Time for a Mid-Year Check on Your Mileage Flight Plan

It’s that time of year to check your miles and see if you are on track to make your desired status goal.  Every January I make what I call a “Flight Plan” to figure out about where I should end up by the end of the year.  I put down all of the trips I expect to take and estimate the number of miles for each trip.  The total then tells me the approximate status I should achieve on each airline that I am accumulating miles on.  For me, I had planned to make 1 K on United (100,000 miles)  and MVP Gold on Alaska (40,000 pure AS or 50,000 with partners).

Now  that the year is half over, it is time to assess where I stand and if I can really make my  goal or I should realistically shift to another target.  Today I stand at 50,142 on United with a 1,745 mile LAX-ORD trip yet to post.  On Alaska, I am worse off with 18,644 pure Alaska miles.  On the surface, it would appear that I am about 50% to my goal and 50% done with the year, so I should be good.  The issue is that I look at my flight plan for the remainder of the year and am only projecting that I will reach 76,652 on United and 32,878 on Alaska.    Hmm, so what to do?

First on UA, getting 24,000 miles is possible, but that is likely 2+ mileage runs.  If I could do these mileage runs at 4 CPM, that would mean about a $960 expenditure.  So I can settle for Platinum and not spend any more money or go for 1K if I am willing to pay $960.  Let’s compare the benefits:  Platinum gets me 2 Regional Premier Upgrades (RPU) and complimentary upgrades on most flights after GS and 1Ks.  1K gets me a total of four RPUs and six Global Premier Upgrades (GPU); additionally I get complimentary upgrades only behind GS’.  I have to admit, that I mainly do all of this for the upgrades, so yeah I probably will look for good mileage runs and hope for an unexpected work trip to make 1K again.

For Alaska, the decision is a little easier.  Only being about 7,000 miles short, I should have only a single mileage run to make.  Although I get less benefits, I get one very important one – free tickets changes.  This allows me to grab good fares and change without penalty if something comes up or I find something better.  They are the only airline with this benefit and as you all probably know, the other major airlines have increased thier change fees to $200.

I know this post doesn’t reveal a lot of secrets, but I think the process will make you a more efficient frequent flyer.  Look at your own plan and make one if you do not have one yet.  This will be a much better process than winging it.  You will find it is very hard to get a good mileage run in the last six weeks of the year.  One tip that I can offer is that if you get stuck in this high cost period and need miles, look at the week right after Thanksgiving.  This is usually a brief lull period and you will get a better fare than weeks with a holiday in them.  Good luck with your plans!