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Old Dec 13, 2013 | 1:21 am
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Mileage Running - Same FA Crew on Multiple Segments

As we're in the middle of prime mileage run season, I thought I'd ask about everyone's experiences with seeing the same flight attendants on multiple segments of a mileage run.

I've had this happen a couple of times now on same day turns, and the FAs are always shocked, although pleasantly so, to see me again so soon.

The first time it happened to me was on an LAX-SFO RT. On the return, the purser asked me if I was trying to requalify for AA EXP, and I told him I was. He said, "We'll, it's that time of year. We've had a lot of people doing the same thing recently."

I also had it happen on an LAX-HNL RT last year. The return flight left just an hour or two after the inbound flight landed. The crew gave me quite a bit of special treatment on the way back, leading one couple to ask me if I was "that famous poker player from TV" as we were deplaning at LAX (I'm not).

I'm doing the same thing tonight... Waiting for my LAX-OGG return which will put me within 1000 miles or so of requalifying again this year. I assume it will be the same crew again, so I will be interested to see the reaction.

What experiences do other FTers have with this issue? Are you embarrassed when you run into the same crew again and have to explain yourself? I admit that I'm a bit sheepish about it since many people find MRs to be ridiculous wastes of time/money and just can't comprehend the logic behind them.

In the end, though, I've never regretted a mileage run, and I suspect I'm not the only one who has encountered the same crew again... Would love to hear other experiences!
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Old Dec 13, 2013 | 2:23 am
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From a few years back.
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Old Dec 13, 2013 | 5:05 am
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Mileage Running - Same FA Crew on Multiple Segments

Just did a MKE-ORD-IAH-LAX-IAH-MKE on Wednesday and had the same crew and plane to and from LAX. Got a few double takes when I re boarded but everyone was great and just laughed when I told them my itinerary and the reason.
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Old Dec 13, 2013 | 6:16 am
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In 2007 (I think) CO had BWI-SEA for ~$130 r/t. I bought 3 on consecutive days, all via IAH. Turns out that the IAH-SEA-IAH with the redeye return was a work day for the FAs. Not only did I have the same crew up and back on day 2 of the trip but I had the same crew on day 3 as well. The FA was very confused when I sat in the same seat and ordered the same drink as the day before.

I also accidentally discovered several JetBlue crew routings during the AYCJ promo they ran. Not really MRs but I was optimizing my travel time/connections and crew scheduling did the same for the FAs.
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Old Dec 13, 2013 | 7:03 am
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I just had this last week on a pair of DL (SkyWest) CR7s: SEA-LAX-OAK-LAX on Thurs, and SJC-LAX-SEA on Sat ... then discovered when updating my logbook that I had two other DL CR7 flights in the past year (SAN-LAX in Oct 2012 and EUG-SLC in Nov 2013) on the same jet as the Thurs flights

also in the 2007 timeframe I did the ATL-ONT-ATL evening/redeye turn on DL 757 (UGs on both legs) with the same crew ... the outbound was a one-day-early departure on a business trip, the return was actually the first half of a relatively cheap BNA turn
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Old Dec 13, 2013 | 7:16 am
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Mileage Running - Same FA Crew on Multiple Segments

These are the kinds of trips where the FAs get See's chocolates on the return. Then I can joke that the only reason I made the flight was to buy them a treat.
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Old Dec 13, 2013 | 10:54 am
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Mileage Running - Same FA Crew on Multiple Segments

Was a lot of funk the 2006 AA FLY3 turns between Dallas and Austin. Same FA and most of the same passengers on several turns all day
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-aadvantage-pre-merger/518494-dallas-love-field-dal-60-000-bonus-miles-offer.html
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Old Dec 13, 2013 | 11:19 am
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I've never had the same crew but on one run I had the purser laugh when she announced the only connection in DCA was mine to JFK. Guess it would have been funny if I was turning around back to DFW (which I indeed did due to weather).
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Old Dec 13, 2013 | 11:34 am
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Mileage Running - Same FA Crew on Multiple Segments

I was AUS-IAH-ORD-IAH-AUS in June; supposed to be 787 but a 764 was substituted at last minute. Same FAs IAH-ORD and back to IAH. They thought it was funny. Trying for the 787 again next Tues on IAH LAX IAH.
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Old Dec 13, 2013 | 1:01 pm
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Originally Posted by metallo
I also had it happen on an LAX-HNL RT last year. The return flight left just an hour or two after the inbound flight landed.
Wouldn't a LAX-HNL-LAX turn put them over allowed hours?
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Old Dec 13, 2013 | 1:13 pm
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Did a few MRs to ELP this year on UA with a turnaround IAH-ELP-IAH on an Embraer. FA asked if I had really just flown there and back. Told her ELP was too hot for my liking
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Old Dec 13, 2013 | 2:15 pm
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Flew SIN-DAC-SIN a couple years ago, the SQ crew was so surprised when we got back on the aircraft. They thought we had had visa problems or something (we had actually lived there the year before).
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Old Dec 13, 2013 | 3:01 pm
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Originally Posted by milepig
Wouldn't a LAX-HNL-LAX turn put them over allowed hours?
Apparently not. As I suspected, I got the same FA crew for LAX-OGG and OGG-LAX last night. No big reactions this time. I don't think they even noticed me at first, but I got a "nice to see you again so soon" during the redeye snack service.

On my LAX-SAN flight this morning, the guy who boarded in front of me was welcomed back by the lead FA... he was apparently doing SAN-LAX-SAN turns.

On SAN-LAX yesterday, two Brits in the row behind me were talking about requalifying for BA Gold status.

'Tis the season... for MRs!
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Old Dec 13, 2013 | 3:08 pm
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I was doing a segment run a couple of years ago and had the same crew for the last three segments ATL-FLL-ATL-DCA. On the third flight ATL-DCA, the FA who was working in F jokingly asked me "Are you going to MSP tomorrow morning with us, too?"
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Old Dec 13, 2013 | 6:56 pm
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Being a bit of a plane geek (#avgeek) I took a special trip LAX - IAH RT on a 787. It happened to be the same crew on both segments. On the return we all joked about how tired we were because we flew in at 10:30pm the night before and had to fly back to LAX in the morning.
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