My "Mileage Run" Modified with Timeshare Accommodation ...

[RonaldCol]

Background:

I've managed to obtain a lot of information from this site and other timeshare related sites beginning about four years ago. At this point we have about 15 timeshares, all bought in the resale market. We are members of RCI, II, DAE, and a few other exchange companies. We are members of Frequent Flyer clubs of several airlines.

General Intention:

To create a travel plan such that I am able to minimize costs everywhere.

Purpose of this Thread:

To go step-by-step in putting the pieces of the travel picture together so I can minimize costs as much as possible and maximize benefits as much as I can. I will expound on reasoning as to why I choose this flight instead of that, of this accommodation instead of that, of whatever I choose over what I do not.

To accomplish the mini-max purpose I've created a travel plan from Chicago to Orlando that I will execute by month's end. My cost will be less than $500, not the cheapest, and my benefits will be great (not quantifiable at this point) but not the greatest. From this starting point of my first "Mileage Run" with travel accommodations I will be able to even minimize costs further and maximize benefits more in future gameplans.

... so permit me, fellow Tuggers, to start this blog with the next entry ...

 

[RonaldCol]

Prioritizing What to Reserve First ...

In any travel plan there are three components to deal with before you can deal with anything that is location specific.

The three components to deal with are: 1. mode of travel to destination; 2. accommodations at destination; 3. transportation options at destination. Once the traveller arrives at the destination, then destination specific objectives can be customized.

What do I mean by "mode of travel" to destination? One can travel publicly in many ways: air, bus, boat. These modes of travel can also be private if you own your own plane, own your own boat, or own your own car or bus. If you own any of these modes of transportation, then trying to save money by minimizing costs and maximizing values does not apply. Railroades are specifically left out since the public mode of transportation is a near monopoloy and there aren't too many of you out there who own private railroads.

However, if you are like the rest of the world, you take an airline flight, an interstate bus route, or a Bahamian cruise. If you are in this category you try to minimize your cost and maximize your value. How do you minimize cost? By trying to buy the tickets as cheaply as possible. How do you maximize value? By getting as many fringe benefits as possible, i.e. upgrading your particular flight, obtaining Frequent Flyer miles, etc.

(continued later ...)

 

[ronandjoan]

I am anxious to hear the rest......

 

[camachinist]

Mileage Run, did someone say mileage run??

FWIW, I'm seeing a T-fare (TA7TEDN) on UA for 89+o/w where you can route through NYC, WAS and TPA, among others. AA has a cheaper fare (Q7XAA3N) but it's only for non-stops.

You can always go to MCO via KIX

Keep us posted on your progress. Happy to help out if you wish....

Pat

 

[RonaldCol]

Sorry for the hold-up in my experiences. We've been traveling extensively the last six weeks. Prior to trying to maximize by implementing a Mileage Run we booked five weeks in Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Solana Beach, San Diego and Anaheim. We have only been home one week in the last six so my writings and records are not accessible. From the southeast we went to the southern California coast.

I will be back in Chicago for three nights before I fly out to Orlando on my modified Mileage Run. I'll provide more information from my records during those three nights.

 

[RonaldCol]

Continuation ...

We got back from Anaheim two nights ago and I'm catching up on as much as I can.

So, as of this moment I've spent a total of $429.92 for three critical components of my travel: airfare, accommodations, and car rental. I am the single traveler from O'hare's Chicago airport to Orlando's International airport.

I've spent $178.70 for roundtrip airfare, $131.96 for seven nights at an Orlando resort, and $119.26 for economy car rental for seven nights. This averages out to $61.42 per night of travel. Food and entertainment and gas for the car is not included.

My average daily cost will definitely shoot up when I have dinners in Orlando. Local favorites are the all-you-can-eat lobster restaurants that have prices ranging from about $18 to a high of $29. Even though the lobsters are 3/4 to 1 pound in weight, packing in four to five of these delights will stretch my dollars. I reason if I'm trying to get as much as I can for as little as I can spend, buffets and all-you-can-eat restaurants are the best value.

To Be Continued ....

 

[RonaldCol]

Why Choose Orlando as a Destination?

When I was figuring out how to do this modified Mileage Run I had to input into the equation of how to get maximum value with minimum cost several components that bounded my outcome: destination and flights.

Destination is critical because it is necessary to get cheap destinations and the area of the country where there is a huge surplus of accommodations is non other than Orlando. Are there other locations? Yes, there are: Las Vegas and Branson. Generally, these other two locations do not have the accommodative weather that Orlando has. Las Vegas can get extremely hot and Branson follows the weather pattern of the midwest: ideal in the summer, progressing to less desirability as the winter approaches. Orlando, on the other hand, is generally good weather all around with the exception of the few hot, muggy summer months.

Of the two other overbuilt cities, Las Vegas and Branson, I would expect Las Vegas to be the easirer to book within the next two years. The reason is attributable to the fact Las Vegas will suffer a decrease in vacationers as the economy starts to slow down due to administration policies.

So, I chose to go to Orlando, the overbuilt city with the warm weather climate.

There were also other factors that entered into my choice of Orlando. It so happened to coincide with a financial trade show at the time.

Around the time of my desired travel I explored several sources of accommodations: RCI, II, Dial-An-Exchange, SFX, rentals, panicked renters, long-lost relatives, and even alienated offsprings. Short of studying obituaries of recently departed travelers with abruptly changed plans, I settled on finding RCI 9,000 RCI points weeks or Last Call inventory. Even as overbuilt as Orlando is, the 9,000 RCI points weeks were harder to find than an eskimo with an operating freezer (apologies for butchering this rather colorful description of the obtuse: "selling an icebox to eskimos"). None could be found.

As a last resort (pardon the pun), I checked the RCI Points account I have and found a week in a studio, most likely cramped and without even a window to the back alley, in sunny Orlando, for a mere 16,480 points. The RCI exchange fee for this reservation was only a mere $99.

Through previous shenanigans using various methods of depositing weeks generated from the proverbial "black-hole" of the timeshare world, UDI's from Christmas Mountain, my cost of 16,480 points was only $140.20. That's $0.0025 cents per RCI point, for $41.20, plus the $99 exchange fee.

After I made this reservation, I found myself talking aloud, "I could have had a V8." Among the many timeshares I own, I just recently picked up a Royal Holiday Club ownership. My maintenance fee plus amortized acquisition cost of this ownership comes out to be about $0.022055 per point. The vacation club has an ongoing promotion of one of their third rate hotels, the Clarion in Orlando, for only 5,000 (previousl quoted as 8,000) Royal Holiday Club points. With this price, one wonders whether or not there was a typo: perhaps the writer meant third country hotel instead of a third rate hotel located in a first-rate country. At my net cost, this works out to a mere $110.28 (previously quoted incorretly as $176.40) for a week's stay at their even cramper studio. This is available most of the time during non-prime times. These numbers are mind-boggling for some of us anal-retentive types. These are numbers that will make even Mr. Ebeneezer Scrooge wince at how tight fisted and "squeeze blood from a turnip" one can be. Driven to such desperation, even Mother Teresa would have had trouble entering the gates of heaven.

To be Continued ....

 

[RonaldCol]

Continuing .... My Experience in with the Air Miles Accounting

The decision matrix of my modified Mileage Run started with the major decision of finding cheap airfare on the airline I want to accumulate by frequent flyer miles. Since I am a member of American Airlines I monitor their fare sales often.

At the beginning of January I noticed American Airlines had a few airfare discounts for flights between major hubs and lesser airports. Since I reside in the Chicagoland area my flights would emenate from either O'Hare or Midway airports.

One relatively discounted fare was between Chicago's O'Hare and Orlando's International. The fare was $138 I believe. The one way flight to/from Orlando from/to O'Hare airport cumulates only 1005 miles, so a round trip, non-stop flight would accumulate double that, or 2,010 miles.

My object was to somehow add more legs to the flight to accumulate more miles, giving up more flying time in different airplanes and still keep the cost of the airfare down.

Using the website www.ITASoftware.com I was able to input parameters seeking multiple legs flights to/from Orlando on American Airlines only. After playing around with the software I found a multi-city one way flight to Orlando that went this way: Chicago to St. Louis to Dallaw/Fort Worth to Orlando. Similarly I found return flights that reversed the cities. A series of flight replace St. Louis with Miami, but not in that order.

On the American Airlines website, and this is the ultimater arbiter of whether or not one can get the flights displayed at www.ITASoftware.com, I was not able to find multiple city flights going one way AND multiple city flights going the other way. Instead, I only found roundtrip offerings under the conditions of the low fare of $178 with one leg of the roundtrip going non-stop and the other leg of the roundtrip with multiple city legs.

I chose to fly down non-stop and return with three flights. This is what I reserved:

1. Flying to Orlando from Chicago in a direct flight that took about two hours and credited me with 1005 miles.

2. Returning from Orlando via a flight to Miami to Dallas/Forth Worth to Chicago. Three legs were involved and took about eight hours. The first leg from Orlando to Miami credited me with 192 miles; the second leg from Miami to Dallas/Fort Worth credited me with 1,121 miles; and the final leg from Dalls/Forth Worth credited me with 802 miles. The second leg summed up to 2,112 miles, or virtually doubled the one way, non-step mileage. The time of arrival at each of the respective airports and then catch the connecting flight ranged from an hour and ten minutes to fifty minutes. This was an acceptable time range, but a bit too close for me as a first time Mileage Run experimenter. I would have preferred to have an hour and a half to catch connecting flights due to the shear newness of dealing in an unfamiliar environment with constantly unforeseen variables.

3. The cost of the roundtrip airfare in this case went from $138 to $178. This additional cost of $40 was attributable to the additional airports I was landing and departing to/from charging taxes and fees. This higher price was still acceptable to me for the experience of increasing my mileage traveling to a destination I wanted to go to.

The total mileage for my round trip from Chicago to Orlando totalled to 3,120 miles, instead of a non-stop round trip of 2,010 miles.

Since I was already a Gold member with American Airlines I am entitled to 25% bonus miles after my 25,000 bogey accumulation. The 3,120 miles had a 25% bonus attached to it, or an additional 780 miles. I also happened to luck onto a promotion American Airlines offered for the Orlando to Miami flight. The actual mileage of that flight was a mere 192 miles, but my bonus was considerably more than the 25% (48 miles): 433 miles. (In a later post, a Tugger pointed out American Airlines credit any one single leg of a flight with a minimum 500 miles of flight credits. In this case the flight from Orlando to Miami was only 192 miles, hence American Airlines credited me with 500 miles instead of 192 miles. I haven't worked out the exact math to see if this correct, but it appears as if the actual larger mileage credit American Airlines gave reflects part, if not all, of this minimal credit of 500 miles.) The 3.120 mile flights gave me a bonus of an additional 1,114 miles. American Airlines also provides a 500 mile bonus for making reservations through their website, i.e. avoiding travel agents (the 500 mile credit had been 1000 miles; this change was very recent at the start of this year).

The non-stop credit of 2,010 turned into a mileage feast of 4,985 miles by the time it was all over with. Mileage Run gourmands arrived at a "cost per mile" rule of thumb of about $0.01 per mile of flight. My flights cost me $0.0357 per mile ($178/4,985 miles = $0.0357 per mile flown), so I was well above the cost of what Mileage Run connosieurs try to achieve.

As an aside, with the flights we flew earlier in the week where we did not try to get as many flight legs as possible, but signed on for American Airlines promotional bonuses for flights going into/out of California, the account shot up a total of 9,166 miles for the accounting period. A few more of these flights that are maximized to accumulate the most credits and we should be approaching the next higher level from Gold level: Platinum with 50,000 miles traveled in one year. At this level, the bonus credit for miles flown is no longer at 25% but at 50%. As of this writing my account sits comfortably at 42,690 miles, or 7,310 miles from Platinum.

 

[RonaldCol]

The Experience of Actually Flying

When one writes from observations, one misses the finer points. One actually has to go through the processes to see little nuances and experience unforeseen events.

These are some of my observations from my experiences:

1. American Airlines and window seating. The airline has it programmed in their computers that any affinity passenger (I being a Gold member) somehow receive "better" seats, i.e window seats. In my case, even though I could not request it, nor would I do so had I the opportunity, I was always given a window seat. This despite the fact that I purchased my flights about three weeks earlier. The two legs of my return flight (Orlando to Miami; Miami to Dalls/Forth Worth) was about 95-98% filled yet I received window seats on both flights. The flight down was about 95% filled and I receive a window seat. (As a separate matter, prior to my getting knowleadgeable in this area I have been moved from reserved window seats to aisle seats when I showed up for my flights.)

2. Window Seats are not desireable when doing a Mileage Run. For the purpose of MR, window seats have a tremendous drawback: the other two passengers in the middle and the aisle seat. You either have to wait for them to exit or you have to crawl over them to exit. Why do you need to exit quickly? So you can get to your connecting flight faster. It takes about five extra minutes to exit if you are in a window seat. An aisle seat does not guarantee you will save that five minutes but it gives you an opportunity to do so. In this same manner, Mileage Run connosieurs have always pushed upgrading to first class/business class seating. One reason is the much better treatment, i.e. meals, wider seats that fold all the way back, AND most importantly, the ability to exit from the airplane very, very quickly, from the front of the airplane.

3. I brought alone three unread books. On the long return flight of eight hours, I was on airplanes for about five hours. During that time period I finished one book and was about half way through the second book. The opportunity to read is immeasurable. I suggest bringing some books to read. I read all the time so it was nothing new, but rather refreshing. The overhead lights were never aimed correctly onto my books when I was reading them but I got use to them. A slight nuisance that one overcomes for the benefit of reading in a moderately comfortable chair with constant white noise from the airplanes' actual physical motion.

4. Opportunity to do work on one's laptop. On this first Mileage Run I brought my laptop with me, but did not actually use it. My next set of MRs will force me to address this particular issue. As a writer, working on my laptop will be handy.

5. Meals and food on these multiple flights. From prior experience I knew to bring along some energy bars, a bottle of water, and some light snacks. Whatever I did not bring for food I can always buy at the airport gates. Food concessions are abundant. Prices may be relatively high (expect about $1 to $1.50 higher pricing for food items from airport vendors) but generally McDonald's, which has presences in every major airport stay within their posted street store prices. When the stewardesses passed out refreshments I always asked for the whole can, instead of a cup from the can. Additionally, not all flights have snacks/meals for purchase. The longer flights have them, but the shorter, one hour or less flights don't. These short flights do not even have liquid refreshments offered.

6. Cramped legs and what do do about them. After arriving at Dallas/Fort Worth I had to walk over to the tram to get to the next terminal's departing gate. My left knee buckled under me for lack of motion during the previous one hour flight from Orlando to Miamia. The airlines warn about the lack of circulation in the legs on long, cramped flights and suggest a set of exercises. My case dealt with aging joints. My suggestion is to take a walk up and down the aisle of the airplane halfway during the flight to extend the muscles and loosen up the joints a bit.

To be continued ....

 

[RonaldCol]

Checking in Luggage

My experience with checking in luggage for a Mileage Run? Try not to do it, but if you need to do it, do it on the return leg of your trip.

When I flew to Orlando on a non-stop flight I also checked in one piece of luggage. Within it I carried a folded duffel bag that I purchased at a local Walmart's. It folds flat and square a bout 9 inches by 9 inches or so. Very compact. The flying regulations permit you to check two pieces of luggage. Each piece of checked luggage must not weigh more than 50 pounds. If it does weigh over 50 pounds then the airline will penalize you up to an additional $50 for checking in that piece of overweight luggage. What I've done is to take the foldedl duffel bag and basically split my luggage into two checkable luggage that weigh less than 50 pounds each. The extra duffel bag permits me to reduce the weight of each piece. The two pieces of luggage I checked on my return flight each weighed about 37 pounds for a total of 74 pounds. Had I packed everything into one luggage I would have been penalized for overweight luggage. As it turned out each were 13 pounds under and sailed through the check-in process without penalty.

When in Orlando I used it to store additional items I bought at the local outlet stores. Imagine my surprise when I found a Hard Rock Cafe outlet store. Two weeks earlier we had been in LaJolla, CA, and dined at the Hard Rock Cafe there. We did not get a chance to buy any souvenirs while in LaJolla, but found the outlet store in Orlando, clear across the other part of the country. Beach towels with Hard Rock LaJolla and Hard Rock San Diego logos were $9.95. I'm sure they would have been $40 easily in LaJolla. Shirts and t-shirts were priced between $7 and $15; retail pricing in LaJolla or San Diego would have been $45 and up. There were even a few Hard Rock Chicago camp shirts and other items that were at a fraction of their retail selling price.

With two pieces of checked luggage and three connecting flights on the return trip, and about an hour between connecting flights for boarding and departure, I had a feeling my luggage would be lost en route. The ticketing agent at American Airlines saw my return flight and asked if I would want a direct flight if she could get one for me. I replied I was testing out a Mileage Run, and she acknowledged me in a manner that appeared as if she was more apprehensive than understanding.

My luggage got lost when I left Dallas/Fort Worth. The time the airline planned for the connection was 50 minutes. The flight from Miami to Dallas/Fort Worth arrived on time. And I mean on time to the very minute. Unfortunately the plane could not taxi to it's gate because the previous flight was still boarding. This delay took ten minutes and shortened my connection time from 50 minutes to 40 minutes at Dallas/Fort Worth airport. This airport also has several terminals that are connected by tram. Needless to say I had to take their tram to my departure gate. From exit to entry from one plane to another it took about 22 minutes. For practical purposes I got onto the departing plane with a mere 18 minutes before it departed. Quite close. During that 18 minute while all flyers were waiting I observed the process the luggage handlers went through to move luggage from their small luggage carriers to the airplane. The ticketing agent told me that each piece of luggage goes with the passenger. In my case, my luggage followed me from Orlando to Miami to Dallas/Fort Worth to O'Hare in Chicago. With such a short time for connection in Dallas/Forth Worth I felt the luggage handlers would not have enough time to find my luggage in the Oralando/Miami flight and then send it off on my Dallas/Fort Worth to Chicago flight.

I was correct in making my assessment. My luggage was lost. It arrived the next afternoon at my home after I had gotten back to Chicago. There were nothing of real value in it as I personally carry everything with me onto the plane that has value, i.e. my laptop, my notes, my camera, my cellphone, etc. This time I also carried a toothbrush and mouthwash in my carry-on knapsack.

I have the knapsack that can hold a wide screen laptop and also has two wheels at it's base. Even though the knapsack is small and you can't really load it up with too many things that will make it heavy the ability to move the knapsack around on it's own wheels helps considerably in lightening the load. With this type of traveling knapsack I can either place it on my back, or pull it along with it's extendable handle and two wheels.

Since the luggage was lost, the return leg of the trip was the best leg to have lost it's use. To have lost the luggage on the way to my destination would have posed a greater problem since my destination is completely strange to me and I would have had to make do without my clothes, toiletries, books, papers, shoes, until the airline found my luggage and returned it to me. The airlines are easy to deal with in this manner. You can expect that if your lost luggage is to be found it will be found and returned within one or two days. If you go beyond this time period, you might as well kiss the luggage good bye and go about picking up a completely new wardrobe. This is why if the luggage is to be lost it is better to lose it on the way home. At home, you have your clothes and your toiletries and your shoes, etc.

To be continued later ....

 

[Fletcher921]

It cracks me up when I realize that other people get as excited as I when they find a 'deal'... I love knowing that I am not alone.

Babs

 

[Hoc]

6. Cramped legs and what do do about them. After arriving at Dallas/Fort Worth I had to walk over to the tram to get to the next terminal's departing gate. My left knee buckled under me for lack of motion during the previous one hour flight from Orlando to Miamia. The airlines warn about the lack of circulation in the legs on long, cramped flights and suggest a set of exercises. My case dealt with aging joints. My suggestion is to take a walk up and down the aisle of the airplane halfway during the flight to extend the muscles and loosen up the joints a bit.

I just flew a 14-hour flight from Hong Kong to Los Angeles. I arrived at the Hong Kong airport from Bangkok at 5:30 pm, and my flight to LAX left at 11:40 pm.

I power-walked the length of the Hong Kong airport, then I found some stairs that led to a set of locked emergency doors. Essentially, a secluded area, since nobody could use the stairs. I ran up and down the stairs 30 times (after my power-walk warm up of about 35 minutes), doing every other step the last 15 up and 15 down. I then did a few sets of pushups on the steps, and lay down and did some crunches. I then did another powerwalk around the airport for 30 minutes. So, essentially an hour and a half workout before my flight. Then, I went to the Cathay lounge and showered in the Cabanas, then changed clothes (I had brought a change with me) and had dinner. By then it was about time to walk to my gate for boarding.

You can do a lot to minimize muscle stiffness after a flight. In a week and a half, I am flying to Ireland. I specifically decided to connect through Chicago with a 4-hour break in between flights. That is because Chicago airport has a gym, and I can schedule a massage after my workout, then get on my flight to Dublin, ready to sleep the whole way.

Often, if I am on a short mileage run, I will bring either an audiobook, loaded on my iPod, or some DVD movies, which I can watch on my laptop, if I don't have work to do. Sometimes, I get really busy during the week. On those weeks, I record my favorite TV shows to DVD. I then watch them on the plane on my laptop while I am doing a mileage run.

Back and forth to Denver twice this weekend: with bonuses, 40,000 AA miles for $256. For that price (about a half cent per mile), I figure it's worth spending 4 hours on a plane, doing what I probably would do if I were home, anyway.

 

[RonaldCol]

Back and forth to Denver twice this weekend: with bonuses, 40,000 AA miles for $256. For that price (about a half cent per mile), I figure it's worth spending 4 hours on a plane, doing what I probably would do if I were home, anyway.

Hoc, you've got it down to a science. I'm trying to figure out how you managed to get 20,000 AA miles flying between Los Angeles and Denver. I think, correct me if I am wrong, you got Platinum 50% multiplier, current AA bonus miles between LA and Denver, current AA bonus miles flying to a western city, and web reservation bonus?

 

[RonaldCol]

It cracks me up when I realize that other people get as excited as I when they find a 'deal'... I love knowing that I am not alone.

Babs

In my professional life I'm an investment advisor, so it comes naturally for me to make sure a buck goes a long, long way. And, now you know Hard Rock has an outlet store in Orlando!

 

[Hoc]

Hoc, you've got it down to a science. I'm trying to figure out how you managed to get 20,000 AA miles flying between Los Angeles and Denver. I think, correct me if I am wrong, you got Platinum 50% multiplier, current AA bonus miles between LA and Denver, current AA bonus miles flying to a western city, and web reservation bonus?

That's basically it, except the Platinum multiplier is 100%, the Gold multiplier is 50%. So, it's like this:

Flight 1 (Saturday afternoon): 1,675 miles r/t. Plat. bonus 1,675 miles. Web booking bonus 1,000 miles. Denver bonus 7,000 miles. West Coast bonus 7,000 miles. Total = 18,350 miles. Total cost of flight (bought during brief fare war with United): $128.


Flight 2 (Sunday afternoon): 1,675 miles r/t. Plat. bonus 1,675 miles. Web booking bonus 1,000 miles. Denver bonus 8,000 miles. West Coast bonus 8,000 miles. Total = 20,350 miles. Total cost of flight (bought during brief fare war with United): $128.

Bought both of these with my Aadvantage Mastercard for an additional 256 miles.

Thus, for $256 total, I get 38,956 miles.

 

[Pat H]

A few comments/observations about your flying/mileage runs.
1) Do you have 42,000 miles to date for 2006? If so, I hope you signed up for the Platinum challenge. If you did, you would already have Platinum status.
2) Check your profile on AA.com and see if it shows window seat as your preference. You can always pick/change your seat online. Since you have status you can choose exit rows.
3) If you have flown 40,000+ miles already, you should have 16 electronic upgrades in your account already.
4) Never check luggage on a mileage run.
5) AA flights get you a minimum of 500 miles.
6) There are ways to book all those segments in both directions on AA.com. Use the multi-city option. Search by schedule and where it says "number of flights to display" pick at least 20. In the flight boxes you would put in ord-dfw, dfw-mco and the reverse for the return.

People at work just laugh at me when I say I'm going to London via Dallas just to get miles! They all think I'm nuts. Next month I am actually going to London to visit my daughter for 2 days. US had a fare sale and I'm flying Allentown-PHL-LGW and return for a total of $351! I will use my UA FF # and the trip will get me 16,184 miles and I get to see my DD and SIL to boot!

 

[RonaldCol]

A few comments/observations about your flying/mileage runs.
1) Do you have 42,000 miles to date for 2006? If so, I hope you signed up for the Platinum challenge. If you did, you would already have Platinum status.
2) Check your profile on AA.com and see if it shows window seat as your preference. You can always pick/change your seat online. Since you have status you can choose exit rows.
3) If you have flown 40,000+ miles already, you should have 16 electronic upgrades in your account already.
4) Never check luggage on a mileage run.
5) AA flights get you a minimum of 500 miles.
6) There are ways to book all those segments in both directions on AA.com. Use the multi-city option. Search by schedule and where it says "number of flights to display" pick at least 20. In the flight boxes you would put in ord-dfw, dfw-mco and the reverse for the return.

People at work just laugh at me when I say I'm going to London via Dallas just to get miles! They all think I'm nuts. Next month I am actually going to London to visit my daughter for 2 days. US had a fare sale and I'm flying Allentown-PHL-LGW and return for a total of $351! I will use my UA FF # and the trip will get me 16,184 miles and I get to see my DD and SIL to boot!

Partial response, Pat, to your posting:

Unfortunately, we did not go for the Platinum challenge. (This is a process to permit non-Platinum AA members to pre-notify AA.com that the flyer will be trying to fly enough miles to qualify in that accounting year. By so doing AA.com offers advanced benefits to the challenger, so to speak.) We found out about this incentive too late.

The cumulation of my current balance of 42,000 miles started in year 2001, and not within the current accounting year, so I did not qualify for quite a few incentives and benefits. It is only recently that I've tuned into the advantages and benefits of becoming a loyatly flyer on any airline.

I haven't mastered the use of the AA.com website to find multiple leg flights yet as much as I've learned the intricacies of the www.itasoftware.com site. In trying to obtain the cheapest airfares while getting as many flight legs as possible at the lowest prices I have done more research with the www.travelocity.com site, however.

Keep those cards and letters coming.

 

[Pat H]

Ronald, anytime you need help booking on AA, feel free to contact me for help.

I hate to burst your bubble but you need to get 50,000 miles(YTD Elite Qualifying Miles) in a Calendar year to make Platinum. How many miles do you have there now? How much more flying will you be doing this year? Do you have any 90 day span where you will be flying enough to do the Platinum challenge?

 

[Hoc]

I'm not a hardcore "mileage runner." For the most part, my flights are to get to areas where I'm taking a vacation. In addition, I did the math and realized that, in most cases, adding segments to accumulate more miles was not worth it on a cost-benefit basis. For example, you can do a coast-to-coast run, with one connecting flight, and get 5300 miles r/t on average. This will likely take about 5-7 hours, with connections. Or, you can do a "mileage run," where you might do three to five segments each way. Ordinarily that will add about 500-1,000 r/t miles to your total, and will increase your travel time to 10-13 hours. I just don't see the benefit for those added miles, given the grueling itinerary. So, I don't try to squeeze every last mile out of a trip.

Blasphemy on Flyertalk, I know. But still, it's the way I feel.

 

[camachinist]

There are ways to add segments/miles without taking too much time, if one has the stomach for it. I usually route MOD-SFO-SMF-LAX or MOD-SFO-ONT-LAX prior to a transcon, as long as the routings allow. The trick is to find routings which are short but have good frequency to allow for tighter connections. As an example, MOD-SFO is only 72 miles, but returns 500 miles. Similar for SFO-SMF and SMF/ONT-LAX, all being under 500 miles. If I lived in the southland, like Hoc, I'd be looking at SNA/SAN/ONT/BUR/SBA, etc to extend routings. I've even done oddball routings like SFO-PSP-LAX prior to transcons in the past. Also, at smaller airports parking is cheap or free (at MOD it's free for 10 days), which affects cost per EQM.

I usually extract 6.8-7.3 K EQM's out of a transcon MR (which typically cost between 190-250.00 these days), and most are completed within 24 hours, usually 18-20. I've got three of those in March, plus trips to Japan and Ireland, for a total of ~43K BIS. RDM's will be in the ~160K range, since one leg of the Japan trip won't qualify for the YourChoice promo for UA elites. Int'l trips are leisure, and total cost for the month is about 1870.00 all-in. Hotels in Japan are on the Expedia/Orbitz rate deals, and I'll Priceline Ireland. The MR's are all red-eyes, so no hotel, and all are ex-MOD, so no parking. I eat and drink in the RCC and/or bring my own food, and will have 6 p.s. segments, where food is still served in economy during meal times (3 of six segments) or I'll get bumped to Biz.

Might make 1K this year....who knows

Pat

 

[Pat H]

Might make 1K this year....who knows

Pat

Wouldn't that be nice? Don't think I'll get there but should make 1P again.

Glad I'm not on a MR this weekend or I'd be stuck somewhere just like a 1K I know.

 

[LisaH]

Glad I'm not on a MR this weekend or I'd be stuck somewhere just like a 1K I know.

Hopefully he is stuck in some place worm and sunny, not like a certain NE city that's in blizzard condition!

Pat (camachinist), like you, I find that I could squeeze in more EQMs by not flying direct. e.g. I went from SJC to SAN by going through LAX. On the way back, I missed the connection from LAX to SJC, so they re-ruoted me from LAX to SBA to SJC. That one round trip yield 5 EQMs and lots of miles (I am 1K and signed up for the bonus double miles). It's definitely worth it.

I need to go to Eugene OR in March. I could go from SJC-LAX-PDX-EUG, or SJC-SBA-SFO-EUG. Both are cheaper (not that it matters since it's a business trip) than flying directly out of SFO. Still working on good connections. If you have better routes, please let me know.

Thanks!

 

[camachinist]

I need to go to Eugene OR in March. I could go from SJC-LAX-PDX-EUG, or SJC-SBA-SFO-EUG. Still working on good connections. If you have better routes, please let me know.

FARE BASIS CODE
WA14DNX
 
BK CODE
W‡ -

RES/TKTG
RES MUST BE MADE NO LATER THAN 14 DAYS BEFORE DPTR FROM ORIGIN. TKT MUST BE PURCHASED NO LATER THAN 14 DAYS BEFORE DPTR FROM ORIGIN OR 1 DAY AFTER RES IS MADE, WHICHEVER COMES FIRST. SGMTS USING THIS RULE MUST MEET ADV TKTG. SGMTS USING THIS RULE MUST BE CONFIRMED.
 
SEASONS
NO SEASON RESTRICTIONS APPLY.
 
BLACKOUTS
NO BLACKOUT RESTRICTIONS APPLY.
 
FLT APPL
NO FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS APPLY.

FARE BASIS CODE
WA14DNX
 

    QTE  F/B        BK    FARE   EFF  EXP  TKT  AP MIN/MAX  RTG
  1   -  WA14DNX    W?X    98.00   -    -    -  ??   -/  -   21
  21 LAX OAK ONT PDX SBA SFO

Have fun!

Pat

 

[RonaldCol]

Taking the Platinum Challenge from AA

We're finally able to effectively take the Platinum Challenge offered by American Airlines.

The normal route to obtain Platinum Elite status with AA is to fly a total of 50,000 qualifying miles (or points under a different set of accounts) during a 12 month year.

The Challenges (there also is a Gold Elite Challenge which requires fewer flown miles) offer the AA flyer the choice of acquiring qualifying miles over a 90 day period. In the case of Platinum Elite Challenges, the required miles to be flown in a 90 day period is 10,000.

We just registered for the Platinum Challenge a few days ago. At the end of the month we will be flying directly to Shanghai, China, from Chicago, IL. This roundtrip flight will create about 14,500 qualifying miles, or 4,500 miles more than required to fulfill the Challenge requirement.

The last leg of the flight will be considered of Platinum quality if it brings the total miles flown while Challenging to fulfilling the requirement. One of the benefits of Platinum status is AA will credit double the mileage flown into our Frequent Flyer account. In this case the last leg will create 14,500 FF miles, whereas the first leg will only create 7,250. The total flight will create 21,750 FF miles also, in addition to fulfilling the Platinum Challenge requirement. The minimum cost for "purchasing" a roundtrip airfare ticket within the continental USA is 25,000 FF miles. This trip overseas will create 21,750 such points, or only 3,250 FF miles short of a "free" flight. Factoring in this freebie as part of the FF program, and valuing it at around $400 or so, we've effectively reduced our cost of flight overseas by that much. Our overseas flight priced out at $1025 per person when purchased. This brings our cost of that particular flight down to the $600-700 price range.

 

[Hoc]

The Challenges (there also is a Gold Elite Challenge which requires fewer flown miles) offer the AA flyer the choice of acquiring qualifying miles over a 90 day period. In the case of Platinum Elite Challenges, the required miles to be flown in a 90 day period is 10,000.

Actually, it's 20,000 miles unless you're traveling full fare coach, business or first class. It's 10,000 points in 90 days, and normally, on virtually all discounted coach fares, you only get a half point per mile flown.