Some YUP help please

[ozbeachbabe]

To bring the thread back on track and not having any direct responses to my 2 questions I phoned AA and they told me:

1. 90 minutes for domestic and 2 hours for international should be enough time for my luggage to arrive with me. I've allowed for at least that but it is very dependent on flights not being too delayed, of course.

2. They too can only do 6 flight legs in one booking with a $60 charge for each booking. I told them that I would try using my own credit card online and the "El Segundo" method came up trumps.

My final YUP journey within the US will be:
LAX-xDFW-MIA(hotel)-PAP-MIA(hotel)-xORD-SEA(stay)-xSFO-xMIA-BGI(stay)-xMIA-xDFW-LAX

Those 1180 should set me up for SG by SEA and WP by LAX. Lounge access after SEA will be a good.

Add in 4 flights MEL-LAX return and 4 in the Caribbean and the 20 flights should make it quite a trip!

We flew LAS/xDFW/xMIA/SJU & despite probably having close to 3 hours in MIA to our last sector being delayed, our bags didn't arrive. The guy we filed our lost baggage report with tapped away at his computer & told us they were still in MIA so I thought we'd well & truly have them by the time our ship sailed the next evening (we gave the ship as our delivery address).

My gut feeling is that the bags were still in DFW as another plane was u/s on 'our' bay so we had to be reassigned another one which shortened our transit time in DFW.

We thought we should have enough time for our bags to make it, however the proverbial happens & due to unforeseen circumstance coming in to play sometimes your bags won't make it.

We did get our bags back about 48 hours later as they flew them to St Croix (STX) which was our first cruise port. Just make sure you have a couple of outfits suitable for you immediate destination plus all the necessities as they will get the bags to you.

Lucky SO had an Amex Platinum card that gave us $700.00 pp to spend on replacement clothing so we did a hasty shopping trip at Plaza Las Americas in SJU prior to boarding the ship. We'd called AA the next morning to find out what time our bags were arriving but they told us they still hadn't be able to locate our bags.

 

[Limewood]

In Aug. Mrs Lime & self having holiday in US, first leg JASA CNS/BNE/LAX return DFW/BNE/CNS.

Domestic USA via AA YUPP - LAX/SFO/LAX/LAS/DFW/MIA/DFW

Is there any better way in getting more status points than this? and about same cost $5340 for both?.

 

[ReLoad]

In Aug. Mrs Lime & self having holiday in US, first leg JASA CNS/BNE/LAX return DFW/BNE/CNS.

Domestic USA via AA YUPP - LAX/SFO/LAX/LAS/DFW/MIA/DFW

Is there any better way in getting more status points than this? and about same cost $5340 for both?.

Limewood, you have plenty of options available to you, are your dates flexible? what are the destinations you "must go to"
Are you doing a points plus pay on your JASA?

Even on the above routing you have suggested, getting from LAS to MIA, you should go via ORD instead of DFW, that alone will pick up some more SC's

 

[Limewood]

as far as dates go thinking about 3 days in each place except LA, will just overnight there after arrival from BNE.

Destinations are set to actually visit SFO, LAS, MIA and DFW.

Yes all booked is JASA points plus pay.

Depart 12th Aug BNE depart DFW 27th Aug.

Via ORD might be too expensive.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Hi Limewood. Most of the really cheap YUPP/KUPPS are cheap and good because they involve lots of transit stops en-route to a destination. These aren't stopovers and if you do stop in each place then you are charged separately for the individual sectors. If you do want to visit each of those places it will be difficult to get more SC's per dollar.

 

[ReLoad]

Hi Limewood. Most of the really cheap YUPP/KUPPS are cheap and good because they involve lots of transit stops en-route to a destination. These aren't stopovers and if you do stop in each place then you are charged separately for the individual sectors. If you do want to visit each of those places it will be difficult to get more SC's per dollar.

The Green lady is indeed correct! if you MUST stop at these locations.
LAX/SFO/LAX/LAS/DFW/MIA/DFW
This routing you have costed at $2670 pp and it earns 450 SC per person. $5.90 per SC

So if you are not flexible about your locations to earn your SC, and want to keep the same sequence;
I suggest you throw away the multi city tool in the above example and stop at as many places as you can.
Work it this way with separate bookings:

LAX-SFO $481 60SC
SFO-xLAX-LAS $467 120 SC
LAS-xORD-MIA $786 240 SC (the ORD-MIA leg by MileMonkey is 1200 – but posts as being in the 1201 + bucket and gives 120 SC)
MIA-xATL-DRW $789 120SC

Gives a total cost of $2523 and gives a total of 540 SC. $4.67 per SC

Of course if you want to visit different locations, then there is much more value to be had.

 

[burmans]

Sounds like something that would happen to Gav (refer to post #50 on thread below):

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ion/any-chance-success-asking-free-36478.html

Ah yes the big noter.

 

[Limewood]

ReLoad,
Never thought of doing it this way, booking each individually, briliant.

can I book these online? or would I need to call AA in US and use the Serfty member's El Segundo method for each?.

 

[ReLoad]

ReLoad,
Never thought of doing it this way, booking each individually, briliant.

can I book these online? or would I need to call AA in US and use the Serfty member's El Segundo method for each?.

You can book these online at aa.com , using Serfty's patented "El Segundo method", and paying by CC.
Or you can book online (then "reserve the booking") , then ring AA on the phone, but you will pay booking fees.

Personally, since travel is in August I would just wait a few days, as there is plenty of other much smarter than I at this game posters who I'm sure could extract a few more SC's or save you some bucks, give them time to post.

For example, on the last leg, instead of leaving from MIA, how about leaving from MCO? 300 bucks each cheaper if money was an issue....
Also have you thought of a couple of days in San Juan?

 

[Limewood]

Great can book via AA US online using Serfty's method.

Will book about May I guess.

Via MCO good idea too.

After one OZ domestic and Y to HKG soon and OZ/USA return, just worked out how many status points I need to get on these USA AA domestic flights its only 200 to go Plat. this year, wife needs 180 to go Gold so I'll have to rework this now as its a waste of $ going YUPP totally on the short flights.

 

[beardoc]

Outwards from HNL to XYZ: HNL-LAX-DFW-MCO-MIA-XYZ (480 SCs)
XYZ to SFO: XYZ-MIA-MSY-DFW-LAX-SFO (390 SCs)
SFO to SEA: SFO-LAX-SEA (150 SCs)

I'm struggling to work out how you're achieving these multiple legs. I'm struggling to find prices as low as yours - is there a trick to finding them?

 

[gizzard]

My final YUPP journey within the US will be:
LAX-xDFW-MIA(hotel)-PAP-MIA(hotel)-xORD-SEA(stay)-xSFO-xMIA-BGI(stay)-xMIA-xDFW-LAX

Those 1180 should set me up for SG by SEA and WP by LAX. Lounge access after SEA will be good.

Add in 4 flights MEL-LAX return and 4 in the Caribbean and the 20 flights should make it quite a trip!

Well, the trip is over and all went smoothly.
I got to see friend in SEA, 3 Tests in the West Indies and am WP on return. My luggage made it with me all the way after I had allowed at least 2 hours at each transfer.
I could write plenty about the experiences of travelling "F class" on AA.

To go with the trip here are a few other threads that I've previously posted:

AC 30 day membership: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....e/30-days-admirals-club-membership-37593.html
Port-au-Prince: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....iscussion/notes-port-au-prince-pap-38063.html
Bonus Points error: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ram/status-bonus-points-error-when-38106.html
MIA-ORD: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....r-program/mia-ord-miami-chicago-sc-38105.html

The 100% extra miles for being WP makes it worthwhile doing the SC run to get to 2400 SCs and a 50,000 bonus as a jump up towards Lifetime PS/SG.
So having just completed a 7 flight trip to get back to MEL, there's an 8 flight SC run lined up for a month's time:
http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ng-get-2100sc-but-not-28734-3.html#post601228

Thanks again for the help with this trip.

 

[Grooba]

Nice one gizzard! These trips really are as much fun as you make them, nice to hear you're already heading back for more.