I almost learned an expensive lesson this week. I was trying to take advantage of the inexpensive New York to Honolulu fares currently available, coupled with double elite qualifying miles to reach Executive Platinum Status, on American Airlines. While searching for airfares, I checked ExpertFlyer for eVIP upgrade space (“A” inventory on two-cabin planes and
“C” inventory on three-cabin planes). Although I found one set of flights for $570 to Maui that had confirmable upgrade space, I waited another hour to see if the cheaper ($480) HNL flights would return. After finally deciding to not wait any longer, I went to book the OGG flights and the fare was gone.
After cursing for a few hours I continued to monitor the flights for the next day or two. Although Delta and United still had $480 fares, American’s fare was $1,200 or more. Finally about 48 hours later, a $480 fare reappeared for this weekend.
Lesson learned: use American’s free 24 hour hold feature until something better comes along. In retrospect, I was lucky to get the better $480 fare instead of $570, but for a while it was looking like I was missing the whole thing.
I rarely do pure mileage runs like this. Especially not 24+ hours of flying. Any of you MR pros have some suggestions for eating, drinking, and passing the time?
