anat0l
Enthusiast
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2006
- Posts
- 11,666
Operational details: I need your ideas!
Now barring any criticisms you may have at someone trying to requal for WP (when you thought qualifying first time wasn't bad enough), I'm open to ideas to find the cheapest way to requalify.
I've got the AFF Gather #3 in October, so that may just knock off another 25 SC...also, I might have one or two cash flights on oneworld carriers on my big trip in Nov/Dec this year, but that will still only probably knock off at most 20 SC.
The only reason I'd ask is that I'm not completely pinned down to ex-AU or intra-AU options. I have one day in FRA (arrive afternoon of 02/11/09 and whole day 03/11/09), some days ex-LON up my sleeve after about 02/12/09 or 03/12/09 (or thereabouts), and even possibilities of ex- HKG, MNL, KUL or SIN after that. So I've got some options of where to start, but what are the most economic ones (and all those ex- locations above are pretty much in December, which adds a nice think layer of complications...)
A list of options include:
Does anyone have any other suggestions of worthy mention? As a yardstick, the Domestic SC run averages an SC rate of around AUD 4.5 / SC, give or take a bit. As I also mentioned, I'm not adverse to trying for other options around the world (although my time in any parts would be limited). Extra points of credit (no pun intended) to those with specific suggestions.......
Thanks everyone!
Now barring any criticisms you may have at someone trying to requal for WP (when you thought qualifying first time wasn't bad enough), I'm open to ideas to find the cheapest way to requalify.
I've got the AFF Gather #3 in October, so that may just knock off another 25 SC...also, I might have one or two cash flights on oneworld carriers on my big trip in Nov/Dec this year, but that will still only probably knock off at most 20 SC.
The only reason I'd ask is that I'm not completely pinned down to ex-AU or intra-AU options. I have one day in FRA (arrive afternoon of 02/11/09 and whole day 03/11/09), some days ex-LON up my sleeve after about 02/12/09 or 03/12/09 (or thereabouts), and even possibilities of ex- HKG, MNL, KUL or SIN after that. So I've got some options of where to start, but what are the most economic ones (and all those ex- locations above are pretty much in December, which adds a nice think layer of complications...)
A list of options include:
- DONE4 - part now to fulfil the requal, park then do the rest next year (possibly striking requal again). Problem is, I don't have $8000 just lying around. (The SC economics work out to be about $5/SC - *sigh* oneworld price increases...*grumble grumble*).
- Domestic SC run when there is another sale, which would mean doing three of them. Although I really need to come up with a better and cheaper CBR overnighting plan...
- LAN runs for a bit of F Lounge flavour added in, but OMG o'clock flights (or frequenting the AKL I Airport Hilton
) plus almost double the economics of the Domestic SC run don't make this attractive. - YUPP/KUPP seems to be the textbook cheapest (in terms of SC economics) option, but I have -1 experience (yes, worse than zero) in looking for and booking YUPP/KUPPs, plus positioning flights need to be taken care of (although I suppose I could use points/points+pay for those, improving the economics). There was wijomas's beautiful BGI run, which has stunning economics but nets about 2000 SCs and I don't need that much (plus the timing was rather off - BNE B2B is on then).
- BA CE runs; most of these are ex-LGW (cf. ex-LHR) and I think the last sale BA had (which is no longer on) yielded the best SC returns for money on KRK, PSA and GOA. Problem is that except for PSA, all of those routes only have one flight to and from them a day, and they so happen to be too close to each other (by about 5 - 30 minutes) so the booking engine won't let me book a return flight on the same day. Also, only one return flight could be achieved per day, due to the departure times of each of the flights ex-LGW.
- JohnK's shuttle runs ex-SIN; not sure how viable these are now.......
Does anyone have any other suggestions of worthy mention? As a yardstick, the Domestic SC run averages an SC rate of around AUD 4.5 / SC, give or take a bit. As I also mentioned, I'm not adverse to trying for other options around the world (although my time in any parts would be limited). Extra points of credit (no pun intended) to those with specific suggestions.......
Thanks everyone!
