The times they are a-changin’.
This post seems to be older than 8 years—a long time on the internet. It might be outdated.
I missed reaching Alaska Airlines MVP this year by 652 miles — not to be confused with the time I missed MVP Gold by 2000 miles. I thought about making a year-end milage-run, a process where you “[buy] a low-price airline ticket … and fly not because you want to go anywhere, but to earn redeemable miles and progress toward elite status on your preferred airline.”
The benefit of MVP is free checked bags for myself and Rachel (when she flies with me), which can easily save us $50-$100 per a trip. I also would get first crack at awesome seats such as 6A/F and 17A/F.
If I had been on top of my game, I probably could have accrued the required miles for about $200, which is equivalent to 2-4 trips worth of baggage fees. Realistically, I think there will only be a couple of flights we take this year (Colorado in August, and maybe someplace warm in the spring). This kind of makes it a push in terms of value. Unfortunately, I left it to the last few weeks of the year and it was going to cost upwards of $400 to get a flight that worked with my schedule. C’est la vie.
I suppose the good news is that I’m not traveling as often…though I sometimes miss it.
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