Mileage Runs: What Are They, How Do They Work, And Are They Worth It?

On the blog I often mention mileage runs in passing. In this post, I’d like to write specifically about what mileage runs are, and reflect on how the math on these has changed over the years. Spoiler alert — back in the day mileage running could actually make sense (assuming you enjoy flying), while nowadays it generally doesn’t.

What is a mileage run?

Nope, a mileage run doesn’t involve running. Quite to the contrary, it involves a lot of sitting. Put as simply as possible, a mileage run is when you fly for the sole purposes of accumulating airline miles or airline elite status.

This could come in the form of a year-round hobby, or an end-of-the-year jaunt to qualify for elite status. These are generally quick trips, and in many cases, people who mileage run may fly somewhere without even leaving the airport.

Airline frequent flyer programs are incredibly addictive to many, both when it comes to maximizing your rewards for flying, and when it comes to maximizing your rewards from credit card spending. Mileage runs are an extension of that.

What are the types of mileage runs?

There are different types of mileage runs, so let’s go over each of them. There are mileage runs to earn airline miles, mileage runs to earn airline elite status, and then hybrid mileage run vacations (that last one isn’t a “real” mileage run, though, at least for mileage run purists).

Mileage runs to earn airline elite status

Airline frequent flyer programs can offer lots of valuable elite perks, from complimentary upgrades, to bonus miles, to lounge access. Earning elite status can be a big motivation for people to take a mileage run.

For example, often people may end the year just short of qualifying for the next elite status tier, and they decide that taking a trip is worth it due to all the value they’ll get out of the incremental status. Admittedly some people are much more extreme about this, and may take several mileage runs (or even mileage run from “scratch”) in order to earn a certain elite tier.

Mileage runs to earn airline miles

Other people mileage run in order to earn redeemable airline miles. This is separate from elite status, as airline miles can be redeemed for flights, and often first & business class tickets represent a great deal when redeeming airline miles.

Sometimes the economics work out so that the miles you earn from a trip can be worth more to you than what you’re paying for that ticket. As I’ll explain below, this generally isn’t nearly as lucrative as it used to be, due to how airline frequent flyer programs have changed. Furthermore, airlines often just sell miles at a discount, which is a more practical way to access these redemptions.

Hybrid mileage run vacations

There’s a third category of mileage runs, which probably holds the most general appeal nowadays, and which is easiest to justify. Think of it as being half mileage run, half vacation. For example, the trip can be worth it for a combination of the elite status and airline miles you earn, but you also found a great fare to a destination you really want to visit.

Rather than just flying straight there and back and not seeing anything, you could turn it into a long weekend trip, and visit a destination that has been on your bucket list for a while.

The economics of mileage runs have changed

The economics of mileage running have changed significantly in the past decade, due to how airlines have changed their frequent flyer programs. Broadly speaking:

• Back in the day airlines awarded miles based on the distance you flew, rather than based on how much you spent
• Many airlines have introduced a revenue requirement for earning elite status, or award elite status based on how much you spend, making it harder to qualify for status with cheap tickets
• Airlines have watered down elite status perks, making it less worthwhile to earn elite status through mileage running; for example, upgrades are much harder to come by than they used to be
• Airlines have largely devalued miles, meaning that you need to redeem more miles for first & business class award tickets

Let me give an example of mileage running on American Airlines nowadays vs. a decade ago, with the goal of earning American Airlines’ top-tier Executive Platinum status.

Back in the day, earning Executive Platinum status simply required earning 100,000 elite qualifying miles in a year. To keep the example as simple as possible, let’s say you could find a $500 roundtrip ticket from New York to Hong Kong (which was surprisingly common back then), covering a distance of 20,000 flown miles.

Back then:

• You could fly this ticket five times, and earn 100,000 elite miles, earning you Executive Platinum status
• That Executive Platinum status would have earned you eight systemwide upgrades, each good for an upgrade on a long haul flight
• When it comes to redeemable miles, American awarded one mile for every mile flown, and Executive Platinum members received a 100% mileage bonus, meaning you would have earned 200,000 AAdvantage miles (give or take)
• American AAdvantage charged 67,500 miles for one-way first class award tickets between the United States and Asia, so not only would you have earned Executive Platinum status, but you would have had enough miles to book three Cathay Pacific first class one-way tickets

$2,500 for Executive Platinum status, eight systemwide upgrades, and three one-way Cathay Pacific first class award tickets? Assuming you enjoy flying, and you’re not putting an opportunity cost to your time, that’s a heck of a deal.

Now let’s compare that to the reality nowadays. American now uses the Loyalty Points system for earning elite status. It doesn’t matter how much you fly in terms of segments or miles (or if you fly at all), but rather all that matters is how many Loyalty Points you earn. Many types of miles earned with AAdvantage qualify as Loyalty Points, including credit card spending.

Executive Platinum status requires 200,000 Loyalty Points:

• Executive Platinum members earn 11x AAdvantage miles per dollar spent, so you’d have to spend over $18,000 on flights to earn Executive Platinum status (all those miles count as Loyalty Points)
• You no longer automatically receive systemwide upgrades for earning Executive Platinum status, but rather you can select them through the Loyalty Point Rewards program; you can select two at 175,000 points, and two at 250,000 points
• When it comes to earning redeemable miles, American now awards miles based on dollars spent rather than distance flown, and even if you were an Executive Platinum member, you’d earn at most 11x miles per dollar spent; while you previously would have earned 200,000 AAdvantage miles for these tickets, you’d now earn at most 27,500 AAdvantage miles (accounting for your $2,500 worth of spending)
• Oh, and the value of your miles has gone way down as well; that Cathay Pacific one-way award that used to cost 67,500 miles now costs 110,000 miles, and never mind that it’s virtually never available through partner programs anymore

Are mileage runs still worth it?

Nowadays I’d say mileage runs are really only worthwhile at the margins:

• If you want to earn redeemable miles to redeem for first & business class travel, many airline frequent flyer programs sell miles at attractive costs
• If you’re trying to earn elite status there could be value in mileage running if you’re close (maybe taking a trip or two at the end of the year), but if you’re starting from scratch, the revenue requirement with many programs nowadays limits the usefulness of it

Nowadays the more useful version of mileage running is just credit card spending, for programs that let you earn status through credit cards (which includes most major US frequent flyer programs nowadays, like American AAdvantage and Delta SkyMiles). That being said, I’d recommend being strategic, since you want to factor in the opportunity cost of spending on a particular card, and really consider the value of the perks that you earn.

I think one cool twist on the traditional mileage run is that some programs nowadays count award flights toward elite status.

For example, among lucrative frequent flyer programs, I think Alaska Atmos Rewards stands out for having this benefit, since all partner redemptions count toward status. This presents a pretty cool opportunity to essentially redeem your way toward elite status, including for oneworld Sapphire and oneworld Emerald status, while supplementing it with credit card spending.

Bottom line

Mileage running is flying for the sole purpose of earning airline miles or airline elite status. Back in the day this was a practice that many people in our community took advantage of, given how airline frequent flyer programs were structured.

Nowadays the economics just don’t work out as well as they used to — airlines have largely devalued frequent flyer elite perks and mileage redemptions, and if you want to earn miles, you can often buy miles directly from airlines at an attractive rate.

At the margins there are still situations where it could make sense, but that’s about it, if you ask me. Nowadays the most common type of mileage run is just swiping your credit card.

Have you ever taken a mileage run? Does anyone think the economics of mileage running still make sense beyond an end of the year mileage run?