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Hey! You’re reading an outdated Free First Class Next Month series. Check out the latest version published in April of 2015 here.
This is the twenty-seventh post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go. Previously Using Seat Guru to Pick the Best Award.
The Great Circle Mapper is a valuable, free, online resource that can be found at gcmap.com. It is a simple mapping tool that can shed light on your itineraries.
On any page, you can type airport codes into the text box. If you separate two codes with a dash, a straight line will be drawn between them and the distance of the flight given.
A comma can be used to separate airport codes between which you will not be flying.
This denotes an open jaw trip. The outbound is Los Angeles to Honolulu. The return is Kahului to Los Angeles.
After typing in the codes separated by the appropriate dashes and commas, click Map.
Now you have a cool map of your upcoming trip with the distance of each segment and the total distance listed below. Beyond its coolness, I use Great Circle Mapper for several reasons.
If you want to know how the distance of an itinerary changes by adding stopovers or changing the routing, it’s a a great tool.
This is important if you are trying to earn miles from flying paid tickets, and you want to see how many miles each routing earns. Most airlines’ official distance between two airports corresponds almost exactly to Great Circle Mapper’s distance.
Another reason you want to know the distance is to know how many Avios would be needed for an award flight between two cities. Because Avios is a distance-based award program, you need to know the distance of each segment to know how Avios will price an award.
The third reason to use Great Circle Mapper is to check whether a putative award routing is legal. Many award programs have a maximum mileage that can be flown between any given award origin and destination. (It is usually a multiple of that city pair’s Maximum Permitted Mileage. For instance an American Airlines award’s routing is capped at 1.25 * MPM.)
And my favorite reason to use the Great Circle Mapper is to visualize all the free first class I’m flying. Here’s my flights flown or booked for 2013, and hopefully I’ll be adding more soon because I see big holes in South America and Asia!
Continue to Using the FlyerTalk Mileage Run Deals Forum to Find Cheap Flights and Mistake Fares.
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With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel℠ and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
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Thanks for a most interesting post
Just spent 30 mins playing with it and reading the FAQ’s
Keep up the good work – mile value is easily my favorite blog
Thanks for a most interesting post
Just spent 30 mins playing with it and reading the FAQ’s
Keep up the good work – mile value is easily my favorite blog
[…] This is the twenty-eighth post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go. Previously Using the Great Circle Mapper. […]
[…] This is the twenty-eighth post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go. Previously Using the Great Circle Mapper. […]
[…] My routing can be seen below, courtesy of the Great Circle Mapper […]
[…] My routing can be seen below, courtesy of the Great Circle Mapper […]
[…] flights that interest you (google your home airport and all US Airways flights will be listed), figure out the distance of the US Airways flights at gcmap.com, and check the Avios award […]
[…] flights that interest you (google your home airport and all US Airways flights will be listed), figure out the distance of the US Airways flights at gcmap.com, and check the Avios award […]
[…] flights that interest you (google your home airport and all US Airways flights will be listed), figure out the distance of the US Airways flights at gcmap.com, and check the Avios award […]
[…] flights that interest you (google your home airport and all US Airways flights will be listed), figure out the distance of the US Airways flights at gcmap.com, and check the Avios award […]
[…] with connections in New York City in both directions– you can check flight distance with Great Circle Mapper). You’ll get 1,500 miles instead, assuming you don’t have status. How did I figure […]
[…] with connections in New York City in both directions– you can check flight distance with Great Circle Mapper). You’ll get 1,500 miles instead, assuming you don’t have status. How did I figure […]
[…] up the distance of all award segments in a single direction using gcmap.com, and read the miles price off the chart. One way awards are about two-thirds the price of roundtrip […]
[…] up the distance of all award segments in a single direction using gcmap.com, and read the miles price off the chart. One way awards are about two-thirds the price of roundtrip […]