Need a doctor - just spent $1500 on *alliance Gold - for no good reason :)

[juddles]

G´day there everyone - I am based in Colombia, South America, so I understand the opportunity that arose for me is not applicable to almost everyone. But that is not the point - look beyond the ¨deal¨, the actual thing done, and instead consider the underlying action. Essentially what I am debating is status runs, etc anywhere.

basic points: I am based in Colombia where Avianca / Lifemiles reigns supreme. But i have always been a Qantas lover - have maintained Platinum this year. But within Colombia the One World rep (LAN) have coughpy old planes and only offer economy. But due to chasing LTG with QF had been flying LAN. And thus let my *Alliance Gold membership with Avianca die last year. Which sort of hurts as again, LAN are coughpy here - no domestic lounges whatsoever.

But this weekend Avianca had a two day sale, with bloody good discounts. I started to do the maths, consider some work trips I had to do, and then just filled in the rest with unnecessary day trips .

And thus have just purchased tickets for a variety of work and non-work trips, all in J domestic (which is nice here), and if my calculations are correct, I will go from nothing to Star Alliance Gold in two months and with a total $1500 spend. That status comes in end of March and thus lasts till December 2016. And I get to do 24 short flights over a truly beautiful country.

I feel good, but wonder if I am a fool and status is foolish.

But I suspect many frequent flyers would understand the comfort of securing good status for another couple of years.

 

[cambriamarsh]

$1500 spend for Gold sounds good esp if most of the spend was required anyway. How much was status-driven? Cheers

 

[drron]

You feel good.
So it's right.:!:

 

[juddles]

$1500 spend for Gold sounds good esp if most of the spend was required anyway. How much was status-driven? Cheers

about 50 / 50

 

[juddles]

....$1500 spend for Gold sounds good ....

And BTW, it takes me about $15,000 a year to retain WP with QF - ¨gold¨ with Star Alliance is essentially the same.

 

[cambriamarsh]

about 50 / 50

Sounds ok $750 for 2 years was it? And I like drron's comment too

 

[yohy?!]

Pretty good value if you have good standard of lounges to use in the ports you travel

 

[TomVexille]

Sounds okay to me

 

[legroom]

You are talking to a bunch of the converted who aspire to obtain and scheme to maintain statuses so yes, your $$$ was 'within range' of believable insanity.

Now, do you feel better ?

 

[zig]

Sounds like a pretty good deal to me, and you get to enjoy the flights on the way to gold. Relax and enjoy

 

[amaroo]

Did you give a Status Match with TK a shot?

 

[JohnK]

Is that from Zero to *Gold for total outlay of $1500? I am guessing not if it involves 24 flights.

 

[juddles]

Is that from Zero to *Gold for total outlay of $1500? I am guessing not if it involves 24 flights.

Yes it is

With a ¨cyber weekend¨special domestic flights to some destinations came down to $65 USD per sector in J, each of which counts as 2 sectors due to class. To obtain Star Alliance Gold with Avianca you need to do at least 45 ¨sectors¨.

So the 24 sectors cost me $1560 and gave me 48 ¨qualifying sectors¨. And lots of pleasant short trips in J.

 

[zainman]

And BTW, it takes me about $15,000 a year to retain WP with QF -

THAT is why you need a Doctor...

 

[craven morehead]

Champion effort juddles !!! Outstanding work. :mrgreen:

 

[JohnK]

Yes it is

Well done.

 

[JessicaTam]

Yes it is

With a ¨cyber weekend¨special domestic flights to some destinations came down to $65 USD per sector in J, each of which counts as 2 sectors due to class. To obtain Star Alliance Gold with Avianca you need to do at least 45 ¨sectors¨.

So the 24 sectors cost me $1560 and gave me 48 ¨qualifying sectors¨. And lots of pleasant short trips in J.

Sounds like fun.

How long will it take you to do the flights?

 

[juddles]

Sounds like fun.

How long will it take you to do the flights?

I have spread them over Feb and Mar. Apart from the work ones, the others involve 4 legs-in-a-day things like MDE-BOG-BGA return. These are all about 30-40 minute flights, where I have to suffer a fun takeoff (high altitude strips), quickly get in a large rum whilst gazing at beautiful mountain ranges, then suffer a fun landing.

Due to the characteristics of the specials, the J class seats were actually as cheap per qualifying leg (read: status credits) as Y, so I get to do this in style.

Avianca domestic J is quite nice, especially given the short flights. One of my favorite flights in the world is doing Bogota - Medellín in J. Partly because I love living in Medellín so ¨homecoming¨aspect rates highly, but also because it is a bloody short flight (average <30minutes airborne). Amongst the people I know here, I have the drinking record for that flight. There is only about a 10 minute window between seatbelt sign going off and going on again. I managed three rums

 

[TomVexille]

I have spread them over Feb and Mar. Apart from the work ones, the others involve 4 legs-in-a-day things like MDE-BOG-BGA return. These are all about 30-40 minute flights, where I have to suffer a fun takeoff (high altitude strips), quickly get in a large rum whilst gazing at beautiful mountain ranges, then suffer a fun landing.

You poor bugger. I have no idea how anyone could put up with that :mrgreen: