Monday, March 7, 2016 by John @laptoptravel
The only dates that work for Los Angeles to Miami are the following:
- March 12
- March 19
- March 26
- May 3rd
- May 10th
Well, we are seeing a lot of selective fare attacks which began last week and I am hopeful will continue through this week. This one is a great opportunity to fly across the country and still be eligible for a complimentary upgrade (they still do that, right?) at least it is not a JFK to/from San Francisco or Los Angeles DeltaONE where those upgrades cost you some type of instrument (GUC’s, RUC’s or miles-with certain fare classes).
Nope this is a great little run that works in both directions! Miami to Los Angeles via Atlanta in one direction or Los Angeles to Miami, also via a single Atlanta connection.
Typically, this fare will run you between $250 and $450, but for a little less than $190 it is a good fare and a Mileage Run opportunity. You might even get lucky and get a bumpertunity with an Atlanta connection!
Either way, the best you can do is 4,883 MQM’s at about 3.9 CPM. The layover on my sample flight is a little over three hours. Of course, you can also make that date into an overnight stay.
There are also routings that will only give you 4,684 Medallion Qualification Miles (MQM’s) (those are non-stop flights) so check the connections. If you could fine two of these back-to-back at $189 each you could use FlexPerks and book the pair for only 20,000 points! Now that would be a sweet deal!
Let me caution anyone thinking they might get upgraded to First Class on these flights. It is probably not going to happen flying into and out of Atlanta.
One of my greatest discomforts is when I fly a mileage run through a Delta hub which is heavy-Medallion territory and your chances of getting a complimentary upgrade is minimal. That is why this run as a simple overnight is tolerable and a good value for a little less than $190.
Anyway here are the numbers:
The Details:
MQM’s: 4,883 Medallion Qualification Miles (MQM’s)
Fare: $189
Cost: 3.9 Cents Per Mile (CPM)
Please login to your Delta account before you click on the booking link below:
This link books through Delta.com – DIRECT BOOKING LINK
Both fares are eligible for Pay With Miles, if you want to “buy down” the fare. You will still get the MQM’s, but you are reducing your redeemable miles as they are tied to the base fare PAID.
I like this trip since it is still before Delta’s change on Comfort+ booking policies. That happens for travel on or after May 16th, 2016. There are many Comfort+ seats still available for your selection on these four segments. Thank you for visiting and following us, hopefully throughout 2016 here at Renes Points and Elite Mileage Runs
Best Wishes and Happy Travels. Enjoy your travels! – John @laptoptravel
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Interesting.
So what is your take on using 15,000 miles to pay with points and $39 in cash? Is 15k miles worth 4883 mqms?.
I also looked on Amex travel, and for $189.10 or 18,910 Amex points you can a return flight that changes in ATL, so this may increase the MQMs. DL does not show this on their site.
Gregg
@Gregg – If you value MQMs I feel a good trade. Careful with AMEX TRAVEL. A few times have coded wrong for flyers and got zero or less points.
One more thing on May 10th you can get the same $189.10 with a return flight changing in DTW, this increases the MQMs to 5467 or 3.45cpm.
When I price this LAX-ATL-MIA-LAX I get the right price ($190), but it’s showing the MIA-LAX as not upgrade eligible. Is that a glitch, or is that right?
@Garrett – Glitch. Ignore. Now getting the UGs, well, that is another story 😉
haha…right. Just wanted to fool around with it. No more mileage running for this guy. I’ll leave my status as gold…if I can keep it at platinum great.