The Most Comfortable 82,500 Miles I Ever Burned

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When it comes to burning miles, we obviously all want to get the most value possible. The hard part comes in assessing that value. Premium cabins offer a lot of value for the amount of miles required, but last minute travel in economy can also present a lot of value for the miles. In between, there are many personal reasons for travel that present extreme value for mile redemptions as well.

There are a lot of trips that I have booked in my life with miles that have been incredible – both in the trip itself and in the value. This particular trip I have upcoming certainly represents the most comfortable 82,500 miles I ever burned and I know that I will not be regretting it for a single minute!

The Most Comfortable 82,500 Miles I Ever Burned

The trip I am talking about is my upcoming trip around the world that will be putting me on 6 continents in the span of less than 5 days. While on those continents, I will be running a marathon run on each one. Having such a ticket schedule and the fact that I will be getting onboard an airplane literally within 80 minutes after having finished running 26.2 miles means that the ability to stretch out will be very important. I did a similar event years ago running 5 marathons on 5 continents in 5 days and did the entire journey in economy class! That was very painful!

This time around, I booked the entire trip with miles to help demonstrate to runners and others how easy it is to travel for almost nothing. Since I was booking with miles, I went for business/first class on every flight and was able to get all the ones I wanted! That required an extra 82,500 miles for my entire round the world trip to not be in economy and be able to travel in business/first. I could have done it for 167,500 miles but I really wanted to fly in Etihad’s First Apartment again instead of flying in their Business Studio (which is also very nice). 🙂 The business class redemption would have cost me 45,000 miles vs 60,000 miles for the first Apartment.

Here is what I am getting with the extra mile expenditures:

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With the majority of those flights providing me with lie-flat seats, being able to secure them for that amount of time for only an extra 82,500 miles is incredible! That means I spent an extra 1,800 miles per mile for the level of comfort I will be able to enjoy contrasted with the limited-recline in economy.

I have no problem flying economy as the majority of my flights have been in economy, but spending an extra 82,500 miles for business/first class seats on this entire journey certainly represents the most comfortable mile redemption I have ever made! Running 26.2 miles on each of 6 continents in under 5 days is going to be tough no matter how I fly, but at least these extra 82,500 miles is going to give me a better chance of completing thanks to the relaxing/stretching out I can do!