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long haul flight just to get star alliance gold status

post #1 of 8
11/10/11 at 12:59pm
Thread Starter 
has anybody here ever booked an end-of-year long-haul flight just to avoid missing out on star alliance gold? i'm seriously thinking of booking a day-trip to singapore or something in december (and by day i mean probably around 3 days in all), but i can't shake the feeling that this is an outrageous thing to do.
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post #2 of 8
11/10/11 at 3:54pm
Never done this myself, but you may want to browse FlyerTalk. I remember seeing discussions built around this idea of mileage runs, so it's not outrageous to a certain segment.
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post #3 of 8
11/10/11 at 11:54pm
Thread Starter 
ah, thanks for the tip - i like the term "mileage run", it kind of implies a physical activity.
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post #4 of 8
11/11/11 at 12:21am
Advantages offered by airlines suck, I have no idea why you'd do that. Star alliance and flying blue are a bunch of fucking cocksuckers. Oh and you can't even chew gum in Singapore without getting arrested and it's super rainy right now (I am currently in asia)
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post #5 of 8
11/11/11 at 5:33am
Thread Starter 
so as it turns out there is a forum for everything, and mileage run is a real thing.

star alliance gold status gets me 1st class check-in, 3 free checked bags, and lounge access (senator, here in germany) while flying economy.

to me that is worth a lot. even in purely monetary terms, i probably save about 15 - 30 euros in drinks, food and publications every time i'm in an airport, about 100 euros once every 3 or four times i fly on the baggage allowance, and 150-250 when i fly with a bike or snowboard, and a couple hours in waiting to check bags every trip.

i've also been upgraded a fair amount, and the premium-economy seating is also worth something.
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post #6 of 8
11/13/11 at 5:41am
It depends on whether you pay for those yourself. If I didn't make any status, I would have expensed all of it. I did and the only thing is fewer things for my company to pay when I do work trips.

Most of the blokes on Flyertalk, frankly, seem to be doing it just so they get upgrades and all sorts of other things that they can use next year, but you have to spend money to take advantage of those (i.e. go on a flight with available upgrade slots and be willing to move your itinerary around for that) so that offsets your lounge access/papers/alcohol/complimentary shoe shine/whatever perks you get.
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post #7 of 8
11/13/11 at 8:09am
Know someone who has flown Chicago to Thailand to make sure he meets the requirements for whatever their status plans are. He doesn't leave the Thailand airport. Just books the next return flight and turns around and flies back. He's done this 4 years in a row.

I reached 2 million miles with AA two years ago and have Platinum for life status, won't have to qualify again. Avoiding lines, no hassle with baggage as they mark the bags to be taken off the plane first before other luggage and priority on standby status are the best perks for me. I am usually at the top of the list when I need to standby for a flight.
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post #8 of 8
11/13/11 at 9:26am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Despos View Post

Know someone who has flown Chicago to Thailand to make sure he meets the requirements for whatever their status plans are. He doesn't leave the Thailand airport. Just books the next return flight and turns around and flies back. He's done this 4 years in a row.
I reached 2 million miles with AA two years ago and have Platinum for life status, won't have to qualify again. Avoiding lines, no hassle with baggage as they mark the bags to be taken off the plane first before other luggage and priority on standby status are the best perks for me. I am usually at the top of the list when I need to standby for a flight.

wow. well this is exactly what i was thinking of doing. i somewhat recently moved from a job at a private sector firm in which money was more or less no object regarding travel to one at a non-profit organization at which every dollar spent on travel is one that cannot be spent on our objectives. i still have to travel quite a lot, but i cut as many corners as possible - which means business class is out. thus the benefits are that much greater.

that is quite impressive with the 2 million lifetime. i am at 650K or so lifetime at UA, and was wondering why it hadn't changed all that much for the past couple years whlie i was racking up some pretty good mileage before realizing it only counts when i fly on UA and not other star alliance partners, which is terrible because only about a quarter of my miles come from flights to or from the US.
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