What the heck is: mileage running?

For most, flying is a method of transit, not a hobby. If that is you, I recommend not reading the rest of this post. You may actually find it offensive. But if you enjoy the actual act of flying, read on dear friends.

Mileage running is the act of flying to earn miles, both redeemable miles and elite status qualification miles. Whether you’re actually going somewhere is moot. In fact, true mileage runs are called “same-day turns”, in that you get to your destination airport, and then get right back on a flight home. In an effort to earn miles for the cheapest price possible, forgoing a hotel can save lots of money.

The success of mileage runs is measured in the cost per mile, or CPM. Good runs get under 4 CPM. Great runs get under 3. Different runners count the number of miles they earn differently. Some just count elite qualifying miles (EQM). Some count EQM and redeemable miles (RDM).

There are two purposes to mileage runs:

1. Earning elite status

To some, the perks of elite status are worth the cost of the miles to earn it. Airline elite status comes in tiers that are each about 25,000 EQMs apart. If I have no status on American, for instance, I can fly 25,000 EQMs worth of mileage runs for about $1,000 and get Gold status. Now whenever I fly American, even if it’s on miles, I get perks like:

·         Access to exit row seats and seats with extra legroom

·         A free checked bag

·         Use of the priority line for bag check and security

·         Priority boarding so I can get my bag overhead first

·         Free standby for earlier flights

Personally I earn almost all of my miles via credit card, and I don’t earn EQMs when I use these miles to fly, so I would never earn elite status. Given that I travel on these miles every two weeks or so, these perks are incredibly valuable to me. The priority lines alone save me 20-30 minutes of wait time each time I go to the airport. And the free checked bag saves $50 each trip if I need to check it.

2. Earning redeemable miles

For the real pros of mileage running, especially ones with elite status already, they’re not just earning higher elite status, but they’re also taking advantage of bonus mileage offers or other similar opportunities that earn them a roundtrip’s worth of miles in one mileage run. If you’re a Platinum member with American Airlines, and they offer 2x miles between Boston and LA, you could easily earn 15,000-20,000 RDMs in one trip alone, plus 5,000+ EQMs.

Planning a mileage run

This post is not meant to teach you the art of mileage running, but I at least want to give an overview of how it works. There is no one formula for planning a good mileage run, because everyone’s needs are different. You may only need 1,000 EQMs to get to the next elite level, so you’re gonna try to find the shortest, cheapest flight possible that will earn you those EQMs. Or maybe you see a great deal from your home airport that will earn you tons of miles and make a quick trip worthwhile. The ITA Matrix, a Google-owned flight search provider, is a fantastic flight search engine that will find you the lowest-cost flights for a given destination, or will sort through a number of destinations to get the flights you want. Here is an example for a mileage run search in Europe:

I’m going to search for flights to Munich and the surrounding area. I chose airports within 500 miles of Oslo by clicking the “Nearby” button and selecting all the airports that came up. I’m choosing 0 nights so I can do a same-day turn (sleep on the plane), and will ask for the day with the lowest fares. I also added in code to say I wanted to fly the Star Alliance, as I want EQMs with United. Here’s what comes up:

I’m going to pick June 8, the cheapest day. Here are the flights:

Looks like we’re going to Frankfurt. But I bet we can bring that CPM down by adding in some stops along the way:

I added in an “X” to mean that I want a stop. If I add in a “+” it means I also want at least one more. I want to add in as many legs as possible while staying within the rules of the fare, or the routings that are allowed. Here are the results:

Suddenly with some stops added in the price actually dropped. From 16.9 CPM we now have 15.2 CPM. You can add in even more stops if you want, but I won’t get into the details. Now granted this CPM is still very high (it’s hard to find a good mileage run very quickly), but hopefully it illustrates some idea for you of how adding in stops can create better and better mileage runs.

Other Tips and Tricks for Mileage Runs

1. Flying full flights

One thing a lot of mileage runners do is purchase flights during very busy times. The fuller your flight, the more likely it is that your flight will need volunteers to take later flights. A $400 trip could end up costing absolutely nothing if you get a $400 voucher for taking a flight a few hours later.

2. Book really far in advance

The farther in advance you book, the more likely it is that you will get a schedule change, which means your flight times or itinerary are influened in some way by the airline’s routine schedule adjustments. If you get a schedule change, it’s basically a free pass to change your routing. If you call the airline and say that a certain flight schedule doesn’t work for you, you can also let themknow there is a different itinerary that works better. Maybe add in a couple extra stops.

3. Wait for mistake fares

There is a message board on FlyerTalk here that discusses the best mileage runs available at a given moment. If you check it regularly enough, you might see a mistake fare on there, where airlines sell a flight for way too low a price because someone mistyped the fare.

Need some help booking a mileage run? Feel free to chat with WenneTravel over at www.wennecorp.com. We’d be happy to help you out, absolutely for free.