I’ve been looking for some mileage run opportunities on American to redeem my systemwide upgrades for this year and get a head start on requalifying for Executive Platinum status, and I think there’s finally something great, but I’m just trying to figure out to which degree to take advantage of this.

Per this FlyerTalk thread, American has published under $700 fares between Frankfurt and Rio de Janeiro via the US. Slightly higher fares are also available out of Dusseldorf and also to Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires.

The fare seems to require a Saturday night minimum stay and be valid for a maximum stay of 30 days, with  travel having to commence by May.

You can use ITA Matrix to search for space pretty easily.

You can do anything from a simple routing between Frankfurt and Rio de Janeiro via Dallas in both directions, to a more complicated routing from Frankfurt to Sao Paulo via London and Dallas with the new 777-300ER on both longhaul segments.

I’m really struggling with pulling the trigger on this one. This is an amazing fare that can be flown in relative comfort using systemwide upgrades, though obviously the positioning costs for Frankfurt are huge. And while I don’t mind positioning, at that point I feel like I should do multiple of these trips in order to justify it, though at that point I feel like it’s sufficiently exhausting that I’m better off just sticking to domestic mileage runs.

Anyone else thinking of taking advantage of one of these fares, and if so, how do you plan on positioning to Frankfurt?

I doubt this fare will be around for very long…

For those obsessed with points and status, January 1 can be a daunting day as it’s when most elite balances “reset.” Therefore it’s always nice to have a bit of travel booked before the counter resets, so you don’t start panicking about all the miles and hotel nights you’ll have to rack up before the end of the year. That’s why I always like to book a couple of international mileage runs before the year even starts.

And it looks like American has some great fares to China for early next year, under $750 roundtrip from many cities in the US. And while that’s not unheard-of-amazing, keep in mind that American lets you upgrade all revenue fares with systemwide upgrades, so this can easily be in business class. For example, Seattle to Beijing is $730 roundtrip on many dates, and at a minimum you have to backtrack through Chicago, which adds quite a few miles:

That itinerary is roughly 16,600 elite qualifying miles roundtrip, and that’s without even maximizing the routing.

I see similarly great fares out of many US cities, including Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco.

To see if the fare is available from your desired city and for your desired dates I suggest using ITA Matrix.

Just enter the origin and destination. Then in the boxes below those cities enter “aa+” which indicates that you want to fly on American.

Then I suggest clicking the “See calendar of lowest fares” button, and entering the number of nights you’d like to stay in Beijing (which can be entered as a range).

Once that’s complete just hit “search.”

The calendar will show you the lowest fares, and you can play around with options from there. I see these fares all the way into March, for what it’s worth.

And while it’s perhaps on the other end of the spectrum, there are also some decent paid business class fares between Los Angeles and Tokyo for early next year. It’s not quite as good of a sale as American recently had to China, but it’s worth mentioning nonetheless. American has business class fares between Los Angeles and Tokyo for ~$2,100 all-in roundtrip early next year, which is quite good when you factor in that you can upgrade those tickets to first class using systemwide upgrades.

It’s worth mentioning that you need a visa for China if you’re a US citizen, though as an American mileage runner I always have a valid Chinese visa.

Happy mileage running!

Last week I answered a reader question on the blog about whether it’s worth maintaining airline elite status when there are so many great credit card offers, making it easy to earn enough miles to cover any reasonable person’s travel needs.

In passing I mentioned that it should be possible to earn top tier status for roughly $4,000 per year, and a lot of people asked how.

If this were 2008 I’d say “well just book a ticket to anywhere, dummy!” Those were the day of $200 transcon fares with a handful of transfers permitted in each direction of travel. Not only have the airlines gotten more strict on routing rules, but the capacity cuts they’ve implemented have contributed to huge price increases.

Nowadays I’m lucky to find a transcon flight to where I need to go for $400 roundtrip, which just doesn’t work as a mileage run.

Nonetheless out of some coastal cities mileage running can still work without too much effort thanks to lots of competition and the ability to route itineraries circuitously. But not everyone has the luxury of living in one of those cities, so there are three things I’d focus on in trying to maintain top tier status (and I know individually they all sound obvious, but I don’t think enough people consider them as part of their elite qualification strategy).

Promotions

Earlier in the year American made it possible for residents of California and Illinois to earn top tier status for $2,000, thanks to the fact that they were offering triple elite qualifying miles between Chicago and Los Angeles/San Francisco. These kinds of promotions aren’t uncommon, so it’s just a function of waiting for them to come around.

While I doubt American will offer another big mileage promotion this year, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them offer another promotion early next year. In the past they seemed to offer double elite qualifying miles whenever they had a major issue — when they filed for bankruptcy, when their MD-80 fleet was grounded, etc. You’d think with the pilot issues and seats going loose on the 757 they would’ve offered another “round,” though perhaps the elite ranks are sufficiently inflated for the year.

But there’s no reason you shouldn’t make promotions part of your strategy, whatever they may be. Also keep in mind in the above case even if you didn’t live in Chicago, Los Angeles, or San Francisco, you could always book a positioning flight and knock out all the flying over a long weekend.

Fares wars/sales

I think people completely underestimate the value of this as part of their mileage run strategy. Fare wares and real fare sales happen all the time… and these aren’t the ones that are usually advertised. I’m not talking about those emails you get from the airlines offering “amazing fall savings,” but rather when one airline initiates a fare sale, and an outright “war” ensues.

For example, a little over a week ago Southwest launched a 40% off sale, and we saw prices drop 40% across the board domestically on almost all routes. Seattle to Orlando was pricing out at $164 all-in roundtrip on American, for example.

And that wasn’t even the cheapest fares, but rather just one that was convenient for me. That would be ~6,350 elite qualifying miles roundtrip, meaning it was roughly 2.5 cents per elite qualifying mile (at that rate that’s $2,500 for top tier status). The key to planning for top tier status is to be able to make a decision at a moment’s notice, and being willing to book a dozen at a time. The fare will be gone before you have time to think about it.

Similarly we’ll often see fare wars in specific markets. American will launch a fare sale out of Charlotte (US Airway’s hub), US Airways will launch a fare sale out of Chicago (American and United’s hubs), United will launch a fare sale out of Atlanta (Delta’s hub), etc. Now, I don’t know why the airlines bother to get into fare wars, but I’m not complaining, since it’s only the consumers that win.

Similarly there are sometimes also mistake fares, though those are even tougher to predict than fare sales/wars.

To keep up with mistake fares and fare wars I suggest monitoring the Mileage Run forum on FlyerTalk. What I also do to just generally keep track of fares is to do a fare search out of my home airport for most transcon destinations once a day, just to see if there’s anything out of the ordinary. Farecompare.com used to have a handy tool that listed the cheapest fares out of each city on a cent per mile basis, though they got rid of that last year.

Instead I use ITA Matrix and enter my home airport and all the destinations I can think of on the opposite coast. Then search fares over a month, and enter the length of time you’re willing to stay at your destination. Lastly, be sure to uncheck the “Allow airport changes” box, or else you’ll end up with an itinerary flying you into one airport and out of another.

Then on the next page there’s a calendar with a range of fares. If I notice anything interesting I’ll click on the date and research a specific fare more. It’s a great way to keep track of any fare changes.

Off peak international travel

My favorite way to requalify for status with American is by traveling to China. In the winter months American consistently has cheap fares to China, and it’s a great opportunity to knock out a lot of miles at once… especially since the routing rules tend to be quite generous. Best of all if you’re an Executive Platinum member with American you get eight systemwide upgrades you can use on any fare, so it’s great to be able to confirm those flights in business class.

You can typically get these routings close to four cents per mile. The main challenge is that there are usually minimum stays involved for Asia trips, so that can be tough for people that have to be in the office Monday through Friday.

So while none of the above strategies individually will guarantee you elite status for cheap, it’s a function of taking advantage of the right promotions when they are released, and being mentally prepared to go “all-in.” If you’re new to the game keep in mind that elite status is typically based on calendar years, so you’ll want to wait till January 1 before starting to mileage run. I’ll also continue to make my best effort to share the best fares out there, and most importantly point out the “big picture” implications of taking advantage of a specific fare.

Introduction
Westin Atlanta Airport
American Airlines First Class New York JFK to Los Angeles
American Airlines First Class Los Angeles to Tokyo Narita
Japan Airlines Business Class Tokyo Narita to Nagoya
Hyatt Regency Kyoto
Hoshinoya Kyoto
Westin Nagoya Castle
Japan Airlines Business Class Nagoya to Tokyo Narita
American Airlines First Class Tokyo Narita to Los Angeles
American Airlines First Class Los Angeles to New York JFK

Last September I was made aware of some special business class fares on American between Atlanta and Japan (the fare was the same to both Tokyo and Nagoya). The fare was about $1,800 all-in for discounted business class. If I couldn’t upgrade to first class I wouldn’t have gone for it, but since American lets you use systemwide upgrades to upgrade to the next class of service on any revenue fare, I was basically booking a first class ticket for $1,800. Furthermore, at the time I figured it would be a great way to get a jump start on 2012 elite status since I had no travel planned for the year, so I scheduled the trip for May. The trip would net me over 18,000 elite qualifying miles, over 24,000 elite qualifying points, and over 40,000 redeemable miles.

While in and of itself not a “true” mileage run, it is an excellent premium fare, and all I needed to persuade me to plan a five day vacation in Japan. Two friends decided to join me (one on the same fare, and one on an award ticket around the same dates). While our tickets were booked to Nagoya it was our intention to go to Kyoto for a majority of our stay, and spend a couple of nights in Nagoya on the way back.

In the end our routing looked as follows:

05/21 American 4651 Atlanta to New York LGA 9:05AM-11:20AM
05/21 American 133 New York JFK to Los Angeles 3:35PM-7:05PM
05/22 American 169 Los Angeles to Tokyo Narita 11:40AM-3:20PM (+1 day)
05/23 Japan Airlines 3087 Tokyo Narita to Nagoya 6:25PM-7:35PM
05/28 Japan Airlines 3082 Nagoya to Tokyo Narita 8:25AM-9:35AM
05/28 American 170 Tokyo Narita to Los Angeles 3:25PM-9:20AM
05/28 American 4 Los Angeles to New York JFK 12:30PM-9:10PM
05/29 American 4658 New York LGA to Atlanta 12:05PM-2:25PM

Upgrades immediately cleared to first class for all American segments. As far as the routing goes, as you can see I intentionally routed it through JFK, since this would allow us to fly American’s Flagship Service. Instead of standard domestic first class flights, this route is operated by a three cabin 767-200 featuring international first class style service (for an idea of what the service is like, see my previous trip report about Flagship Service first class between New York and San Francisco). While it meant an airport transfer between LGA and JFK, I figured it was well worth it.

While I’ll have a post shortly about constructing mileage run routings on American, the planning of this was pretty straightforward since the routing was well within the MPM. I just played around with ITA a bit to find the flights, and then went to Orbitz to make the reservation (I find aa.com to be a pain for booking complicated routings).

As far as getting to and from Atlanta goes, I had been monitoring the fares from Tampa to Atlanta for months leading up to the trip, and American’s fares were ridiculous. In the end I needed to be in Seattle a few days before my trip to Japan, and a Tampa to Seattle and Seattle to Atlanta ticket on American actually cost less than a Tampa to Atlanta ticket, so I just booked that. Gotta love airline pricing.

I forgot to book my return ticket from Atlanta to Tampa until my last day in Japan, so after comparing fares I noticed AirTran was the cheapest by far at $80 all-in one way. While they won’t be in this trip report, you can read about my experience on that flight here.

As far as the hotels go, the Westin Atlanta Airport received generally good reviews and was an easy way to pick up an SPG night credit on an ~$80 stay.

In Kyoto I’ve heard great things about the Hyatt Regency, so went with that, especially since it’s a Virtuoso hotel (so for booking the Hyatt Daily Rate got a $100 food and beverage credit among other benefits). One of the friends I was traveling with is a luxury travel agent so insisted we stay at Hoshinoya, which is a traditional Japanese ryokan with a modern twist.

Then in Nagoya we stayed at the Westin, which was available on Cash & Points. It was quite a bargain at 2,800 SPG points plus $45 per night.

Anyway, sit back, relax, and get ready to laugh at me. Of all the places I travel to, Japan is the one place where I’ll always feel “lost in translation,” which is part of what makes it so intriguing.

As always, questions and comments are welcome!

Introduction
American Business Class New York to Barcelona
Le Meridien Barcelona
American Business Class Barcelona to New York

American 66
New York (JFK) – Barcelona (BCN)
Sunday, February 5
Depart: 5:30PM
Arrive: 7:10AM (+1 day)
Duration: 7hr40min
Aircraft: Boeing 767-300
Seat: 4H (Business Class)

We got to our departure gate (38) around 4:45PM for our 5:30PM departure, and within a few minutes business class boarding was announced.

Gate

Our plane

Once onboard we were greeted by the purser and I crossed to the far aisle to take my seat in row four.

I could tell almost immediately that we lucked out with a great crew. There were three flight attendants working business class, and all of them complemented each other perfectly, despite having completely different personalities.

The purser, Maurilio, couldn’t get a sentence out without trying to crack a joke or say something sarcastic or mildly offensive (though in a positive way… if there is such a thing). The flight attendant working the other aisle, AJ, was a bit more serious yet still willing to joke around. And then the flight attendant working my aisle, John, was the most “traditionally” professional flight attendant, given that he addressed me by name at every interaction. Together they were just awesome.

Business class cabin

The flight was fairly empty so within a few minutes of settling in we were offered pre-departure beverages. The guy seated in the row in front of me backed up into the flight attendant’s drink tray as he was doing the pre-departure beverage service and literally knocked all the drinks over. It was completely the passenger’s fault, though the flight attendant was incredibly gracious about it despite his button up being drenched. Kudos.

Maurilio offered me a pre-departure beverage, and I asked for a mimosa. You see, there’s good reason I ask for it — American’s orange juice and champagne are both hardly drinkable individually, though together are quite good.

Instead of making one for me he looked at me in pure horror as if I made an outrageous request and said “what do you think this is, a bar?” Of course he quickly followed it with a smile and suggested I take both and mix them on my own so I can have double the portion.

Pre-departure beverages

Boarding was complete within about 15 minutes, and business class was less than half full, meaning I could have a set of two seats to myself (the more personal space, the better!).

Before the door closed I went into the lav to change into sweats, and when I came out of the lavatory Maurilio commented to me “what do you think you’re wearing? That’s not business class attire.” I couldn’t help myself, and said “what a coincidence, this isn’t a real business class product.” He chuckled and responded with “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m from a fourth world country where we think this product is great.”

Once settled in again menus were distributed, and within minutes meal orders were taken.

Shortly before pushback the captain came on the PA to advise us of our flight time of 7hr20min, anticipating an on-time arrival in Barcelona.

We pushed back a few minutes early and had a quick taxi to the runway, so were airborne just shortly after our scheduled departure time.

As soon as we leveled off personal entertainment systems were distributed. While American has built in entertainment systems in business class on the 777, they don’t on the 767. So instead the flight attendants distribute Samsung Galaxy Tabs with Bose Quiet Comfort 15 headphones. It’s a bit of a pain given how clunky the system is, though the entertainment selection is more or less the same as on the 777.

Shortly after that the meal service began. The menu read as follows:

And for my resident sommelier (AUSTEX, I’m looking at you), here’s the wine list:

It’s worth noting that American’s business class meal service on the 767 is substantially better than on the 777. As a matter of fact, the business class meal service on the 767 is closer to the 777 first class meal service than the 777 business class meal service.

Why? Well, apparently it’s because there’s no first class, so it’s “compensation” of sorts. Though I’m not sure that makes any sense, since everyone is only paying for business class. I suspect it also has something to do with the portable entertainment system and narrower seats. Whatever the reason is, I’m not complaining, since the meal service really is quite nice on the 767.

Meal service started with drinks. While they’re only accompanied by warm nuts on the 777, on the 767 they’re served with both warm nuts and marinated cheese.

Warm mixed nuts and marinated cheese antipasto

Service was quick given how empty the cabin was, so within a few minutes tablecloths were distributed.

The first course consisted of shrimp and salmon with a lemon wedge and tartar sauce. It was delicious, and accompanied by the breadbasket, from which I took a sourdough roll.

Smoked salmon and herb marinated shrimp

After that salad was served, which was a generous portion.

Fresh seasonal greens

It’s worth noting that on the 777 the appetizer and salad are served on the same tray, and both are substantially smaller. Furthermore, on the 767 the courses are all plated onboard, while on the 777 they’re pre-plated (so the presentation is usually a bit nicer too, assuming you get a decent crew).

The main course was Caribbean crusted beef. It was delicious, and served with potato wedges with a blue cheese sauce.

Caribbean crusted beef

For dessert I had the ice cream sundae. This crew certainly wasn’t stingy with the toppings (compare that to the 777, where you get a cup of ice cream instead of a sundae).

Ice cream sundae

After dinner water bottles were distributed, and I headed to the lav to get ready for “bed.” I briefly spoke with the crew, and they really were all awesome. We talked about the state of American, and it was refreshing to see their approach – they were pissed about what was going on with the bankruptcy (understandably so), but all agreed that the second they step on the plane they leave those opinions behind, because as they explained, it’s not the passengers that are at fault, and at the end of the day passengers pay their salary. A refreshing attitude…

I managed to get a few hours of sleep and actually skipped the breakfast service. While the seats aren’t especially comfortable for sleeping, American does have pretty good duvets and pillows, which help a bit. Besides, since the flight was so empty I managed to snag some extra pillows and duvets from the seats around me, which helped make the “bed” a bit more comfortable.

I woke up about 30 minutes out as we were beginning our descent. I changed back into my jeans and restowed all my carry-ons in anticipation of landing.

Even though it was still dark outside the views of Barcelona were quite nice, since we came in over the water.

View on approach

View on approach

Approaching the terminal

There were no queues at immigration and Barcelona airport is very easy to navigate, so within 10 minutes of landing we were in a taxi to the Le Meridien.

Terminal

Terminal

On the whole I had one of my best flights on American. The service was phenomenal and the food was very good. While the seat wasn’t especially comfortable compared to the business class products offered by some other airlines, the value can’t be beat when upgrading from coach.