Well Kansas City here we come again! Both United and Delta have a $79 base fare out in the San Diego to Kansas City market tonight – no love for American.

The fare is valid now through the end-of-schedule, but as you can imagine, there is basically no inventory available on this particular routing during the summer months. Think fall and winter.

With the now combined Continental and United, I’m a bit wary of booking this far in advance. I used to be able to easily suggest even wackier routings when being rebooked due to a schedule change, but I fear Shares and getting an ex-Continental agent. That said, I’m still booking one.

Routing: San Diego to San Francisco to Cleveland to Kansas City roundtrip

Travel period: Now through end-of-schedule

Dates I found available: 9/7; 9/10; 9/11; 9/17; 9/24 (didn’t go any further than September)

Number of nights stay: 0

Day of week restrictions: None

Fare basis: GA14CN, 14-day advance purchase

Fare: $208.80 all-in

Premier Qualifying Miles earned: 6,712 (assumes 500-mile minimums)

Cost-per-mile (CPM): 3.11

Example itinerary:

(Hat tip: MileageRunning.com)

Kansas City has been a very popular fare war market recently and there are some pretty nice mileage run fares out there today from SFO & SEA on American, Delta and United from either $89 or $99 one-way base roundtrip.

The routing rules are again generous on United (and even Delta from Seattle allows SEA-ATL-MCI!), so there are some opportunities out there for sub-4.0cpm mileage runs.

Here’s an example (below) on United from San Francisco. Be sure to check out your options on American and Delta, too. I’m on the road today, so can’t commit the time to check further.

Routing: San Francisco to Los Angeles to Cleveland to Kansas City roundtrip

Travel period: Now through May 23, 2012 (no restrictions out of SEA!)

Dates I found available: 5/1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 15, 22

Number of nights stay: 1

Day of week restrictions: None

Fare basis: GA7CN, 7-day advance purchase

Fare: $228.80 all-in

Premier Qualifying Miles earned: 6,470 (assumes 500-mile minimums)

Cost-per-mile (CPM): 3.54

Example itinerary:

Kansas City has been “on sale” for some time now out of LAX, but a $69 one-way base fare is also now available from SFO and SEA on both American and United. Delta has only filed a matching fare in the LAX-MCI market as of this posting. Travel must be completed by May 9, 2012.

Routing rules vary based on carrier with United offering the most generous mileage-maximizing opportunities. Still, though, there are many options with American and Delta at under 4.0cpm

Selfishly, as I’m primarily a United guy and LAX-based, here’s an example of a zero-nighter available on May 2 and May 7.

Routing: Los Angeles to San Francisco to Cleveland to Kansas City roundtrip

Travel period: Now through May 9, 2012

Dates I found available: 5/2 & 5/7

Number of nights stay: 0

Day of week restrictions: Mon/Tue/Wed/Thur/Sat

Fare basis: GAG7CS

Fare: $188.60 all-in

Elite Qualifying Miles earned: 6,712 (assumes 500-mile minimums)

Cost-per-mile (CPM): 2.81

Example itinerary:

Well here’s a surprise. I’m used to seeing fare wars in major markets with a lot of competition, so did not anticipate finding this fare today on United offering a $63 one-way ticket from the Washington, D.C. group of airports to Spokane, WA.

I haven’t spent too much time finding ideal connection opportunities for this deal, instead wanting to get this posted ASAP for my East coast friends. There are oodles of same-day trips available if you fly IAD-DEN-GEG roundtrip, but for the best CPM, consider a 1-nighter as shown below.

Routing: Washington Dulles to Denver to Spokane to San Francisco to Washington Dulles

Travel period: Now through 6/6/2012

Dates I found available: 4/17 (there are many dates available for same-day turns IAD-DEN-GEG r/t)

Number of nights stay: 1

Day of week restrictions: None

Fare basis: GA10CS, 10-day advance purchase

Fare: $169.20

Elite Qualifying Miles earned: 5,439 (assumes 500-mile minimums)

Cost-per-mile (CPM): 3.11

Example itinerary:

United Airlines ended up matching the fare posted by American and Delta in the Los Angeles to Kansas City market, so here’s another mileage run opportunity post for today. This one is what I consider a “book it without thinking about it” fare since the CPM comes in at 2.81cpm.

[Edited 2/8/12 7:00pm PST: United pulled this fare tonight, but AA & DL haven't yet... we'll see what tomorrow brings.]

I searched availability now through the end of May and found only two dates where you can do a zero-night turn, but there are other dates available for a 1-night stay, as shown below. United didn’t put an expiration on this fare, so there are likely more runs available beyond May.

Note the tight connection on that last segment SFO-LAX, but personally I wouldn’t worry about it. There’s at least two more flights if you were to misconnect.

Routing: Los Angeles to San Francisco to Cleveland to Kansas City roundtrip

Travel period: Now through end-of-schedule

Dates I found available: 5/1 & 5/2 (1-nighters are open 4/24, 5/1, 5/7, 5/8 and 5/15)

Number of nights stay: 0

Day of week restrictions: None

Fare basis: GA7KN, 7-day advance purchase

Fare: $188.80 all-in

Elite Qualifying Miles earned: 6,712 (assumes 500-mile minimums)

Cents-per-mile (CPM): 2.81

Example itinerary:

Happy running!

I haven’t been diligently checking mileage run opportunities lately given the FareCompare FlyerTalk tool is still down, but did take a look this morning at options using their map feature. Many of my readers emailed me with requests to search from their hometowns and now that I have a bit more time on my hands, I’ll be sure to start looking.

Both American and Delta have a fare out there in the Los Angeles to Kansas City market right now – actually since February 3 – that offers an easy day-trip run. Delta’s example is below and if you’re an American flyer and have residency in California or Illinois, you can do even better through March 31 flying a LAX-ORD-MCI round-trip with American’s DEQM promotion.

Routing: Los Angeles to Atlanta to Kansas City round-trip

Travel period: Now through September 28, 2012

Dates I found available: 2/19, 21, 22, 27, 28; 3/5, 6

Number of nights stay: 0

Day of week restrictions: None

Fare basis: TA07A0PA, 7-day advance purchase

Fare: $181.20 all-in

Medallion Qualifying Miles earned: 5,278

Cost-per-mile (CPM): 3.43

Example itinerary:

Flyertalk also has a thread with additional information, including the exact routing rules published by American and Delta. For me, it’s never too early in the year to pad my balance, especially when CPMs are in the low 3.0 range. Happy running!

A reader emailed me asking about mileage run opportunities on United Airlines from his hometown, Pittsburgh. I do tend to be coast-centric as that’s where you get the biggest bang for your buck on mileage runs, but welcome other origins as well. If you’d like me to research options from your hometown, shoot me an email and I’ll see what I can do.

This one travels from Pittsburgh through Washington Dulles and San Francisco to Tucson. There is technically a 0-nighter when starting from Pittsburgh, but the flight arrives at 12:15am with the next departure at 5:51am. I haven’t hung around an airport overnight in years, but know some hard-core runners who do. I’d tack on a mattress run to such a trip.

One thing to note about the itinerary below is the 31-minute connection in SFO. It’s “legal” per United’s rules, but obviously very tight. What I would try to do is standby on the earlier PIT-IAD and IAD-SFO legs that are available that day. Otherwise, if I got stuck in San Francisco, they’d overnight me for misconnecting and I’d pick up the return and plead my case with Mileage Plus to get original routing credit. They’ve said “no” to me once before, but I ended up getting a $200 cert out of it, so was happy enough.

Routing: Pittsburgh to Dulles to San Francisco to Tucson roundtrip

Travel period: Now through end-of-schedule

Dates I found available: 1/19, 30, 31; 2/1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 20, 22, 28, 29

Number of nights stay: 1

Day of week restrictions: None

Fare basis: GA7CN, 7-day advance purchase

Fare: $248.80 all-in

Elite Qualifying Miles earned: 7,340 (assumes 500-mile minimums)

Cost-per-mile (CPM): 3.39

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. I will soon update these posts as the FareCompare page is temporarily down and the classic version of Matrix has been taken off line.

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.”

I hate change. This week, two of my favorite airfare searching tools either went away or previous versions were disabled. I’m of course referring to the trusty FareCompare Flyertalk page being taken down and ITA Software’s Classic “Matrix 1” being totally removed. I feel sort of naked without them.

The FareCompare site was bar none the easiest and fastest way to find which markets had the cheapest fares from your origin city or region. The tabled list provided a quick snapshot of city pairs, (nearly) all-in fares and although often inaccurate, a cost per mile column. It was particularly useful to quickly see which markets had truly lowball fares ideal for mileage runs.

It’s still listed as a tool on the website, but with a “coming soon” disclaimer. Flyertalk user “gbryan84” received an email from FareCompare’s CEO Rick Seaney stating, “… we are in the midst of a massive rollout of new backend software to comply with new DOT regulations in January. Getting the FT app back up is on the list, but I don’t have an exact time yet.”

They left another feature active that displays fares from an origin on a global map called the Where-To-Go: Getaway Map that can be found here.

It, then, is probably the next best thing at the moment to not-so-quickly see what fares are out there in the markets presently. Kayak has a similar Explore map tool and it, too, requires manual manipulation of the map to view the fares and further details.

I found a potential mileage run fare for Los Angeles to Columbus on both the FareCompare and Kayak map, so made note of it and checked out the routing rules on ExpertFlyer.

Kayak Explore map

FareCompare Getaway map

United Airlines has pretty generous routing rules on their fare in the LAX-CMH market, so I went to ITA Software’s Matrix to check out availability. I’ve used the “new” tool previously and it does eventually get you to the same information, but it takes more click-throughs and I find it slower than the classic version. The routing I wanted was from Los Angeles to San Francisco to Washington Dulles to Columbus for a one-nighter and I plugged in the following:

A calendar appeared showing the fares available each day and the month of February looked to have plenty of availability for the cheapest fare. Once selecting a date, it will take you to a list of flights and their respective fares. Clicking through gets you the same detail as the classic version.

It’s not an efficient method to find mileage runs presently, but at least there’s still a way beyond just plugging in random markets to display available fares. This run, by the way, nets 6,838 EQMs (I can’t bring myself to call them Premier Qualifying Miles yet) at an all-in fare of $258.20, or 3.78 cpm.

My fingers are crossed the FareCompare tool comes back sooner rather than later. I know I’m not the only one truly missing it right now. Does anyone have other tools they’re using to find mileage runs?

[Coincidentally, Ben, too, wrote a similar post at the same time and his method uses ITA Software to find runs. Check out his method here.]

This year is pretty much a wash, but why not load up early on easy EQMs (and RDMs) with American in 2012. Their Double Elite Qualifying Miles and Double Flight Miles promotion continues through March 31, 2012 and there are currently a huge amount of dates available from both San Francisco and Los Angeles.

It’s open to residents of Illinois, California and Texas and applies to flights from ORD or DFW to either LAX or SFO. The example itinerary below is the best deal coming in at 2.97 cpm, but plenty of availability also exists between LAX and ORD at 3.14 cpm. I’m sure DFW to LAX/SFO also has plenty of availability, but at a much higher cpm.

United also has a similar promotion through January 31, 2012, but it requires a W-bucket fare or higher. The cheapest LAX-ORD roundtrip in W, for example, is $339.40 or 4.86 cpm… a terrible mileage run option.

Routing: San Francisco to Chicago O’Hare roundtrip

Travel period: Now through March 31, 2012

Dates I found available: Almost unlimited

Number of nights stay: 0 (easy & quick day trip)

Day of week restrictions: Monday through Saturday only

Fare basis: QA07OQY1, 7-day advance purchase

All-in fare: $219.40

Elite Qualifying Miles earned: 7,384

Cost-per-mile (CPM): 2.97

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.

[Edited: 12/8/11 at 6:00pm PST: This fare is no longer available]

Ready to start mileage running in 2012? There appears to be a bit of a Columbus fare war out there tonight originating in Los Angeles (sorry San Francisco and Seattle, no love for you here).

Alaska, American, Continental, Delta and United have the same base fare of $184 round-trip, but United has incredibly generous routing rules. It’s not great, but it’s under 4cpm. The other carriers require more direct routings.

Routing: Los Angeles to San Francisco to Washington-Dulles to Columbus roundtrip

Travel period: Now through end-of-schedule

Dates I found available: 1/9, 1/17, 1/23, 1/24; 2/6, 2/13, 2/27

Number of nights stay: 0

Day of week restrictions: None

Fare basis: GA14MN, 14-day advance purchase

Fare: $256.20 all-in

Elite Qualifying Miles earned: 6,838 (assumes 500-mile minimums)

Cost-per-mile (CPM): 3.75

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.