't posting, except that when I used them the points still didn't post automatically and I had to call the 214# to get them posted manually.
4. So I only get 540 TQP, which means that I still have to take the extra trip as I'll end up 2537 TQP short now. But I also have $103 in found credit to pay for the WGA back home.
5. Because they had given me a refund, they wouldn't budge on posting the TQP from the original fare. I can understand that.

crazyhorse

Thanks for all your replies. I tried to make schedules work but couldnt take a whole weekend day to do a 3 flight MR.

I had thought I had lost it until I realized that I had also flown AirTran a few segments earlier this year and so on 12/31 decided to call WN and ask for those segments to be added to my RR account. The first rep said it cannot be done, the 2 airlines are seperate, blah, blah... but then transferred me to a customer relations person.

She spoke to me and after I explained the reason for my call, she checked a few things and then flipped me over to A-List Preferred. Nice touch!