Wired article: Mileage Runners

[gmark2000]

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2007/07/mileage_runner?currentPage=all

http://www.wired.com/images/article/wide/2007/07/us_map2.jpg

Mileage runners are the high-tech nomadic wanderers of the air. Predominantly male, generally obsessed with flying and miles, and typically employed in white-collar careers that involve significant business travel, they scour the web for cheap flights, phoning in sick or using vacation days to fly the longest itineraries they can string together.

Anyone doing this? Maybe HighFlyer?

Seems a person needs lots of time and a flexible schedule to maintain status.

[IceQue]

check www.flyertalk.com in the mileage run section.

[Aristophanes]

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2007/07/mileage_runner?currentPage=all

...Predominantly male, generally obsessed with flying and miles, and typically employed in white-collar careers that involve significant business travel...

Seems a person needs lots of time and a flexible schedule to maintain status.

Not if you're traveling on your company's dime and time. ;) My boss, who's a product manager at a big pharmaceutical company, travels extensively and earns Aeroplan points for herself. In the past 3 weeks, she's been to: Basel, CH; Frankfurt, DE; London, UK; and Salt Lake City, Utah; Calgary; and Halifax.

All business class. If only she's take me with her... :cry:

But anyway, wonder if this is Mileage running is possible to do in Canada?

[HighFlyer]

Mileage runners are the high-tech nomadic wanderers of the air. Predominantly male,
check :cheesygri


generally obsessed with flying and miles,
yes

and typically employed in white-collar careers that involve significant business travel,
yes

they scour the web for cheap flights,
all the time :cheesygri

phoning in sick
ok... that I don't do.

or using vacation days to fly the longest itineraries they can string together.
uh huh


Seems a person needs lots of time and a flexible schedule to maintain status.
and a very understanding gf ;)

[HighFlyer]

But anyway, wonder if this is Mileage running is possible to do in Canada?
Unless there is a fare error/glitch, the high cost of taxes/fees make this 'hobby' very cost prohibitive in Canada.

[cannon_fodder]

Are there any travel agents in Canada (especially in the GTA) that 'specialize' in this?

My new job requires me to travel internationally and if I play this right, I might be able to get to Super Elite based on what I read at some of the websites. However, it looks like it takes quite a bit of work and I often don't have a lot of notice when I'll need to take off.

As long as it doesn't cost the company any more money to take a convoluted flight path than it would if I just flew straight to my destination, I have no problem with this ethically.

[trucanuck]

http://gcmr2005.blogspot.com/

[nalababe]

In the old days before 9/11, I would often make a connection or two to increase the number of miles/segements. If I was returning home at 10 am vs 5pm, there was no difference to my SO.

You don't have to make this cost any more, try booking a Toronto Winnipeg flight, there are times that a connection through Vancouver will cost less than a direct flight....The miles will easily be double. You can easily with some additional knowledge, this can be expanded even more.


I was elite for many a year and finally burning through points, went to a 3 week vacation in Australia where all flights (9) and hotels (21 nights) were points...

...don't do this much anymore...after a while, it can get tiring. Also, in those days, the planes were less booked and there were less restrictions on acquiring points.

[nalababe]

Are there any travel agents in Canada (especially in the GTA) that 'specialize' in this?

My new job requires me to travel internationally and if I play this right, I might be able to get to Super Elite based on what I read at some of the websites. However, it looks like it takes quite a bit of work and I often don't have a lot of notice when I'll need to take off.

As long as it doesn't cost the company any more money to take a convoluted flight path than it would if I just flew straight to my destination, I have no problem with this ethically.

Any agent will be able to help with connecting flights, open Jaws etc....

[HighFlyer]

In the old days before 9/11, I would often make a connection or two to increase the number of miles/segements. If I was returning home at 10 am vs 5pm, there was no difference to my SO.

You don't have to make this cost any more, try booking a Toronto Winnipeg flight, there are times that a connection through Vancouver will cost less than a direct flight....The miles will easily be double. You can easily with some additional knowledge, this can be expanded even more.

This is pretty much it. I used to have to fly to YVR and SEA on a regular basis and flights were actually cheaper flying to HNL while stopping at YVR. Now I'm pretty much sick of all the hassles associated with clearing TSA, CATSA, CBSA or whatnot that I've chosen to fly direct and forget about miles and status.

Years and years of business travel will eventually wear you out.

[dark169]

the company I work for has an American Express travel agent that will route flights like this if you ask as long as it doesnt cost anymore (most times it doesnt) When I fly from YYC to the east coast of the US I can go through Denver rather then O'hare for the same price it adds ~500-1000 miles a trip, I've even done SFO or LAX to the east, if I'm spending the whole day travling it doesnt matter if I spend my day sitting in a plane or in an airport / hotel.

Most agent would be able to do this for you. Sadly I was holding out for 1 more company paid trip in Dec that didn't happen so I missed out on moving up a level :cry: This year I'll take a couple extra trips via denver rather then chicago to increase the milage so it doesnt happen next year.

Head over to Flyertalk and into the milage run secton read the stickies and the tools, you can book most millage runs yourself.

[cannon_fodder]

Thanks for all of the comments. When I look at Flyertalk I'm not sure how they find some of those runs - do they use the ITA website to discover them or do they have agents that they work with who look out for stuff like this (e.g. instead of going from A to B, they go from A to C to D to E to B and return through that path yet it costs half of the direct flight)?

Almost all of my flying will be long trips (Toronto to Europe, Brazil or Asia). While I would think that would provide opportunity to take a side trip, I found it interesting that buying the Air Canada flight pass and racking up miles taking the shortest flights might be the easiest on the body - but only if you have the personal time to do it!