I previously posted a similar mileage run opportunity, but the fare has come down and there are oodles of dates available for this 0-night run through end-of-schedule. Unfortunately, it’s only valid from Los Angeles or Columbus, so other West coast cities lose out this round.
Alaska, American, Continental, Delta and United have the same base fare of $184 round-trip, but United has incredibly generous routing rules. The other carriers require more direct routings. It’s not great, but it’s under 4cpm, which is now my mileage run target cpm for 2012.
One of my strategies for mileage runs is to book them many months in advance in hopes a schedule change comes through for which I can then suggest alternate routings with even more miles. Agents might think you’re crazy, but I have yet to be turned down.
Routing: Los Angeles to San Francisco to Washington-Dulles to Columbus roundtrip
Travel period: Now through end-of-schedule
Dates I found available: 1/17, 1/18, 1/23, 1/24, 1/29, 1/30, 1/31; 2/5, 2/6, 2/7, 2/12, 2/13, 2/14, 2/20, 2/21, 2/27, 2/28
Number of nights stay: 0
Day of week restrictions: None
Fare basis: GA14KN, 14-day advance purchase
Fare: $248.80 all-in
Elite Qualifying Miles earned: 6,838 (assumes 500-mile minimums)
Cost-per-mile (CPM): 3.64
Example itinerary: Click for full view
Visit my Mileage Running 101 Part 1 and Part 2 posts to get step-by-step instructions on how I found this fare and created the routing. Note: The FareCompare Flyertalk page is currently down, but is expected to return “soon.”
UA MRs have been fewer and pricier this year. Too bad. As you said, good but not great. Still worth sharing!
@Scottrick: Agreed… I think we’ll all be spending more this year.
Darren is the availability you found the same for all the dates you listed, meaning the same flight times? I am trying to book a couple back to back.
Or when you say available 2/12, 2/13, 2/14 that would be for 1 turn on any of those 3 days, or 2/27, 2/28 would be for 1 turn? thanks
@Jr: I didn’t look at the flight times for each day, but I’m certain there are a couple of itinerary options each day. The dates I show available are ones where I found departures available, so yes, you could do a turn departing on any of those dates.
Is it available to start from SFO ? I am from ORD, prefer to start from SFO instead of LAX (better stopover to me than LAX)
Unfortunately not… only from LAX.
Too bad it only seems to run into CMH and not from CMH. Running the routing backwards cost twice as much. :-/
@Joe: I’m pretty sure that fare expired by now. It was at the time available for the same rate ex-CMH. I’ll post new ones as I find them!