Miles Run for legroom & power outlets

Only 6,000 miles to obtain
Elite Gold status and all of its benefits
for a year and a half? Yes, please.

What's worse than traveling in an airline seat for 9 hours over an ocean? Easy--being stuck in that seat with only 31 inches of seat pitch and having your entertainment device run out of power.

The fear of aching knees and mind-numbing boredom, combined with a perfectly timed airline promotion, was the inspiration for my first "mileage run"--a trip taken solely to gain frequent-flyer miles, points, or status.


Lucky for me, someone in the American Airlines marketing department had a brain fart. On August 14th, American announced a limited time "fast track" promotion in which one could gain elite status by flying a fraction of the normally required mileage. As a travel junkie and AAdvantage member who visits travel deal website regularly (OK, OK...every day, several times a day), I saw the promotion and signed up for it. At the time, I had no idea that the promotion would be promptly pulled later that day after an uproar from existing elite status members.

Back in July, I booked a trip to Europe & North Africa using my American Airline miles. It was a phenomenal deal--120 bucks for transatlantic travel for two. But I learned from my 2009 trip to Southeast Asia that legroom is crucial during long international flights, and that being nice and explaining how tall I am is no guarantee of a free upgrade to a better seat (I went 2 for 3 on that trip, but the Hong Kong to SFO nonstop return--all 14 and a half hours of it--was spent in regular coach.)

With this in mind, I did the math; American wanted $118 per segment to upgrade me to Main Cabin Extra seats (which provide an extra 4 to 6 inches of legroom over the standard 31 inches) and power outlets between each seat--a total of $472. However, if I could rack up 6,000 miles on American before my trip, the fast track promotion would provide me with free seat upgrades via Elite Gold status.

After scouring the web for flight paths that were long and cheap, I managed to find a trip for less than $340: San Jose to Dallas to Boston, returning through Dallas to San Francisco for a total of  6,026 miles (direct flights and trips through Chicago were too short to hit my 6,000 mile requirement).

I took the trip this past weekend. Eight hours of boredom in Logan Airport not withstanding, the trip was totally worth it; doing so netted me a 30% discount on seat upgrades, plus I get to take advantage (no pun intended) of the Elite Gold benefits through February 2015. Now it's time to book a winter trip to Central or South America...