It's been a long, painful few years through the shutdown for those of us who enjoy getting on the road and having fun. Now said world is reopening, futures are looking brighter, I can work from anywhere there's a reliable internet connection, and Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle ruled in our favor (for the US, anyways) - woo hoo!

As such, I've taken a few shorter domestic trips these last few months albeit nothing crazy. I feel a fairly big void still. My long weekend in New England earlier this summer fell through for various reasons but really ended up being for the best. Today, I thought about mileage runs.

Do people still go on these to rack up frequent flyer miles? I've never been on any before, or other such "flying just for the hell of it"-type of excursions. It could be more trouble than it's worth given the way things are priced nowadays, combined with limited availability and the fact that my home airport is a construction disaster zone. :/ I'd be looking at either United or Delta, probably not American for reasons stated above. If some more personalized mileage program stats from me would help, just let me know and I'll elaborate.

What about logistics - as in, can multiple legs be booked under the same e-ticket and itinerary?

OR - is this a crazy ridiculous idea and I should just plan a real trip to Hawaii, Europe, Mexico, or other such thing?

If you're going to do a mileage run, allow plenty of time between flights and think about what you would do if one or more specific flights are cancelled or heavily delayed. Reliability and punctuality of flights is not great right now, and you should ensure you have a robust plan if things go wrong

davidjohnson6 wrote:

If you're going to do a mileage run, allow plenty of time between flights and think about what you would do if one or more specific flights are cancelled or heavily delayed. Reliability and punctuality of flights is not great right now, and you should ensure you have a robust plan if things go wrong

Well, what would account for that? Labor shortages, fuel, something else...?

I guess folks on here aren't doing mileage runs anymore - oh well.

I spent the weekend just gone on a flying-for-the-hell-of-it trip to add a very obscure airline and a small airport to my collection
But I was VERY careful to avoid flying out of any airports that are struggling and also space the flights well apart... and sure enough, one flight was delayed by over 3 hours, but still well within the tolerance of my itinerary.

The fact that the trip included a night on an island in southern Europe staying 2 mins walk from the beach in peak summer may have made the flying a little more fun

Are "Mileage Runs" really even worthwhile nowadays with all the restrictions airlines place on mileage accumulation on the cheaper fare classes, which at least "in my day" of the early-to-mid-2000s made it worth the effort.

And as others have noted, with all the delays and such, a complicated itinerary with many segments (to maximize mileage accumulation) sounds a bit scary as one could encounter a cancellation or missed connection.

What's changed about the mileage run process is that many if not most/all airline frequent flyer programs have moved away from segments or miles to dollar spend as the threshold for elite-level qualifying. And while AA in particular has been touting this change as a simplification, I find it much more complicated.

For example, an easy mileage run in my past would be BNA-CLT-RDU-CLT-BNA. On a December Saturday morning, that could give me a quick 4 segments toward re-qualifying. Now, the only thing that matters is how expensive my ticket is. And if I pay for it with an AA credit card, I'll earn points for that purchase, which will reduce the total amount I need to spend on tickets. The new systems have made it much more difficult to do just enough to requalify and to be able to predict that far in advance.

So you need to do the math and figure out whether you can spend enough--not fly enough--to hit any sort of elite level threshold. My person opinion is that a lot of people are going to or already have given up chasing status. Airlines have made it too easy to qualify for the lowest elite tier without flying a single segment and too difficult to requalify for higher levels given the reduced amount of business travel that is happening. Many people are probably financially better off just paying for Y+, bag fees, etc. on the fewer flights they now take, especially if they can get reimbursed by their company, than to do mileage runs to chase "free" elite status.

AlnessW wrote:

It's been a long, painful few years through the shutdown for those of us who enjoy getting on the road and having fun. Now said world is reopening, futures are looking brighter, I can work from anywhere there's a reliable internet connection, and Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle ruled in our favor (for the US, anyways) - woo hoo!

As such, I've taken a few shorter domestic trips these last few months albeit nothing crazy. I feel a fairly big void still. My long weekend in New England earlier this summer fell through for various reasons but really ended up being for the best. Today, I thought about mileage runs.

Do people still go on these to rack up frequent flyer miles? I've never been on any before, or other such "flying just for the hell of it"-type of excursions. It could be more trouble than it's worth given the way things are priced nowadays, combined with limited availability and the fact that my home airport is a construction disaster zone. :/ I'd be looking at either United or Delta, probably not American for reasons stated above. If some more personalized mileage program stats from me would help, just let me know and I'll elaborate.

What about logistics - as in, can multiple legs be booked under the same e-ticket and itinerary?

OR - is this a crazy ridiculous idea and I should just plan a real trip to Hawaii, Europe, Mexico, or other such thing?

Maybe you could go visit Kathryn and Chad in Florida?

As others have said, the "mileage runs" generally now are a thing of the past. The hey-day for that was really the 2000s, particularly post 9/11 era industry downturn, bankruptcy era, and the great recession. Now that both earning miles / status, and redemption is heavily tied toward spend there isn't the ability to game the system.

In the past you could seek out cheap fares on longer distance flights and accumulate a lot of miles. The whole game was most miles for least amount of dollars. Also then looking for deals to redeem miles. Now its basically all tied to spend so its essentially a zero-sum game and not really worth the time / PITA factor to take trips for the purpose of purely earning miles.

I'd just plan a trip somewhere interesting .

Thanks for the responses, folks - some really useful info to be had on here. As I was somewhat concerned about (right from the start, actually)...it DOES seem like generally more trouble than it's worth and I should shift focus back to a real journey.

davidjohnson6 wrote:

I spent the weekend just gone on a flying-for-the-hell-of-it trip to add a very obscure airline and a small airport to my collection
<snip>
The fact that the trip included a night on an island in southern Europe staying 2 mins walk from the beach in peak summer may have made the flying a little more fun

For sure, those are definitely some types of activities I'd want to target should I ever go this sort of route. Even if it's a few bonus hours to indulge in various "authentic, can't get THAT at home" food or beverage.

Stitch wrote:

Are "Mileage Runs" really even worthwhile nowadays with all the restrictions airlines place on mileage accumulation on the cheaper fare classes, which at least "in my day" of the early-to-mid-2000s made it worth the effort.

It sounds indeed a bit like I'm rather behind on times with my original inquiry, Stitch - as usual for me...heh heh.

UALFAson wrote:

What's changed about the mileage run process is that many if not most/all airline frequent flyer programs have moved away from segments or miles to dollar spend as the threshold for elite-level qualifying. And while AA in particular has been touting this change as a simplification, I find it much more complicated.

Ahhhhhhhh, I see...there's the key difference. I agree, seems complicated for sure especially reading through your report below - great comparison. As a point of clarification, when you mention "dollar spend" are you talking about ANY type of money spent on airfare - not just limited to whatever loyalty credit card that particular carrier offers? (Granted I'm sure that obviously helps.)

UALFAson wrote:

So you need to do the math and figure out whether you can spend enough--not fly enough--to hit any sort of elite level threshold. My person opinion is that a lot of people are going to or already have given up chasing status. Airlines have made it too easy to qualify for the lowest elite tier without flying a single segment and too difficult to requalify for higher levels given the reduced amount of business travel that is happening. Many people are probably financially better off just paying for Y+, bag fees, etc. on the fewer flights they now take, especially if they can get reimbursed by their company, than to do mileage runs to chase "free" elite status.

Some really great points here, UALFAson - even more so on the whole "financially better off just paying for Y+, bag fees, etc." concept. It really offers some perspective on how much the whole concept is even worth pursuing, especially with changes in structure. Then, one could even go a step farther by breaking down bag fees, lounge passes, priority boarding, and so on...would it REALLY come out to more than qualifying (er...money spent on airfare, rather) for status levels?

TWA757 wrote:

Maybe you could go visit Kathryn and Chad in Florida?

Sure!! Might as well loop in Disney, Universal, Volcano Bay, or other such thing as well while I'm at it.

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:

As others have said, the "mileage runs" generally now are a thing of the past. <snip>

Appreciate your detailed breakdown, PSU.DTW.SCE - it offers some perspective and background info for sure. By "tied to spend" it is sounding like I should also be looking at how to qualify myself for a mileage credit card with my favorite carrier(s), to further benefit?

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:

I'd just plan a trip somewhere interesting .

Really though, I'm getting a greater grasp on this being a far more sensible idea in many facets.

Alaska still gives credit based on actual miles. I usually fly so much for work that I never gave mileage runs a second though but now that they have the new Gold 100k status I might come up a tad short of that by the end of the year. Might have to go somewhere to close the gap...

AlnessW wrote:

It's been a long, painful few years through the shutdown for those of us who enjoy getting on the road and having fun. Now said world is reopening, futures are looking brighter, I can work from anywhere there's a reliable internet connection, and Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle ruled in our favor (for the US, anyways) - woo hoo!

Many other countries have lifted their testing and vaccination requirements. A number of carriers have tools that will let you do a tailor-made search which places are open for travel without restrictions, valuable information if you're not staying long or if your trip or run involves multiple foreign countries. Sample here: https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/travel/restrictions-map.html

Honestly, as someone who traveled to lots of restricted places in 2020 and 2021, if you want to travel, there's usually a way. Some places will be open, others will be closed, but even if the re-entry testing requirement were still in place, with work from anywhere, that would just translate into a extra week in St. Somewhere if done right.

AlnessW wrote:

Do people still go on these to rack up frequent flyer miles?

Yes, I see them back again on virtually all of my flights and lounge stays

AlnessW wrote:

I've never been on any before, or other such "flying just for the hell of it"-type of excursions. It could be more trouble than it's worth given the way things are priced nowadays, combined with limited availability and the fact that my home airport is a construction disaster zone. :/ I'd be looking at either United or Delta, probably not American for reasons stated above. If some more personalized mileage program stats from me would help, just let me know and I'll elaborate.

It really depends on what you're trying to accomplish. Wanderlust and seeing new exciting destinations aside, my recommendation would be to consider whether a credit card, paid club membership and/or paid premium cabin travel is more time and cost effective for your personal situation. But most folks who do mileage runs also like to fly and travel period, i.e. yes it's extra spend, but they would have likely taken many of these trips anyway. Perhaps not to that particular place at that particular time, but spend, segments, and often even the distance would have still been there regardless. After all, whatever benefits you might get out of status (upgrades, lounge, bags, boarding, etc.) really only make sense if you fly a lot.

AlnessW wrote:

What about logistics - as in, can multiple legs be booked under the same e-ticket and itinerary?

If a particular airline or booking engine lets you book something, however wild it may be, then yes.

AlnessW wrote:

OR - is this a crazy ridiculous idea and I should just plan a real trip to Hawaii, Europe, Mexico, or other such thing?

Not a crazy idea, lots of folks still do it, even now. But I would make sure it meets whatever your objectives are. And unlike pre-2020, as you said initially, given that work from anywhere has become a lot easier you might want to check out combining the runs with the real trips. Well worth it if you're just wanting to explore and get out there, especially if you took a hiatus from flying during the past few years.