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Follow Will as he tries to hit Gold Guest List via 40 flights in (less than) 40 days

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Don’t try this at home kids.  Or even in a plane.

Head for Points reader Will, who credits me / blames me on the first page of his blog for getting him into this in the first place, is currently doing something very fascinating / stupid (delete as applicable!).

He is trying to hit British Airways Gold Guest List status, from scratch, in one trip.  This means that he is taking 40 flights in very short order to hit 5,000 British Airways tier points.

BA 747 retirement

In an attempt to keep himself sane, he is blogging about his trip.  It is called ‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Tier Points Runner‘.

This is the first part of his flight itinerary (apologies for the airport codes).  I think there is a second similar run to follow after this!

1. LHR-BRU (London to Brussels)
2. BRU-HEL (Brussels to Helsinki)
3. HEL-LHR (Helsinki to Heathrow)
4. LCY-JFK (London City to New York)
5. JFK-LAX (New York to LA)
6. LAX-HNL (LA to Honolulu)
7. HNL-LAX (Honolulu to LA)
8. LAX-MCO (LA to Orlando)
9. MCO-MIA (Orlando to Miami)
10. MIA-STT (Miami to St Thomas US Virgin Islands)
11. STT-MIA (St Thomas US Virgin Islands to Miami)
12. MIA-LAX (Miami to LA)
13. LAX-HNL (LA to Honolulu)
14. HNL-LAX (Honolulu to Los Angeles)
15. LAX-JFK (Los Angeles to New York)
16. JFK-LCY (New York to London City)
17. LHR-HEL (Heathrow to Helsinki)
18. HEL-BRU (Helsinki to Brussels)
19. BRU-LHR  (Brussels to Heathrow)

At the time of writing (Sunday) he has posted about flights 1 to 15, which have taken him 15 days.  7 days of this was actually non-flying holiday, amazingly.

Will photo

I have no idea what all these flights have cost – all are in Business or First Class.  It will be substantially less than you think because of the way he has squeezed multiple segments into what are actually ticketed as single trips.  I am guessing he has only actually booked two tickets – Heathrow to Honolulu return and, nested within it, Honolu to St Thomas US Virgin Islands.

Hopefully when he gets back I can persuade Will to tell us what he has learned from this.


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Comments (52)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Points to be Made says:

    Go Will! This will be a truly inspiring read and I look forward to the completed trip report

  • Nick Burch says:

    Wouldn’t it be 3 trips? London to Brussels return, then an ex-EU Brussels to Honolulu, and finally the Honolulu to St Thomas?

    • Polly says:

      Think he means two long haul trips, plus the positioning flight to BRU…

  • Graeme says:

    Superb and crazy! Just spent last half hour reading the blogs. Would love to know how much it’s costing him…

  • Russell Evans says:

    Makes for a great read over a Bank Holiday Monday breakfast! A crazy itinerary, but secretly we’re all jealous. I too would like to know just how much this has cost?!

  • Farringdon says:

    Amazing! Although there does seem to be a mini trend for this on Flyertalk. There’s a handful of people posting there about these insane TP runs.

  • squills says:

    Great stuff from Will 😉 – I’m on Flight 8 where Will’s ‘I’m sat next to a chap who is talking to the guys in the seat in front, they are super loud and have huge charisma, the flight crew are also making a big deal of them and it turns out they are the Fox UFC presenters (some chap called Joe Rogan)and a chap from the Soprano’s. They weren’t keen on chatting so I left them to it’ somehow makes me picture a boozy tramp with bloodshot eyes talking gibberish to the strangers in front lol

  • Rob says:

    Can’t remember ….

  • Dave says:

    It’ll be costing him between £4-5k, as the HNL runs according to Flyertalk are £0.84p per point.

    • Rob says:

      That is not much more than, as he seems to be doing this over 2 trips , a standard sale London to Miami in Business, twice.

      Still not keen though!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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