Mileage Running across the US and back and back and back and... Part II
As I discussed in my last post, the mid 2010s was a crazy time for the miles world. Churning was alive and well but mileage runs were very healthy still. Not only could you take a Business Class trip to Panama for pennies on the dollar, but you could do similar trips to Puerto Rico.
That said, change was in the air. In 2016, they started making changes so that points earning would be based on dollars spent, not on miles flown. This was greatly disruptive to the mileage running crew since you were no longer able to purchase insanely cheap flights on routes that airlines were pushing to get incredible amounts of points.
Buuuuuut. You could actually still do this if you did this on specific routes through a little known deal with American Airlines vacations. These would bundle hotels together with airfare and still count for miles flown vs dollars spent!
So basically, I'm saying I was forced to do this.
On my last post, I talked about flying AA's special three-class narrowbody from LAX to JFK and then their first class international flavor from JFK to MIA and onwards to Panama. At the time, Domestic First class was kind of fuzzy and you could generally pick International First Class seats on that itinerary.
This time it was a little different with going from LAX to MIA on American Airline's in the international business class cabin and then onwards from MIA to San Juan, Puerto Rico in domestic first class. Tragic. But because I always have to be special, I did this twice. In a row.
I generated this map to help people understand what I was doing, if not why.
I guess I figured my last 31 hour mileage run could only be improved by doing it twice! At the end of a five day mileage run with 42 hours of flying I'm not sure I'd do it again, but it was definitely an experience!
I won't pretend that I had a deep and meaningful connection with Puerto Rico, I basically just stayed at a hotel for a single night (one of the trips to Puerto Rico was delayed and I ended up having to overnight in Miami instead) but got to spend some time on the beach, a little time at some world class lounges, and piled on extra points from the AA Platinum status from my last run.
Kicking back in the AA lounge in LAX. In 2017, the AA flagship lounge was closed in T4 and they used the OneWorld Business lounge in TBIT instead. Swank.
Some business class food. I'll be honest, I was a bad person and didn't get every meal. I was kind of in a mood after my first misconnect in Miami and was kind of thrown off.
All in all, it was a great trip, a great way to make ~41k miles and a great way to see part of the United States that I hadn't gotten to yet!
