HOT! Fly West Coast to Quito, Ecuador Biz <$900 BAM!

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HOT DEAL! Fly West Coast to Quito, Ecuador Biz <$900 BAM!

Hot Diggity I just love a good Mileage Run Opportunity. Here’s the Deets

I read about how you could fly west coast to Quito, Ecuador Biz for <$900 on Flyertalk’s premium fare deals which you should hit up. Then I found the following on the ITA Matrix. There are tons of dates avail. I picked the weekend of Oct 7th. There are numerous threads about routing through JFK to nab the transcon and earn more EQM. This one flies one leg with a retrofit 767 and lie flat, but if you tinker around and find dates that work for you there is a lot of evidence that you can make this work for lie-flats on most legs.

Don’t forget to use BookwithMatrix to book.

I wrote about this a few weeks back but it makes bookings suuuuuper easy.

Find the lie-flats. This 767 has been retrofit

If you weren’t award of the design of a retro-fit cabin it’ll look like the seat map below. It’s configured with all aisle access and a 1-2-1 layout.

American now explicitly tells you how many EQM and RDM you’d be earnings as well.

This one clocks in just over $0.05 per EQM. Not terrible, but typically the goal is to get it at 3 cents per EQM. There are some routings that can get the total EQM up over 21k. That’s down around $0.04. Not too shabby. I think the thing to take into consideration most when looking at running for this is the marginal value of the points. If you aren’t anywhere near hitting top or mid tier elite status then it may not make much sense to do it. If this will give you Executive Platinum then the marginal value of the points is in excess of the price. The increased benefits, system wide upgrades, and lounge access alone would be worth be it.

Marginal value of EQM increases the closer you get to Elite status

Example: You have 85k EQM with no further travel planned. For $851 you’d earn enough EQM to put you over the 100k threshold and give you Executive Platinum Status.

With Executive Platinum you would be earning first class lounge access on international travel, 4 system wide upgrades, increased earning potential ( 11x $ in 2017), and domestic upgrades. That’s a hell of a deal for $851. The closer you get to elite tiers the marginal value of your EQM points increases compared to the EQMs you earn early in your qualification year.