Mileage runs are last-minute dashes for airline status
washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com
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.
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.
But I can do that because indeed I have large limits and my expense reports are paid promptly. Some people can't afford to lend their company tens of thousands of dollars a month (as my XRs are paid promptly I don't pay interest for this -- in fact much of the time I am reimbursed before the bill is due). More significantly companies typically require that the company-issued card is used because the bill will arrive pre-sorted into categories that integrate with the company accounting system and travel policies. The systems back in the 80s (and 00s for that matter) were much less sophisticated and often paper based so processing an expense report was not much more work than managing a company card.
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.
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.
The manager of the hotel thanked him and offered a discount for staying so much.
To which he refused because he was submitting his expenses and would get less points that way.
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)
Worked out pretty well.
It's the best deal ever, not only for travel between U.S. and Canada, but also from any other destination to/from U.S. and Canada and within the U.S. and Canada domestically.
I travel regularly from U.S. to Europe and I get full GE and Precheck privileges through Nexus. I usually clear customs in less than 5 minutes as opposed to 1.5 hr line at larger airports like ATL.
Really the only value I care about from the status is premier check in desks across star alliance, which isn't that enviable.
More than signifying anything enviable, top airline status basically just means you get a crap ton of extra radiation exposure every year (e.g. SFO to Tokyo is a chest x-ray per hour, 20 microSv, if you didn't know). Really not worth going out of your way to get.
I get upgraded transatlantic with just Gold occasionally so not sure why you are being so unlucky.
All depends on how busy chosen routes are.
I'll shill caniupgrade.flights which has info on which flights can be upgraded using various instruments. I need to update it for PlusPoints, but otherwise it's accurate.
I'm making up an extreme case to make the point, but let's say the plane's business / first cabin is 100% empty / unbooked, and the economy cabin is full (even overbooked) and the standby list is 30 deep.
Even though UA is reluctant to give out free INT upgrades, if it means they can put 30 more people on that plane and collect the revenue, they'll do it. There's more to it than that, I'm sure there's a heuristic, in fact one day I hope there will be an AMA "I code the conditional logic for airline XYZ's algorithm <for Global Services> <for INT upgrades> <for domestic upgrades>" but until that time, we can only discuss what we've observed and speculate on the rationale.
Me, I'm still wondering why when I'm first on the ugprade list and there are 8 unsold first class seats, why do I have to board (in my economy seat), settle in, unpack and decompress before some gate agent comes waddling down the aisle 30 seconds before the door closes to tell me I've been upgraded. It was clear 30 minutes ago that was the case. First world problems, I know.
From Wikipedia, .02 mSv for chest x-ray [2]
[1] https://www.faa.gov/data_research/research/med_humanfacs/oam...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose#/media/...
https://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=safety-xray https://www.health.harvard.edu/cancer/radiation-risk-from-me...
Most sources seem to put it at 0.1 mSv for a chest x-ray.
The FAA link for a Tokyo to LA 9 hour flight would be about 0.0206 mSv, or approximately 2 chest x-rays for the total flight.
However the FAA research you linked would put a New York to Seattle flight at a total of 0.112 mSv, whereas this CDC link says a trans-continental flight is only at the order of mangnitude of 0.035 mSv...
https://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/faqs/commercialflights... - summarizes more sources that contradict the raw FAA numbers.
This FAA calculator also seems to give numbers that agree with the lower radiation levels: http://jag.cami.jccbi.gov/cariresults.asp
To each their own. A lay-flat seat is like a mini-vacation strapped onto work trips. I’ve never done a mileage run, but I’ve certainly increased spend on a route (e.g. buy buying a nicer ticket upfront) to hit thresholds because those thresholds are meaningful to me.
1) Has someone ever flown in a premium class on a non-US carrier?
2) Has someone taken advantage of the end-to-end amenities? E.g. premium lounges, etc.
Personally, first class on American is an order of magnitude worse service than business on ANA or Cathay. So I could see someone saying "What's the point?" if they primarily fly domestics.
I assume the marketing is really just to convince you they're less terrible than the (at most one) other competitor for the direct route, and aspirational for a bunch of leisure travelers who aren't going to spring for it anyways.
What the air on a plane is is less dense and less humid, which has its own problems, but it's not stale.
I'd still rather just be at home, and have to provide my own food and drinks, than on a plane being waited on.
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
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.
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.
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.
I worked for a guy once and when we traveled together (pre-9/11) he'd get a cab from our downtown location to the airport planning to arrive 30 minutes or whatever before the flight. Drove me crazy.
But then you have to deal with once-yearly flyers in Zone 72 bashing their rollon over your feet and into your chair.
Personally, I fear the day airlines force me to board first. I'll enjoy the gate while everyone else boards a plane that will depart at the same time for everyone.
Elsewhere the ride to the airport is a quick cheap train. Electronic boarding so no need to checkin. But even if you do you’ve got a dedicated counter with someone waiting for you. Controls are under 2 minutes. Less than that if you have status you essentially walk through. (Fuck the American tsa those incompetent fools). And lounges overseas at a decent airline are like high end spas or better.
Checkout cathays first class lounge in hk. Or Singapore’s lounge for pps.
Then again, status at airlines that are not American come with some pretty excellent perks that are not found in America.
I’d take a long haul to retain status. The routes I fly and the frequency makes it a necessity. Taking a hot shower the minute you step off a plane before you meet a client is worth every dollar.
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).
It does make sense from the airline's point of view. They care about your money, not how many miles you fly with them. In fact, they probably would prefer you flew fewer miles (which cost them) and spent more money.
Also, cynically speaking, it's often a lot easier for employees to spend more money on flights than it is to take more flights and thereby get more butt-in-seat miles. There have been qualifying dollars for a while but they weren't that hard to hit and ways to get waivers. Now there's a direct incentive to spend a bit more on a ticket if you're near an award level.
A bunch of programs went a bit cross-status nuts a few years back but those seem to be slowly going away or getting watered down.
Keeping that status is stupidly important; almost every flight she takes she gets upgraded.
I don't often get upgraded to business. But I do get the slightly roomier Economy Plus, earlier boarding, and free checked bag (which I don't use much) all the time.
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...
Also, AS (Alaska) allows you to qualify for status with just segs or milage, no spend requirement is needed - great for folks in Seattle, or who frequently fly to seattle.
And their nasty breakup with Delta is a massive problem for me.
Status wasn't just supposed to encourage you to spend more with your home airway, but also to prefer their alliance partners when you travel outside of your airline's route network and I think that concept is rapidly being weakened by these spend-based schemes.
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.
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.
(Business/First typically give you some multiplier.)
As for the benefits: - Econ+ is nice (mostly for being at the front of the plane), and let's call it $100/flight (what you'd otherwise pay for it) - Free drink + snack is $20 a flight - 3x 75lb checked bags is non-trivial, though I don't know a business traveler who checks bags - Lounge access on INTL flights, let's call this $50/flight - Waived change fees within 24 hours is $200 a flight, and TBH this is a game changer for my travel habits (and the thing I will miss the most come Feb 2021 when I no longer have 1k) - Upgrades: well, the plane was already flying there, so it's a loss of revenue rather than a cost per se, but honestly this is probably the biggest "cost" to the airline for having status
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.
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.
Was that worth a $1200 ticket?
Yes.