Unique | United passenger takes six flights in at some point for $500 to make Platinum standing: ‘A enjoyable problem’

He ran the miles in document time.

A California man devised an ingenious technique to obtain United Airlines’ coveted Platinum standing earlier than the yr’s finish: by taking six flights in at some point for about $500.

“It’s cool that it was able to be completed in such a short timeframe!” Stephen, a self-described “aviation geek” from San Francisco, advised The Post. “Many people have done status/mileage runs over the years, but doing one that stayed within a few constraints (one day, short flights, under a certain $$) was a fun challenge for me.”

Stephen’s mile-high marathon noticed him fly from San Francisco to Reno and again, take a spherical journey from San Francisco to Sacramento and eventually, from San Francisco to Los Angeles and again — and all inside 12 hours.

Stephen initially detailed his sky-high Christmas buying spree in a publish taking off on Reddit.

“First flight departed at 8:40am and last flight arrived at 8:29pm,” he wrote on Reddit. “There were some ground stop delays at SFO, but luckily all connections were similarly delayed, so everything went off without a hitch.”

Why go on this epic flight binge? The frequent flyer stated he had launched into “a lot of long-haul flights to Korea” and “direct flights” to Orlando, Florida, for work this yr.

This positioned him simply six flights away from United’s Platinum status, which grants flyers perks starting from three free checked baggage, computerized Group 1 boarding and precedence check-in.

Stephen advised The Post that he needed to go on a flight along with his spouse to Europe and use the “plus points that they give you with Platinum to upgrade us on an international flight to business class.”

“So that was kind of one of the main motivators,” stated the United Mileage Plus member, who was additionally curious to see if this velocity run might be achieved on a budget. He reportedly grew up with mileage on his thoughts, having been a Mileage Plus member since 2002 and having a dad who was additionally a “frequent flyer.”

To qualify for this standing, one should both full 45 premier qualifying flights and accumulate 15,000 premier qualifying factors, or simply 18,000 premier qualifying factors, which may be earned by redeeming miles, requesting upgrades and utilizing the United Card.

As Stephen didn’t need to spend a boatload of cash to be ushered into this elite fraternity — which is what number of flyers go Platinum, he stated — he determined to achieve it by way of a mix of flights and miles.

The Californian ended up utilizing a mix of 60,000 miles and $500 on this sky-high sextathlon — tickets that will’ve usually run him roughly $1,100.

As for the route, Stephen stated he was initially pondering of flying to Los Angeles after which Palm Springs and onward to Las Vegas, till he discovered by way of Google Gemini that there was a greater technique to obtain his purpose.

“That’s where Gemini was like, you might be better off just taking short flights out of SFO and back to SFO,” he defined.

Naturally, taking back-to-back flights all day may sound like a flightmare, however the flight buff stated the journeys had been surprisingly snug.

The life hacker advised The Post that the San Francisco-to-Reno round-trip leg was on a “spacious” Bombardier jet, on which he didn’t have anybody sitting subsequent to him, permitting for loads of room.

And that wasn’t all.

“There was Starlink Wi-Fi on that flight, which is amazing,” Stephen exclaimed. “And I flew to Reno, deboarded the plane and then sat at the gate for 15 minutes, had a coffee, and then it was time to board again.”

He added, “While many people see airports as a hassle, I genuinely love the experience — the logistics, the engineering, and the perspective you only get from 30,000 feet.”

In addition, whereas there have been some floor delays in San Fran, the connections had been equally postponed, thereby stopping a domino impact that would’ve derailed his mileage mission totally.

“It was like the delays compounded a little bit, and luckily that kept everything aligned throughout the day,” stated Stephen. “It was like, yeah, if one of these goes down, the rest of the day is screwed.”

While many commenters praised Stephen’s dedication, others felt that the juice wasn’t definitely worth the squeeze.

“This is absolutely not worth it but good for you, I guess,” stated one critic.

“Was just thinking the Gold to Plat jump isn’t worth this,” one other sniped.

But for Stephen, the mileage run was as a lot concerning the journey because it was the vacation spot.

“It wasn’t actually a lot about, ‘Oh, I really care about Platinum Status,’” he said. “It was just more like, ‘All right, I’m an aviation geek, can I do that?’”

While actually distinctive, Stephen isn’t the one one embarking on mileage velocity runs to realize/preserve airline standing.

“Flew Austin to Taipei and back a number of years ago when status was based on miles only,” claimed one airline savant. “Got ~15,000 miles for around $900, and that got me to Platinum, 75k flown miles. I’ve also done a 6 PQF, Austin>Houston>Dallas>Houston>San Antonio>Houston>Austin, all in a day to keep 1K a few years ago.”

Meanwhile, final yr, a flyer named Keith described on social media how he deliberate to change into a 1K earlier than the year-end deadline by reserving three flights in a day — Washington, DC, to Newark, Newark to Atlanta, after which Atlanta to DC.

“I want to get all the benefits, all the things when you become a 1K member, I’m not about to let that s–t go down the drain,” he declared.