Questions and Answers

Hi All,

First time poster with moderate experience in the travel game. Quick question: I am at about 50K miles and 50 segments on AA YTD. (Sept 1) I will naturally accrue about 15K more taking me to 65K and Platinum status. Next year I will likely be flying AA quite frequently for short hops from DCA to Nassau and the Caribbean. Obviously EXP sounds lovely. Is it crazy to try to mileage run 35k miles in the next 4 months? What would be a reasonable budget? My work is largely remote in nature so I do have the flexibility to travel. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Thanks in advance for the help and thanks for the terrific resources.

-carl

Hi Carl,

I’m in a similar boat here in DC, but luckily only a few thousand short, not 35K.

Plus side, you still have 4 months to qualify!
Down side, 35,000 EQMs is [I][B]a lot[/B][/I] of miles. You could pay for business class on American’s longest flight (Dallas to Hong Kong) and still be short, by a couple thousand!

A couple people I know have done the LAX to Panama City biz class mileage run to net about 17,000 EQMs, but again, you’d have to do that twice. Add in positioning to Los Angeles, and you’re definitely over $2,500.

So I guess you’d have to weigh if the high status is worth a couple thousand?

Good luck!

Sorry. FlyerTalk thread for that mileage run is here:

[URL]http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/premium-fare-deals/1741731-aa-lax-jfk-mia-pty-rt-702-j-18-9k-eqms.html[/URL]

Thanks Ricky – I appreciate the thoughts. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something obvious. This really is a borderline case. A MR or two will likely exceed $2500 – especially when you factor in all the costs we never acknowledge – taxies, hotels, tips, etc. As you mentioned, I’ll need to weigh that cost. I am going to price a PTY run today and keep an eye on MR opportunities out of DCA.

Again, thanks!

-carl