Looking Back at 2009, Ahead to 2010

A new year has started, and with it comes the most discouraging American Airlines AAdvantage statement of the year.

• YTD Elite Qualifying Points: -- 0
  
• YTD Elite Qualifying Miles: -- 0
• YTD Elite Qualifying Segments: -- 0

It's January and I have no points, no miles, and no segments. As I look forward to 2010, I'll take a moment to look back on my flying highlights of 2009.

1. American Airlines Platinum Status: This was by far the most important accomplishment of the year. By earning PLAT status I'll get double miles on all of my flights through February 2011, and that is the most valuable benefit of all. While early boarding of the aircraft and not having to pay the luggage fee are good to have, they simply do not compare in value to earning double miles on all my flights. As a mileage runner, my goal is to earn the largest number of miles possible: the PLAT double miles bonus is the most important benefit of the year.

2. I had some fun mileage runs: I did a trip to San Francisco and ate a great lunch. Dinner in Seattle was great too. And, I had the chance to fly with American Airlines' coolest pilot.

3. Final account numbers for the year: I finished 2009 with 34 YTD Elite Qualifying Segments, 27,122 YTD Elite Qualifying Points, 32,945 Miles Towards Elite Upgrades, and 58,523 YTD Elite Qualifying Miles. I did not fly 58,523 miles, but the American Airlines Double Elite Qualifying Miles promotion helped me earn the 50,000 EQMs needed for Platinum Status.

My goal for 2010 is to once again earn Platinum Status, but that is going to be quite a challenge for me for the following reasons.

• In 2009 my wife and I flew to Dublin, Ireland on vacation, I earned 9,300 EQMs on that trip. This year we will not be taking a similar trip.
• I had two business trips to Chicago last year, earning almost 4,000 EQMs. I already know that I will not have any business travel in 2010.
• I not only won't have the benefits of those trips, but due to difficult scheduling at work, and the fact that I am currently recovering from surgery and will not be able to fly for many weeks, it looks like my first mileage run of the year will not happen until April.

I'd love to see American Airlines run the Double Elite Qualifying Miles promotion this year, but can't rely on that happening. So, I have to plan on needing to fly the full 50,000 miles to again earn Platinum Status. If my first mileage run does not occur until April, I will need to average almost 5,600 EQMs per month to again make PLAT. A business trip or two would certainly help, but it looks like I will have to pay for all that flying myself, and that is a LOT of flying! So, without the Double EQM promotion, it looks like my chances of making Platinum in 2010 are not good.

A few years ago I did two international mileage runs. My first was to Helsinki, Finland, and I earned over 13,000 EQMs. The other was to Frankfurt, Germany, on which I also earned just over 13,000 EQMs. I was lucky though, both of those trips were on sale at a price that was too good to ignore. I've checked for the next few months and saw that the price to fly to either of those cities would cost more than the trips to both of them cost in 2008. I doubt we will see such good prices this year.

On a positive note however, I start 2010 with 828,000 lifetime AAdvantage miles. With each flight I will get closer to 1,000,000 lifetime miles which will earn lifetime Gold status for me.

I'll keep looking at the mileage run area on Flyertalk, maybe a good deal will appear.

The First Mileage Run of the Year

It's time to start earning miles! I need 50,000 Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs), or as I like to call them, Butt in Seat Miles, by December 31 to maintain my Platinum Status, and also earn enough miles to pay for our next great vacation. I'll get the year off to a nice start when my wife and I travel to Ireland on vacation; I'll earn 9,300 EQMs for that trip (Austin to Chicago to Dublin and back), but I need to build on that.

Trips to Seattle and Portland were not an option. Although the prices on both have dropped since my previous post, neither of them were an attractive mileage run. I visited the Mileage Run Forum on Flyer Talk and saw that some of the American Airlines mileage runners were doing weekend trips to Dublin and Frankfurt, Germany. Those are expensive trips, more than I would generally like to pay for a trip, but you earn so many miles that it can be worth it. Last year I did a hop to Frankfurt and achieved my lowest cost per mile ever: 1.74 cpm, including my Platinum bonus). I'd love to get another flight like that, but flights under 3 cpm from Austin have been tough to find.

I looked at the Frankfurt and Dublin trips and even found one I liked: Austin to Dallas to Atlanta to Chicago to Dublin to Chicago to Los Angeles to Austin. The cpm on that was less than 2.25, but I passed on it. The layover in Chicago on the way back was only an hour and twenty-five minutes, not enough time, in my opinion. to clear customs, change terminals, and get to the gate on time. I saw another one I liked, similar to the one above but without the Los Angeles route but did not jump on it fast enough and the price rose by over $200 by the time I was ready to buy it the next day. (Yes, American does allow you to put an itinerary on hold, but that only holds the schedule, it does not hold the fare. I put an itinerary on hold last year and when I tried to purchase it the next morning, the fare had doubled!)

The overseas trips were not working out for me, so I looked at some domestic routes. Some of the mileage runners at Flyer Talk found a great deal on American for round trips between Boston and Seattle. I had done that a few years ago (Austin to Dallas to New York LaGuardia to Boston to St. Louis to Seattle to Dallas to Austin) and got a really good price on it, but couldn't get it to work for me this time.

Eventually, I did find a transcon MR that would work for me and booked it: Austin to Dallas to Boston to Los Angeles back to Boston to Dallas to Austin. The transcon flights are both non-stop, those are getting harder to find. I'll leave Austin at 8 a.m. on Saturday and return 7 p.m. Sunday. I'll earn 9,346 EQMs, 18,692 total miles, at a cost per mile of 2.56. That is a bit more per mile than I have paid in the past, but from what others are saying, it is a good rate at this time of fare hikes and service reductions.

I'm doing the trip in early March on what may be one of the last non-stop flights between Boston and Los Angeles. I looked at the same trip for the following weekend and the transcons were gone, making it necessary to stop in Chicago while going each way. And the price went up by more than $300, making that a terrible mileage run.

Between this MR and our Ireland vacation, I'll have over 18,000 EQMs in my account by the middle of March. That is a good start, but as fares rise during the summer vacation season, it may be difficult to maintain that pace for the rest of the year. Wish me luck!

How I Find a Mileage Run, and Get the Best Value for my Miles

Earlier this month Frankenmeg wrote to me and said, "I would be interested in knowing how you come up with routes to earn the most miles... and spending the least." Two good questions!

Since I do all of my mileage runs (MRs) on American Airlines, I'll focus on AA and its website.

My first suggestion to anyone who wants to do mileage runs is to visit FlyerTalk, one of the finest travel sites on the web. You'll find forums where you can get information about the major airlines, hotel chains, car rental companies, restaurants, and places to visit around the world. FlyerTalk and its members, I call them the FT Experts, are an incredible resource that I have used many times to get advice when traveling. Best of all, there is no charge to use FlyerTalk!

Anyone interested in doing mileage runs should start at FlyerTalk's Mileage Run Forum: in my opinion, this is the greatest source of mileage run information anywhere on the web. There is a Mileage Run Discussion forum: I suggest that you start by reading the two "stickys" at the top of the forum, entitled Mileage Run Tools Update and Mileage Run Tools, Part 2. These areas will give you a fabulous education on how to become a successful mileage runner. It provided me with my introduction into the world of mileage runs.

The Mileage Run Deals forum features deals that FlyerTalk members (FTers) have found that I probably would have otherwise missed, so it is a great source. Sometimes you will see an MR from your airport but on a different airline; if so, take a moment to see if your airline will match.

After reviewing what's new on FlyterTalk, I check the cost for a ticket to either Portland or Seattle, those are the two most distant locations I can fly to in the lower 48 states. Sometimes there will be some good deals, sometimes not. What makes it a good deal? I explained that in a previous post.

Sometimes I will use the multi-city feature on the AA.com website to see if I can add miles to a trip without adding cost. For example, instead of looking for the price for Austin-Seattle, I'll check Austin-Chicago-Seattle. For the return trip I may try Seattle-Los Angeles-Austin rather than a direct route. Sometimes that works, sometimes it does not.

If an airline has launched new service from Austin to another city and has a special sale price, I'll check to see if AA is matching that price.

Other times I may just check some random routes, such as Austin-Chicago-Tampa, or Austin-Minneapolis-Denver.

Does it take time to find a good MR? Absolutely, but I find it to be well worth it!

Geting the best value for my miles
You can visit the AA website and see exactly how many miles it costs to get a free ticket using your AAdvantage miles. Some of those trips are a good deal, some are not.

I have a friend who travels a lot for work, going to Europe or the Orient every three weeks, and she has been doing this for years. She has flown over 3 million miles on AA and has more miles than she can ever spend. This gentleman is in the same situation. For these people, any deal is a good deal because they have so many miles that they basically have no value.

I am not in the category, I do very little business travel, so my miles are very valuable to me and I must try to get the best value I can for them.

My last mileage run was to Portland, I earned almost 11,000 miles and paid approximately two cents per mile. That was a good deal. What about spending those miles?

Let's say I want to take a trip to New York City. I just checked AA.com and saw that a r/t coach ticket to NYC in January, non-refundable fare, would cost $300. If I want so use miles I can use 25,000 miles for that trip if MileSAAver seats are available. If MileSAAver seats are not available the trip will cost 50,000 miles.

Let's say I can get the 25,000 mile ticket. My calculator tells me that AA is only giving me 1.2 cents for my miles ($300/25,000). I earned the miles at two cents or more, but am only getting 1.2 cents value for them. This is NOT a good deal.

Let's try another trip, using AA's international travel partners. Let's say I want to fly Business Class to Bangkok, taking Cathay Pacific from Los Angeles to Bangkok and back. (My wife and I did this trip in 2007.) I found that ticket with a March 2009 itinerary for $10,951, or 110,000 AAdnantage miles. On that ticket, they are giving me almost 10 cents value for each mile ($10,951/110,000). So, with my MRs, I am earning miles at two cents each, but get amost 10 cents each in credit for them. Is this a good deal? Absolutely!

So, what is the best value for your miles? It all depends on how many miles you have and where you plan to go.