Karen said:
Isn't the question posed about maximising SC's and FF points for the SAME price or a little more for a flight you would have taken anyway
There are two ways of looking at mileage runs (let me call them Categories):
Category 1. As you set it out above (generally with a purpose of flying to a particular place (A) in mind, via B for the same or slightly higher price), or
Category 2. A trip planned for the
express purpose of not where you are going, but instead focused flying
to earn either
status for the first time, or retaining it, for the cheapest possible price per SC.
I used my trip around Australia (a leisure MR and thus Category 2) to illustrate the point of
using this tool to source the flights.
Surely the cost would outweigh the benefit? What WAS the cost? How many SC's and FF points did you get? I am especially confused why you did SYD/CBR and CBR/SYD
The INTENDED flights, class and SC earned were:
1. BNE/SYD QF501 K class 20 SC's
2. SYD/CBR QF787 K class 20 SC's
3. CBR/SYD QF704 K class 20 SC's
4. SYD/MEL QF427 V class 10 SC's
5. MEL/SYD QF438 V class 10 SC's
6. SYD/MEL QF447 O class 10 SC's
7. MEL/PER QF481 N class 20 SC's
8. PER/SYD QF518 N class 20 SC'S
9. SYD/BNE QF504 N class 10 SC's
Flights 6 and 7 were merged into SYD/PER but for no cost. Total SC's = 140 (almost 1/10th of the way to Plat).
Costs were $297.89 (BNE/SYD/CBR), $157.38 (CBR/SYD), $238.99 (SYD/MEL/SYD), $96.82 (SYD/MEL), $168.34 (MEL/PER), $237.89 (PER/SYD/BNE). Total = $1,197.31
Therefore, the $ per SC was $8.55 - the best ones come out at under $6.
I did the SYD/CBR/SYD as the cheapest prices for flights are generally out of the major hubs (SYD/MEL).
Karen said:
I really don't see the point of this, especially after reading your mileage run report Lindsay.
Karen, I can understand how the majority of people wouldn't see the point of doing multiple flights on the same day exciting or worth the money. I'm wired a little differently - I love flying and travelling to different places. I had the experience of seeing my parents travel internationally every year from 1978 to 1994, and bi-annually thereafter - sharing with me their trips made me want to see the world once I started work. Thus in 1984, it was my driving ambition - to earn for travel.
This was a general goal - then when FF points and status came about, I wanted to be a part of it. I joined QFF in 1989 (on my first overseas trip to LAX) and have never looked back. I have travelled overseas every year in my holidays (sometimes twice a year). In doing that, I started to earn status with QF [I hit the old program Silver status (equivalent to the current Gold level) in 1993] in and see the additional benefits that I was getting (as
serfty pointed out). In 2001 the program was updated and Silver became Gold.
I had an annus horiblis in 2002. I was diagnosed with malignant cancer and after some radical surgery (that thankfully continues to appear to be successful today), I re-assessed my life and my goals. I made a plan to do some of my life goals now - I flew RTW in First (BNE/SYD/BKK/HKG/LHR/ARN/LHR/MUC/LHR/JFK/LAX/LAS/LAX/DEN/STL/...DFW/LAX/AKL/CHC/SYD/BNE) with Concorde supplement LHR/JFK. At the time, I didn't want to die wondering "what if". I just did it - no use being the richest person in the graveyard. I earned 1,350 SC's from the flights and a truck-load of FFP's (as I became Platinum mid-trip, they were at either +50% or +100%).
My role in the family business changed when my father "retired" in 1994, so I then started to take over his clients and that necesitated a lot of travel domestically and a bit more internationally to look after clients (plus my holidays still). With that extra travel, I was using my status (Platinum) and there are an enormous number of benefits to status. Once yo have it, you really don't want to lose it - you get used to it (I know that sounds egotistical and yes I'll admit to loving status, but I'm not ashamed of it - in my view, I've earnt it by having my bum on a seat).
Thus the reason for not only doing the mileage runs (making use of the status benefits) but also to retain my benefits for the future - it is a form of relaxation to me as I am doing something I love which is never a burden.
As I have a very adequate income and no "bad" debt (I do have "good" debt for negative gearing into shares), I now have a lot of disposable income. Now that I am married though, my focus has started to change and will change further once we have kids. My travel now is 100% domestic, in fact after coming back from my trip to AKL in January, I foresee no international travel (as most of my work is done via email & web these days). But even now, I'm going to make that domestic travel get me Plat each year that I can.