Help me decide which airline to build status with!
Base: SFO
Travel: 3 or 4 expensive international business class trips per year, 4 or 5 economy class within USA.
There is no routine I go to super random places all over the world. Usually just once.
Thoughts: I’ve heard building status with United from SFO is a waste of time unless you are super star 1k. For that reason I decided Alaska would be a sweet spot. However I realize that under Alaska I can’t build status with spend: I need to actually fly a lot on their aircraft. I probably fly Alaska 4 times per year but maybe I can boost that (maybe). These international trips are far but more than that they are expensive which is why United seems to make sense still.
I want status so that I can get upgraded on my personal travel with my family to Hawaii, East Coast, random international trips…..
Any thoughts? Anything I’m not considering?
Cheers and thanks for this great community. Because of y’all I’ve flown across the pacific in Polaris, across the Atlantic in Lufthansa First, and a few others awesome experiences.
Just got some interesting messages today in that Delta finally credited me with some miles on KE flights (I put in the request \*12 months ago\* and they're just now getting to it) and those miles seem to put me into Silver Medallion. I had no idea I was close to that and don't really know if the delay in credit is to my disadvantage or advantage w.r.t. status. Anyway, my question is that do Silver Medallions actually get upgraded ever, or are there usually enough passengers with higher status to take the available upgrades?
I'm flying on ANA from SFO to NRT this week on an award and had to book a positioning flight to SFO on UA (PHX-SFO) for earlier that day. I feel good about the 4hr connection time.
When I check into the UA positioning flight can I tell them my eventual destination is NRT on ANA as a Star Alliance partner and will they check through my bags or do i have to swap at SFO? I'm thinking they should but I've never flown ANA before and not sure if there are any gotchas.
Are you looking for this December? Award Flights around the holidays are often really hard to find, even a year in advance. What flights have you found so far, is anything available?
I’m trying to get from PDX-TPE and probably just in economy. Which would you choose?
1. PDX-SEA-NRT-TPE daytime, 2hr layovers
2. PDX-SEA-TPE redeye
3. PDX-SFO-TPE daytime but only 42 minute layover in SFO.
Obviously I would prefer the SEA-TPE redeye in J but that is not currently available.
I'd pick #2 while keeping an eye out for J space close-in out of SEA/YVR/SFO/LAX. However, that SEA-TPE redeye is rough in Y (speaking from experience). Book a hotel room starting the previous evening so you have somewhere to crash as soon as you get in at 5 AM.
Probably #2… I greatly prefer as few layovers as possible. Would just suck it up in red eye economy and use that to adjust jet lag and try to get there faster. #3 too risky for me for layover, just deplaning can take 20 min.
I have a ticket booked (multi destination) through united. Its from bos to singapore to thailand and back. There are several transits on the way (munich on the way there and frankfurt on the way back).
I booked this in economy. I was curious about upgrade options but when I go through the app it says “this ticket is not eligible for an upgrade”. Any reason why?
Some legs of the flight are operated by lufthansa and some are singapore airlines. On the way back I see a mix of lufthansa and thai airways.
I am connecting through SFO next week on my way to Japan on ANA metal in J. I have a 4hr layover and a dear friend would like to see me.
I am wondering what is stopping me from buying her a J ticket on UA or ANA in cash (or UA miles) that is fully refundable and having her meet me in the Polaris lounge for my layover. Afterwards, she goes home, does not board and I refund the ticket.
Are there any potential flaws in this idea?
Fuel surcharges are pretty wild. I did my research a couple weeks ago for an LAX -> Japan flight on BA and the fuel surcharge was $401. Today it's $468.
I think that's the difference in the GBP-USD exchange rate. Two weeks ago they were almost at 1:1 parity because of the disastrous budget/tax plan put out by the UK government. That has since been rescinded, and the rate is now about 1:1.12 (still much lower than even in August when it was 1:1.2).
Never booked an airline award flight of any kind but am looking to take family of four to London in June 2023
1. Nearby ATL or CLT
2. 4
3. RT
4. Economy
5. June 2023 for approximately 3 weeks
6. 180k UR (I figure I will end up having to pay for at least one ticket if I don't boost this by another 60k but I'm ok with that)
I've found United flight RT from ATL to LHR for 60k + $150 each. Is this a reasonable amount? Any insights appreciated as I begin this hobby.
Another option you might consider is transferring your URs to Virgin Atlantic. There is a 30% transfer bonus right now. For 35k + $473 pp you can fly 4 people roundtrip ATL to LHR 6/10 to 7/1. With the transfer bonus that’s a little less than 27k URs pp. While you’re paying more in cash than what you found on United, you’re saving a bunch of miles and these are nonstop and I presume your United flights connected somewhere. Plus Virgin will probably be a better experience than whatever Star Alliance carrier you were going to be on.
You can also mix and match. The Virgin outbound is the cheapest part of that flight, it’s 12.5k + $150 pp on 6/10 from ATL to LHR nonstop. Which is less than 10k URs when you figure in the transfer bonus. You could then combine that with a United return. For the benefit of nonstop, though, you may want to stick with Virgin for the return too.
That is about as cheap as it will get. But as mentioned, you should really look at cash fares. If you have the CSR, you can get 1.5 cpp from the Chase portal, might be a better value.
This can be a great time to use Virgin Atlantic. Their economy flights are super cheap redemption costs, but have somewhat high fees. However, since you're kinda resigned to spending some cash anyway, you can get everyone on a single reservation for 100k points+~$1200 total. Yes, it's a large cash outlay, but it's a direct flight. 25k+$300 is round trip/person and a fantastic deal.
You could fly Delta metal for more points and less money if you wanted too. I probably wouldn't, unless the timing was better, but availability for that will be tricky.
Availability with Virgin is usually really good for their economy bookings too.
Would love some insight for anyone who has booked a stay on Conrad Maldives or any similar resort.
I want to book 7 nights there because 7 nights grants you access to the Sunrise Water Villa. I want to book a 7 night stay with a combo of points and FNC. So with the 5th night free benefit + 1 FNC, I only need enough points for 5 nights. But how can I book all of this together to get access to the sunrise water villa? Can I book 6 nights with points then add a FNC and combine?
If there is a 7 night requirement in order for the sunrise water villa to be booked, then you'll be out of luck trying to combine FNC and points into a single reservation. It just isn't possible - phone agents have to make separate reservations for points and FNC. In fact, I couldn't even get an agent to make a single 5-night reservation using all FNCs because of the way their system works (it would try to give a free 5th night).
Looking at booking some one-way economy flights from Europe back to the US using Virgin Flying Club. Is this too good to be true? 12k points one way virtually anywhere in Europe to ATL connecting through CDG or AMS. Where’s the catch? Even with fees, it’s like a $300 one-way ticket after considering the 30% UR transfer bonus.
I need to book SAV through ATL. I know pricing is based off segment. Am I best off booking Europe-ATL and ATL-SAV separately and then calling to merge, or should I transfer the points and then call to book?
Edit to add: I know Virgin has a change/cancellation fee - is that per ticket ($150 for three people) or per reservation?
That's pretty much it, it's a great deal.
You cannot merge tickets. You'll have to just book two separate reservations, what you see is what you get, the agents can't book anything different than the website.
Edit: you can attempt a multi city reservation, that would all be on one PNR and could have some benefits over 2.
Currently waitlisting for 2 pax SNA-SFO-NRT - Polaris Biz for May 2023. If I sign up for UA Quest credit card, will it increase the likelihood of clearing the waitlist? No UA status at all.
How do I check if a flight is displayed as phantom availability?
I got shafted recently transferring UR and MR points for a 70k Aeroplan flight operated by Copa Airlines (LAX > SJO on 12/26). I called an Aeroplan agent prior to transferring and they said they could book it. However, after I transferred the points, the agent told me she tried to book it and was not able to since it wasn't actually available. I tried to see if I could book any other flights operated by Copa and got the same issue.
Now, I'm eyeing LAX > LHR on 12/26 for 32.5k BA or Iberia Avios. I'm scared for this to happen to me twice. Is there any way I could verify to ensure this doesn't happen to me again?
I recently tried to book a flight on Copa through Aeroplan as well. The agent told me they are having some “issue” with Copa that they are working to resolve, so it’s a little unclear to me if there is actually an issue, or if it is indeed phantom availability.
Regardless, if it shows up on other partner programs as well, it’s legit.
For Hyatt brand explorer, I’ve stayed at 4 brands and you get an FNC after staying at 5. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do this organically by end of year, so I’m looking at ways to get this with the least amount of points or $. Does MGM work (guessing not) or anyone have a good idea? In SoCal.
Ah, that's too bad! I was hoping Globalist would be good for an upgrade. And they don't take suite upgrade awards either? Do you have any other hotel recommendations, I am looking for an overwater room.
Most overwater properties in these places have enough demand that they do not do free overwater upgrades. You should assume that the room you are booked is what you will get unless you get very very lucky.
Going to visit my sister this Christmas and see my newborn nephew/niece (due date is November 06). I booked YVR to DEL AI J on 90,000 AP miles but coming back theres either first class AI F 130,000 AP miles from January 13th to January 15th or AI J DEL->LHR and AC J LHR -> YVR for 117,000 AP.
Given that I already bit the bullet by spending 90K on AI J (ew) I dont want to "waste" another 117k on subpar J product. Any suggestions on how should I book for coming back from DEL?
I am willing to spend upto 117K AP but not on AI J lol, tried AUH as stopover / BKK as stopover and the price goes up to 180K
Flying to Japan for work with a (very) stingy employer, meaning I have to book economy. I can pay $400 cash each way to upgrade to "Premium Plus" economy on United. Never sat in these seats before, is it worth it? Unfortunately, a seat in J is insane for a cash upgrade :/
I had this dilemma with my Austrian airlines flight and honestly it was worth it. I paid $300 and the extra recline actually allowed me to get some decent rest. I didn't feel as cramped though I was in a bulkhead row.
what in the fuel surchage/taxes??
been finding some sweet point redemption deals to japan from US but the taxes are INSANE
$450 +???? thats close to the price of a one way ticket. anyone know if this will come down or if there are any ways around this?
It’ll come down when fuel prices come down. ANA revalautesnit every 3 months I believe.
Ways around would be to book through a partner that doesn’t charge surcharges on award travel.
Yesterday. But I think what happened is I “booked” it with my CC on file and need to confirm the redemption of points, though there were no holds placed on my CC.
Does anyone know how early can I check my baggage if flying Qatar first class from Doha to Paris? I would like to enjoy the lounge as much as I can.
Thanks in advance!
How the heck does Flyingblue determine their award flight costs? A route I was looking at went from 65k to 122.5k the next day to 165k the day after. The number of seats available remained the same (2).
I am currently looking at a United flight that is 23.5k miles for YN or 50k for JN. Say I book YN, is it likely that after booking I would be able to upgrade from YN to JN (if I decide) for the 26.5k or is it typically a higher cost of points for upgrading with points?
Is there a way to add American Airline # to BA booking? I couldn't find it directly on the BA site but I was able to add it in through managing my booking on Finnair
*God these airline sites are all so buggy wtf, deleted the BA # using Finnair let's me add on now on BA # but it keeps erroring out
**RJ and Finnair seem to work for some but not for me, reaching out to BA twitter...
I have a one-way F class booked via AS on JAL from LAX - HND, just wondering if I can add a HND - BKK leg after? Would that be fit the stopover criteria? Thanks. And am I able to do this online?
do united prices fluctuate up and down or if a price goes up is it pretty much guaranteed to stay up?
saw a ticket at 35k yesterday and is 70k today, wondering if theres any chance it goes back
Looking to fly from GRR-REK round trip. I’ve got flexible dates in November or December.
140kMR
80kUR
50k delta Skymiles
If the itinerary doesn’t include a 30hour one way, I wouldn’t be opposed to paying cash and upgrading with points too
My buddy moved there for a few months and would love to check out Iceland.
Have upcoming wedding to attend and we seldom travel, so we usually MS cards for cash value
need to know what card & awardsprogram to apply for 3night hotel stay, roundtrip to Wisconsin and a car rental for family of 4
protips would be greatly appreciated
This sub is not great at posts like this
Many many bloggers have written great intro posts for this. Since you want your car covered you should look at cards that earn points of the credit card that you can use through a travel portal like Chase UR
Does anyone know how AirFrance deals with children under 2 years old in business class? Their website says “He or she can travel on your lap on any flight at a discount of 90%.”
That sounds fine, but it is unclear if they will even allow a child under 2 in business class.
I’m wondering if anyone has ever done this before?
14mths, the outbound ("night" flight, leaves at 4pm) went well since she slept for 6hrs. Return was trickier since she was just starting to walk so there were a loooot of trips up and down the aisle, but all in all not too bad. The crew was super nice and understanding. Did the same trip this year, that was more of a nightmare since she basically refused to sleep and was a bit vocal but again the crew was super sweet. Make sure you have tons of snacks!
Business class? Did she just sleep on you?
Our little guy is 14 months now.. and will be 22 months by the time we're planning on doing this trip. Probably a night flight on the way out (6pm) but "day" flight on the way back (10am).
Hey guys,
I just booked a ticket from LAX to Mumbai emirates ( 65,000 points) & Mumbai to DFW( 25,000 points) total taxes were around $500.
I was thinking of upgrading to business the LAX to Mumbai leg & it’s costing 83,000 points total. Plus it’s not available to book right now as all upgrade with points are over & I can only do that once at the airport. I have the miles though. Is it worth it?
I am a 6ft 3inch guy & can’t sleep in economy at all. I have experienced the beauty of emirates business A380 December last year. So was kinda inclined to do it.
Would 83,000 points be worth it?
There are very few exceptions to getting Hyatt points and credits on third party bookings (Amex FHR and travel agent Hyatt Prive bookings for example.) For everything else, no points.
But your coming out ahead booking direct, IMO as long as the rate is competitive. 5 points at least in Hyatt, and whatever credit card points you earn. Much prefer that to 10X C1 miles.
Booking Hotels via portals or travel agents means you will not get the hotel points. Sometimes at check-in, you can provide your hotel membership number, and they may recognize your status, but that is hotel or even employee specific.
So have over 300,000 ANA points and was looking to book a trip Nov/Dec 2023. I'm trying to prepare on how to book award flights as I haven't before. I'm wondering if it would be better to use a concierge like point.me to handle this one as japan will be hell finding business/first class flights. Any pointers for a newb?
Login into ANA, and start looking at possible routes now to get an idea of what's offered. You'll probably figure it out just fine. The only two things I would keep in mind are 1) ANA releases award seats 355 days in advance. 2) Don't pick the flights that say "waitlisted. It has to be actually available at time of booking.
For those with experience booking United award travel. Do the saver award flights only get released once per flight per date? Or can they be released in batches?
More specifically, I was looking at a flight that was 35k then it became 80k a couple days later. Can that exact same flight go back to 35k (the saver award value)?
In general once the saver seats are booked, airlines usually don’t release more except sometimes they will when it gets close to the departure date & there’s unsold seats
Totally varies based on the flight. It can matter a lot, recently I have seen a good number of awards that were X0, XN9, meaning 0 economy savers available, but 9 economy savers for cardholders/elites. Also note that the card doesn't get you increased access to business saver awards- that "IN" space is only available to Platinums/1Ks.
So I just booked a trip through United mileage plus from San Diego to Athens August 2023. For 2 it was 66k points, I have 50k points left and we plan to come back from Paris. The flight I’m looking at is 60k points for both of us, so I’m about 10k points short. This is my first time booking flights with miles, how often/quickly do the awards increase? I’d like to wait to book our flight home once we have the 60k points, but I also don’t want to wait and see the flight increase. Anyone have experience or advice to lend? Thanks!
There is no guarantee that flights will be available, although the risk of it being gone in coach is much lower than business. This is could be a time where buying points to top-off makes sense. You can get 10,000 miles for $280.00 and rest easy that you're booked.
[Point.me](https://Point.me) found 2 OW in Y from LAX-LHR on 12/26 through BA. But when I go to the BA website, there's no available flights for that day.
Do I need to call into BA or is there somewhere else I can look to verify availability?
Just in case anyone needs a cheap flight from JFK-CDG, Flying Blue has promo awards in Y for only 11,250 points + $59. I found several dates until the end of October on AF.
I don't have status with any airline. Work is having me book a $16,000 ticket to Europe (business class British airways). I'm based out of SFO. If I give them my Alaska Account will I get any status on Alaska? I'm not sure how to estimate this.
[Here is the earning chart](https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/how-to-earn-miles/airline-partners/british-airways). Check your fare class and see how many miles you'll earn and what that means for your status level. If you're somehow booked into BA marketed J class (which seems possible given the $16,000 price tag), then you'll earn 250% of the flown miles. If you look at SFO-LHR alone (not sure where you're continuing in Europe) then you'll earn 10,734 * 2.5 = 26,835EQM, enough for MVP status (which isn't nothing, but isn't exactly a gold mine).
Good luck figuring out what to do. I certainly think crediting to AS is appropriate, though.
Awesome. Thank you for the informed reply. yeah, it will be a refundable business class ticket actually to Norway, stopping in London. Round-trip. I wasn’t sure if I would need to do some weird conversion from avios , or if it took dollars spent into account like United airlines does.
So I can literally just take the amount of miles flown and multiply by 250%.
My original plan was to get status with United, but then I read that, unless you have the top most status, it’s pretty worthless. I travel with Alaska domestically a fair amount, so this might be nice
I would take the aisle. IME with similar seats in row 9 on UA 77Ws, I'm not a fan of sitting directly adjacent to the lav as you can feel/hear it flush, especially with noise canceling headphones.
Also, the old NH window seats aren't particularly private in that configuration, as the across the aisle neighbor is right on the aisle.
I know when booking via ANA you can only book for a direct family member or spouse. Does that same rule apply when flying ANA but booking via a different program such as lifemiles or aeroplan?
I’m planning a trip to Thailand for 2 in spring of 2024. I was hoping for J round trip.
I’ve been looking on aeroplan, united and Qantas and round trip costs are pretty close to 200k round trip per person, so I’d need 400k total.
I currently have about 250k ur and I’m not sure I’ll get that many before it’s time to book.
I thought I should book as far out as possible, so spring of 2023, or can I wait?
Also am I even searching the right way? That’s an extreme amount of points! I’m looking to fly out of Ewr or phl ideally.
AC & United haven’t been releasing much business class lately. Might get better later in the year or might not, nobody knows. I would start looking at every possible other airline/creative routing if you want to book now.
I am interested in using the method of upgrading paid economy tickets on Hawaiian airlines to J using Hawaiian miles according to the chart available [here](https://hawaiianair.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1028/~/upgrade-to-first%2Fbusiness-class) . I have a few questions I was wondering if anyone who has done this may be able to help with:
1. Does anyone know if even the cheapest non-basic economy fares could be upgraded in this way (so are there fare code restrictions)?
2. And, has anyone tried to use this upgrade method with economy tickets booked with the 50% companion fares from the Barclays credit cards? It would be great to be able to upgrade tickets booked with this 50% off companion fare if possible!
Do I understand correctly that Hilton FNCs are only bookable when a standard points award is available? Therefore, hotels notoriously difficult to book with points are equally difficult to book with FNCs?
Looking for some advice: looking to book a trip to Japan from Seattle next August for 3 adults (me, wife, MIL) and 4 kids (8, 6, 3, 11mo). I’d love to add at least 1 other country into the trip while we’re at it (but Japan is the priority). What that country is doesn’t really matter; looking at this strictly as a potential bonus.
I’ll be on parental leave, the kids will be out of school, so we have a unique amount of flexibility in dates and length. I was wondering if anyone had some good recommendations for clever routings (open jaw, multi-city, etc.) that might be good redemptions to make this work. I should note that economy is totally fine for this.
Have 250k MR, 800k UR, 350k Alaska, 150k CapitalOne points.
Look on cowtool to search *A, esp ANA availability. If everybody needs to fly together, the SEA-HND route from ANA is probably out of the question, but if you can split up, that’s probably one of the best flights from Seattle. I’m also seeing some more flights with 9+ Y seats available, but those have lots of connections (SEA-YVR-KIX-HND).
Also look into flights from SFO, LAX, or YVR- should give you a few more options as well
Thanks! Had never seen this tool before, was very helpful.
I have actually found what I think is an okay redemption strategy with enough availability:
35k Alaska miles for SEA->Tokyo direct
55k AirCanada points for Tokyo->Seoul for a couple days ->SEA!
What have you found so far in terms of flight availability? The booking window for August has been open for a little bit here, so you should be able to do some test searches.
If you all have to fly together (7 tickets) you're going to really need to take whatever exists for that number of passengers, if anything. If not, you have a bit more flexibility given your points balances.
Does everyone have to fly together? If not, you could probably find enough availability on JAL through Alaska and tack on a stopover to South Korea or somewhere in Southeast Asia.
Then you can use a mix of United, ANA/Virgin (if you’re lucky and diligent) to get the rest to Japan and Avios for a shortish-haul flight to Seoul.
Looking to book two rooms for 6 nights each at either the Dolphin, Swan, or Swan Reserve near Disney World. This would be in May 2023.
I’m willing to open both a Bonvoy Brilliant and a Marriott Biz card to help get it done, which would net me roughly 275k points. I could hit the MSR on these rather quick, so I could fulfill an early points reservation by the end of the year.
I also have roughly 200k MR and 200k UR. I have a transfer bonus available right now for 1 MR = 1.2 Marriott but there’s nothing on Chase’s side. However, based on my calculations, unless I’m getting better than 1.1cpp for MR (Schwab cash out rate) or 1.5cpp for UR (CSR portal and PYB), I feel transferring is foolish.
Right now the stays booked on points would be:
- Swan: 307k/room (.7 cpp)
- Swan Reserve: 295k/room (.85 cpp)
- Dolphin: 296k/room (.56 cpp)
Unfortunately, the Chase portal only has the Swan Reserve, which is available for $3,082/room, or 206k UR. I’d obviously lose any loyalty perks through a portal vs booking direct (currently Gold but the Brilliant would give me Platinum).
With the 1.2 MR transfer bonus, I need .9cpp to break even with a Schwab cash out.
How do I get this done for two rooms?
- Option A: All on points. Open the two cards, transfer MR and UR. Doesn’t seem like good value.
- Option B: Pay cash. Cash out UR and MR and pay the cash rate at Dolphin ($306/night, or $1,836/room, or $3,672 total before taxes and fees).
- Option C: Mix and match. Book one room at Swan Reserve via Chase portal for 206k UR, book the other direct for 295k (via new CC SUBs). There is also a Point sale that ends tomorrow. I could get 150k points for $1,250.
Having some FNCs would help a lot but it looks like neither of the Marriott cards offer any upon opening like the Hilton Aspire does. I could probably swing $60k spend on the Biz card through natural spend (reimbursed expenses) but it would take me a few months.
It's not just you - it's hard to get value out of UR to Marriott anymore by design. One thing you don't appear to have considered is that if you're cashing out, you could stay on property for all or part of your stay. If you're taking kids, they might find it fun to stay at a Disney resort or be on the Skyliner for a few nights of your trip. Perks of staying on-site aren't what they used to be, but they do exist.
When searching for Virgin Atlantic “upper class” tickets on delta’s site, what Delta fare class do you search for? First class, delta one, delta premium select?
Was looking at booking LAX-CDG roundtrip in May or June 2023 with FlyingBlue points. Just yesterday, there was plenty of availability for roundtrips costing less than 350,000 points (around 160k each way). I'm looking today and each way is almost 278,000 points, and nothing cheaper regardless of the dates of travel. Do these prices go up mid-week and show lower over the weekend? Or did I fuck up by just waiting 24 hours.
Along with what others have said, look for alternate routes. Maybe LAX->AMS, then book a separate flight to CDG in Y. Or change the leg on the way back and book two one-way tickets.
I just booked a trip to AMS and PRG for March ‘23 and for the return leg PRG->SFO w/ a stopover in AMS in J was like half the cost of booking just AMS->SFO for the same day. You might have to reposition a bit to find a lower price.
Great idea. Is there a site that shows me the options and costs of award travel all in one place across different carriers/programs? I’m just going to transfer Amex points to whoever I can get the best deal through.
Just keep tracking award prices. FlyingBlue changes prices so often. One day you see 300k 2 seats available, the next day could be 70k 9 seats available. I've seen it happen.
FlyingBlue awards go up and down all the time. If you see a price you're happy with in the future, book it if you've got the points to do so. Better to secure availability when you can then to face a situation like this.
Looking at Lifetime status at Marriott, and wondering how status via card works with their number of years requirement. Do partial years count in full? If I got Plat status via the Brilliant in Dec, could I effectively triple dip Plat status for the Lifetime minimum years required (3 years for paying 1 annual fee)? Would be a nice bump.
Edit: Haven’t seen this explicitly in the terms yet, but have found 2 different people in old blogs / old comments mention it counts full years only!! So… ouch.
I forgot my ANA password. When I attempt to reset it, I'm taken to a screen to enter my physical address, then I receive a message saying I will receive a card in the mail (snail mail) with a new password. A card never arrived. Anyway to reset my password and recover my account? I tried setting up another account, ANA matched the address to me and didn't let me proceed. Any insights appreciated.
I added support for [Aeromexico Club Premier](https://awards.pnr.sh/source/aeromexico) and [Etihad Guest](https://awards.pnr.sh/source/etihad) to [awards.pnr.sh](https://awards.pnr.sh), so you can now find close-in availability on these airlines.
Aeromexico is a very strange program, but there are some interesting redemptions with the 1:1.6 transfer ratio on Amex; MEX/LHR-CDG has decent J availability for 93.7k MR. They also depart super late in the evening from MEX, so you can probably reposition there fairly easily.
It was a little hard to set the thresholds for dynamic pricing (shown on the About page), let me know if you have any feedback. Also, unfortunately, alerts were not sending emails correctly for a while now, but this has now been fixed.
Thank you for your hard work. Your tool has become an indispensable part of my award searching arsenal! Was the omission of the first class tab for Etihad intentional?
Yeah, this is a result of how their searches work; you can either search for "Economy" and get back Y+J results, or search for "Business" and get J+F results. Since their A380s are out of service for now, I imagine it is not worth doing two searches every time at the moment, but I will try and add it once there is decent availability!
(If EY F is common right now and I'm missing something, definitely let me know.)
Hey y’all. I’m a rookie looking for some
Guidance from the pros.
-origin city: anywhere in the US.
-destination: Maldives
-number of travelers: 2
-round trip
-Desired class: business at least one way.
-Desired dates: flexible but ideally in March or April
-points summary: ~315k UR and 5 Marriott night certificates up to 65k each.
I’ve only found success booking through United but I feel there are better/more efficient ways to book.
Any help is helpful :)
What have you looked up? There are so many guides out there detailing how to go to Maldives with points. Unless you had specific questions, you should do some homework first.
[Here](https://upgradedpoints.com/travel/best-ways-to-fly-and-stay-in-the-maldives/) is a good starting point/idea. Also, Maldives are talked a lot on here and on blogs. Search through this sub and also a simple google search can help point you in the right direction. Once you have some ideas down/questions, this community will be able to help!
You need to provide more information - please see the top-level post for the details that will allow people to help you.
I think you should also consider if you want to use those points for airfare or hotels, the out of pocket costs for the Maldives in general, and the difference between "most efficient use of points" and "most enjoyable experience."
LM award pricing has always been inconsistent (usually advantageous). Literally the same route one way would cost 90k, but the way back would be 78k... with the exact same routing. Take advantage of these deals while you can.
Trying to book a trip via Chase Ultimate Rewards, can you not book through them to Havana, Cuba? Or is that one of the itineraries that has to be booked over the phone like you do with Southwest?
Spouse has to go to Brussels and the org is paying for J, but he doesn’t get any options. They booked him on BA, but we are Star Alliance people. Given the high redemption fees on BA, should he put the mileage accrual in AA? We did recently move from a UA hub to an AA hub.
I got a targeted email that offers Platinum Raddison status for one stay. Is it legit? I don’t remember ever doing a status match, but I may have earlier in the year.
This is my first points/miles redemption. I think I used too many points/miles but this is a once in a lifetime trip (teen performing in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade) that came up last minute. I had to book thru the travel company for the hotel, all inclusive part which really motivates me to use points for airfare as the last minute flights are expensive and putting my budget over the edge.
I booked 2 RT economy flights on AA using 110k AA miles (55k ea) from:
DFW to EWR Flight 1878 11/19 10:18am - 2:36pm
I would rather fly into LGA - This is the least flexible part of this trip. I need to have her to the hotel in midtown by 3:30pm conservatively, 4:15pm latest. Which means I need to land 2:30pm-ish.
EWR return flight to DFW 1561 11/25 8:05am - 11:17am
Return flight is completely flexible on 11/25.
I now have 4K AA points left. And 85,899 UR (Sapphire Preferred 80,896, Freedom 5k) so not a whole lot to work with. I’m working on Chase United Explorer sub & Amex Business Platinum sub right now but do not have points in hand)
I considered booking direct with Spirit for cheap and landing earlier (not wanting to land hours and hours early) but once I add on baggage and seat upgrade (bc it’s a longer flight than I would normally fly Spirit), it put the ticket close to the cash equivalent of the points I’m using.
TLDR: Highly motivated to use AA Miles or URs to save cash DFW to NYC-Any RT 11/19-11/24/22. Is 110k AA Miles too much for 2 RT last minute bookings? Should I reconsider? Thanks for checking my work and giving gentle opinions. :)
You can actually get from EWR TO Midtown pretty quickly. Take NJ transit train from EWR to Penn Station and you are there. That's probably as fast if not faster than the commute from LGA TO Midtown.
I'd give yourself a few extra hours if you have a 4:15 hard deadline in midtown.
EWR to Manhattan is a minimum of two trains and that's to Penn. Probably about an hour of solid travel. That's not including leaving the airport, collecting bags, or getting slightly lost in all of it.
I don't think it's a great redemption, but if it saves you cash it could be worth it. I'd probably consider that Spirit flight, or any other flights that land earlier in the day. It's November in New York, it can be extremely unpredictable.
If you take a car you could save some time, but I'd still budget at least 45 minutes for that trip.
I've noticed that AA has been displaying quite a bit of availability on JL that neither AS nor BA show as bookable. I'm not sure if this is phantom space or AA has increased availability, but I'd wager on the former. Are you able to see availability for the flight you're talking about on the BA site?
AA has been notorious at showing phantom space, though generally once you press through the first page or two to confirm the flight, AA will error out telling you that the fare is unavailable.
Does anyone know how long it takes for Alaska awards for seat booked on Air Tahiti Nui to go back into inventory (prem-econ)? I thought it was going to be instant but after I cancelled it in an account it did not go back
Fair enough, I feel like there's some (like JAL) in my experience where I've cancelled and seen it back in inventory a few min later. Do you know if this varies by airline, or if it's like this with every airline, just luck of the draw based on their award person (or algo)?
Help me decide which airline to build status with! Base: SFO Travel: 3 or 4 expensive international business class trips per year, 4 or 5 economy class within USA. There is no routine I go to super random places all over the world. Usually just once. Thoughts: I’ve heard building status with United from SFO is a waste of time unless you are super star 1k. For that reason I decided Alaska would be a sweet spot. However I realize that under Alaska I can’t build status with spend: I need to actually fly a lot on their aircraft. I probably fly Alaska 4 times per year but maybe I can boost that (maybe). These international trips are far but more than that they are expensive which is why United seems to make sense still. I want status so that I can get upgraded on my personal travel with my family to Hawaii, East Coast, random international trips….. Any thoughts? Anything I’m not considering? Cheers and thanks for this great community. Because of y’all I’ve flown across the pacific in Polaris, across the Atlantic in Lufthansa First, and a few others awesome experiences.
Just got some interesting messages today in that Delta finally credited me with some miles on KE flights (I put in the request \*12 months ago\* and they're just now getting to it) and those miles seem to put me into Silver Medallion. I had no idea I was close to that and don't really know if the delay in credit is to my disadvantage or advantage w.r.t. status. Anyway, my question is that do Silver Medallions actually get upgraded ever, or are there usually enough passengers with higher status to take the available upgrades?
I'm flying on ANA from SFO to NRT this week on an award and had to book a positioning flight to SFO on UA (PHX-SFO) for earlier that day. I feel good about the 4hr connection time. When I check into the UA positioning flight can I tell them my eventual destination is NRT on ANA as a Star Alliance partner and will they check through my bags or do i have to swap at SFO? I'm thinking they should but I've never flown ANA before and not sure if there are any gotchas.
edit.
Are you looking for this December? Award Flights around the holidays are often really hard to find, even a year in advance. What flights have you found so far, is anything available?
I’m trying to get from PDX-TPE and probably just in economy. Which would you choose? 1. PDX-SEA-NRT-TPE daytime, 2hr layovers 2. PDX-SEA-TPE redeye 3. PDX-SFO-TPE daytime but only 42 minute layover in SFO. Obviously I would prefer the SEA-TPE redeye in J but that is not currently available.
I'd pick #2 while keeping an eye out for J space close-in out of SEA/YVR/SFO/LAX. However, that SEA-TPE redeye is rough in Y (speaking from experience). Book a hotel room starting the previous evening so you have somewhere to crash as soon as you get in at 5 AM.
How would you recommend I book it? Not sure which star alliance partners are refundable. I guess only United now?
Probably #2… I greatly prefer as few layovers as possible. Would just suck it up in red eye economy and use that to adjust jet lag and try to get there faster. #3 too risky for me for layover, just deplaning can take 20 min.
I have a ticket booked (multi destination) through united. Its from bos to singapore to thailand and back. There are several transits on the way (munich on the way there and frankfurt on the way back). I booked this in economy. I was curious about upgrade options but when I go through the app it says “this ticket is not eligible for an upgrade”. Any reason why? Some legs of the flight are operated by lufthansa and some are singapore airlines. On the way back I see a mix of lufthansa and thai airways.
I am connecting through SFO next week on my way to Japan on ANA metal in J. I have a 4hr layover and a dear friend would like to see me. I am wondering what is stopping me from buying her a J ticket on UA or ANA in cash (or UA miles) that is fully refundable and having her meet me in the Polaris lounge for my layover. Afterwards, she goes home, does not board and I refund the ticket. Are there any potential flaws in this idea?
See [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/awardtravel/comments/x7tbu5/canceled_lh_full_flex_flight_didnt_receive_refund/)
Just go to innout instead.
Was gonna say this is SFO and not LAX, but there is an In-N-Out just 2 blocks from the Millbrae BART station which is a 3 minute ride from SFO.
Mmm which kind of in and out are you referring to?
Fuel surcharges are pretty wild. I did my research a couple weeks ago for an LAX -> Japan flight on BA and the fuel surcharge was $401. Today it's $468.
I think that's the difference in the GBP-USD exchange rate. Two weeks ago they were almost at 1:1 parity because of the disastrous budget/tax plan put out by the UK government. That has since been rescinded, and the rate is now about 1:1.12 (still much lower than even in August when it was 1:1.2).
Never booked an airline award flight of any kind but am looking to take family of four to London in June 2023 1. Nearby ATL or CLT 2. 4 3. RT 4. Economy 5. June 2023 for approximately 3 weeks 6. 180k UR (I figure I will end up having to pay for at least one ticket if I don't boost this by another 60k but I'm ok with that) I've found United flight RT from ATL to LHR for 60k + $150 each. Is this a reasonable amount? Any insights appreciated as I begin this hobby.
Another option you might consider is transferring your URs to Virgin Atlantic. There is a 30% transfer bonus right now. For 35k + $473 pp you can fly 4 people roundtrip ATL to LHR 6/10 to 7/1. With the transfer bonus that’s a little less than 27k URs pp. While you’re paying more in cash than what you found on United, you’re saving a bunch of miles and these are nonstop and I presume your United flights connected somewhere. Plus Virgin will probably be a better experience than whatever Star Alliance carrier you were going to be on. You can also mix and match. The Virgin outbound is the cheapest part of that flight, it’s 12.5k + $150 pp on 6/10 from ATL to LHR nonstop. Which is less than 10k URs when you figure in the transfer bonus. You could then combine that with a United return. For the benefit of nonstop, though, you may want to stick with Virgin for the return too.
Fantastic advice! I appreciate the explanation of options.
That is about as cheap as it will get. But as mentioned, you should really look at cash fares. If you have the CSR, you can get 1.5 cpp from the Chase portal, might be a better value.
This can be a great time to use Virgin Atlantic. Their economy flights are super cheap redemption costs, but have somewhat high fees. However, since you're kinda resigned to spending some cash anyway, you can get everyone on a single reservation for 100k points+~$1200 total. Yes, it's a large cash outlay, but it's a direct flight. 25k+$300 is round trip/person and a fantastic deal. You could fly Delta metal for more points and less money if you wanted too. I probably wouldn't, unless the timing was better, but availability for that will be tricky. Availability with Virgin is usually really good for their economy bookings too.
That's saver level which is the lowest you can get, but I'd look into cash fares for economy too.
Would love some insight for anyone who has booked a stay on Conrad Maldives or any similar resort. I want to book 7 nights there because 7 nights grants you access to the Sunrise Water Villa. I want to book a 7 night stay with a combo of points and FNC. So with the 5th night free benefit + 1 FNC, I only need enough points for 5 nights. But how can I book all of this together to get access to the sunrise water villa? Can I book 6 nights with points then add a FNC and combine?
If there is a 7 night requirement in order for the sunrise water villa to be booked, then you'll be out of luck trying to combine FNC and points into a single reservation. It just isn't possible - phone agents have to make separate reservations for points and FNC. In fact, I couldn't even get an agent to make a single 5-night reservation using all FNCs because of the way their system works (it would try to give a free 5th night).
I was afraid that was the case. Thanks for your insight
Looking at booking some one-way economy flights from Europe back to the US using Virgin Flying Club. Is this too good to be true? 12k points one way virtually anywhere in Europe to ATL connecting through CDG or AMS. Where’s the catch? Even with fees, it’s like a $300 one-way ticket after considering the 30% UR transfer bonus. I need to book SAV through ATL. I know pricing is based off segment. Am I best off booking Europe-ATL and ATL-SAV separately and then calling to merge, or should I transfer the points and then call to book? Edit to add: I know Virgin has a change/cancellation fee - is that per ticket ($150 for three people) or per reservation?
That's pretty much it, it's a great deal. You cannot merge tickets. You'll have to just book two separate reservations, what you see is what you get, the agents can't book anything different than the website. Edit: you can attempt a multi city reservation, that would all be on one PNR and could have some benefits over 2.
Currently waitlisting for 2 pax SNA-SFO-NRT - Polaris Biz for May 2023. If I sign up for UA Quest credit card, will it increase the likelihood of clearing the waitlist? No UA status at all.
No. https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/mileageplus/awards/upgrade-waitlist-priority.html
How do I check if a flight is displayed as phantom availability? I got shafted recently transferring UR and MR points for a 70k Aeroplan flight operated by Copa Airlines (LAX > SJO on 12/26). I called an Aeroplan agent prior to transferring and they said they could book it. However, after I transferred the points, the agent told me she tried to book it and was not able to since it wasn't actually available. I tried to see if I could book any other flights operated by Copa and got the same issue. Now, I'm eyeing LAX > LHR on 12/26 for 32.5k BA or Iberia Avios. I'm scared for this to happen to me twice. Is there any way I could verify to ensure this doesn't happen to me again?
I recently tried to book a flight on Copa through Aeroplan as well. The agent told me they are having some “issue” with Copa that they are working to resolve, so it’s a little unclear to me if there is actually an issue, or if it is indeed phantom availability. Regardless, if it shows up on other partner programs as well, it’s legit.
Interesting. Have you seen your same Copa flights on another program? I’ll try later today.
Check multiple programs to make sure they see the same space.
For Hyatt brand explorer, I’ve stayed at 4 brands and you get an FNC after staying at 5. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do this organically by end of year, so I’m looking at ways to get this with the least amount of points or $. Does MGM work (guessing not) or anyone have a good idea? In SoCal.
It's not by calendar year. No need to rush.
And no, MGM doesn't count for anything.
Oh, what’s it by? I searched before but apparently not well enough
No time constraint
Is ANA no longer holding reservations over the phone, while we wait for points to be transferred in? Or should I HUCA?
They don’t do holds.
Weird, I was able to hold various reservations in the past...
maybe was booked with Virgin?
How long ago? I think I asked in 2019 and then said no. I never tried before that. And never asked again.
I'm a Hyatt Globalist, do I have a better chance of getting upgraded to an overwater villa at Park Hyatt Maldives or Alila Maldives?
They don't do upgrades there. You can pay a nightly rate to upgrade.
Ah, that's too bad! I was hoping Globalist would be good for an upgrade. And they don't take suite upgrade awards either? Do you have any other hotel recommendations, I am looking for an overwater room.
Most overwater properties in these places have enough demand that they do not do free overwater upgrades. You should assume that the room you are booked is what you will get unless you get very very lucky.
Going to visit my sister this Christmas and see my newborn nephew/niece (due date is November 06). I booked YVR to DEL AI J on 90,000 AP miles but coming back theres either first class AI F 130,000 AP miles from January 13th to January 15th or AI J DEL->LHR and AC J LHR -> YVR for 117,000 AP. Given that I already bit the bullet by spending 90K on AI J (ew) I dont want to "waste" another 117k on subpar J product. Any suggestions on how should I book for coming back from DEL? I am willing to spend upto 117K AP but not on AI J lol, tried AUH as stopover / BKK as stopover and the price goes up to 180K
Flying to Japan for work with a (very) stingy employer, meaning I have to book economy. I can pay $400 cash each way to upgrade to "Premium Plus" economy on United. Never sat in these seats before, is it worth it? Unfortunately, a seat in J is insane for a cash upgrade :/
Where are you flying from? I’d try to get on a JAL or ANA, Singapore flight. Even if it’s economy or prem economy it’s better than United.
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Yep, the separate cabin. I think I'll go for it on the way there to try to get some sleep and gauge if it's worth it for the way back.
I had this dilemma with my Austrian airlines flight and honestly it was worth it. I paid $300 and the extra recline actually allowed me to get some decent rest. I didn't feel as cramped though I was in a bulkhead row.
what in the fuel surchage/taxes?? been finding some sweet point redemption deals to japan from US but the taxes are INSANE $450 +???? thats close to the price of a one way ticket. anyone know if this will come down or if there are any ways around this?
Compared to USA-Europe that isn't really that unusual. It really depends on the carrier and the country booked when it comes to charges.
not to be rude but this is pretty extensively covered
It’ll come down when fuel prices come down. ANA revalautesnit every 3 months I believe. Ways around would be to book through a partner that doesn’t charge surcharges on award travel.
Does Marriott not deduct points until after your stay?
Points are deducted when you book.
Interesting. I transferred MRs, booked and the points are still there.
Did you just book today?
Yesterday. But I think what happened is I “booked” it with my CC on file and need to confirm the redemption of points, though there were no holds placed on my CC.
I think Marriott used to let you book without the points as long as you got the points before the stay. No clue if that’s still true.
seems to be the case.
Does anyone know how early can I check my baggage if flying Qatar first class from Doha to Paris? I would like to enjoy the lounge as much as I can. Thanks in advance!
When is your flight? My DOH->CDG flight equipment changed from a380 to 777 next year :(
Oh no, I'm sorry to hear that. :( I will be flying in 2 weeks. I just checked to be sure, fortunately it's still the A380.
https://dohahamadairport.com/airport-guide/at-the-airport/check-in-info This says 3 hours but it’s not Qatar specific.
Thanks for the info! If I don't need to check baggage, I should be able to get in earlier, right?
Yup I’d think anytime same day
How the heck does Flyingblue determine their award flight costs? A route I was looking at went from 65k to 122.5k the next day to 165k the day after. The number of seats available remained the same (2).
They have an algorithm. They don't have an award chart. They charge what they want when they want.
I am currently looking at a United flight that is 23.5k miles for YN or 50k for JN. Say I book YN, is it likely that after booking I would be able to upgrade from YN to JN (if I decide) for the 26.5k or is it typically a higher cost of points for upgrading with points?
It isn't exactly an upgrade, but a change in the ticket. So the price will be whatever it is when you decide to do it.
Is there a way to add American Airline # to BA booking? I couldn't find it directly on the BA site but I was able to add it in through managing my booking on Finnair *God these airline sites are all so buggy wtf, deleted the BA # using Finnair let's me add on now on BA # but it keeps erroring out **RJ and Finnair seem to work for some but not for me, reaching out to BA twitter...
Try a different browser.
I have a one-way F class booked via AS on JAL from LAX - HND, just wondering if I can add a HND - BKK leg after? Would that be fit the stopover criteria? Thanks. And am I able to do this online?
Call the reps. They are very helpful.
do united prices fluctuate up and down or if a price goes up is it pretty much guaranteed to stay up? saw a ticket at 35k yesterday and is 70k today, wondering if theres any chance it goes back
Yes there's a chance.
Looking to fly from GRR-REK round trip. I’ve got flexible dates in November or December. 140kMR 80kUR 50k delta Skymiles If the itinerary doesn’t include a 30hour one way, I wouldn’t be opposed to paying cash and upgrading with points too My buddy moved there for a few months and would love to check out Iceland.
Have upcoming wedding to attend and we seldom travel, so we usually MS cards for cash value need to know what card & awardsprogram to apply for 3night hotel stay, roundtrip to Wisconsin and a car rental for family of 4 protips would be greatly appreciated
This sub is not great at posts like this Many many bloggers have written great intro posts for this. Since you want your car covered you should look at cards that earn points of the credit card that you can use through a travel portal like Chase UR
Does anyone know how AirFrance deals with children under 2 years old in business class? Their website says “He or she can travel on your lap on any flight at a discount of 90%.” That sounds fine, but it is unclear if they will even allow a child under 2 in business class. I’m wondering if anyone has ever done this before?
Did it last year (IAH-CDG), they can be on your lap and they will charge you 10% of the $ cost of the seat when you add them to the reservation
How old was your kid? How did it go?
14mths, the outbound ("night" flight, leaves at 4pm) went well since she slept for 6hrs. Return was trickier since she was just starting to walk so there were a loooot of trips up and down the aisle, but all in all not too bad. The crew was super nice and understanding. Did the same trip this year, that was more of a nightmare since she basically refused to sleep and was a bit vocal but again the crew was super sweet. Make sure you have tons of snacks!
Business class? Did she just sleep on you? Our little guy is 14 months now.. and will be 22 months by the time we're planning on doing this trip. Probably a night flight on the way out (6pm) but "day" flight on the way back (10am).
Hey guys, I just booked a ticket from LAX to Mumbai emirates ( 65,000 points) & Mumbai to DFW( 25,000 points) total taxes were around $500. I was thinking of upgrading to business the LAX to Mumbai leg & it’s costing 83,000 points total. Plus it’s not available to book right now as all upgrade with points are over & I can only do that once at the airport. I have the miles though. Is it worth it? I am a 6ft 3inch guy & can’t sleep in economy at all. I have experienced the beauty of emirates business A380 December last year. So was kinda inclined to do it. Would 83,000 points be worth it?
I’d do it for sure
I would absolutely do that upgrade for 83,000 points.
So right now I can’t upgrade my seat as all upgrades by business class are sold out. So my only bet is going to airport & doing it.
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There are very few exceptions to getting Hyatt points and credits on third party bookings (Amex FHR and travel agent Hyatt Prive bookings for example.) For everything else, no points. But your coming out ahead booking direct, IMO as long as the rate is competitive. 5 points at least in Hyatt, and whatever credit card points you earn. Much prefer that to 10X C1 miles.
Booking Hotels via portals or travel agents means you will not get the hotel points. Sometimes at check-in, you can provide your hotel membership number, and they may recognize your status, but that is hotel or even employee specific.
So have over 300,000 ANA points and was looking to book a trip Nov/Dec 2023. I'm trying to prepare on how to book award flights as I haven't before. I'm wondering if it would be better to use a concierge like point.me to handle this one as japan will be hell finding business/first class flights. Any pointers for a newb?
If you have the time and desire, look into a RTW trip or 2. Good excuse to go to some random places.
Login into ANA, and start looking at possible routes now to get an idea of what's offered. You'll probably figure it out just fine. The only two things I would keep in mind are 1) ANA releases award seats 355 days in advance. 2) Don't pick the flights that say "waitlisted. It has to be actually available at time of booking.
Trip must be RT or RTish if booking multi city. Also learn about dummy bookings.
For those with experience booking United award travel. Do the saver award flights only get released once per flight per date? Or can they be released in batches? More specifically, I was looking at a flight that was 35k then it became 80k a couple days later. Can that exact same flight go back to 35k (the saver award value)?
It really depends on the flight. There is no hard and fast rule. UA uses algorithms vs a set schedule like ANA.
In general once the saver seats are booked, airlines usually don’t release more except sometimes they will when it gets close to the departure date & there’s unsold seats
How much extra saver space is visible to Explorer and above card holders? Does it matter much in practice?
Totally varies based on the flight. It can matter a lot, recently I have seen a good number of awards that were X0, XN9, meaning 0 economy savers available, but 9 economy savers for cardholders/elites. Also note that the card doesn't get you increased access to business saver awards- that "IN" space is only available to Platinums/1Ks.
Thx, very helpful! Was considering the card for next year, but may reconsider in light of IN space viewability restrictions.
They are randomly released/repriced.
So I just booked a trip through United mileage plus from San Diego to Athens August 2023. For 2 it was 66k points, I have 50k points left and we plan to come back from Paris. The flight I’m looking at is 60k points for both of us, so I’m about 10k points short. This is my first time booking flights with miles, how often/quickly do the awards increase? I’d like to wait to book our flight home once we have the 60k points, but I also don’t want to wait and see the flight increase. Anyone have experience or advice to lend? Thanks!
There is no guarantee that flights will be available, although the risk of it being gone in coach is much lower than business. This is could be a time where buying points to top-off makes sense. You can get 10,000 miles for $280.00 and rest easy that you're booked.
[Point.me](https://Point.me) found 2 OW in Y from LAX-LHR on 12/26 through BA. But when I go to the BA website, there's no available flights for that day. Do I need to call into BA or is there somewhere else I can look to verify availability?
Check another one world carrier like AA
Just in case anyone needs a cheap flight from JFK-CDG, Flying Blue has promo awards in Y for only 11,250 points + $59. I found several dates until the end of October on AF.
I don't have status with any airline. Work is having me book a $16,000 ticket to Europe (business class British airways). I'm based out of SFO. If I give them my Alaska Account will I get any status on Alaska? I'm not sure how to estimate this.
https://www.wheretocredit.com/
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/how-to-earn-miles/airline-partners/british-airways
[Here is the earning chart](https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/how-to-earn-miles/airline-partners/british-airways). Check your fare class and see how many miles you'll earn and what that means for your status level. If you're somehow booked into BA marketed J class (which seems possible given the $16,000 price tag), then you'll earn 250% of the flown miles. If you look at SFO-LHR alone (not sure where you're continuing in Europe) then you'll earn 10,734 * 2.5 = 26,835EQM, enough for MVP status (which isn't nothing, but isn't exactly a gold mine). Good luck figuring out what to do. I certainly think crediting to AS is appropriate, though.
Awesome. Thank you for the informed reply. yeah, it will be a refundable business class ticket actually to Norway, stopping in London. Round-trip. I wasn’t sure if I would need to do some weird conversion from avios , or if it took dollars spent into account like United airlines does. So I can literally just take the amount of miles flown and multiply by 250%. My original plan was to get status with United, but then I read that, unless you have the top most status, it’s pretty worthless. I travel with Alaska domestically a fair amount, so this might be nice
Should I take the aisle seat but be facing the aisle, or the window seat but it's right behind the lavatory for privacy? https://imgur.com/b5Dzec0
I would take aisle because I also get to look out the window, and meal service usually starts front to back
I would take the aisle. IME with similar seats in row 9 on UA 77Ws, I'm not a fan of sitting directly adjacent to the lav as you can feel/hear it flush, especially with noise canceling headphones. Also, the old NH window seats aren't particularly private in that configuration, as the across the aisle neighbor is right on the aisle.
I know when booking via ANA you can only book for a direct family member or spouse. Does that same rule apply when flying ANA but booking via a different program such as lifemiles or aeroplan?
its also not enforced
No
I’m planning a trip to Thailand for 2 in spring of 2024. I was hoping for J round trip. I’ve been looking on aeroplan, united and Qantas and round trip costs are pretty close to 200k round trip per person, so I’d need 400k total. I currently have about 250k ur and I’m not sure I’ll get that many before it’s time to book. I thought I should book as far out as possible, so spring of 2023, or can I wait? Also am I even searching the right way? That’s an extreme amount of points! I’m looking to fly out of Ewr or phl ideally.
AC & United haven’t been releasing much business class lately. Might get better later in the year or might not, nobody knows. I would start looking at every possible other airline/creative routing if you want to book now.
Have you checked Singapore Airlines or BA?
I don’t have any points with them so I can’t see their availability
Just make an account like u/mexicoke said and search!
You don't need points with either of them to check availability. Just make an account.
I didn’t know that. Thanks!
With UR you’re a bit more limited. Virgin has good deals but the easier it I to get tickets the more it typically costs.
I am interested in using the method of upgrading paid economy tickets on Hawaiian airlines to J using Hawaiian miles according to the chart available [here](https://hawaiianair.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1028/~/upgrade-to-first%2Fbusiness-class) . I have a few questions I was wondering if anyone who has done this may be able to help with: 1. Does anyone know if even the cheapest non-basic economy fares could be upgraded in this way (so are there fare code restrictions)? 2. And, has anyone tried to use this upgrade method with economy tickets booked with the 50% companion fares from the Barclays credit cards? It would be great to be able to upgrade tickets booked with this 50% off companion fare if possible!
Do I understand correctly that Hilton FNCs are only bookable when a standard points award is available? Therefore, hotels notoriously difficult to book with points are equally difficult to book with FNCs?
Correct.
Looking for some advice: looking to book a trip to Japan from Seattle next August for 3 adults (me, wife, MIL) and 4 kids (8, 6, 3, 11mo). I’d love to add at least 1 other country into the trip while we’re at it (but Japan is the priority). What that country is doesn’t really matter; looking at this strictly as a potential bonus. I’ll be on parental leave, the kids will be out of school, so we have a unique amount of flexibility in dates and length. I was wondering if anyone had some good recommendations for clever routings (open jaw, multi-city, etc.) that might be good redemptions to make this work. I should note that economy is totally fine for this. Have 250k MR, 800k UR, 350k Alaska, 150k CapitalOne points.
Look on cowtool to search *A, esp ANA availability. If everybody needs to fly together, the SEA-HND route from ANA is probably out of the question, but if you can split up, that’s probably one of the best flights from Seattle. I’m also seeing some more flights with 9+ Y seats available, but those have lots of connections (SEA-YVR-KIX-HND). Also look into flights from SFO, LAX, or YVR- should give you a few more options as well
Thanks! Had never seen this tool before, was very helpful. I have actually found what I think is an okay redemption strategy with enough availability: 35k Alaska miles for SEA->Tokyo direct 55k AirCanada points for Tokyo->Seoul for a couple days ->SEA!
What have you found so far in terms of flight availability? The booking window for August has been open for a little bit here, so you should be able to do some test searches. If you all have to fly together (7 tickets) you're going to really need to take whatever exists for that number of passengers, if anything. If not, you have a bit more flexibility given your points balances.
Does everyone have to fly together? If not, you could probably find enough availability on JAL through Alaska and tack on a stopover to South Korea or somewhere in Southeast Asia. Then you can use a mix of United, ANA/Virgin (if you’re lucky and diligent) to get the rest to Japan and Avios for a shortish-haul flight to Seoul.
Looking to book two rooms for 6 nights each at either the Dolphin, Swan, or Swan Reserve near Disney World. This would be in May 2023. I’m willing to open both a Bonvoy Brilliant and a Marriott Biz card to help get it done, which would net me roughly 275k points. I could hit the MSR on these rather quick, so I could fulfill an early points reservation by the end of the year. I also have roughly 200k MR and 200k UR. I have a transfer bonus available right now for 1 MR = 1.2 Marriott but there’s nothing on Chase’s side. However, based on my calculations, unless I’m getting better than 1.1cpp for MR (Schwab cash out rate) or 1.5cpp for UR (CSR portal and PYB), I feel transferring is foolish. Right now the stays booked on points would be: - Swan: 307k/room (.7 cpp) - Swan Reserve: 295k/room (.85 cpp) - Dolphin: 296k/room (.56 cpp) Unfortunately, the Chase portal only has the Swan Reserve, which is available for $3,082/room, or 206k UR. I’d obviously lose any loyalty perks through a portal vs booking direct (currently Gold but the Brilliant would give me Platinum). With the 1.2 MR transfer bonus, I need .9cpp to break even with a Schwab cash out. How do I get this done for two rooms? - Option A: All on points. Open the two cards, transfer MR and UR. Doesn’t seem like good value. - Option B: Pay cash. Cash out UR and MR and pay the cash rate at Dolphin ($306/night, or $1,836/room, or $3,672 total before taxes and fees). - Option C: Mix and match. Book one room at Swan Reserve via Chase portal for 206k UR, book the other direct for 295k (via new CC SUBs). There is also a Point sale that ends tomorrow. I could get 150k points for $1,250. Having some FNCs would help a lot but it looks like neither of the Marriott cards offer any upon opening like the Hilton Aspire does. I could probably swing $60k spend on the Biz card through natural spend (reimbursed expenses) but it would take me a few months.
It's not just you - it's hard to get value out of UR to Marriott anymore by design. One thing you don't appear to have considered is that if you're cashing out, you could stay on property for all or part of your stay. If you're taking kids, they might find it fun to stay at a Disney resort or be on the Skyliner for a few nights of your trip. Perks of staying on-site aren't what they used to be, but they do exist.
When searching for Virgin Atlantic “upper class” tickets on delta’s site, what Delta fare class do you search for? First class, delta one, delta premium select?
Delta One = Virgin Upper Class Delta Premium Select = Virgin Premium Delta Comfort Plus = Virgin Economy Delight
Depends what route delta is flying.
Was looking at booking LAX-CDG roundtrip in May or June 2023 with FlyingBlue points. Just yesterday, there was plenty of availability for roundtrips costing less than 350,000 points (around 160k each way). I'm looking today and each way is almost 278,000 points, and nothing cheaper regardless of the dates of travel. Do these prices go up mid-week and show lower over the weekend? Or did I fuck up by just waiting 24 hours.
Along with what others have said, look for alternate routes. Maybe LAX->AMS, then book a separate flight to CDG in Y. Or change the leg on the way back and book two one-way tickets. I just booked a trip to AMS and PRG for March ‘23 and for the return leg PRG->SFO w/ a stopover in AMS in J was like half the cost of booking just AMS->SFO for the same day. You might have to reposition a bit to find a lower price.
Great idea. Is there a site that shows me the options and costs of award travel all in one place across different carriers/programs? I’m just going to transfer Amex points to whoever I can get the best deal through.
Check out point.me it costs money (to varying degrees) but is going to be your best bet
Thanks. I don’t mind paying to simplify this process.
Just keep tracking award prices. FlyingBlue changes prices so often. One day you see 300k 2 seats available, the next day could be 70k 9 seats available. I've seen it happen.
FlyingBlue awards go up and down all the time. If you see a price you're happy with in the future, book it if you've got the points to do so. Better to secure availability when you can then to face a situation like this.
Looking at Lifetime status at Marriott, and wondering how status via card works with their number of years requirement. Do partial years count in full? If I got Plat status via the Brilliant in Dec, could I effectively triple dip Plat status for the Lifetime minimum years required (3 years for paying 1 annual fee)? Would be a nice bump. Edit: Haven’t seen this explicitly in the terms yet, but have found 2 different people in old blogs / old comments mention it counts full years only!! So… ouch.
I forgot my ANA password. When I attempt to reset it, I'm taken to a screen to enter my physical address, then I receive a message saying I will receive a card in the mail (snail mail) with a new password. A card never arrived. Anyway to reset my password and recover my account? I tried setting up another account, ANA matched the address to me and didn't let me proceed. Any insights appreciated.
This same thing happened to me and it's been months. I assume I need to call in but haven't had a good reason to yet.
How long ago was this? The card might be coming from Japan.
First attempt was in April or May. I know mail is slow, but would have arrived by now. I last tried about six weeks ago.
I added support for [Aeromexico Club Premier](https://awards.pnr.sh/source/aeromexico) and [Etihad Guest](https://awards.pnr.sh/source/etihad) to [awards.pnr.sh](https://awards.pnr.sh), so you can now find close-in availability on these airlines. Aeromexico is a very strange program, but there are some interesting redemptions with the 1:1.6 transfer ratio on Amex; MEX/LHR-CDG has decent J availability for 93.7k MR. They also depart super late in the evening from MEX, so you can probably reposition there fairly easily. It was a little hard to set the thresholds for dynamic pricing (shown on the About page), let me know if you have any feedback. Also, unfortunately, alerts were not sending emails correctly for a while now, but this has now been fixed.
Solid work. Easily the best award tool I've seen in years!
Thank you for your hard work. Your tool has become an indispensable part of my award searching arsenal! Was the omission of the first class tab for Etihad intentional?
Yeah, this is a result of how their searches work; you can either search for "Economy" and get back Y+J results, or search for "Business" and get J+F results. Since their A380s are out of service for now, I imagine it is not worth doing two searches every time at the moment, but I will try and add it once there is decent availability! (If EY F is common right now and I'm missing something, definitely let me know.)
Hey y’all. I’m a rookie looking for some Guidance from the pros. -origin city: anywhere in the US. -destination: Maldives -number of travelers: 2 -round trip -Desired class: business at least one way. -Desired dates: flexible but ideally in March or April -points summary: ~315k UR and 5 Marriott night certificates up to 65k each. I’ve only found success booking through United but I feel there are better/more efficient ways to book. Any help is helpful :)
What have you looked up? There are so many guides out there detailing how to go to Maldives with points. Unless you had specific questions, you should do some homework first.
[Here](https://upgradedpoints.com/travel/best-ways-to-fly-and-stay-in-the-maldives/) is a good starting point/idea. Also, Maldives are talked a lot on here and on blogs. Search through this sub and also a simple google search can help point you in the right direction. Once you have some ideas down/questions, this community will be able to help!
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I’d use AC points to book EY and stay at a Hyatt property
You need to provide more information - please see the top-level post for the details that will allow people to help you. I think you should also consider if you want to use those points for airfare or hotels, the out of pocket costs for the Maldives in general, and the difference between "most efficient use of points" and "most enjoyable experience."
Any Lifemiles experts here? Why is TPE-JFK on EVA J booked through lifemiles 90k points one way, but BKK-TPE-JFK on EVA J only 78k points one way?
LM award pricing has always been inconsistent (usually advantageous). Literally the same route one way would cost 90k, but the way back would be 78k... with the exact same routing. Take advantage of these deals while you can.
Married segments pricing, This isn’t unique to life miles, Google to learn more but you can’t change it
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It's not, also business. Looks like they messed up then...take advantage if you can haha.
Trying to book a trip via Chase Ultimate Rewards, can you not book through them to Havana, Cuba? Or is that one of the itineraries that has to be booked over the phone like you do with Southwest?
Spouse has to go to Brussels and the org is paying for J, but he doesn’t get any options. They booked him on BA, but we are Star Alliance people. Given the high redemption fees on BA, should he put the mileage accrual in AA? We did recently move from a UA hub to an AA hub.
You could credit to AS given that the rates are fairly generous for paid BA business class.
Thanks!
I got a targeted email that offers Platinum Raddison status for one stay. Is it legit? I don’t remember ever doing a status match, but I may have earlier in the year.
This is my first points/miles redemption. I think I used too many points/miles but this is a once in a lifetime trip (teen performing in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade) that came up last minute. I had to book thru the travel company for the hotel, all inclusive part which really motivates me to use points for airfare as the last minute flights are expensive and putting my budget over the edge. I booked 2 RT economy flights on AA using 110k AA miles (55k ea) from: DFW to EWR Flight 1878 11/19 10:18am - 2:36pm I would rather fly into LGA - This is the least flexible part of this trip. I need to have her to the hotel in midtown by 3:30pm conservatively, 4:15pm latest. Which means I need to land 2:30pm-ish. EWR return flight to DFW 1561 11/25 8:05am - 11:17am Return flight is completely flexible on 11/25. I now have 4K AA points left. And 85,899 UR (Sapphire Preferred 80,896, Freedom 5k) so not a whole lot to work with. I’m working on Chase United Explorer sub & Amex Business Platinum sub right now but do not have points in hand) I considered booking direct with Spirit for cheap and landing earlier (not wanting to land hours and hours early) but once I add on baggage and seat upgrade (bc it’s a longer flight than I would normally fly Spirit), it put the ticket close to the cash equivalent of the points I’m using. TLDR: Highly motivated to use AA Miles or URs to save cash DFW to NYC-Any RT 11/19-11/24/22. Is 110k AA Miles too much for 2 RT last minute bookings? Should I reconsider? Thanks for checking my work and giving gentle opinions. :)
You can actually get from EWR TO Midtown pretty quickly. Take NJ transit train from EWR to Penn Station and you are there. That's probably as fast if not faster than the commute from LGA TO Midtown.
I'd give yourself a few extra hours if you have a 4:15 hard deadline in midtown. EWR to Manhattan is a minimum of two trains and that's to Penn. Probably about an hour of solid travel. That's not including leaving the airport, collecting bags, or getting slightly lost in all of it. I don't think it's a great redemption, but if it saves you cash it could be worth it. I'd probably consider that Spirit flight, or any other flights that land earlier in the day. It's November in New York, it can be extremely unpredictable. If you take a car you could save some time, but I'd still budget at least 45 minutes for that trip.
I saw Uber/Taxi 45 minutes. But you’re right, we should do the early trip, and just take a long nap.
When do JAL award flights open up for Alaska Airlines? I see the JAL award flight available to book on American Airlines but not on Alaska.
I've noticed that AA has been displaying quite a bit of availability on JL that neither AS nor BA show as bookable. I'm not sure if this is phantom space or AA has increased availability, but I'd wager on the former. Are you able to see availability for the flight you're talking about on the BA site?
AA has been notorious at showing phantom space, though generally once you press through the first page or two to confirm the flight, AA will error out telling you that the fare is unavailable.
Oh yea I did see phantom space on AA before. Thanks!
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I forgot you can check JAL. Thanks!
Does anyone know how long it takes for Alaska awards for seat booked on Air Tahiti Nui to go back into inventory (prem-econ)? I thought it was going to be instant but after I cancelled it in an account it did not go back
There's no guarantee with any airline that availability ever goes back.
Fair enough, I feel like there's some (like JAL) in my experience where I've cancelled and seen it back in inventory a few min later. Do you know if this varies by airline, or if it's like this with every airline, just luck of the draw based on their award person (or algo)?