It is that time of year again – you get your frequent flier mileage statement and that frown appears on your face as you realize you’re about to lose that hard earned airline VIP status… If visions of “Just 4 more segments” or “Only 4,000 more miles” are dancing through your head – don’t despair — All hope is not lost – you still have a few options …

Whether you are short haul segment grabber or a standard run of the mill road warrior — getting to that next (or keeping your current) airline elite status level may be the holy grail that “will” wash away all those “vague” recollections of tarmac encampments, record breaking delays/cancellations, fiendishly long TSA lines and those oh-so frequent trips to medicine cabinet for another antacid.

Don’t Get Sucked in by “Buy Miles” Programs

As you begin to panic about getting to that next status level you might be tempted to take a look at the airline sites and see that shiny button that says “Buy Miles”.

After your initial reaction of glee that you have found a way to game the system and hit that next level with a relatively small purchase – you’ll hopefully read the fine print and notice – it excludes the purchase of miles toward achieving elite status.

Sometimes buying miles makes sense for topping off the amount you need for that once in a lifetime award trip (redemptions to places everyone wants to go are very difficult), but don’t get sucked in – just to find out later that it didn’t help yourself at all in your quest for that next level of elite VIP status.

You’re Going to Have to Fly

The bottom line is that you are going to have to fly – as dreadful as that might seem after this crazy year of aviation snafus – the trick however is to save yourself as much time, money and hassle as possible.

The official name for what you’ll need to do is called a “Mileage Run” – which loosely translates into flying for the sole purpose of accumulating frequent flyer miles to be used future travel award redemption or achieving elite VIP status on a particular airline (if you happen to like your mileage run destinations — it is an added bonus).

“Mileage Runs” can be a simple as or as complicated as you are willing to put the time and effort into – there are dozens of strategies that can be employed and if you really want to become a “mileage runner” I suggest you join the FlyerTalk community and read more about the godfather of mileage runs – Randy Petersen.

I am going to highlight a couple of strategies that I have used in the past.

• Find a cheap Y-Up airfare from your departure city, they usually have liberal connection (routing) rules (allowing you to connect all over if you need to extend miles) and you’ll get a bonus miles for flying in the first class cabin as well as the comfort
• If you need some segments find the cheapest airfare from your departure city and take a few short runs that way (Optimize for time and money spent). You can check out the cheapest airfares anywhere using the FareCompare.com Airfare Getaway Map Tool.
• Checkout last minute Christmas bonus special mile deals on your airline (be careful sometimes they won’t apply to elite status)
• There are tons of very cheap holiday airfares around for the next week or two and you can pick up some cheap mileage run airfares. The only problem is many have minimum stay requirement (wonder if the airlines know that some would be trying a mileage run …) — minimum stay rules hamper up and back same day runs so choose your airfare wisely.
• Take a super cheap trip to Europe and back this time of year, it is the best way to accumulate a ton of miles quickly (the trick is to find a cheap airfare with no minimum stay requirements if you want to get back quickly and only buy a few $40 hamburgers during your stay), again you can use the getaway maps feature mentioned above.
• If you are an American Airlines frequent flier consider doing the little known Gold/Platinum challenge later next year — if/when you lose your status or are moving to a new American Airlines dominated city where your current (old) elite status airline is not prominent. I parlayed a trip to Europe last year into Platinum status using this technique.

Above all, don’t be obsessive about your mileage points, they are hard to redeem and getting harder as flights continue to get more packed than ever, elite status upgrades seem to be like a lottery win as you grapple with 50 other people for those coveted 10 seats (if there are any first class seats as most of your flights may now on regional jets without NO first class cabin).

Sometimes the quest for miles may — dare I say — just not be worth the hassle …