garycal

Other than adding segments when it doesn't significantly change overall travel time, I'm having trouble convincing myself that mileage runs make sense. I've seen the reasons above, and other than the "flying is fun" category (not one I'm part of), I don't get the rationale.

When I read this thread, I asked the question backwards, and it sounds different: List the bonuses of elite status, list the cost of the mileage run, and ask if its worth it. Like this example: "If American Airlines offered to give you free upgrades on 2 of your several Los Angeles to New York round trips and gave you 30,000 extra miles as bonus matching miles, would you be willing to pay them $1,200 and spend 20 hours sitting in coach on several immediate turn around flights in order to earn those perks?"

The example is probably too complicated to be clear, so to oversimplify: If the cost of getting 10 hours of upgraded travel in first class is taking 8 extra hours of totally unnecessary travel in deeply discounted coach, how does that make sense? If the idea of elite status is that it makes travel easier, isn't avoiding unnecessary travel the best way to avoid hard travel?

I do understand the reasons give in the other posts, and it is pretty clear that everybody has their personal preferences, tolerances, and reasons for chalking up extra miles. I just can't see going through the inconvenience of hours of unnecessary coach travel in order to make other travel less inconvenient. Of course, if the value proposition is different (i.e. the miles have a value as award travel miles that make them worth it) that could be a pretty convincing reason.

tom911

$1,200 per round trip? Are those 30,000 miles per trip, or after so many trips? Lots of factors go into deciding whether to take advantage of promos. For instance, AA had a recent promo that gave you a free ticket anywhere in the world they fly for 2 RT's to New York or Boston from the west coast. I qualified for two tickets. It was well worth it, and the fares for each trip were less than $300RT.

For some of us, the "other travel" wouldn't exist without miles. For example, I'm using a business award this week to fly to the Olympics. My total cost was $60 in taxes. If I had purchased the ticket and cancelled I would probably be out about $1,500 or more if it were a coach ticket (I wouldn't be buying a business ticket). I did not know for sure that I would be going until after Olympic Trials in July, so the award ticket offers the flexibility that I don't get with a paid ticket.

Back in May I did an award ticket that had stops in Hong Kong, Singapore, Hobart and Brisbane, plus some other in-transit overnights, in business again. If I had bought this ticket in coach it would have been several thousand dollars. I would not have bought the ticket in business.

Just depends what you do with the miles. Some of us get a very good return and get to sit in business as compensation. A lot of our "qualifying" travel to get these miles is also up front. I have about a 98% domestic upgrade average going back 5 years with AA, and 100% on international upgrades. Add in lounge access and the qualifying miles really aren't that hard to attain.

dgwright99

Stictly speaking, and MR is done solely for EQMs, and maybe on occasion RDMs - and no other reason. EQMs is obvious. RDMs less obvious, but on example is that 140k AS miles will get you a ~$15k BA TATL F seat. You could buy the 140k AS miles for ~$3.5k, but an MVPG could earn >6k miles for ~$200 on some super-bargain SoCal-SEA flights, and get to visit SEA, and enjoy 5+ hours in F into the bargain. Most of us enjoy flying, and spending 5 hours in the air on a Saturday or Sunday, reading a book, hanging out in lounges, talking to people, etc is something we enjoy, so we don't need much of an excuse. Many of us only really need a a barely plausible reason to get on a plane - and may even do so when it doesn't quite make sense, but is close enough to making sense in our self-justifing minds to our long-suffering spouses.

In short - it's a hobby. Some people collect stamps; MRing probably sounds crazy to them. MRs make sense to me, and collection anything (other than BPs ) seems crazy to me

As others have suggested, there are some self-important types; I notice these more in the UK than elsewhere, but that's not a scientific survey. IME most FFs will want to use an ITM if they can. Therefore, typically an FF wanting to talk to an agent wants to get something done that isn't just checking in - and in that case using the elire/premium counter may get a better result, more attentive service, etc.

phedre

I'm relatively new to this, but I'll put in my two cents anyway.

I just finished a MR to Buenos Aires - I took it for several reasons: primarily because it was a great deal and got me a ton of QM, but also because it meant I could see Buenos Aires, even if just for a day or two. I'm trying to hit 100k QM on Air Canada for SE status before October 15th, the cut off date for early qualification, so I'll probably need another good run between now and then.

For me, the status is all about the perks: priority boarding, priority check in, upgrades, and lounge access.

As for the status lines, it really depends on who's in line. If I see a family of five with three small children and a ton of luggage in the Y line vs 8 briefcase carriers in the priority line, I'm going to the priority line. In most cases, the family will need extra time to get sorted and will take longer.

Re: pulling out the card: I keep it with me in my wallet, but then I'm a card carrier with 20+ cards in there. I've been asked to produce it when using priority check in lines before, probably because I don't have AC*E tags on my carry on.

Edited to add: here's a great example of a perk. I just got off a 14 hour flight and was feeling extremely grungy. Thankfully the lounge I'm currently in has shower facilities so I just grabbed a quick one. I'm feeling MUCH better, and I'm sure my seatmate on my afternoon flight is very grateful, wherever he is!