What standard for calculation of miles/distance?
#21
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Again: I understand that airlines give you only what they're going to give you, and it would be stupid to think they use anything but some established, on-the-books, in-house number for every and all flights between the same two airports. You don't get miles based on how many miles THAT DAY you actually flew -- there isn't a cockpit frequent-flyer-mile-o-meter that clocks the miles to be awarded for that particular flight!
What led to my last speculation, however, was drawing an analogy -- flawed, of course -- to their posted flight times, in which they add a cushion to allow for some statistical average number of minutes' delay in approach or taxiing. And then they probably fudge it to make their "on-time" stats look better. But it's THEIR CALL -- I get that!
The whole question is a silly rumination, of course. Occurred to me on the same day I clocked a local parking meter at 30 min. to my digital watch's 26 min.
Once again: I get it -- and always did -- that airlines give you the miles they choose to give you. No appeal. No review. No argument. No question. No wiggle room. OK, all?
What led to my last speculation, however, was drawing an analogy -- flawed, of course -- to their posted flight times, in which they add a cushion to allow for some statistical average number of minutes' delay in approach or taxiing. And then they probably fudge it to make their "on-time" stats look better. But it's THEIR CALL -- I get that!
The whole question is a silly rumination, of course. Occurred to me on the same day I clocked a local parking meter at 30 min. to my digital watch's 26 min.
Once again: I get it -- and always did -- that airlines give you the miles they choose to give you. No appeal. No review. No argument. No question. No wiggle room. OK, all?
#22
Ok. Your recent speculation is similar to one thing I considered. They could compute the mileage buy using the distances between naviagation waypoints.
But the info that AAFF gives convinces me that some/many carriers are computing a great circle arc, the shortest distance between two points on the surface of a sphere. The UA value for TPA-ORD is the same as AA and the Great Circle Mapper tool.
But the info that AAFF gives convinces me that some/many carriers are computing a great circle arc, the shortest distance between two points on the surface of a sphere. The UA value for TPA-ORD is the same as AA and the Great Circle Mapper tool.