phillygirl06

Working in the UK, going home to Philly for the holidays, looking for some creative ideas, using UA. Not necessarily needing a mileage run (no work travel this year, will lose Gold status next year), although could always use more miles, of course. Looking for ideas, in my shoes what would you do with the following?

Here�s what I have to play with:

• UK based, but have credit card/address in both the UK and US, so can purchase on either side.
• 2x $450 VDB certs from last year which expire Dec 2012.
• 1x $150 comp cert for diverted plane complaint, after last year�s Goose Bay visit, expiration Jan 13.
• Mileage balance: 90,021, gold status
• Travel outgoing possible from Dec 15-21, return Dec 25-Jan 1. However, can only be out of the country for 10 days max (work visa restrictions).
• Possible airports outgoing: STN, SEN, LHR, LCY, LGW (in order of convenience, but LHR is usually the answer, it seems)
• Incoming: ABE, PHL, EWR (all the same, I have relatives near each )

Constraint: dependent upon public transport or relatives, so cannot easily leave before 10 AM on the UK or US side, or arrive after 10 PM on the US side. Have previously done the overnight buses to get to LHR for a 6 or 7 AM take-off, would prefer to avoid repeating.

So far I�ve considered (searched ITA, UA�s site):
LHR/PHL - $1012 � Dec 16-26.
LHR/PHL � $185 � Dec 16-26. saver award (econ out via EWR/biz return via YYZ). 80k miles. Seems wasteful to not use the certs though.

For info, last year, did VDB, for $450 cert: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...12-15-co9.html

Open to a massive mileage run to have bump possibilities again this year.
Feeling uninspired, so any feedback/ideas gratefully welcomed.

Indelaware

You need to use you VDB cetificates first as they are about to expire. The miles will last. And you will have more miles earned from this trip even though using the VDB certificates.

LHR-PHL is a bit cheaper for Dec 17-27: $974 rt a.i.

But "a massive mileage run [for] bump possibilities" sounds like a great idea to me.

PV_Premier

assuming you can use all your certs for one transaction, something like this becomes monetarily more palatable, especially if you can get more VDBs out of it (found on ITA):


London (LHR) to Philadelphia (PHL) - Tue, Dec 18
London (LHR) to San Francisco (SFO) - Tue, Dec 18
United 931 Dep: 1:35PM Arr: 4:30PM 10h 55m Boeing 747 Economy (K)
Layover in SFO 18h 45m

San Francisco (SFO) to Denver (DEN) - Wed, Dec 19
United 223 Dep: 11:15AM Arr: 2:49PM 2h 34m Airbus A320 Economy (W)
Stop in DEN 5h 0m

Denver (DEN) to Philadelphia (PHL) - Wed, Dec 19
United 223 Dep: 7:49PM Arr: 1:10AM 3h 21m Airbus A319 Economy (W)
Thu, Dec 20

Philadelphia (PHL) to London (LHR) - Sat, Dec 29
Philadelphia (PHL) to Chicago (ORD) - Sat, Dec 29
United 2895 Dep: 8:00AM Arr: 9:25AM 2h 25m Airbus A320 Economy (H)
OPERATED BY US AIRWAYS Stop in ORD 1h 20m

Chicago (ORD) to Phoenix (PHX) - Sat, Dec 29
United 2895 Dep: 10:45AM Arr: 1:29PM 3h 44m Airbus A320 Economy (H)
OPERATED BY US AIRWAYS Stop in PHX 1h 11m

Phoenix (PHX) to San Francisco (SFO) - Sat, Dec 29
United 2895 Dep: 2:40PM Arr: 3:46PM 2h 6m Airbus A320 Economy (H)
OPERATED BY US AIRWAYS Layover in SFO 1h 19m

San Francisco (SFO) to London (LHR) - Sat, Dec 29
United 930 Dep: 5:05PM Arr: 11:25AM 10h 20m Boeing 747 Economy (K)
Sun, Dec 30
Cost per passenger (including taxes & fees) �1,203.09
Total cost for 1 passenger �1,203.09

Indelaware

Lots of US segments on that, ddrost1. Any sense as to US' frequency of oversales to UA's?

PV_Premier

in my experience, requests for VDB have been DL>UA>US>AA

i flew US about 70% when i lived in delaware (PHL) and i'd say about 1/5 flights on average were VDB requests. more frequent on "popular" routes serviced less frequently and only by RJ a/c (ie, PHL-GSO, PHL-HPN, PHL-STL).

anyways that itin was my limited 2 minute search attempt on ITA and all i did was force the connection in SFO and that is what fell out. forcing SFO and IAH and/or flying in and out of EWR instead would get you more segments on UA metal I would have to imagine.