
Mileage runs are last-minute dashes for airline status - wallflower
https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2019/12/26/mileage-runs-are-last-minute-dashes-airline-status-are-they-worth-it/
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gumby
> Some companies even allow employees to expense their trip to nowhere because
> of the expected returns the following year.

Reminds me of a time 35 years ago when my company asked me to upgrade to the
then $1000/year platinum amex card because they'd save more than that on
rental car insurance.

I've never forgotten that they reimbursed me $975 because "You're paying $25
for your regular card already".

Nowadays with corporate cards, expensify etc this doesn't generally make
sense.

~~~
Aloha
I expense north of 40k a year, and still do it all on my personal cards.

And actually, I do it split, hotel goes to the hotel chain co-brand, rental
car to the airline one that offers free primary insurance, everything else,
whatever card du jour I have right now.

~~~
CydeWeys
I wonder if it wouldn't make more sense to just do all of that on a Chase
Sapphire or Chase Ink Preferred. That's what I do. It's an effective 4.5% cash
back on travel/dining with the Sapphire Reserve, which trounces any of the co-
branded cards I'm aware of, plus it has primary insurance.

~~~
atombender
Chase Sapphire Reserve gives you 3% back on dining. What do you mean by
"effective 4.5%"?

The $450 annual fee means you have to spend $15,000 to make up for the fee
alone, although it gets better if you're spending the $300 annual travel
credit.

~~~
CydeWeys
It's 3% points, and the points are redeemed at 1.5X on travels
(hotels/flights/rental cars/etc.), for a total effective 4.5%. For a concrete
example, $10k spent on dining/travel will yield 30k points, which can be
redeemed for $450 worth of flights/hotels/etc.

And the effective annual fee is $150 because the only way to not earn the $300
travel credit is to essentially not use the card at all, at which point you
definitely shouldn't have the card anyway.

So at the end of the day you "only" have to spend $3,333.33 on dining/travel
to pay back the fee, and that's before considering the other perks it gets you
like: It pays for Global Entry/TSA PreChek, it comes with included primary
insurance for rental cards, and it effectively upgrades the value of points
earned on other Chase UR cards, since you can transfer the points to the
Reserve first before redeeming them, to get that 50% bonus.

For example, I'm currently doing the 80k point intro offer on the Chase Ink
Business Preferred. With the 25% bonus of that card, those points "only"
redeem for $1000 worth of travel, _but_ , transfer those 80k points to the
Reserve before spending them and now they redeem for $1,200 worth of travel.
So the Reserve is more than paying for itself this year just by increasing the
value of the rewards from another card I have.

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whizzkid
This whole setup doesnt make sense for me. Flying as a whole is not that comfy
even if you are flying first class. Pack + taxi + controls + wait in lounge +
wait boarding and etc.

I believe not needing to fly is more luxurious life than flying. If your job
requires you to fly, than business class is there just for that purpose :)
(company pays)

~~~
rolltiide
Learn how to pack and its not a chore. A woman taught me some techniques to
optimize packing and space, and ironically other women say its only possible
because I am a man.

When you have preauthorization from the government for security the controls
are not time consuming, and means less variance in how long you need to get to
your plane

So that means much less waiting, but if you wish to wait then you typically
have several lounge options to choose from if you desire

And with status you board earlier which also means less drama regarding
getting on or whats going to happen to your carryon bag

It requires some finesse but its a much more parallel experience to casual
travelers subject to the full stress of air travel

Also with the points you are more frequently booking convenient flights that
would otherwise be economically irrational

~~~
Aloha
I'm on the road 150+ nights a year.

Packing can be easy. For example, I roll everything, makes it much easier to
tetris them into the bag and they don't come out as wrinkled on the other end,
they also compress a little better.

Similarly TSA PreCheck is a must, yes, I hate effectively paying a bribe to
bypass the security theatre, but I also hate dealing with getting undressed at
the checkpoint - the fact is, the security theatre exists to keep the
infrequently flying public feeling safe - and if that results in more relaxed
travelers, that also makes my life better.

I mostly focus on Hotel Status over airlines, thats gonna change, I'll likely
try for status this year or next at American.

~~~
ghaff
I don't find hotel status buys me a huge amount. I prioritize Marriott all
other things being equal and I probably get upgraded more than the average joe
as a result. But I don't find perks like lounges that big a deal and often
stay in suite hotels anyway where they don't even exist.

I'd rather stay in a convenient location than do unnatural acts to stay with a
specific chain. There also tend to be much bigger cost differences among
hotels than airlines.

~~~
rolltiide
Hotel status doesn't do much, in isolation. Late checkouts and more reliable
room upgrades aren't much incentive. They also let you accumulate points
faster for... drumroll... more hotel stays and status chasing!

The thing I do like about Hotel rewards programs are that:

They are more likely to let you transfer your points to other services such as
airlines

The points themselves can get your rooms at the tier exchange rates that are
totally decoupled from dollars

And you still get progress towards your next status even while using the
points. Something that airlines do not do.

Sometimes the status can be matched between other services. I like the MGM
Resorts status match with Hyatt.

~~~
Aloha
Exactly, and marriott points are quite flexible too - I would rather do Hyatt
if I'm being honest, but Hyatt doest have enough hotels to work for me.

~~~
rolltiide
But that Marriott portfolio is super broad now

~~~
Aloha
The Starwood side of the house is still hit or miss, I'm 90% legacy Marriott
and 10% legacy Starwood because of that.

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code4tee
This era is gradually coming to an end as the airlines now heavily weight
status to how much $ you give them each year vs how many “miles” you fly. It’s
freaking some people out but at some level it makes sense that the amount of
free stuff they give you should be proportional to the amount of money you
have given them.

For example starting next year United doesn’t care at all how many miles you
fly... it’s basically just how much you spend (with a slight discount if you
fly a lot of individual flights, but length of flight doesn’t matter).

~~~
thrower123
Delta is currently doing some weird combination of miles and dollars for their
status levels. The wife is pissed that she is way over the mileage amount for
Delta Gold status, but she's about $900 short on the dollar amount.

Keeping that status is stupidly important; almost every flight she takes she
gets upgraded.

~~~
chrsstrm
She's short because she is only getting MQDs for the ticket she paid for, not
the class she flew. It's usually pretty easy to hit the miles and dollars
levels at the same time unless you are consistently getting deals or buying
discounted flights all year. They moved to this new MQM + MQD system like 2 or
3 years ago.

FWIW, you can also buy MQMs and the dollars you spend qualify as MQDs as well
- check this out [0]. Delta doesn't promote this as much as they used to but
it's a good way to maintain status at the end of the year if you find yourself
a little short. It's basically a mileage run without having to step onto a
plane.

If you pick up the Delta Amex card you are also exempted from MQDs once you
spend $25K per year on the card. They have some decent bonus offers as well
for signing up.

[0] [https://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/skymiles/elevate-
you...](https://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/skymiles/elevate-your-
status.html)

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sandworm101
I knew some attorneys who used to do this. Once upon a time you could just buy
the ticket and get the miles, not actually setting foot on the flight. But
post-911 that is no longer an option.

There are really interesting benefits from some of these plans. I knew one guy
who's premium membership, because of a package deal between airlines and
hotels, would get _free minibar_ in the hotel. That was a game changer.

~~~
chrisseaton
> would get free minibar in the hotel. That was a game changer.

Free chocolate bars and half-bottles of mediocre Champagne is a game changer?
Seems like a very low bar to set! Could replicate that experience for $50 in a
nearby gas station if you really wanted to eat that many peanuts and average
beer.

~~~
sandworm101
You could, but that means leaving the hotel. For a jetlagged business traveler
with a flight in a few hours, free minibar is a real timesaver.

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yummypaint
Talk about unnecessarily burning fossil fuels. I wonder how much carbon this
practice puts into the atmosphere.

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ceocoder
I made status this year on United, fortunately I didn’t have to do any sort of
mileage run. I do enjoy benefits of status - ability to pick better legroom
seats for the whole family, upgrades except for SFO LHR route because half the
plane is Global Service for that route. However next year the same status will
require $24k in spend, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be able to get to
that. It was fun while it lasted though.

~~~
chrisseaton
Who is achieving Global Services while not already booking in Polaris? I
thought Global Services was like private invitation to senior executives?
Those people aren’t likely booking in Economy and hoping for an upgrade. Or is
it low-level consultants flying transatlantic twice a week every week who have
astronomic mileage but aren’t actually senior in their companies?

~~~
asciimike
Nobody. GS is nominally the top 1-2% in UA metal revenue of each station (e.g.
I had a coworker based out of PIT who was able to routinely get it with 50k
annual spend, while I met a number of SFO folks who had to spend 80-90k).
Anecdotally, companies with large business relationships with United (Apple,
Google, etc.) will get a certain number of GS slots as well (they could get
allocated to senior execs--there was a rumor that it was a director perk,
though I asked my directors and they didn't seem to have access, so maybe it
was VPs only?).

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mark-ruwt
As a one-man, self-funded startup where every dollar counts, maintaining
status is critical. It's much more than legroom and upgrades, it's also lower
fees for some last-minute fares and the ability to sometimes change flights
within 24 hours of departure for zero fee.

In September I made it from the curb to the gate at Heathrow in 27 minutes--it
wouldn't have been possible without the agent at the United Elite desk.

~~~
chillydawg
27 minutes isn't that fast for heathrow. I assume it wasn't T5? In there, even
in non-business I've made it from the entrance to the gate in about 15.
Entirely depends on the state of the queues, though.

Being able to do it in 27 minutes reliably would be a real asset, though. I'd
never, ever bank on being able to get through that quickly as inevitably
something goes wrong.

~~~
StillBored
This is really the problem with all the airports. The check-in/security line
is too variable, so showing up really early is the only safe bet.. Then you
end up sitting around in the airport. Or alternatively showing up with the
about right amount of time, and missing the flight once every dozen or so
trips because the security line is wrapped around the building because of some
random news tidbit that sends 50% of the precheck through the naked
scanner/whatever.

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memn0nis
I was United 1K for a few years, now back down to United silver (I fly maybe
20-30 flights a year now, down from 100+ when I was 1K). I would certainly pay
a couple hundred dollars to keep United silver to get economy plus seats, but
would never pay for anything about that

~~~
asciimike
Waived same day change fees is the biggest (way underappreciated IMO) perk of
1k. I now pick the first or last flight out and move around as needed (most of
the time I can swap with no fare class change). Having a dedicated phone line
to call and immediately get a helpful human to reroute me is also super
worthwhile.

~~~
memn0nis
I never had waived change fees when I was 1K. They must have added it
recently, but agree that is nice!

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o-__-o
Had a family trip this weekend, booked my flight fully refundable for max
points and booked the rest of the family on econo tickets. It ended up being
an amazing idea because i boarded like second and was able to hold an entire
row on a flight full of families and kids. It was the last flight I needed,
Now the wifey flies for free next year..

Was that worth a $1200 ticket?

Yes.

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im3w1l
Sounds bad for the climate.

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jonplackett
outline version: [https://outline.com/nepZzS](https://outline.com/nepZzS)

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ec109685
This version works without a paywall:
[https://m.sfgate.com/news/article/Mileage-runs-are-last-
minu...](https://m.sfgate.com/news/article/Mileage-runs-are-last-minute-
dashes-for-airline-14932647.php)

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Namrog84
Thank you! I feel like I've been seeing more and more paywall reaching top
links lately and its mildly annoying do most people have subscriptions or
something?

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inferiorhuman
I've got uBlock Origin set to block javascript on washingtonpost.com and as a
result I've not seen their paywall nonsense in ages.

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Namrog84
Thanks. I use unlock origin but hadn't tried that. I'll do that now. Thanks!

