Were welcoming a lot of new readers from around the globe this week here at One Mile at a Time. To celebrate, were featuring a lot of content that covers the basics of what you need to know to get started in this hobby as well as a few articles that provide some historical perspective…
Continue reading: What’s A Status Run, And Should You Book One?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I do status runs to maintain my AA platinum status. However I have never done a "true" mileage/status run in that I fly out, don't leave the airport and come right back. I always try to turn these into at least a short weekend away. From the west coast, I try to find cheap fares to new cities (Raleigh), cities I haven't been to in a long time (Atlanta) or cities I enjoy/have friends in (DC). I figure there is always something to do and given that my husband is usually willing to come along - I have fun.
Platinum status (which may seem paltry to some) affords me 100% bonus and pretty much my choice of coach seats (i.e. bulkhead or exit) so its worth it to me. I get about 15K per year from work flying, try to take 1 big trip (this year was Ireland) and then fill in the rest with cheap transcons.
Betty -- Absolutely. I too prefer "mini-vacation" runs or "weekend getaway" runs. Great way to see new places.
Ben, what is the point of these beginner posts? I expected one or two but it seems to be the main focus. Do you want to become the next TPG? I'm starting to skip your blog because you are alienating your more loyal reader.
@Tyler: Well all these bloggers aspire to be like TPG or Lucky Ben. That way, they make more $ from credit card signups and affiliated programs. They can't please everyone but themselves. Kinda like Delta, alienating their most loyal flyers but money talks, or blogs. #RealityCheck
Travis: If this post is intended for beginners, then the analysis is incomplete, since you fail to mention elite status revenue spend requirements that would obviously influence whether a status run makes sense or not.
I may need a status run this year. Only at 29k PQM / 35 PQS / $8k PQD so far, so a long way to go to get back to UA Platinum. Not looking forward to the prospect of dropping to even UA Gold, for which I'd lose 8 E+ companions, boarding group 1, award change/redeposit fee waivers, 2 RPUs, etc.
These posts are near impossible to write because the answer is always "it depends on YOU". There's no "master spreadsheet" or formula that can tell you if it makes sense to do a mileage run (I've never heard it called a status run; on FT we still call them MRs). There are way too many variables in the formula that I use to define a MRs value.
Daniel M: Yep, that's right, and a valid point for Delta and United flyers. (The primary example was Dan on American, however.)
Guess my thinking is that if you're already doing "real" trips to get close to an elite threshold, then you are probably meeting the revenue requirement anyway. At least that's true for those in the middle of the country, though maybe that's not always the case.
And since I agree that this is worth considering, I inserted it into the post. Thanks.
The point about evaluating whether you need status is a great one, especially in the context of various challenges which offer shortcuts to obtaining status.
Back when US Airways status challenge was still available and it'd been possible to get Chairman's Preferred (which would've converted into EXP), I almost jumped on it because there was a cheap fare to Europe which would've met the requirements in 3-4 trips for under $2500. But I don't travel for work so all of my trips are vacations/mini-vacations (mostly, using miles). Given my limited time off work, I realized I'd probably not been able to use EXP benefits to their full potential and, especially, wouldn't been able to re-qualify next year -- there are mistake fares & great deals but if your schedule is fairly rigid, it's hard to take advantage of them.
This weekend I am flying the B737, SVG-IAH return, only to maintain my SK-Diamond status.
The ticket was priced at USD 1250 only, and instead of flying my buttoms off domestic (low accrual), I now spend 24 hours in an average- business class, and will earn my 25 000 miles needed for the Diamond.
I still need 3 more domestic flights, but they will come easily in August when I return to work !
Great report / comment....
Really starting to get annoying... are all new readers for the first time on the Internet? Simple Google search could easily produce all this beginners infos in seconds. Oh yes, then OMAAT would not get extra $$$$ from all affiliated links... Seems that old loyal readers would have to start looking for new favourite travel blog.
I found odd from Dan's story. If he only short in 5k miles. He could purchase boost for 1.2k same price as Malaysia Airlines discount business price. Also he bought discount business tickets that should be 100% miles .if round trip should be 2867x2=5734(don't count class service bonus miles and platinum status) also he main stsy in Dallas he still need yo fly back there or go to Seoul those miles need to count in ....how's that possible only 99,996miles
@ Petter -- I live in Houston and just did SVG-IAH flight as part of an Aeroplan award (AMS-CPH-SVG-IAH for 45000 miles). Was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the flight and the seat. Slept more on that 9-hour flight than on a 14-hour UA IAH-NRT J (really don't like that seat even though it's lie-flat). Just remember to bring some entertainment & headphones with you to pass the time before they hand out iPads & Sony noise-cancelling headphones and also after they collect them (about an hour before the end of the flight).
Seems a little bit silly for some posters here to claim OMAAT has been forever destroyed just because they are running a few introductory articles at the moment.
Due to Ben's multiple media appearances around the world at the moment, OMAAT is having an large influx of first time readers, so the OMAAT team are doing a special series to help these people get settled in. That is what is called for, quite reasonably in my view.
It is, however, just a temporary shifting of gears from the more typical fare at OMAAT to cope with response to all the media coverage and new public interest. I'm sure that once the media moves mostly on (as they always do) and the tide of new readers falls back to the normal influx, that regular services will resume. No need to Henny Penny, the sky isn't falling in. If you don't want to review how to "suck eggs" just skip those articles, nobody is forcing you to read, and it's only been a couple of days to date (so no need to get strung out).
@Lucky @Tiffany @Nick @Travis (and for general info)
For a "status" run of a different sort (lol) how about the chance (you might up sharing, but often it's yours alone) of flying a super luxury Cessna CJ4 CitationJet between Dusseldorf and Luxemburg (or vice versa) for 180 euros? You might even have one of pilot's come and serve you drinks lol.
What regularly scheduled public airline is this you ask? Hahn Air. Comes with premium lounge access both ends, and onboard catering. The service is a quirk due to air operator certificate requirements specific to Hahn Air's other activities.
One of the OMAAT team should go do a flight review 🙂
@ Kieran - that's an awesome tidbit! But how do you get it to price for €180? I checked ITA through end of schedule and it shows €279 DUS-LUX one-way and €533 roundtrip.
@Ivan Y
It's a fare promoted on AirEvents (180 or 340 euros return), which is cheaper than the published rate in return for giving up "must go" status (so no EU 261/2004 compensation), but I believe it is sometimes offered as a normal fare during sales as well. I've not flown it myself (but will certainly avail myself of it if in Germany or Brussels in future), and have just become aware of it's existence. At either price, I'd still give it ago just for the novelty (don't have any friends with executive jets alas lol), but if the OMAAT guys can fly it first and give us one of their reviews on it, that can certainly be a nice bonus to whet my interest until my next opportunity to Europe arrives and I can try it out myself.
Noah -- If you live outside of the US, United doesn't require you to meet EQD thresholds. I live in Germany and fly to the US frequently as part of my job.
Noah:
As Frank said, you are exempt from the spend requirement if you have an address on file that is outside the US.
And you are also exempt if you spend at least $25,000 / year on the co-branded credit card. (That doesn't include 1K on United.)
Since it's fun to pick on Travis' technical accuracy...
Because Dan's mileage run was on MH, he had a layover in KUL each way; it wasn't a nonstop flight between SIN and ICN as pictured. He did fly business (Z) for all segments. The layover in KUL was memorable for him because there was only supposed to be an hour before arriving and departing, but the the KUL-ICN flight was delayed several hours until around 2-something AM. Dan took a nap in one of the MH Golden Lounges. When he woke up, he wandered over to the flight board to see that KUL-ICN had departed about 15 minutes ago!!! After a sinking feeling in his stomach, a few deep breaths, and some quick "Okay, where am I going to sleep tonight since the newbie just blew his first mileage run?" scenarios, Dan decided to go back to the board to stare at it some more in disbelief. When he did, he saw that it was actually a KE flight that had departed and his MH flight was still delayed.
Before we criticize Dan too much for not being able to read an airline departures board, it was malfunctioning (flickering on and off with lots of distortion), in multiple languages with multiple code shares...and Dan had just woken up at around 1AM to read it. Nevertheless, that was the scariest part of the trip.
Due to the delayed flight into ICN, the quick turnaround was REALLY quick: basically made it back to main terminal, immigration, check-in, immigration, out to the remote terminal, and back on a plane. Nobody in immigration questioned what I was doing and the MH agent who figured out what was going on when issuing my ticket just smiled, apologized for the delayed incoming flight and asked me to enjoy my next flight. "Thank you for flying Malaysia Airlines!"
For being a useless trip, it was actually one of my more memorable for how silly it was.
As for the economics, there were a few other considerations. Since I was spending ~24 hours on planes and in airports, I decided to checkout of my expensive Singapore hotel for one night, saving $200-$300 while my bags were under the care of the hotel's porters rather than in an unoccupied room. (Granted, this saved my company money, not me, but my boss appreciated it.) Also, Travis thinks its silly, but those Executive Platinum luggage tags definitely played into the calculus! 😉
Now to figure out what I'll do to get those last four EQPs. Dan's leaning towards making his DFW-LHR RT into DFW-FRA-LHR even though FRA means flying in a 767 in old business class with no chance of upgrade vs the 777-300ER in biz to LHR, with a chance of an SWU clearing him to first. Nice problems to have...
All part of the joys of flying a multi-sector itinerary, no? Lol. Best for those who don't mind some risk taking - and for those dare devils, you have flying multi-sector intineraries across split tickets (white knuckle indeed! - especially if going outside OneWorld).
I like MH, but given recent practices at MH to cancel or amend flight timings at short notice depending on load (as they try to save every penny), I'm nowhere near brave enough to book timing dependant flights with them (although I guess booking at the last minute, having checked loads on ExpertFlyer first, you can improve the risk exposure).
Glad your trip did work out though without major disaster, and now is a war story to regale with a laugh.
Like you, I will accept trade-offs in product and convenience to stay an elite (Platinum) status with my more troublesome Qantas program (even though I don't like it all that much). I refuse to pay over the top (when Qantas is already an over-priced carrier) to do so, so that means maximising status credit earn. Of course, it'd be much easier in the long run to shift over to AAdvantage for OneWorld elite status, but the thought of grinding through the grades again (rather than requalifing) is off-putting (if it wasn't for Qantas' hook-up with Emirates on reciprocal status, I'd probably have done it though).
The things we do to keep the "shiny" card!
I'm really a complete beginner. Although others may feel differently, I felt this post was very worthwhile and interesting. Your examples really helped me understand status runs, so thank you. Please keep doing what your doing. It's a real inspiration.
I've now wasted nearly an hour looking all over the Internet for an answer and cannot find it. So, I KNOW that someone at this blog will be able to tell me/us: Since I am (stupidly, stupidly) about to try for my first-ever status run this year, I am trying to find a tool to show me trips based on distance. I know about webFly's mileage calculator, but it needs two cities. I want to say "starting from x and needing 1908 miles, where can I fly?" Surely there is a tool that will do this somewhere! Any tips? I am sure I am not the only person looking for this. Thanks!
MBH --
Actually, I don't know of a tool that does exactly what you describe. The reason is this -- even though you need just 1908 miles, you don't really care whether the trip is 1908 or 4000 miles. You just need to cross the threshold. So you want the cheapest trip that gets you at least 1908 miles.
I would suggest playing with the map on Google flights. It's not exactly that, but it is a map of various fares from your city.
UA Silver is worth more than $200! I think Scott valued it at around $1000. It includes several benefits the CC doesn't: TSA, blue seats, and the occasional upgrade. I fly 25k domestic (out of pocket, mind you) just for fun.
American Airlines lifetime status question. I don't fly for business. But, I've used mileage credit cards for a long time. I've got 870000 million miler points with American. I'm thinking that I should try to get to 1 million in the next few years by doing a mileage run a few times a year and/or actually paying for some flights. I don't have elite status. I'm looking for guidance as to whether this is worth doing. Also: If I book a fare on American can I use points to upgrade if I have no status level? Is there any other way to add to million miler status other than flying? What might be my best strategy? Any suggestions or guidance would be helpful. thanks!
@ Paul Davis -- Well, in my opinion, I don't think it's worth going out of your way to earn million miler status with AA.
You do get "lifetime" Gold status, which would give you some additional benefits, but if you're not flying all that often they may or may not be of much value to you.
You can purchase 500-mile "stickers" to use for upgrades on AA-operated flights, but keep in mind upgrades will clear based on your elite status level.
So really, it depends on your overall strategy. I typically pay for domestic economy flights, and redeem miles for international premium cabins, for example, but you'll want to consider everything Travis wrote above and decide what makes sense for you.
I agreed with Travis, it has become a status game. Downunder (Australia and New Zealand) people use air points for status runs where they can recoup some airpoints and get the status credits. Being a lounge member does not give some travelling privileges on airlines such as Qantas. You need at least Gold/Ruby to get to chose your seat for free and Platinum/Emerald to bet access to the front seats and the First Class lounges, including Emirates and BA. Check-in at the First Class counter is also a benefit.
Hi,
I have platinum status with AAmerican through 2017 and I got a status match offer from United through January 2017. I can pick a status match for 90 days and all I need to do is fly them once in 90 days and I'll have the status plus 10,000 points through January 2017. I primarily fly American for work but would it make sense to do a quick trip (found a flight in and out of Detroit) for $130 to have the status? I should say that my company isn't tied to American - if a flight is cheaper on United than I would book that.
I fly about 50K - 60 K miles per year for work. 90% on AA. My current status is Platinum with Elite Qualifying Points: 84,229 of 100,000 (YTD). The system wide upgrades at Executive Platinum would be a big benefit to me since I fly to Asia 2-3 times per year and central Europe 1-2 times per year. What would be the most cost effective way to get the 16K Elite Qualifying points with only 2.5 weeks left in the year?
I'm at 945,000 miles on United, retired and no longer fly for work but we do take three or four trips per year. I'm thinking of doing a mileage run to get the Million Mile Premier Gold status for my wife and I. At best it looks like I will pay .07 to .08 cents per mile to get there.
Your thoughts?
Hi. I just received AA Exec PLT status (after only 5 months...). I'm wondering of they still give out the luggage tags? I know this was written a year ago, but its the most recent post showing the luggage tags.
@Travis I would be interested to hear your thoughts on segment runs. I fly for work and live near a small airport, so all my status comes from segments. Today I am attempting my first segment run (6 segments) and it has been pretty painful with Delta schedule screw-ups