roberino

A colleague of mine realised he was 1200 miles away from renewing SEN status with LH last year with 3 days to go before it expired. He was already in Munich at this stage so he took two return trips to Bremen in one day at around EUR200 in total. On his flight back from MUC to MAN four days later he was upgraded. He was upgraded on two trips to PDX in the US and around one quarter of his MAN-MUC trips.

We all thought he was nuts to pay EUR200 of his own money for this until he pointed out that there wasn't one of us who wouldn't pay EUR100 of our own money to get upgraded TATL.

I can't understand these guys in the US though who do four back-to-back LAX-JFK trips in F just to make up the shortfall (this was a thread on here some time ago). If the shortfall is that great then you just don't need the status.

HMPS

Matter of opinion but more a matter of NEED and FUTURE travel Plans.

As I said I did (alongwith more than 200 ) from ORD to LAX runs. I satrted with zero miles, did 10 RT got AA Exc. Platinum. Entitled to among other stuff unlimited domestic upgrades and 8 systemwide one calss upgrades on ANY paid tickts.

A Biz class fare USA to Middle east, Far East, India etc costs at least $ 4500 on a discount.

Pay average of $ 1200 for y, get upgraded, save $ 3500 or so.
3500 x 8 = $ 28000 in savings for an investment of $ 2200 and 10 Rts.

Find me a deal like that, will go any day !

roberino

If it was just the cash outlay then, yes, I could see that. I just can't get how you can spend so much time on a plane when your only purpose in going is to come back again.

Give me the choice of spending that time with my wife but having to sit in Y when we go on holiday, or getting some upgrades and I know what I'd choose. I'm not saying your way is wrong - I just don't get it.

SFO777

Some of us are just plane crazy.
I did my first one at the same time Gamecock did his. In fact we were on a few flights together.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...ain-again.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ever-done.html

rusrocket

Mileage running is a disease for which there is no cure.

HMPS

Did my wife talk to your wife ?

ChicagoDave

It's a choice that each individual needs to make. Last year I took 1 MR to get from Silver to Gold on UA. It was a no brainer to me, and even my fiance understood that I did it for both of us. It cost me one weekend and $106 since I had a $400 voucher that would have expired. I'm US based, and the MR gave us:
- economy plus at booking instead of check in for my bachelor party in Europe, my honeymoon (another long haul international trip), plus probably Tokyo later in the year. E+ on United would have cost $100 each way for each of us.
- three 70 lb bags vs one 50 lb bag (# isn't an issue, but we share one large bag & it's tough to stay under 50 lbs)
- 29k award miles (trip + extra award mile bonus for this year's trips)
- higher priority for free domestic upgrades
- no fee same day flight changes (great when we went to go home early)
- lounge access when traveling international
- Star alliance Gold vs Silver

For me it was worth one weekend and $100 out of pocket because of travel we planned for next year. If I'm close to 75k at the end of this year, depending on the cost I'll probably take multiple MR runs to push me over 1k to get the 6 GPUs and 4 RPUs. The question is how much do I value the GPUs and RPUs?

AlwaysFlyStar

Well, my partner thinks I am crazy and throws a fit when I pay an extra 5-10% to stay within the alliance, or get a mileage earning fare, or when I choose an itinerary with an extra stop to get the extra miles, and yet he never complains when we sit in the lounge waiting for the flight, or when I take him in First or business with the miles I have accumulated. Although, when I have done mileage runs, I tend to incorporate meeting a friend or doing something other than flying/sitting in an airport on the journey. Last time I went to Paris, I flew LCY-GVA-ZRH-CDG and back in business for less than �300 return, and while not a true mileage run, that is my typical method of getting more bang for my buck. Sure it was not the most efficient way to get there, but those minimum miles really add up!

gglave

Here in Canada airfares are too expensive to call them mileage runs.

I have a friend who does them, and calls them 'status runs' instead.

HMPS

I came across two Canadians who flew to ORD and joined the MR. Took advantage of the promos.

roberino

Now that one I get (the single MR), but I can't get my head around multiple MR's.

thskyisthelimit

yea i agree, it's so hard to do so in Sydney where fares aren't cheap.

vincewy

15 years ago my aunt did this while she was visiting US and NW was still around, I couldn't understand why she took so many detours from point A to point B (ie: HOU-MEM-MSP-LAX), her whole family was aiming for booklet of vouchers to be used for Business Class upgrades across the Pacific. I wasn't familiar with NW's FFP.

Simply put, in Asia it's too expensive to rack up miles for status unless you're traveling for work. For many the best strategy is getting miles while in US (going nuts shall I say), then reaping rewards in Asia. I just paid $300 for RT HKG-TPE (BR V fares) and $240 for OW BKK-HKG (TG Q fares) giving me 716 and 1024 miles respectively (those are strictly for holidays), which could've been done here by simply taking detours on transcon flights without extra charge, if not less.