Do you know what booking class code this books into at that fare? (I want to check if it gets UA miles)

I can't figure this one out - how do you get 38K < 35K?

I guess maybe the same way that SYD-YVR-YYZ-EZE-YYZ-YVR-SYD = 30,808 miles is greater than 35K miles?

In the right fare class, it could work.

Yes, in theory it could. But the bargain fare of AUD $ 2,059 plus taxes is most unlikely to correspond to the right fare class.

My bad - I don't know what calc I did originally to get just over 35K. Even adding the SCL stop en-route between YYZ-EZE (as well as on the return) only adds another 1500.
Apologies.
Still - it's close enough that a quickie real cheap seperate side trip wouldn't fix up.
Books in L class and has a seasonality March to November from memory.

as no doubt you realised, i ment more, not less, so there still no point in going for bmi then ac

You can get the required # of miles for about the amount that Al B mentioned, but starting from elsewhere.
A CMB-(...)-JFK-LAX-(...)-CMB in C will get you circa 45K miles in DC for about GBP840 (transpac segs under TG code). Now, getting to CMB cheaply is the difficult bit

Dunno if this helps or not, but looking at my booked fares for the year, on US Airways (US) it would cost you approximately $2600 to reach Gold (50,000 miles and *G status) or half that for Silver.

In my case, that would be four PHX-LGW (or PHX-MAN) runs @ 12,000 miles each with a few extra miles depending on routing. Add two quick PHX-LAX flights for $100 each at 1,000 miles and you're done. The PHX-LGW flights clock in at just over $.04CPM, while the LAX would run about $.10CPM.

These would be W or V fare basis - deeply discounted and not upgradeable (but counting for 100% EQM). Again, depending on routing you can squeeze a Q fare out of them (which is upgradeable).

I'm sure there is a theoretical lower minimum for status, but this is an actual example. In fact, US recently had a fluke airfare to STX from MDT that was only $78 each way in F. If you booked 9 of those you would exceed the mileage requirements for Gold and would have spent only $1404 (and all travel would be in F!!!)

Hope this helps!

Sean

CMB-SIN-HKG-BKK-NRT-LAX-SFO-NRT-BKK-SIN-CMB in F for $2600. Enough for AC Elite at 35,452+- miles!