Segment arbitrage:

I just noticed something very interesting on my last trip. Typically I fly CO from BOS to IAH, and get a $500-$600 R/T 7 day advance purchase fare. However, I forgot to book a trip the other day and didn’t realize it until 5 days out. Therefore, I needed a cheap O/W BOS to IAH fare. CO wanted about $700, so that was a non-starter. USAir, on the other hand, was offering $250 O/W with a 45 minute layover in Charlotte. Not ideal, but much more cost effective, and I’ve found CLT to be a very pleasant airport not typically plagued with delays. Since CO is now Star Alliance, I was able to get the flight miles credited to CO as well, which was nice. So, when I checked my CO account, to what should my wandering eyes appear but 2 flight segment credits, as opposed to 1. Meaning, if you fly USAir multiple segments, you get multiple flight credits and could rack up a lot of them to help get you to elite status. What I am not sure of is if I booked a three segment flight, would I have gotten three credits? If so, I can imagine mileage runs on USAir to get CO elite status quickly and cheaply. Just some food for thought.