What exactly is a mileage run?

Sorry if I am being slow, but what exactly is a "mileage run"?

 

Making a flight/route that you don't have to take in order to earn extra miles/points/status etc.
This might take the form a complete trip when you didn't need to travel. Or it could be tweaking a necessary trip in order to include some extra sectors/stops in order to rack up the maximum number of miles.

The trick is to maximise the miles or points for the least amount of money. You might see people discussing the ratio of pence (or cents) to the mile. Some people can't resist making a trip if the rates are good enough, so there is a lot of sharing of interesting itineraries and good deals.

 

There is a hotel version, usually called a 'Mattress Run'

 

Thanks all - will look into it, hopefully some tips to come on this forum.

 

As someone who stocks up on podcasts before any journey, I appreciate the concept of ear miles.

 

Have you worked out points per £ for some of these runs? Seems like a crazy effort but is it really worthwhile?

 

Am I correct to assume that the mileage runs were in economy?

 

Is it on routes you were going to do anyway?

 

It certainly makes sense to fly with a destination / holiday in mind, rather than just for the miles and status credit. You can structure indirect routes to make it more efficient in terms of status.

But a "pure" mileage run is simply flying for the sake of it. The destination is basically irrelevant and you might not even leave the airport.

 

Would any one be able to point me in the right direction in planning a mileage run? Thinking of doing this next month

 

Hi Michsel - welcome to InsideFlyer!

There are so many potential variables that I can't really answer without more info - which airline/alliance are you thinking; are you looking mainly to earn elite status or redeemable miles; budget; preferred destinations, etc.

Let us know what you have in mind and I'm sure we can offer some suggestions.

 

Hi!

Its Michael- just a typo when signing up
I think elite status mostly as I have a round the world trip booked this summer so having that status would definitely be helpfull. Most of my flights are with One World airlines (Qatar

 

Ah - Hi Michael then!

Would you like to mileage run to earn status before your RTW, or would it be in addition to your RTW flights?

For the former, It's usually hard to beat Qatar business class from Europe (usually Scandinavia is best, but also sometimes Italy etc) to somewhere in Asia (Bangkok is often cheapest). The precise prices vary all the time, but for ~£1200 it should be possible to book something along those lines, credit the flights to British Airways Executive Club and earn enough tier points for silver status.

If you're talking in addition to the RTW, the first step would be to crunch the numbers on how many tier points/elite status miles, the RTW flights would get you in total, if you credited them to each of the different oneworld programmes. Then work out what (if anything) you would still need to fly in order to hit whatever status level you want.

 

Hi Joe!

Thanks. Ideally before but will use the calculator on the British airways site shortly to see how many points I shall be getting from the RTW.

When flying with Qatar and any other oneworld partners do I have the option at check in to choose where to credit the points ? (BAEC or Qatar? )

Thanks

 

Should be fine, but to avoid any unnecessary hassle when travelling (agents aren't always as well trained as we might hope), the best thing to do is give whoever you booked the RTW with a ring and ask them to add your BA Executive Club (or whatever programme you eventually decide on) details - that way it's all sorted in advance.

 

Thanks will do that straight away. Also wanted to know if with one world I have the option to credit to either as not sure how all the different frequent flier programs(within one world) tie into eachover

 

Yep, you can can credit to any of the oneworld member airlines' frequent flyer programmes (so if you were flying with BA for example, you could credit the flight to AA, Cathay, Finnair, etc, etc and vice versa).