Results and what points did I earn from my 250 Delta SkyMile PWM MQM 1st class run.

• #iHateTheWait is just as bad at American Airlines Terminal 3 at ORD O’Hare airport!
• Review: American Airlines Admirals Club Chicago O’hare ORD T3 near G gates
• Connecting to Delta at Toronto YYZ & I got the dreaded SSSS on my boarding pass!
• Review: American Airlines Admirals Club YYZ post US immigration Terminal 3
• Results and what points did I earn from my 250 Delta SkyMile PWM MQM 1st class run.

This was an interesting run I have to say. There are few times I have collected MQMs for such a great price. But was it really such a great deal, that is, would I do it again? After all, I do not live in Toronto and I was ending up in Chicago and I don’t live there either. Plus, there were all the other costs like:

1. Gas & tolls to/from Chicago about $30
2. Hotel points I had to burn for a free night
3. Avios point to fly from Chicago to Toronto

Now true, out of pocket my costs were minimal. I got the hotel points from credit card bonus deals as well as the British Air Avios points from a Chase BANK card. The hotel was cheap on points as well as the AA short flight ORD-YYZ (a great use for Avios btw).

Since I value my SkyMiles personally at 1.5-2 cents each, and it cost me 250 of them to fly 1st class, my max “cost” was $5 bucks to pick up 2018 MQMs or elite qualifying points. That works out to a ridiculously low 0.0024 CPM or cents per mile. And I got to fly it all in 1st class. Even if I add back in the cost for my gas and tolls I am sill well under 2 CPM and that is still just an amazing price.

I was not surprised to earn ZERO SkyMiles for this “sale” ticket since others had reported the same. In my past testing of PWM or Pay With Miles tickets I had earned full SkyMiles as well as SPG Crossover Rewards and Skybonus points. Not so much with these tickets.

Well, I would have earned Skybonus points it seems had they not kicked out small business owners like me at the end of last year. Other folks have reported earning SPG points for these tickets so maybe they will come in one day but not as of today’s post.

This run almost worked out to be a home run as I was very close to a bumpertunity on both of the legs. Clearly one bump and the entire run would have meant I came out way ahead. I have one more of these so maybe next time.

Either way it was a “fun run” as so many of them are, that is, you are just flying to fly. It was scary to see SSSS on my boarding pass but the second of these runs I took (I booked three) did not result in the evil 4s on my boarding pass so it must have been random as other readers have reported. Let me tell you, it did get my full attention and not in a good way. If this had stuck to my profile I would never have booked this at any price.

It was fun to fly AA even if only on regional jets. I spend so much time in Sky Clubs that I think this is how it should be. Seeing the AA side of things was really interesting. I have learned I do not like the AA app and really respect the Fly Delta app. It gives me so much more info I need. However the AA folks were just tops and I felt just as welcomed as I do flying Delta if not even a bit more so and keep in mind I was on a super cheap partner issued award ticket. Impressive.

Overall I am happy I booked these runs. I will net out just over 6,000 MQMs and get a little closer to my goal this year of again rolling over Diamond status into 2017 (that is once I complete my $25,000 MQD exempt AMEX spending again in January). – René