Have you taken an extra trip - just to reach status on airline

Sure. It's called a mileage run. A lot of people do them. I usually have to do one quick jaunt a year to boost me over the amount to qualify. The mileage bonuses, the early boarding, and the ability to preselect exit-row seats are worth it to me.

I can't speak for how Delta works, since I fly with American. With AAdvantage, only miles that you actually fly qualify you for elite status. (Everyone calls them "BIS" or "butt in seat" miles.) You can redeem miles you get from credit card purchases or hotel stays or car rentals or whatever, but none of those count toward your elite qualifying miles. Hence, the mileage run. Again, I don't know how Delta works.

Only you can answer if it's what you want/need to do.

I think what you're planning to do sounds reasonable. Just beware that once you've reached elite status, it can be addicting and you'll find yourself doing more MRs in the future!

For mileage run info, check out flyertalk's mileage run forum.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals-372/

Sure - usually do one or more each year. This year I was planning on living on my status, burning off some miles, then do a bit more flying next year. However AA (my FF plan) offered double elite qualifying miles (everyone did) and I looked at my plans for the year, and did three MRs early this year - Japan, Germany and Mexico the long way - and requalified easily.

Combine your mileage run with seeing some friends or relatives and make it a twofer.

Is your husband the primary cardholder on the Reserve card? Have you ever been the primary cardholder of a Delta Amex Platinum or Reserve card? If not, I think there's still enough time to get the MQM sign up bonus posted this year (5000 for Plat or 10000 for Reserve). I would just get the Plat since there's a big annual fee difference between the 2.

I'll be spending two hours in Denver in two weeks, only at DEN, just to keep from losing status.

A few years ago I was in danger of losing my tier status on British Airways. I just needed about 20-30 more tier points and had no travel planned before my card expired. I booked a flight from Portland OR, where I live, to San Jose CA, in an eligible fare class on American. Down in the morning, spent a few hours, then back in the afternoon. Cost about $200, worth every penny to preserve such benefits as access to all One World lounges, 50% mileage bonuses, preferred check-in and fast track through security (esp. at Heathrow!), etc.

YK is correct - elite status is addictive, though!

yes, one year I was so close to requalifying, I didn't want to give up my elite status. I booked a one week trip, took sometime off, and requalified for elite status. The perks are nice and like yk said, this can be addictive. Check fare sales to various destinations that will earn you 2200 miles, and go for it.

I use to do mileage runs all the time to get the Executive Platinum status with AA/OneWorld. I was always about 10-20K miles short of the 100K BIS miles required for the top status so I did mileage runs to UK or Japan just for short weekends. Finally crossed 2M BIS miles about a year or so ago, which gives me Platinum status with AA/OneWorld for the life of the program. I got married, stopped flying for business, but I still enjoy the perks of mid class status every time we fly for vacation, so now I don't do mileage runs anymore. I'm very comfy with just Platinum status. All the perks and no more sitting on planes and sleeping in hotels 6 months out of the year...:

Have never done a MR until this year. I was so close to making 1K with UA that I made an extra ORD-BKK-ORD trip just a couple of weeks ago. Now I'm 1K! Double EQM's will end up giving me almost 150k this year.

YK... I think you are probably right. I'll enjoy all those benefits and it will be hard to give up.

Carol

I did a mileage run to maintain my Platinum status on American last year.

Well I wish I were closer to real elite benefits - but if I can just get to SM that would be good. I think the easiest plan will be a run to Las Vegas or Denver with 2 hours in the airport and back again but the idea of seeing friends is making me think about going all the way to the west coast even though that is further and more time. We'll see. Thanks for thoughts.

"... all the way to the west coast even though that is further ..."

Huh? Further is a GOOD thing - more miles.

In February each of the last two years I have taken weekend trips from LAX to Mexico City. Not a true mileage run because I stayed and did some sightseeing. But it is 8,304 miles roundtrip - connecting at IAD both ways - over 5,000 miles farther than nonstops.

And there's rollover this year so any MQMs you earn beyond 25000 will give you a head start in 2010.

Further is a good thing for more miles, but the OP references being home with kids...so I'm guessing that she also needs to do the mileage run in the shortest amount time possible (I can relate).

I just added one more trip to Phoenix during the UA double EQM promotion period. I have to go every couple of months anyway for family reasons (so not a true mileage run), but I decided to move this trip up a month to get to 125k EQMs this year--that will get me two additional systemwide upgrades and 5k bonus EQMs for 2010. Instead of going non-stop, I'll go via San Francisco for about 4k extra EQMs.

I sort of did a mileage run this year...an expensive one...

I needed one more trip to the US (from Australia) to make my 50K for the year to keep my UA PE status. I booked far enough in advance that I got a pretty good fare on UA which I was able to upgrade to Business Class using miles, and also earned DEQM for the flights. I was briefly tempted to use a cheaper, non Star Alliance carrier to get from Perth to Singapore to connect with my UA flights, but I needed every last mile (or so I thought), so I bit the bullet and went with Singapore Airlines.

Ended up with 65+K miles for the year.

I'd been considering a trip home to see family anyway, so needing the miles gave me the incentive to go and it worked out really well.

Good point about how anything extra can start on next year. Maybe a trip to Rome instead? Just kidding. Flight costs took a jump before I actually executed. So I am still noodling my plan. But it is looking more likely to go to India next year so the status would make it a bit easier and a good mileage bonus.

I have barely achieved UA premier status for the past few years and enjoyed the benefits. With the DEQM promotions, I easily qualified for premier again for next year. The DEQM promotions have seemed to lessen the value of the status though since many more people have qualified (myself included.) On a recent SFO-BOS flight there were over 40 premiers on an A320 and I was number 21 out of 32 people trying to upgrade.

I am actually planning a mileage run to get to the next tier. One strategy is to check out routes flown by low cost carriers and check fares on the same routes for your carrier. In addition to generally lower fares, low cost carriers may not have minimum stay requirements. Other carriers in the same market will usually do the same.

I am planning a SFO-ORD-RIC roundtrip that leaves at 6:00 am and gets me back in SFO around 10:30 pm the same day. This trip cost $260/rt and I am fairly sure it is because Jetblue is in this market too.

Also, I am fairly sure I won't miss my RIC-ORD flight if my ORD-RIC flight is delayed since I think it is the same aircraft (judging from UA's schedule.)

There's a lot of speculation going on in the AA forum at Fleyrtalk on whether or not the EQM promotions this year will dilute the value of airlines' elite status. Tnere are those who say, no it won't. It isn't like all of a sudden -- using AA's levels -- all the non-status FF members will become Golds, all the Golds will become Plats, and all the Plats will become ExPlats. The economy has curtailed business travel this year, and I was just reading today that fewer people are expected to travel by air over Thanksgiving this year than last.

I don't know. Maybe these promotions will bring numbers of elites back up to to past normals. It's hard to say. Only the number crunchers at the various airlines know for sure.

So much for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, huh?

I'm now making a "true" milesage run, ORD-TPA-ORD with a one night stopover. I'll be over 150,000 with this flight!

(Anthony, as long as the planes are flying, and they are not at full capacity, why not ride?)

AnthonyGA's point is valid to a degree. There's a lot of debate as to how much this sort of voluntary flying adds to one's carbon footprint; it turns out that by most measurements (passenger-mile, ton-mile etc.) commercial air travel is among the least-polluting transport sources, with e.g. cruise ships and cargo ships being among the worst.

To their credit, a number of airlines now offer carbon-offset payment options at the time of booking, something which I've yet to see available at most gas stations, bus terminals or train stations. Assuming they've used okay science, the payments aren't too high, considering.

Every additional passenger on an airplane increases the amount of fuel it burns, so even if the airplane is already flying, if you join the flight, more fuel is burn, and more pollution is produced.

It is true that airlines contribute far less to pollution than most people seem to think, but the fact remains that flying unnecessarily conflicts rather blatantly with any stated purpose of reducing pollution.

Most air travel is unnecessary, anyway. Tourists obviously don't need to fly, since they don't need to take trips and could take trips by other means. Businesspeople don't really need to fly, either, since meetings and virtually all other business can be held electronically today. But it is clear that many businesspeople fly more than they have to just to pick up frequent flyer miles.

It's interesting how people never apply the same standards to themselves that they insist on applying to others.

And it's interesting that people have such strong opinions on things they plainly know little about.

Can I recommend we take this subject up in the Lounge?