United Great Offer mileage runs
 

I took my second mileage run last weekend (Jun 18-19). I think that it might not be a "pure" mileage run as defined by the experts. I learned about mileage runs here from AAFF and where to get more info from rkkwan.

United had a targeted "Great Offer" with multiple parts. In the first part, if you fax in a copy of your FF program statements from competitor airlines then United would give you 2000 Elite Qualifying miles for each of up to 3 statements. Unlike last year, they required flight activity on the statement and it couldn't be other Star Alliance airlines. Problem was that I have flown only on United or *A for over year.

I bought three tickets: IAD-PIT on Independence, PIT-MDW on Southwest, and MDW-ATL-IAD on AirTran. Took the trip on May 7 and faxed the statements about a week later. Have received 4000 of the expected 6000 EQMs. I faxed the AirTran statement again since that is the one they haven't posted yet. The ticket prices were, approx: $60, $65, and $70, so it was not cheap.

The second part of the offer was 2000 award redeemable miles and 2000 EQMs for each segment flown between mid-April and mid-July over the 4 segments I flew during that period last year. Other people got the same offer but their's may have required more or less segments and/or give more/less miles. As luck would have it I had booked a 4-segment trip to Japan in May before the offer came out.

As recommended on this forum, I used flyertalk.com, itasoftware.com, and travelocity.com.

At flyertalk, I got specific info about how to request multi-segment flights, in Q and V fare classes, on the same airline using itasoftware. On a previous visit to ft I learned how to set up the united.com search so that it returns the number of seats available in each fare class for particular flights (thought I didn't quite figure out how to best use that info).

At travelocity, using the "Request Fare Information" feature, I searched for UA fares to about 10 destinations over a couple weekends departing from IAD, DCA, and BWI (not all combinations of destination, date, airport, but lots). Found good, low, Q and V fares to a few cities.

At itasoftware.com I searched for roundtrips consisting of six segments. I compared the fares shown there with what was showing up at united.com.

Finally settled on going to Detroit because the fare I got at united.com was close to the fare shown at itasoftware. I selected the exact same flights on united.com that were shown at itasoftware but the fare that I got at united was about $50 higher. To get the lowest fare, I think I was supposed to call an agent and give them the specific info from itasoftware. But calling would have cost $15, would not have earned the 1000 mile online bonus, and the gratification would not have been as immediate.

Ticket cost was $269.20. Outbound was VR7NX and inbound QR7NX fare codes, each of which may or may not have matched up with what itasoftware showed.

IAD-CMH, 299 miles, Embraer ERJ-145
CMH-ORD, 296 miles, Embraer 170
ORD-DTW, 235 miles, Airbus A320
DTW-ORD, 235 miles, Boeing 737-300
ORD-BUF, 473 miles, Boeing 757-200
BUF-IAD, 284 miles, Embraer ERJ-145

The actual flight miles totaled 1822.

Each of the six segments earned:
500 redeemable miles (the UA minimum)
500 elite bonus miles (MP Exec)
2000 great offer bonus miles
----
3000 redeemable miles

With the 1000 mile online bonus the trip earned 19,000 redeemable miles.

More importantly, and the whole point of the trip, were the Elite Qualifying Miles:
500 EQM (the UA minimum)
2000 great offer bonus EQM

That's 15,000 EQM total. It all got posted on Friday the 24th.

Now just need 662 EQM to stay in E-plus seats and Star Gold thru Feb 2007. Hopefully, they will come through with the third 2,000 EQM bonus for the AirTran statement.

mrwunfli:

I read about this offer in a letter to the travel section of our local newspaper, but the poster said that he had received the "offer" in a separate mailing to him from United. He did say, however, that he also did it for his wife and that the miles were posted. My question is this: I did not receive any special
mailing from United, but really want to take advantage of the offer, since I have 3 other frequent flyer statements with activity, but need to know the fax number at United you
used to send your other statements. The extra miles would really help, as I try to use
United miles to get my daughter to/from school. Can you let me know exactly what you did and the exact fax number you used? Much appreciated!

If you didn't get the e-mail then I don't think you can take advantage of the offer. It was a "targeted" offer. You can find out more about it at the United MP forum at flyertalk.com

They give you a link to register for the offer and after that you can download the fax form. You can try it.

https://www.ualgreatoffer.com/Index.aspx

While you are at it, and if you haven't done so, you should set your preferences to get their MP e-mails.

well done bill. :-). too bad we can't do the same out here on the rock.

The rock! Not exactly Alcatraz.

From what I have read it seems that mileage runners in California can get in 6 segments in a few hours for a buck eighty.

Nice job! I'm still mad at United over this one. My 12-year-old daughter was targeted for the great offer, but I (the loyal FF for 10 years) was not, and I was unable to register with her code. With it, I may have had a chance at Premier Exec this year.

ms_go, did you see the double-EQM offers they had the last two autumns? Maybe you could take it if they offer it again this fall.

bill; just to clarify, we often refer to hawaii as the rock. i don't think there are any runners here in hawaii that can get six runs for a buck eighty. it cost about that much to go to hilo from hono.

Thanks, mrwunrfl. I do watch the offers. To be fair, the EQM offer tied to the credit card also would have done it, but I had to draw the line there.

You can only get participate in this offer if you personally received it from UA.