Last month, there was a Business Class mistake fare to Beijing for $466.50 on American Airlines. The mileage run mistake fare had to originate from the Washington DC area (DCA specifically) with the routing DCA-ORD-PEK-ORD-JFK-DCA.
I definitely took advantage of this, regardless of positioning from Los Angeles because of the 3.1cpm (cents per mile) mileage run and the nature of this business class mistake fare. I couldn’t resist foregoing taking advantage of this deal because American Airlines Business Class mistake fares are rare and I’ve also never been to Beijing. I also used two of my Systemwide Upgrades (SWU) to upgrade my ORD-PEK (Chicago O’ Hare to Beijing) and PEK-ORD (Beijing to Chicago) segments from Business Class to First Class which confirmed immediately.
Since positioning is required, my entire routing will look something like this: LAX-ORD-DCA-ORD-PEK-ORD-JFK-DCA-LAX
The actual mileage earned will be 14,723 miles (EQM’s) at a rate of 3.1 cpm which is fantastic and well below the ‘5cpm’ mileage run standard threshold.
I’m only spending 1 1/2 full days (38 hours to be exact) in Beijing which is quite challenging, but I’ve whipped up an itinerary to check out the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, and two night markets.
I fell in love with Shanghai when I went to China for the very first time two years ago and wrote a whole trip report about it. I can’t wait to get a taste of Beijing, even if I’m only there for 38 hours.
Be sure to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat (username: Jamucsb) as I will be live-updating my trip from start to finish.
why not fly home from ord on the way back