Mileage Running

[alfred russel]

Mileage running is taking a flight for the purpose of getting frequent flyer miles. For example, I need 5k miles to keep my status, and I notice a cheap fare across the country, so I jump on it. I take the round trip flight without getting off the plane at my destination.

I've never done this, but I read in insideflyer that 60% of frequent flyers have done so.

[Eddie Teach]

Why bother getting on the plane in the first place? If you paid for the ticket shouldn't that be enough to keep your "status" up?

[alfred russel]

Why bother getting on the plane in the first place? If you paid for the ticket shouldn't that be enough to keep your "status" up?

No.

[HVC]

do yo uneed to be on the plane, or can you buy a ticket for someone else but it goes towards your airmiles?

[DGuller]

Wow, how wasteful.

[Martinus]

Wow, how wasteful.

Indeed. When I read about shit like this, I think we should die out as a species.

[Warspite]

Don't some Frequent Flyer schemes permit the purchase of miles with cash for precisely this purpose?

[alfred russel]

do yo uneed to be on the plane, or can you buy a ticket for someone else but it goes towards your airmiles?

You need to be on the plane.

[alfred russel]

Don't some Frequent Flyer schemes permit the purchase of miles with cash for precisely this purpose?

Yes, but the return sucks.

[alfred russel]

Don't some Frequent Flyer schemes permit the purchase of miles with cash for precisely this purpose?

And while you can usually buy miles, those usually don't count for status.

[Capetan Mihali]

This is a dilemma I hope never to face. 

[alfred russel]

So here is a situation it might make sense...Say you are a businessman who makes 25 or so round trip flights in the US a year. You might only get to 35,000 miles a year. If your airline has a status cutoff of 50k miles in a year, if you don't pick up that extra 15k you won't be upgraded to business class the next year, will have to sit with the hordes outside of the airport lounges, and won't get the bonus miles that come with status.

So at the end of the year, if you can find that roundtrip ticket to Hong Kong to make your miles for $1k, it might make sense. You could probably use miles to upgrade to business class that would make the trip less than the horrible torture it seems. But it is still horrible torture, and I think it is a bit nuts. A lot of people seem willing to do it though.

[jimmy olsen]

If I fly 16 hours to Hong Kong, I'm at least gonna stay for the weekend, I mean shit, just taking the flight is fucking crazy.

[Josquius]

That is mad and wasteful.
The closest thing I can think of is the Aland booze cruising- people get on a boat in Stockholm, it goes to the Aland islands, waits there half an hour then heads home. Most of them don't get off at Aland, they're just on the boat since tax laws mean they can buy cheap booze on it.
But at least there you're buying something tangible. This...well I've never understood air miles but wow....

[Rasputin]

I have never done it but the perks of riding first or business class especially when flying international are near priceless. For instance most airposrts have a shortened security line for first class so it might take me fifteen minutes to clear security in heathrow or atlanta instead of 45 minutes. The bigger seats are nice on long flights when you have a stocky build or want to be able to get some productive work done en route. In short if one flight separated me from obtaining an auto upgrade status id do it. Of course id get off at the other end just to poke around.