Hi all, I'm thinking of doing a mileage run to bump up my frequent flyer miles. Carriers every now and again have deals where if you fly on such and such a date to here or there, you'll get bonus miles. I'd like to try this out partly for the miles, but really more for the experience - buy an ultra cheap coach seat out of SNA, make two connections/ transfers somewhere out west, then be back in the evening. I know I wouldn't earn a ton of miles, but like I said, I'm curious about the whole process and as I like flying (don't we all?) it might be a fun way to spend a day with summer vacation coming up.
Has anyone ever done this? Are there any tips for maximizing miles or increasing one's status? I'll likely be on either UAL or Alaska, both of whom I have frequent flyer accounts with.
Thanks all!
Bob
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Re: Hints and tips on doing a mileage run.
It's a choose your own adventure type of thing. Did it out of STL a few times to LAX to have In and Out Burger then came back.
A few other times did absolutely stupid things such as starting at 6am and routing STL DFW OKC DFW LIT DFW TUL DFW MCI ORD STL. By about 6pm we kind of hated ourselves.
Definitely bring a small backpack in case you get stranded or stuck for a night.
A few other times did absolutely stupid things such as starting at 6am and routing STL DFW OKC DFW LIT DFW TUL DFW MCI ORD STL. By about 6pm we kind of hated ourselves.
Definitely bring a small backpack in case you get stranded or stuck for a night.
Re: Hints and tips on doing a mileage run.
"a mileage run to bump up my frequent flyer miles" is redundant.
Re: Hints and tips on doing a mileage run.
Unless you haven't flown very frequently the last few months but still have those miles in your account. That's me! Remember, they usually don't expire 'til a year and a half out if left alone.
Re: Hints and tips on doing a mileage run.
I had a guy do DEN-OAK. Then OAK-SNA-OAK 8 times so he can be eligible for companion passes for his wife.
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- fbgdavidson
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Re: Hints and tips on doing a mileage run.
Although it's not a mileage run I'm doing a day of flying tomorrow. My wife has to go into work for the day so I'm going flying!
I used the ITA Matrix link below and wanted to fly from either LGA or JFK, then I just set the destination as DFW but used the "Nearby" function to expand it out to "within 2000 miles" and looked for flights that were of interest. By setting it as DFW w/2000 miles it allowed me to do a catch all of the lower 48 so I could figure out the cheapest city pairs very quickly and then worked from there.
https://matrix.itasoftware.com/
My trip is fairly tame, essentially JFK-MCO-JFK but is through MIA on the way down (operated by a 763 on JFK-MIA so have the nice seats) and CLT on the way back. Plenty of time with connections at each place and decent Flagship Lounges and Admirals Clubs along the way. I've done mileage runs in the past (back when I could earn 625% of miles flown and it was basically free travel) but squeezing 7 flights into one day can be stressful if flights are late, etc.
ITA Matrix doesn't work for all airlines but I've used it before for similar trips such as when I'm looking to go away for the weekend and am not set on one particular destination, for example.
I used the ITA Matrix link below and wanted to fly from either LGA or JFK, then I just set the destination as DFW but used the "Nearby" function to expand it out to "within 2000 miles" and looked for flights that were of interest. By setting it as DFW w/2000 miles it allowed me to do a catch all of the lower 48 so I could figure out the cheapest city pairs very quickly and then worked from there.
https://matrix.itasoftware.com/
My trip is fairly tame, essentially JFK-MCO-JFK but is through MIA on the way down (operated by a 763 on JFK-MIA so have the nice seats) and CLT on the way back. Plenty of time with connections at each place and decent Flagship Lounges and Admirals Clubs along the way. I've done mileage runs in the past (back when I could earn 625% of miles flown and it was basically free travel) but squeezing 7 flights into one day can be stressful if flights are late, etc.
ITA Matrix doesn't work for all airlines but I've used it before for similar trips such as when I'm looking to go away for the weekend and am not set on one particular destination, for example.
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