A Platinum Flight for $1400

[kempvet]

Landings there are interesting
747 Landing - St.Maarten - YouTube

yes, this is one of the reasons why I wanted to go, not what you see everyday

 

[rockyroad]

Hi Rockyroad.
I thought about using SEA as a leg, mainly because Alaska book you into F, I have heard that they have better planes and with a F ticket you can access the lounge at SEA, maybe a godsend on such a flight.

Once flew into Seattle a lot. Have not been there for years and years. There are interesting options to and from SEA.

To me the idea of doing one of these runs is in visiting cities I have not seen before. Instead of doing a rush job, select a few cities you would like to explore and enjoy earning the SCs for very little money while enjoyng the process. Then the value is even higher. It also means a missed connection will not blow your run.

I suspect to some of the younger runners here, it is all about the chase and doing such a run without any O/N hotel rooms. It can be done, but I would feel like S**T when arriving back to Oz and MsRockyRoad would say I had S**T for brains, which would probably be correct.

Anyway the point was YES you can retain WP in a week or so of flying and for around $3k, including all flights and a few O/N hotels. Still need the 4 "~" sectors on QF/JQ metal but that should be doable on the Oz to HNL sectors. Do that twice and you have PG. After that, just maybe, SWMBO will stop calling you an idiot for doing stupid AA SC runs, when she gets her shinny new SG card in the mail.

 

[burmans]

This might help
American Airlines route map - Mexico and Central America

Yes well DFW definitely goes to SAL

 

[rockyroad]

Yes well DFW definitely goes to SAL

More SCs earned going via MIA. Selecting SFO-IAD and then IAD-SAL forces the AA booking engine to do the routing to SAL via MIA.

 

[kempvet]

Well I never. I tried HNL-SFO-IAD-SAL and mirror return and it priced out as $US1187.49 (including taxes) on March 12-16. It provides 12 sectors and includes stops in LAX-DFW-MIA. It's almost tempting but this year I'm already doing CDG-JFK-MIA-LAX-NAN-BNE-SYD (courtesy of a QF classic award) and I think that will be enough flying for a while!

yes, a little cheaper, but remember that you will be missing 60 SCs as DFW-IAD is zone 2 and not 3, this is why this original flight has such tight criteria. The frustrating part of the system is that there are so many near misses with the SCs zones in the USA. For example SLS-LAX 590 miles, ORD-MIA 1120 miles, DFW-IAD 1170 miles, SAN-DFW 1170 miles and numerous examples of these non direct flight airports that all seem to fall just below 600 miles.

 

[kempvet]

sorry SLC-LAX 590 miles
not SLS-LAX 590 miles

 

[rockyroad]

yes, a little cheaper, but remember that you will be missing 60 SCs as DFW-IAD is zone 2 and not 3, this is why this original flight has such tight criteria. The frustrating part of the system is that there are so many near misses with the SCs zones in the USA. For example SLS-LAX 590 miles, ORD-MIA 1120 miles, DFW-IAD 1170 miles, SAN-DFW 1170 miles and numerous examples of these non direct flight airports that all seem to fall just below 600 miles.

Or not over 1,201 miles for 120 SCs.

There are AA route maps that graphically show the hub flights. The idea is to pick cities that are not serviced by the next hub. This forces the AA multicity engine to back track to the nearest hub and then to the next hub and then to the next city. One example I seem to remember is LAS to AUS. You get LAS-LAX-DFW-AUS. As there are no direct flights and DFW does not fly to LAS, the booking engine routes you through the nearest AA hubs of LA and then onto DFW. Or so I seem to remember when I played games with the AA booking engine to learn now it thinks.

What really matters is, it is easy to earn over 1,200 SCs and retain Platinum for a total spend of around $3k and to do it in around a week. There are many routes and timings to select. Just be prepared for a Central American turnaround city. The SAL turnaround is ideal as you never leave the airport. You may be able to transit to the outbound flight back to Miami and never go through SAL immigrations.

Who cares what the AA lounge is like at SAL. You will probaby never use it. That is unless you want to do a O/N there. You arrive 11:30am and depart 12:55pm the same day, on the same aircraft and probably with the same crew.

 

[ReLoad]

Well, I've taken the plunge and booked my second ever SC run to take place in May. The first one was some 2 years ago.

This year I soft landed down to SG, so by doing a run ill get WP for close on 2 years.

Thank you to everyone for their advice, as always we have some standout experts here who really know their stuff, I tip my hat to you all.

Here is my routing, please bear in mind there are some compulsory destinations due to work requirements.
MEL-LHR-CPH-HEL-PRG-LHR-JFK-MCO-ORD-BOS-ORD-LAS-ORD-MIA-SJU-MIA-ORD-LAS-LAX-DFW-MIA-SJU-MIA-DFW-LAX-MEL

its a combo of YONE + upgrade requests(yeah right wish me luck! - but have 80k's on the 380's anyway) and AA instant upgrade fares.
Most legs have a day or two between them(spa days in Vegas, yeah!), which were either mandatory for work, or required for my sanity and spine.
I could have tagged on AKL-SYD-BNE-MEL at the end, but I'll be well over it and will already have more than enough SC's to get me WP.

As always ill post the trip report for those interested.

 

[arraitch]

Yes well DFW definitely goes to SAL

More SCs earned going via MIA. Selecting SFO-IAD and then IAD-SAL forces the AA booking engine to do the routing to SAL via MIA.

If you want to "then see not quite all of Sally for just an hour" timetabling means that it has to be MIA-SAL-MIA anyway.

 

[rockyroad]

If you want to "then see not quite all of Sally for just an hour" timetabling means that it has to be MIA-SAL-MIA anyway.

Yup.

RockyRoad

 

[dfcatch]

Hmmmm,

tempting, tempting, but I think by the time I add return flights to get to HNL (from SFO), and I add in the overnights.....

yes, the more I think about it - it's about the same cost as a run ex-SFO (my destination), but it would earn more SC's......

decisions decisions

 

[ozdunker]

think the deal might have died

 

[burmans]

think the deal might have died

Don't think so, priced out a flight that replaced RockeyRoad's IAD with BWI (so gets the full 1200 SC) and was slightly less than his was priced at ($1406)

 

[scheps]

whats the quickest time for the whole return trip?

 

[ozdunker]

4 days - 3 nights -

 

[N860CR]

Does this need to be booked as such a quick run, or can it be done over a longer period? I've tried it with spending a few days in each stopover port, however it takes the price up to over $5k.

If I can find a way to make it work by actually getting some use out of it (I do have a need to be in SFO and WAS), it makes it a lot more appealing than just flying for the hell of it!

 

[burmans]

Does this need to be booked as such a quick run, or can it be done over a longer period? I've tried it with spending a few days in each stopover port, however it takes the price up to over $5k.

If I can find a way to make it work by actually getting some use out of it (I do have a need to be in SFO and WAS), it makes it a lot more appealing than just flying for the hell of it!

I did a trial with a full day in SFO (a day and a half really) and a day in SAL for similar price but beyond that seems to blow out quickly

 

[kempvet]

I think that any variation to the flight significantly blows out the price. There are some good shorter journeys that give you about $1.80 per SC. I know that there is one ending in BWI from somewhere near the west coast that is $550 for 300 SCs one way, again it takes into account that LAX-DFW-BWI is 240 SCs but you have to work out the starting point. I think that if you want flights to work for your itinerary, there are a few of these flights around.

 

[moa999]

you can get one ways for about 2/3 of the price, but generally small variations either wont price or are much more expensive

 

[traveloguy]

I tried searching this flight just now, and it threw an extra flight, at the beginning and end, giving another 120 SCs, would have made the flight 1320 SCs for $1330 AU, but it has now disappeared, not sure if the booking engine does this from time to time, could be more than one option and every now and then this option is thrown into the mix randomly.

Be aware that whilst the AA system will often show these flight options, when you actually go through with the purchase it will often bomb out (after you have given your card number). With that in mind, beware.