AA Status Run - Nice little earner

[Blackadder]

Yep, wish I could do the SC run outside of peak season in the US, but sadly not to be.

 

[Grooba]

No, 2 book into either I or D. That should give another clue for those who haven't got it yet.

That's the giveaway.

In fact it's pretty much the same run I went on last year, will be booking another in the not too distant future.

 

[crum]

That's the giveaway.

In fact it's pretty much the same run I went on last year, will be booking another in the not too distant future.

How many SC did you get?

 

[Alanslegal]

For what its worth, I think crum and the few others who have cracked it should remain silent about these routes. Once the masses find these routes and start booking in bulk I think some of these great SC runs will slowly disappear. At just over $1 per SC that's pretty neat!! Look, I am all for "sharing" in this AFF community and I would be more than happy to know the routings as well given I am extremely hopeless at these cryptic / hidden clue type games But if quite a few booked, these routes would dry up. Besides there is enough hints/clues and ideas being flung around for us to seriously work it out, if you had the time and skill. I lack the latter.

 

[Grooba]

How many SC did you get?

900 odd, and even a year ago it was more expensive than what you have found. Good Work!

 

[dfcatch]

Crum has built this routing manually via MultiCity, not using the One-way or Return options. I didn't know you could construct a YUPP fare in this manner.... This may take some of you a lot of time!

I previously have used this trick as well.

Last year I had LAX-DFW-TPA.

But had to end up in YYZ - no real YUPP options there.

But through multi-city I was able to add TPA-MIA-LGA-YYZ at around $2.90/SC.

 

[dfcatch]

OK - best I can find for end-Feb is $1184 inc. for 840 SC.

Still too many nights for my liking - will take me some more hours to condense it........

BUT - if I can shorten the duration then it looks very attractive ex-SFO......

If the run costs a bit more but saves on accommodation it can be a better deal.

 

[ketsuzei]

There have been some doozies lately, but this thread has left the worst taste in my mouth. Reminds me of being back in high school.

So what's the rationale behind the secrecy? The number of potential QFF exploiters of the loophole seems unlikely to cause major dramas,
and if people are really worried about enlightening the wider world... why isn't that an issue with exposing the vagaries, anomalies, and disparities that riddle
our piddling little domestic system? I seriously doubt that Qantas people worry about the odd maniac flying from Canberra to Hobart on a JASA, I can't imagine
AA gives a flying firetruck, and really, is there going to be a Qantas audit of how some people earn SCs in North America?

 

[dfcatch]

I'm not a big fan of secrecy.

And I'm appreciative of AFF enlightening me about these things (and many other tips).

But I also respect that I don't want the good runs to disappear - and "too much" detail posted publicly is viewable to anyone with a google search. They don't even have to be an AFF member or to have made any contribution.

So my personal position is that I will help anyone who asks me, as I want to return the goodness that I have received from others on AFF.

However - out of respect for the concern about too much detail on a public post - I do think that some details should be kept to more discreet methods of communication.

Whilst the cryptic clues can be annoying - it lets members know that the information exists. And for legitimate members (as opposed to anonymous google searchers), all they have to do is ask.

I think it's a fair balance.

 

[rockyroad]

Whilst the cryptic clues can be annoying - it lets members know that the information exists. And for legitimate members (as opposed to anonymous google searchers), all they have to do is ask. I think it's a fair balance.

I have a screen shot if anyone is interested. Just PM me your email. There are many variations on the basic route and some with an even lower $/SC earn rate (close to $1 / SC). As for the route, there are many start, way points and destinations available. Lets just say it starts on the north west US coast and turns around at the bottom of Central America / top of South America. You need to tune the 5 or more sectors to just get them into the 601 mile, 1,201 or 2,401 mile SC earn brackets. No point in flying sectors that are close to the top end of the SC earn brackets. More short sectors are better than longer sectors. SFO to LAX to LAS are a good earning sector pair (240 SCs rtn) but most here already know that. Print this out when working out the sectors: Frequent Flyer - About the Program - Status Credits. With luck you should be able to get First class cabins / SC earns on all the US sectors. It is possible to do the trip with no overnight hotel stays but it will take some work with the AA Multi-City booking engine. It is very date and time of day sensitive.

 

[Gold Member]

I can't imagine AA gives a flying firetruck, and really, is there going to be a Qantas audit of how some people earn SCs in North America?

Agreed AA could care less since after all, how many American folks crediting back to AA are actually going to take the longest most nastiest route simply to get to their destination within America? I'd say less than 0.01%. The AA FFP doesn't work on zones and status credits, it works on miles so a different kettle of fish. AA simply leave the View All Results options there for the sake of it, perhaps in a futile attempt to promote routing choice and flexibility.

But since these status runs are extremely beneficial if credited back to QF, you can imagine QF would want to stop this practise. After all, someone could earn Platinum at 1/10th the regular cost of flying QF metal. I have no doubt QF have lurkers among these type of Internet forums and are well aware of 'status runs' with AA. I don't believe its any coincidence therefore that in the past 6-12 months we've seen most long routes that used to offer 4 and 5 segments now severely limited. The results now only show 'Not available' on many of the Instant Upgrade routes with 4 and 5 segments while the Economy and full First fares are still available for purchase.

And let's not forget, AA and QF are Onworld founding members and cooperate as best they can. For AA to simply limit Instant Upgrade routes that offer 4/5 segments from displaying in the Results is hardly losing them any revenue since an extremely small number of AA members would ever choose that routing anyway, but it saves QF a LOT of potentially lost revenue otherwise.

So in an attempt to retain these goodies and limit any further dilution/removal, the best compromise the community has found is to offer an insight via clues and riddles without stating the details explicitly. In this way, we hope that it doesn't go viral and ruin it for everyone else (per dfcatch's comments above), and perhaps in the hope that any QF lurkers may not have the time/patience to work it out and ultimately remove it (with AA's cooperation).

BTW, I fully expect QF has the ability and does in fact rank/report their QF member status based on $ spent on QF metal compared to others. This is reportedly known as PCV which I understand QF use for some ranking of members between/within tiers.

this thread has left the worst taste in my mouth. Reminds me of being back in high school.

Wipe the tears Princess...

 

[serfty]

...
But since these status runs are extremely beneficial if credited back to QF, you can imagine QF would want to stop this practise. After all, someone could earn Platinum at 1/10th the regular cost of flying QF metal. I have no doubt QF have lurkers among these type of Internet forums and are well aware of 'status runs' with AA. I don't believe its any coincidence therefore that in the past 6-12 months we've seen most long routes that used to offer 4 and 5 segments now severely limited. ...

Hence the introduction of ÜW/WP1/PO and that level's "2700 SC's on QF" requirement.

 

[rockyroad]

Bottom side is you may not want your passport to have the turnaround countries stamp in it. Or to be asked at US customs why you flew into THAT country and back again on the next available flight? The term "Drug Mule" may come up. Could invoke searches in places that may not be enjoyable. You may then miss your next US sector and have the status run fall apart. You really do need to ask yourself why the flights are so cheap to the Equatorial turn around airport.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Bottom side is you may not want your passport to have the turnaround countries stamp in it. Or to be asked at US customs why you flew into THAT country and back again on the next available flight? The term "Drug Mule" may come up. Could invoke searches in places that may not be enjoyable. You may then miss your next US sector and have the status run fall apart. You really do need to ask yourself why the flights are so cheap to the Equatorial turn around airport.

That was my thoughts entirely so I have been looking at shortening route to stay within mainland USA.
Would love it if the AA multi city booking engine showed the prices prior to flight selection, might cut down the amount of permutations which have to be looked at

 

[serfty]

There's no USA immigration customs requirements for Puerto Rico

 

[rockyroad]

There's no USA immigration customs requirements for Puerto Rico

Haven't tried that as the turnaround point.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Bottom side is you may not want your passport to have the turnaround countries stamp in it. Or to be asked at US customs why you flew into THAT country and back again on the next available flight? The term "Drug Mule" may come up. Could invoke searches in places that may not be enjoyable. You may then miss your next US sector and have the status run fall apart. You really do need to ask yourself why the flights are so cheap to the Equatorial turn around airport.

We got that question when arriving into MIA on 28 Nov after 2 nights in SDQ. We flew to MIA/SJU (domestic flight - can't get duty free etc) & did a 7 night cruise 19-26 Nov that started & finished in SJU but Puerto Rico it's still clasesd as the US so on arrival back in SJU post cruise you actually clear US Customs so when we flew SJU/SDQ 26 Nov we technically departed the "US" again.

When asked by US Customs "why did you only stay away 2 nights" we told them it was just an add-on after our Caribbean Cruise & they seemed satisfied with that.

 

[rockyroad]

One restriction is the AA Multi-City search facility is limited to 6 city pairs. As you need to book this as a return, that limits you to 3 city pairs per direction. With-in each entered city pair, AA will offer up to 3 (the max I have seen) sector routing offers. Add to that the pricing is VERY time of day and date sensitive, so you need to play with the time of departure options to find the "sweet spot". It seems the engine will allow connections as short as 1 hour. BTW Crum's original routing price is gone.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Thinking out loud, probably the best way is to search returns for each sector, find the most cost effective YUPPs and then choose those flight numbers on a multi-city ( assuming the same flights are available on multi-city)

 

[crum]

Crum's original routing price is gone.

Still there when I tried. Think it is as you mentioned...very date and time specific.