Gadling’s guide to mileage running — Should I book a mileage run?

by Grant Martin on

Mileage runs aren’t for everyone. Most obviously, you should be within reasonable distance of an elite tier (or your own personal goal – 2k miles short of a 50k reward ticket comes to mind) before you consider pulling the trigger.

If you’re doing it to achieve or maintain elite status, you need to be a frequent enough traveler such that you can enjoy the perks of elite status and extra miles. If you’re a twice-a-year-to-visit-the-parents sort of flyer, it may not be worth your effort.

You also have to consider the time, financial and ethical ramifications of your decisions. Yes, you are burning money to go somewhere you don’t need to go just to earn miles. You’re also dumping tons of carbon into the atmosphere along the way (even though the plane would still fly without you). Carbon offsetting can help you allay those concerns.

For me, the formula happens to work out pretty well because I have a relatively flexible schedule, friends all over the country, a little disposable income and nothing to do on the weekends. I also enjoy the beauty of travel, making new friends in strange places, people watching and working the system. And I take sadistic pleasure in riding around in airplanes.

But everyone has their own motivations. If you find that you happen to fit into some these categories, follow along while I show you how to book the best mileage runs.

Continue reading to How to find a mileage run >>

Gadling’s guide to mileage running — Elite status and frequent flyer tiers page 2

by Grant Martin on

You can also earn elite status by flying a certain number of segments. In another example, if you have frequent business between Minneapolis, MN and Saint Louis, MO, each flight on United Airlines earns you two segments: MSP-ORD and ORD-STL. After taking that flight a few weeks in a row, you’ll start to accumulate some serious segments. Usually these tiers are at multiples of 25 segments, but you’ll have to check with your favorite carrier for specifics.

As a result, if you look at your miles or segments balance near the end of the year and you’ve earned almost enough miles or so along the way, it may be worth it for you to schlep around and earn another 5k to bump you up to the next tier. Usually, your status lasts through at least the next calendar year; the platinum status that I’ve earned on NWA lasts until February of 2009.

Why not just take the money I spent on a mileage run to book the ticket that I would use miles to book later? Well, for a couple of reasons. To begin with, one of the few areas in which miles are advantageous to use is in the short term. Ticket prices usually drastically rise in the last two weeks prior to booking. Award tickets, however, usually don’t. So one can book a last second ticket out for the weekend on Thursday and still pay the 25k award fee.

Another reason is because the benefits go beyond simply miles. Elite status, first class upgrades, bump vouchers and airline debauch await anyone willing to go on a mileage run. Part of the whole beauty of mileage running is the logistical bonanza that comes with any booking. It’s part of the fun.

Continue reading to Should I book a mileage run?>>

Gadling’s guide to mileage running — Elite status and frequent flyer tiers.

by Grant Martin on

Most people know that by subscribing to a frequent flyer program, one can accumulate miles over the duration of several flights, ultimately saving up for a free ticket or upgrade. What many people don’t know, however is that there are rewards for accumulating those miles fast enough – usually over the period of one calendar year. For example, if you earn 25k, 50k or 75k miles in a particular airline program over the course of the year, you’ll be rewarded with “perks” at each tier.

These perks come in a variety of different flavors, from preferred seating to quick routes through security lines to upgrades into first class. That’s right, often if an airline has space in first class and they know you’re an elite member they’ll upgrade you to the front of the jet, where (depending on your carrier and flight) you can enjoy free meals and bottomless drinks.

In addition to the perks, it’s also sometimes worth it to earn the miles that you make on your journey. Take this example: as a top tier member of Northwest Airlines, I get a 125% bonus on miles for every flight I take. So while a flight I might run between Detroit (DTW) and AMSterdam may normally earn 4k miles, I would earn 9k miles. And if I have a TOLedo-DTW-AMS-Barcelona(BCN) round trip flight (like I made last Wednesday), I would earn somewhere around 24k miles. Considering that a domestic economy award ticket costs only 25k miles to redeem, I’ve pretty much earned a free domestic ticket with my international journey.

Thus, booking inexpensive long haul flights can often pay off other perks pretty quickly – as long as the fare is cheap enough. You just need to calculate the price per mile (PPM) ratio. Usually if that’s in the 0.01 – 0.02$ or below range, you’re on the line of effective vs. ineffective. A great tool to do this is Farecompare, where you can sort destinations from your departure city by the PPM earned.

Continue reading to Elite status and frequent flyer tiers, page 2

Frequent Flyer Fare Sale on American et al.

by Grant Martin on

Several of the major carriers are currently in a frequently flyer mile fare war among short hop tickets. As many of you know, a normal frequent flyer ticket costs 25k miles or more. But as many more of you know, most of us have far less than that in our accounts.

In this case, many tickets (depending on the carrier) are about 15k miles. I just booked a ticket from Detroit to New York for a grand total of five dollars in taxes.

If you know your plans well enough in advance, book early. American Airlines, for example, charges an extra $50 in fees if you book inside of a 21 day window prior to departure. You’ll also want to check the market price for your ticket; since the price of mileage tickets has gone down, so have the cash tickets. It may be better worth spending the $130 on the airfare and earning the miles against blowing your load on a cheap mileage ticket.

But for those of you who earn miles at a snail’s pace or have 15k stranded miles in a random frequent flyer account, take this opportunity to get away for the weekend and visit some friends in New York for dinner.

American’s fare sale is here while other carriers have similar pages. Travel between September 1 and February 29th.

Northwest Airlines Sponsors Destination and Miles Giveaway

by Grant Martin on

For those of you frequent flyers out there who subscribe to Northwest Airline’s Worldperks program, they just launched their fall promo. Dubbed Mystery Miles, this season’s dish is another points-based program, encouraging travelers to fly certain routes in certain fare classes to collect points. Come January 31, points are tabulated and you get a mileage bonus for the number of points you earned. This can be anywhere in the neighborhood of 500 – 100,000 miles, but 95% of us will be under 10k.

Earlier this year (or was it last?) I participated in the ‘Mile Safari’ promotion where I earned points in a similar fashion. While it didn’t turn into a wealth of miles, six thousand miles here and there never hurt anyone, especially if all I had to do was plug my frequent flyer number into their form.

In addition, Northwest will be posting clues on mystery destinations each week. If you can figure out and submit the location, you’ll be entered in a weekly drawing to win round trips to that destination. And I have a feeling that once the clues come out you’ll be able to Google the answers you need to partake. Lets hope the fantasy destinations aren’t Haiti and Ohio.