Last week @WhatWdJamesDo tweeted:
What the heck is going on? @OneMileataTime loves in-flight wifi and @garyleff is booking pure mileage runs. Signs of the apocalypse?
And indeed I’m in the midst of some mileage runs. But they aren’t pure mileage run.
I’ve been known to take discretionary trips, driven by a big mileage bonus, but I really don’t fly just for the miles and I haven’t needed to fly just for the status in many years. And when I’ve taken these extra trips, they’ve been weekends where the destination is part of the decision. So not just flying to fly.
And then along came the Oneworld MegadO and an offer that if I flew 20,000 miles on American by January 13th I could be an Executive Platinum. That alone was tempting but I was still on the fence, because I didn’t think I’d be able to maintain current statuses and requalify for Executive Platinum next year. And if I’m not going to really use Executive Platinum as it’s intended to be used, it’s not obvious it’s worth the time and expense to get the status.
But then American came out with double elite qualifying miles through the end of January. And that meant that if I pushed my mileage runs into January they’d count double towards re-qualifying, and I’m now starting not just at Executive Platinum but 50,000 elite qualifying miles towards the following year’s status by the end of January as well. It’s even making me wish I was joining in the optional European portion of the MEgaDO, adding on a New York – London – Dallas itinerary during double elite qualifying miles would push me even farther along.
And even in that scenario, I’m not doing the sort of mileage runs that would meet the definition of a purest. Because my wife is along mileage running. And that imposes additional challenges to optimize.
For a mileage run you want to net the most possible miles at the lowest possible (total, all-in) cost, and in the shortest amount of time.
That’s a lot to optimize, especially booking pretty last minute as I was mid-week for travel all of which needs to be complete by January 13 and which includes several peak travel days. And squeeze it mostly into weekends to minimize time out of the office.
But bringing along a spouse adds a whole new layover of complications, both to the planning and the execution.
I need to do more than lowest-cost straight turns.
- Upgrades. I need to confirm those. It matters whether or not we clear.
- First question when I mention a destination, “What are we going to do there? Is there anywhere we should plan on for dinner?”
- Layover times matter. And so do flight times. “I don’t want to get back too late on Sunday night, I have a long day on Monday.”
The airport experience is also different. If I were mileage running on my own, I would show up just before flight time and if I did have a few minutes to kill I’d do it in the lounge. Instead, we arrive a bit earlier. First stop is getting something to eat, which we can’t take into the lounge. Then we need to stop for magazines. And another stop for coffee (which as far as I know, they do offer in the lounge…).
If I sound like I’m negative about the whole thing, I’m not. It is nice to get out and see the city I’m flying to. And it is nice to be home at a reasonable hour on Sunday night. And I still get my revenge, I stuck a straight turn nested inside a weekend trip. Whether I’m trying to assert my mileage run manhood, or just trying to make sure we squeeze in all the necessary flying by January 13, I’ll leave up to the reader’s imagination.
Sounds like a familiar tale to me.
I’m still on the fence. I might get the bug over the next two weeks and take aadvantage of a double EQM filled January.
MR is such a waste of time, energy, carbon, efficiency, opportunity costs, it hastens global warming, fails to lead to personal enrichment, and creates unnecessary health risks (radiation/crashes). That being said I travel a lot and attempt to make every one of my trips to a destination I want or need to visit a MR, that is a slight inconvenience and lessens the huge personal and social negatives of air travel.
@hello Mileage Running at low fares by definition fill empty seats rather than generating incremental takeoffs and landings, there’s no meaningful increase in use of carbon or energy and thus no contribution to global warming. You consider it a waste of time, to me it was good quality time with spouse. And it’ll lead to plenty of enjoyable travels in 2012 and 2013.
No additional health risks. None.
Airplane crashes may be big news, but the actual risk to an individual flyer is essentially zero. As for radiation, the exposure and risks are completely overblown, particularly by the media in the US. Again, your incremental risk increase for flying is essentially zero.
Gary – what’re the odds that a regular joe that didn’t go on the OneWorld MegaDo could take advantage of the exec. platinum challenge for 20,000 miles before Jan 13?
Gary,
Are you sure you are not “killing” yourself by doing too many January MR’s? There’s still 11 months to go.
ED.
@Ken slim to none. But double elite qualifying miles is still tempting…
If seats were empty eventually airlines would cut capacity or reduce frequency or cut the route. Even re-positioning flight would become more efficient without MR pass giving false sense of real demand no matter how small the %
More weight=more fuel=more carbon, true the jets unlike a DC7 have fewer weight concerns; this does not mean that they are non-extant.
Health risk are difficult to measure but they do exist and some risks are more than negligible sums.
@hello sorry but filling excess capacity with award seats doesn’t influence an airline to keep capacity or continue flying a route. And referencing ‘health risks’ to flying requires a comparative approach — what health risks would be incurred by people while they *aren’t* flying? It’s not enough to say flying is dangerous, you have to say that flying is more dangerous than the alternative. Certainly flying is SAFER, for instance, than driving….