A few years ago, I found I was a couple of thousand miles short to continue my premium status with American Airlines. I’d gotten used to the early boarding, occasional upgrades, claim to exit row seats, etc. and didn’t want to lose those few perks. So, I decided to go for a “Mileage Run”.

Found a great roundtrip fare to New York. Armed with a couple of good books, several bottles of water (this was prior to the latest “how will that make us safe?” edict from TSA) and my laptop, I boarded a plane in San Jose in the morning, flew to JFK, deplaned for about 30 minutes, re-boarded the same plane and flew back to San Jose that night.

I was embarrassed to tell anyone what I was doing; it seemed such a crazy thing to do! It was a long day, but it put me over the miles required to continue my premium status for another year.

Would I do it again? Probably, given the right set of circumstances. It was a different way to spend a day – but not bad overall.

Do you have a mileage run story? Would love to hear it. And go to SevenWondersSolo and vote on the mileage run poll