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It's responsive design mode or mobile emulation mode, using F12.
firefox: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Responsive_Design_Mode
chrome: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/device-mode/
1/18 ATL-CLT-SFO $171 cash - options all day long
1/20 DL 5824,DL 2180 SFO-SEA-LIH 7:30am - 4:48pm 26.5k skymiles per person. You book yourself, wife books herself
1/25 DL 2147, DL 2936 LIH-SEA-ATL 9:15pm - 2:12pm 29k skymiles per person.
You're 4500 skymiles short, so you'd book one with points, one with Pay With Miles and pay the $130 difference.
Alternative return option on 1/25 is take this American Flight for $207
OGG is pretty cheap right now, so maybe consider using cash for this one and save your points for a nice resort
Pay cash or UR @ 1.5cpp.
Under 60 bucks each way as of right now, but this being in two days, prices will change quickly.
I would highly suggest Florence. Just came back from 3 days in Florence and 2 in Rome and thought it was perfect. I don't think there's much to do in Rome after 2 days. (I can walk quite a bit so can see a decent amount in a day)
If you want a wonderful italian family experience I highly recommend spending at least a night at https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3493086?s=8&user_id=35034157&ref_device_id=59572b8422784b72 . Get him to cook at least one dinner - world class cook!
Personally the areas around the Louvre/Eiffel Tower do nothing for me, as neighborhoods- the Louvre and Tower themselves are great. The Marais is a great neighborhood for walking around and great restaurants/bars/cafes. I'd go with a nice Airbnb like this:
Cheaper than a hotel and more space.
It is fine if you don't want to look, but here's BOM-SFO one-way if you can find Saver availability there that you can book some other (AA / via MR).
If you don't mind flying to DEL first and then getting a connecting flight to BOM you can get almost all the way there. 350,000 UR is $5,250 worth of travel so you'd be on the hook for about $400 in cash outlay if you had the CSR.
I was just trying to help. If you can't find Saver level you should at least check cash prices.
Boston - Paris, $334 on AA, roundtrip Oct 24-Nov 7 (last week of oct and first week of nov), use UR points, it comes out to around to 22k ish https://www.google.com/flights/#flt=BOS.CDG.2018-10-24*CDG.BOS.2018-11-07;c:USD;e:1;sd:1;t:f
Boston- Amsterdam $326 on Delta for the same dates https://www.google.com/flights/#flt=BOS.AMS.2018-10-24*AMS.BOS.2018-11-07;c:USD;e:1;sd:1;t:f
Boston - Mexico City $258 on Aeromexico, 17k
Boston - Chengdu China $506 on Hainan Airlines, or 34k ish
Just some ideas. In my experience, if you want economy tickets, waiting for flight deals(a la theflightdeal.com or scott's cheap flights) then buying them using UR points at 1.5x is the best bang for the buck. If you want Biz and First class, airline miles is the way to go.
edit: oops sorry I misread your post and thought it was a CSR
Even better for $140 roundtrip to Tucson same day run 4200 miles
Weekend after is $153
Do this twice and get your 8000 pqm for under $300.
I agree with others, going to Asia is to far for your time, and from lax, Europe is pretty far too. I don’t know much about Canada, but do recommend Mexico for the beach/relaxation style trip. At one point for our honeymoon, we were considering going to the st Regis in Punta Mita. Super close from west coast. Beach, etc. other ideas are def Cancun and the all inclusive Hyatt’s. Lots of other hotels there as well.
I’m not sure what kind of trip you want, but I might consider the Caribbean as well.
A fun exercise might be to explore this link with your fiancé. These are all the places you can fly nonstop from lax (can switch to sfo too). Maybe you’ll see something that sparks your interest: https://www.kayak.com/routes/LAX/201808
Lastly, it’s your honeymoon. I would focus on what you want and then figure a reasonable way to get there. I wouldn’t try to focus on absolutely maximizing points value. Good luck!
So there are 2 issues here really.
1) Despite the random bad advice in the comments, Hotels.com or any OTA are "Non-Qualifying Stays." There is little-to-no chance of sweet talking the front desk into anything.
2) Are you actually staying? Your post intones that others will be staying there in which case you would be SOL in either case.
Terminology clarification - "Award night" is usually reserved to describe nights booked by redeeming points directly through a hotel's program at their own award chart rates (in most cases, not tied to a cash rate). IOW, cashing out points to book a night is not an award night. This is important because regular award nights DO count towards elite status. Nights booked through OTAs like Expedia, Hotels.com, etc. (which is what you technically did by purchasing using points) do NOT count.
Just to be sure, by "purchased via points" you mean that you cashed out points through a portal via Chase, Citi, AMEX, or something like that, right? If by chance you mean that you transferred Chase points to Hyatt, then "purchased" (really, "redeemed") through Hyatt, then you're good. Otherwise, sorry for the bad news.
I'm guessing he's talking about this. https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2018-08-21-hurricane-lane-hawaii-forecast-impacts I recommend packing a rain coat, or two.
Just hold on a couple days and see what happens...
Going to Denver on a regular (non-Basic) economy fare is enough to get you 3400 miles = 3400 EQM. But it's $285 same day round-trip, connecting in CLT. Fare class = N which is not basic economy.
See here: https://imgur.com/qTUjICm
I may be out in crazy town, but how many miles do you have? 350k seems like a lot to some, but if you have 3 million it doesn't. You don't have to tells us, but if 350k isn't a lot, then book business. If you attempt to use a GPU you need to book W or higher, it may clear, it may not, it also may not be the cheapest fare bucket. If you book the 350k flight and saver opens up, if you're 1k you can also redeposit those miles and book the cheaper bucket.
When I need to pull stuff like this off, I often try and pair it with another trip.
I know it's not the most direct route/flight etc...but if you had the money and wanted to go...why not get two trips out of it? That's the first example I found.
Maybe Europe isn't your thing -
Just throwing a few dates in for Syracuse-Madrid, I was finding flights there for 30k+$5.60 and return for 30k+$52. So your total would be 120k(United)+$115 for 2 round trips.
But you would either need to open (recommended) a CSP, CSR, or CIP, or upgrade your Freedom to a CSP or CSR so that you are able to transfer your UR to United.
Your other option would be cheaper, but painfully long. Something like this itinerary. I would still recommend getting a CSP (or better CSR) because the CSP gives you 1.25 cpp and the CSR gives you 1.5 cpp. CSP will give you the first year's AF waived as well.
Cash fares here seem better than any miles redemption - no experience on Allegiant... you may be able to purchase via UR travel portal.
If you are willing to do the 14th-17th instead, you have a few more options: You could pay cash (or use MR, UR portals) to book this flight from MCI for $345 for the 2 of you on the outbound and gets in at 12:33 AM. You could also book the outbound on saver availability with United for 12.5K + 27.90, but you'd be getting in around 8AM on the 15th and would have a long layover in Toronto.
Then you could book the return on United for 12.5K + 61.56.
From St. Louis, you can book the outbound in cash, but pay a bit more, but get in the afternoon of the 14th. You can book the return on United on the 17th in Saver.
None of these are ideal, and it's not quite the dates you're looking at, but maybe worth a look if PTO isn't much of an issue
I disagree, the first level of most programs will be similar to hotels.com or other third party websites. Once you break into the second level, which is rather easy, the incentives begin to pile up and rightfully so since hotels want you to be a reoccurring customer. Check out what Marriott offers in their gold level as it is basically what you described minus breakfast.
I've shifted from booking one via hotel group directly to booking via Hotels.com instead. I was top tier at one of the large groups but maintaining status was hard and after ending up staying at a crap hotel in one city instead of the much nicer botique hotel down the road to rack up nights, I realised it just wasn't worth sticking to one group.
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Hotels.com offers 1 night free after 10 nights stayed (the one night is based on average price of the ten) which is a nice and easy to cost out reward. Sure, the hotels don't love that you've not booked direct but I find the flexibility worth it.
Crazy idea. If you can get to NYC on a few miles (or cheap), you can book a round trip ticket from JFK->TFS (Tenerife canary islands, Spain) for around $400-$500 each. Then use chase points to pay for the Ritz Carlton.
I just went to Madrid for $398 RT (JFK->MAD) + 10,000 RT delta miles (CLT->JFK).
[edit] Take the Iberia flight over the AA flight. You can book via aa.com for either AA or the Iberia flight. The AA flight is a 767 and has no entertainment or power in economy. The Iberia flight is an a340 or a330 with power and inflight entertainment. All flights are 31" leg room.
I think you just have to look at award charts and see which airlines would be useful. Then figure out hotels after that.
Air France is 30k RT to the Caribbean on delta flights from DTW. Might be a good starting point to look at google flights to the caribbean from DTW on Skyteam to get an idea of what destinations are available to you:
Once you have something in mind, plug it into the airfrance site and see if there's 15k each way award availability.
I've been using Google Flights and the ITA Matrix .
There has to be something better out there, specifically with alerting, but I've yet to find a good one myself. I really hope someone has an answer, as I'm planning a trip that'll need an open-jaw route in November.
Go to Iceland already for $530. The country will be on winter schedule with the autumn folio and off-season prices. You can't really go wrong. Head to LP for more details
Source: I've been researching some for myself for later in the year and this is about $100 more than the cheapest offering from WOW.
Good call on JAL. I had considered them, but forgot about that.
So I could call AA to book these flights today and when the window to book them opens when I want to fly I just call back to change the dates?
https://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=VVO;t=TFS;d=2015-10-27;tt=o;a=ONEWORLD
EDIT: If you wanna test this out, BA shows available economy seats on this string of flights: Nov 10 VVO-(IKT)-OVB Nov 11 OVB-DME, DME-MUC, MUC-TFS
total flight distance 7339 miles for 10k AA miles
https://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=SFO;t=PVG;d=2015-09-06;r=2016-01-09
The cheapest roundtrip is $701 (actually $700.80, if you click through to Orbitz). You can cash out your UR balance for $678.94, leaving you responsible for only $21.86, which is less than the fees on an award ticket.
The Avios award chart distance-based, so you would be looking for something as far east as possible on the map to make the price drop to the lower bucket. You're essentially looking to fly the shortest distance possible on a single flight (no connections). So the question is really, what airport is slightly more east of AMS that has direct OneWorld flights to HKG?
AMS-HKG is roughly 5773 miles, and the Avios cliff is 5501-6500. So we're looking for somewhere that can shave off ~273 miles from your flight distance.
I think your option might be limited to Helsinki (HEL), as that is the only airport I can find with direct/non-stop OW flights. FRA, ZHR, and MXP are all options as well with OW flights, but they would be 60k Avios as AMS is. Given the distance, you can even travel farther away because you have a few hundred miles of room before you'd hit the next tier of Avios prices (6501-7000 flown miles for 70k Avios). This would include airports slightly more west of AMS, such as LHR. It looks like you are pretty much stuck with 60k Avios, so you are looking to optimize the fees. I'd search the BA website for the other airports (LHR, AMS, MXP, FRA, ZHR are all 60k to HKG) to see if any have significantly lower fees that are worth the positioning.
You can utilize the Google Flights map tool in reverse (search for HKG-XXX) to find places visually. Here's a link: https://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=HKG;t=HEL;d=2015-03-27;r=2015-03-31;a=ONEWORLD;s=0;mc=m
If you want to conserve points I would take a look at Airbnb. I picked random dates in August and found some pretty good options for around $850-950 for 4 nights. Personally I'd rather have 100K UR points than $950. I like having an apartment rather than a hotel room, but everyone has different priorities. Just an idea. Something like this, which is actually within 2 blocks of the Hyatt Churchill, for $878 for 4 nights:
Or this in Covent Garden for $892 for 4 nights:
Nice Delta find.
With Award deals to Alaska and Canada starting at only 14,000 miles round-trip (plus taxes & fees)* in Main Cabin and 17,000 miles round-trip (plus taxes & fees)* in Delta Comfort+® , you can explore natural wonders and wide open spaces for even less. Use your miles to experience snow-capped peaks and glacial waters in Alaska or visit Canada's meccas for shopping, dining and more.
Book Here [delta.com] Book by June 13 Travel Sept 17 - Nov 15, 2018
Try following the GOES LAX Entry Bot on Twitter. It automatically Tweets out when new appointments are available so you don't have to obsessively check. I did this yesterday and got my appointment moved to mid-March instead of late May :) If you're tech-savvy, set up an IFTTT to have your phone get a notification anytime the bot tweets.
Depending on the type of trip you want to take you can find rooms connected to the hot springs north of Taipei for cheap... United (shit service) had RT tickets for $530 from SFO.
Well, last year I went to Kauai and hiked the Kalalau Trail in early December, and it was amazing and definitely got some adrenaline going, as the scenery takes your breath away and there are a number of places where a slipping foot could send you plunging to your death.
You can use 25k MR (or UR) with Flying Blue to fly to LIH, because Flying Blue doesn't realize that LIH is a Hawaiian airport, and they price it as a mainland US destination. I see availability for your outbound every day from 11/29 to 12/12, and the return is available every day but two from 12/1 to 12/15.
So, go to Kauai for a week. Don't worry about lugging a ton of gear from NYC---just rent from this guy, like I did. It's an 11-mile hike with thousands of feet of elevation gain (you basically hike up mountains and down to the beach several times), so it takes a day to hike there and a day to hike back, and you want at least one day in between to recover and see the beautiful Kalalau valley.
Afterwards, use 20k UR per night to stay in the Grand Hyatt and chill and snorkel and sightsee on the south side of Kauai (maybe hike in Waimea Canyon, etc.).
Seeing as low as $310 on some dates in Nov - https://www.google.com/flights#flt=ORD.BCN.2019-11-05*BCN.ORD.2019-11-12;c:USD;e:1;sd:1;t:f
I live in Las Vegas so that's why I'm aware of the relatively dearth of non-stop options to Europe. When I first started churning I transferred miles to VS so that I could book premium economy direct to LGW for my wife and myself. We ate the fees but figured the non-stop flights would be best. If I could go back in time and do it again, I would have made different decisions.
If you can, just fly into Europe wherever is cheapest and then figure out how to get to your final destination from there. Here's a link of LAS to Europe for end of May.
Pay cash or use UR for 1.5cpp through the Chase portal. Those flights are 2.5h of actual flying time and cash fares are cheap. Some random flights that work are here.
Same day RT to ABQ on 15-Dec for $152 - available most other Saturdays before Xmas.
It's cheaper in $ terms but uses more of your time than a Dallas same-day RT.
To add to this, what class of service are you trying to book?
Regarding Barcelona in particular, I'm seeing lots of (affordable) Premium Economy fares with Iberia from JFK to BCN. Here is a sample date range in June '19.
No availability on Iberia during that timeframe, in economy or business from MAD-SCL.
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On the LATAM flight there is plenty of economy award space on Jan 1, 2, and 4. No business space available. Then there is some availability throughout the week for the flight from SCL-PMC, which you add on to the MAD-SCL award as long as the scheduled departure time is within 24 hours of the arrival to SCL. If you can't make the two flights work with one award, due to timing or availability, SCL-PMC is under $50 most dates/times, or 6k AA or 4.5k Avios + taxes (if there is award space of course).
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You can find TAP or Avianca availability on United, and the Air France search is best for SkyTeam awards, which would require an extra European stop in Paris or Amsterdam. I think LATAM via AA is your best bet, with the points you have currently.
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edit: this trip below you can book for 50k AA miles + taxes. And if the 7am flight to PMC becomes available you don't have to leave so early.. https://www.google.com/flights#flt=MAD.SCL.2019-01-04.MADSCL0LA705*SCL.PMC.2019-01-06.SCLPMC0LA283;c:USD;e:1;so:4;sd:1;t:f;tt:m;sp:.USD.139400*.USD.139600
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You will need to call AA to book this, just tell them the flight numbers and dates. Should be painless.
I'm trying to get from ATL to YXU (London, Canada) and am trying to figure out the best way to do that for the weekend of October 20th. I'm also looking at YYZ, DTW, and BUF and renting a car, but there doesn't seem to be any great options.
Award hacker says Air Canada is the cheapest, but I don't have any of their points or any MR (I just redeemed them all for ANA F). United is next on the list, but it's still 35k+ points. Right now I'm thinking of buying Spirit and renting a car, but wanted to see if anyone has any advice before I do that.
KLM is the obvious choice, but fuel surcharges will be a killer.
Step one for me in any search is to see what's available. I usually do that by using google. After that I look at alliances for where I can get points to the program I want. This is the best chart for determining transfers, IMHO. For instance, you can see SAS is a major carrier on the route you want and they codeshare with United, who are bookable with UR. I am not terribly familiar with United though, and don't know if they'll tack on fuel surcharges or how much. That's something you should look up, and also availability. Hope this helps.
EDIT: BTW, the google link is a dummy search just to show what's available, not me being obnoxious and linking google.
I'm going to Tahiti in December and there are a wide variety of options. Conrad Bora Bora is 80k per night, but that's another $500 flight from Tahiti. There's also the Hilton Moorea for 181k per night (wtfwtfwtf) or like $410/night, which is what I'm going to do.
I feel like a broken record, but here it is again: Tahiti is pretty cheap to get to right now in February 2019 (I hope that huge link worked), so paying $633 for a cash fare could free up some money for that ridiculous $500 puddle jumper to Bora Bora, and for booze and room upgrades! Based on my research Hilton Diamond status will get you the option to upgrade from the basic room to an overwater bungalow for $200/night, or maybe even free (but that's unlikely I think).
I think Tahiti might be a better option because it has a lot of activities with the mountains and a strong Polynesian culture (and locals). My understanding of Maldives is they can be a bit boring (since there's not much around and very limited space), but maybe that's what you're looking for!
Let me know if you want more info on Tahiti. It feels like that's all I've been researching for the last month
To keep this super simple if I was you I would look on Google Flights for say DFW-CDG for the approximate dates you want, class of cabin you want, etc. It will allow you to narrow it down, adjust the dates for pricing and even look at the DFW-Europe option that can show a map of fares. https://www.google.com/flights/?f=0&gl=us#search;f=DFW,DAL;t=r-Europe-0x46ed8886cfadda85%253A0x72ef99e6b3fcf079;d=2018-03-10;r=2018-03-20;mc=e;q=dfw-cdg Once you narrow it down to a couple of preferred options then log into the Chase UR website and use their booking tool to see how it prices out for you and pick the flight you want. Next you can look at the hotels in that portal. March is a great time to go to Europe. My wife love visiting London or Paris in this shoulder season. It's low on tourist and the weather can be a bit cool or rainy but not too bad in most places. You'll find nicer weather further south in Spain or Italy. Ireland, UK, Brussels, etc. can be rainy and colder but not bad jacket weather.
Delta shouldn't pass-through fuel-surcharges for Korean, and Korean Air is one of the few airlines that AF/KLM won't pass along fuel surcharges for.
You can estimate the fuel surcharge by checking ITA Software's Matrix if you want to try booking through Korean itself (I think Korean does stick you with the fuel surcharge for award tickets).
> 530 in fees
Uh no. That's probably one ticket outright paid cash. Where in JP are you wanting to fly to?
Well, flights are $450 and up:
https://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=PHL,ZFV;t=SEA;d=2016-12-16;r=2017-01-02
if you book through the UR portal, you would use up 36,000 points or more. If you can find availability on UA or AA, it'll be possible to 25K points transferred to either UA or British Airways (booking AA flight).
Since you are looking at the peak travel season, I would say that chances of finding award seats are low. Just did a quick search on UA, and there is an outbound flight at 12.5K, but return would be all 25K or more.
So transferring to a partner may get you a lower cost redemption, at the risk of not finding any availability. Booking in the UR portal is probably your best bet.
Sounds doable but between the cost of buying the points (>$500) and the taxes and surcharges particularly on virgin, you're looking at >$1000 - just throwing this out there but for that price, you can almost get a revenue ticket
>best resource to figure out which US airports are the jumping off points for which cities in SE Asia
www.kayak.com/routes/PHX where phx is the airport code you're interesting in departing from... It'll show you every non-stop flight and the destination. It's a fun little tool. I don't use it for the flights themselves, just the routes and the carrier.
Is there a reason it doesn’t show flights to Canada? I was looking at this search from SEA, and there’s not a single destination in Canada listed. Which seems weird.
We've been to Oahu twice with our toddler and loved it. I know it's really cliche but Waikiki was very accessible with a toddler. All the malls have easily accessible family restrooms for changing diapers and you can walk around and hop on buses without having to worry about needing a car seat as you would for a taxi or car ride. Plenty of corner stores (albeit overpriced) where you can grab snacks for kiddo in between meals.
We took this stroller with us. It was great because it folded up and could fit under the table at most restaurants. Came in handy for those hole in the wall places where a normal stroller would unnecessarily cause problems for other people. It was also super convenient on the buses.
If you are an Android user, I've recently created a free app for /r/churning which is similar to AwardWallet that can be used for tracking your loyalty programs and credit cards. You may find some value in this as well.
indeed, it's not the best time to be there for the reasons you were told. you can check the weather here for june this year https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/Tokyo+Japan+JAXX0085:1:JA
optimal months are generally spring or fall.
I know ebay has notoriously poor protections for sellers and excellent protection for buyers, not 100% sure about paypal. If the person is shady, they could say that.
Ninjaedit: https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/brc/seller-protection-paypal-seller-benefit
Looks like you're out of luck if it's a digital certificate:
2.The item sold must be a physical, tangible item that can be shipped. This means intangible items such as digital goods and services are not covered.
I loved Chiang Mai for the shopping and culture (weirdly, I was less wild about Bangkok). I skipped Phuket because I was told that some of the more popular islands can be sort of like Bourbon Street in New Orleans-- loud and littered with drunks.
That said, I strongly recommend airbnb. It's cheaper than many of the hotels and we stayed at some really interesting properties. I can't recommend this place on Koh Phangan enough. The island is quiet without being isolated, and how many times in your life will you get to stay in an all glass house?
I agree with the post about finding a good Airbnb in Costa Rica. We're staying in this one (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/191666) for 9 nights during Christmas/New Year's which looks amazing and close to the Andaz Papagayo where we're staying for our first 3 nights on the trip. We just returned from a trip to Cancun this week and enjoyed the R & R it provided but not very adventurous trip.
I got this one: https://jet.com/product/Samsonite-Large-Wheeled-Underseater/b38d33418b6844a6a9fb608e05b4cfec - you can use the coupon code TRIPLE15 for an additional 15% off. Using all the discounts I got the price down to under $60. I'm able to carry my laptop and 3 days worth of clothes, along with all the usual toiletries. I bought it for a Frontier flight because it was the same price as the bag fees, roughly.
I'm only going to realistically do Marriott or Hilton because my travels sometimes take me to small towns where only a Hampton Inn or Fairfield is available. Now both are equally bad I might as well switch back to Marriott since they have a bigger portfolio.
I thought about Hyatt but unfortunately they just don't have enough properties to choose from.
I can also probably revert to my old strategy, stay with hotels.com and get effectively 10% off my stays. The benefits a high tiered member has is so minimal anyways.
I use Google Flights (https://www.google.com/flights) and input the dates for the flights between the cities that I want.
There is a tab at the link that you can toggle that will email you price changes for those flights.
>That's only if the Southwest flights are priced similarly to United's
They are. If you had done a quick search for a random date (11/13-16), you'd see the Southwest nonstop RT is $168 and United is $167 (https://www.google.com/flights#flt=SJC,SFO./m/03l2n.2020-11-13*/m/03l2n.SJC,SFO.2020-11-16;c:USD;e:1;sd:1;t:f).
>Lounges
SJC has priority pass lounge access and United Club lounges aren't that good. They're better than PP lounges but not by much.
However, SJC doesn't have any United lounges. And with SFO being ~$60 more expensive per person than SJC, you won't be using SFO anyway (https://www.google.com/flights?lite=0#flt=SFO.IAH.2020-11-13*IAH.SFO.2020-11-16;c:USD;e:1;sd:1;t:f is $229 vs $167)
>International
Going with Southwest optimizes for the SFO/SJC-IAH/HOU flights. With the money saved with CP (167 * 12 * 2 = $4k), OP can buy business class tickets on whatever airline outright for international.
>Status
You're wrong that "With mid-high tier United status and a decent card strategy OP could pretty easily accumulate enough points and/or upgrades to fly internationally on an upgraded United ticket".
In redeemable miles, assuming $167/ticket RT and using the Platinum bonus (4x on top of the base 5x per dollar), 167 * 4 * 12 * 9 = 72k. That's not enough for any Europe or Asia *A J partner award.
Platinum (mid-high tier status) does not give you complementary upgrades on long-haul. It gives you 40 PlusPoints which you can upgrade 1 Economy (not cheapest fare bucket) ticket to Polaris business, which is not enough for 4 people.
Like I said though, they have 1 stop for those prices.
Checking for award space really only matters if you have Avios to spend, which you don't so it isnt worth the effort.
If you book with cash you also earn 3-5x depending on which card you use. Also book directly with the airlines is always better than OTA.
I'm seeing JFK-TBS for 2k in J and you can change this to any US city - MLE since MLE is within 5k of TBS, providing there is availability in same class fare (in this case R bucket) and you're departing this year.
May want to hang onto those Amex points and book cash flights. I've been watching KC to Hawaii myself and they are sub-$400.
Not quite under your $2000 limit - but:
If you can come back into LAX, and make your way home from there, here's an option for $1277 pp, UA on the way out (2 stops), LH on the way back (1 stop), premium economy on both over-water legs:
If you have Amex Plat or Cent, there's an IAP fare on the same dates for BA for $1291 pp. MEM to FCO (one stop), then FCO to LAX (one stop).
This is a minimum 1 stop itinerary, possibly 2. Cash fares aren't bad and you might want to look at those, especially if you have a CSR for 1.5x on the UR portal. Best I've found so far without a lot of cash: fly Lufthansa (30k UR -> United) MCO-FRA leaving on June 16, book this Ryanair hop for FRA-CFU for $44, then 30k+$61 on United again for a 2-stop return to MIA on 6/24 CFU-ATH-IST-MIA. Total 60k UR + ~$110 cash.
Hope this link works, I found a 1 week turnaround in April for $3100. They had a deal earlier LAX/JFK to KUL for $2300 which I just missed out on and am sad.
Also you may have luck with Amex Travel finding cheaper fares.
There are great cash fares in both economy and business to Paris in December right now. You don't have to worry about award availability and can book a one-stop on many good airlines depending on your dates.
If you don't mind economy flights, just go to the portal and search. You're not going to beat this with any transfers. If you wait a couple of weeks, that pricing will likely extend to your dates.
If your wife has a CSR and you're really keen on short travel times, I'd just try to find this in the Chase UR portal and book it. Non-stop to Amsterdam and super short layover one-stop back to ORD. It'll be 292,334 UR total with no additional cash out of pocket. You're not going to do much better than that, honestly.
If you don't have a CSR, but do have a Chase Freedom or Chase Freedom Unlimited, it is probably worth upgrading to the CSR for this booking in particular.
For business class I don't bother, because I'd probably never pay the cash price. If you really care to calculate CPP, a roundtrip from IAD-AMS on United is ~$4,000 in business class pretty much any day for the next 3 months. Don't use a one way international fare as any kind of representation.
I'm actually seeing that route as low as $2200 this summer, which is a really good price for direct biz class in the summer tourist season, considering economy is ~$1000 on the same flights: https://www.google.com/flights#flt=IAD.AMS.2020-08-06.IADAMS0UA946*AMS.IAD.2020-08-13.AMSIAD0UA947;c:USD;e:1;sc:b;sd:1;t:b;sp:2.USD.224595*2.USD.224595
Look at cash flights for those dates, as well, and possibly booking through the portal as opposed to as an award redemption. J prices to Europe in April are super cheap right now.
If I were you, and had your constraints, here is what I would do:
- Fly to JFK from ORD on the afternoon / evening of April 3rd
- Book and fly this itinerary through the Chase UR portal
- Instead of continuing on to JFK, get off at ORD so you don't have to position back home (easy since there is an overnight there)
You'll have to overnight at TPE airport before continuing home on the 12th, but you're unlikely to get anything better than this.
If you're in Toronto, go to [Miami for the weekend]*(https://www.google.com/flights?hl=en#flt=/m/0h7h6.MIA.2019-12-28.YYZMIA0AC1642*MIA./m/0h7h6.2019-12-30.MIAIAD0UA2129~IADYYZ0UA6195;c:USD;e:1;a:STAR_ALLIANCE*STAR_ALLIANCE;sd:1;t:b;sp:2.USD.44674*2.USD.44674)
If you're in Vancouver, go to New Orleans.
Or look for some other relatively cheap mileage runs.
I'm assuming Air Canada uses calendar year for qualification. If not there are lots of really cheap (~200 USD) roundtrips that are over 2000 miles in January (Toronto-Miami) is one that I saw.
Given that you can get flights for less than $700, I'd look at paying cash or going through the CSR portal.
I mean, if you're seeing 60-70,000 MR for round trip PE and you're good with that class of service, I think that's a valid way to go.
If you still wanted to fly business, there are options but it would involve popping to Taipei for an overnight and moving your dates slightly in order to get the price right. Here's a Google Flights itinerary.
If you have access to IAP, it brings the price down to under $2,000. If you pay with MR and have the Business Platinum card, your net will be 127,137 MR after the 35% rebate (and you'd earn a boatload of AS miles). Of course, you have to fly to TPE for a night. I would do it, but that's just me.
The link shows me a Jan 1 return, but agreed re: jan 3.
25-31 also hits $1750, and I've just now found 24-01 for $1580.
The link shows me a Jan 1 return, but agreed re: jan 3.
25-31 also hits $1750, and I've just now found 24-01 for $1580.
The link shows me a Jan 1 return, but agreed re: jan 3.
25-31 also hits $1750, and I've just now found 24-01 for $1580.
If you can fly 23rd-3rd this can get down to $1750 USD.
Well first let's figure out where you can go:
- Continental US, Canada, Alaska: 25k
- Hawaii: 45k
- Mexico, Caribbean: 35k
- Central America, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela: 30k (off peak)
- Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay: 40k (off peak)
- Europe: 40k (off peak)
Now the question is where you want to go. It's obviously going to be a personal choice. But as for me, I'd lean towards option #4, especially the South American countries, because 30k miles to get to another continent is pretty amazing. And #2, #5 and #6 seem a little too far to go for a weekend IMO.
It looks like there are some very interesting cities in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela. The US has issued a travel warning for Venezuela and Colombia, so you might want to think twice about visiting there. I mean, thousands of people travel there with no issues, but it's still something to consider.
Regarding availability, if you can't find availability on AA.com, try BA or Qantas. Some South American partners, like LAN, don't show up on AA.com, but you can still book them over the phone.
we stayed here for our flight out:
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4580203
We stayed here for a few nights while hanging in Rome:
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/7606753
edit: We went to Florence and hated it. Our AirBNB was terrible. While the city itself was gorgeous and i had an amazing time walking around; the city itself felt like one giant tourist trap. feel like we should have planned better than what we did. Tuscany would be amazing though.
Thanks. We'll be staying at a private villa with swimming pool in Ubud and in Lovina. The Westin is just to get 5 nights relaxing in Nusa Dua.
I also found this absolutely insane villa on AirBNB that's about $200 per night: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5007326
What are your dates? The Airport Resthouse seems like a decent cheaper option looking online. Or there are some Airbnb options near enough the airport, random example
Here you go: https://hastebin.com/raw/idakoxucal
It's unusual that the Penalties section doesn't have any prices listed — I expected to see the change/reissue fee listed there. I guess you have to check Delta's CoC as the rules seem to say?
>Singapore has had an unseasonably cold February. Up until this week they had temps in low 70s,
No, it hasn't. It's actually warmer than historical normal.
https://www.accuweather.com/en/sg/singapore/300597/february-weather/300597
It seems there is a business class sale for next April if you have flexible currency (UR with CSR or MR with Business Platinum). Is that something that would be helpful to you? Availability is pretty wide open.
Here's an example for you /u/Axsuul. I've flown that itinerary and it was pretty good! Check my recent trip report.
This should be bookable through the UR portal.
An example of the occasional sales popped up today - just wanted to give you a heads up so you know what to keep an eye out for.
What have you found in your searches so far? Availability will likely be the biggest issue.
There are 1/2-stop cash itineraries from NYC for Lima available pretty widely in January that should be bookable through the Chase portal with a small additional cash outlay on your points. That's the easiest option.
Quite frankly, you don't have enough UR for a transfer to a partner to net you business. United would be 70,000 round trip per person plus taxes and fees and you don't have that many UR to transfer any way (for two people).
Lima is amazing and those flights I linked above are almost certainly better than Copa Airlines (which is what I booked and flew to Lima through United as an award).
Looking to book RDU-PVG round trip which seems to be on sale for cash price
Nov ~23 to Dec ~8 (dates flexible by a few days)
Economy
314,597 UR, 112,170 AA, 9708 Alaska, 8000 BA, 2139 TrueBlue, 161777 SW, 58264 UA, 90523 Marriott Bonvoy
1 adult travelling
Flight option which is showing up $392
When I check the same flights in Chase Travel Portal, it's $565.80 or 37,720 PTS roundtrip
According to https://www.awardhacker.com/#f=RDU&t=PVG&o=0&c=y&s=1&p=1, MB can transfer to Air Canada. But still would be 75k AC miles so I don't even have enough MB and it's 75k AC regardless of the discount cash price
Is there a way for me to utilize my points at the on sale cash price?
Not as good as it was, but Paris is still there at $2,800 pre-discounts. It is lovely in the spring :-)
You should seriously look at the cash fares on BA right now and booking them through the portal assuming you have a CSR or can upgrade one of your cards to one. You don't have to mess around with award availability and can just book what you want. If you credit to AS you'll earn a boatload of miles.
For those dates, you'll probably want to book through the UR or MR portals. Look on Google Flights for options.
Since you've got so many UR, I would just search for something like this through the portal and book it as a cash fare. You're not worried about availability and get to fly more direct routes with less hassle. The multi-city itinerary allows you to start in Venice, see what you want there, and then fly back from Rome. 2 weeks for Italy is enough to spend a good amount of time in of Venice, Florence, and Rome and also hop out to Naples or the Amalfi Coast if that's interesting to you.
J is good enough for TATL - I don't know if I would spring for F on the way to Italy. Your only really good options is EK on the way to MXP via JFK, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to do that route.
If you want the ultimate in flexibility, you can just book a "cash" itinerary through the UR portal. LAX-Italy can be had for reasonable prices from time to time. Here's an example on Google Flights that gets you to Venice first with a departure from Rome at the end of your trip that would cost ~165,000 UR per person total when booking from the CSR account. You're not beholden to award availability there. If I were you, I would strongly consider this. It seems the best pricing (right now) is on oneworld airlines and LAX-LHR is operated by AA's 77W, which has a great business class seat.
For the eastbound flight, I strongly recommend not connecting through an east coast gateway if you can help it. You want the TATL flight to be as long as possible so you actually stand a chance of sleeping and get into your vacation as soon as you arrive.
My suggested itinerary would be Venice, Florence, Amalfi Coast, and Rome if you were going to book flights similar to the ones I posted above. Train travel between cities is fast and easy. Do not skip Florence if you like art at all. Do skip Milan if you don't care about specifically seeing the cathedral there and The Last Supper.
We stayed at Marriott hotels while we were in Italy and I can personally recommend the St. Regis Rome, St. Regis Florence, and Gritti Palace. If you have status with Marriott, it is almost certainly worth booking direct with them if you're staying at full service properties because the included breakfast can last you until well into the afternoon.
So this is the ANA option. I have to leave Reddit for a bit, but I'd be happy to keep looking later on for you :)
Do you have the CSR or CSP? Look on the portal. Hainan Airlines has great business class fares from LAX-PEK right now. These fares generally allow free stopovers so you could actually stop in Xi'an on the way there or back for free.
Book cash fare. Flyertalk premium fare has a deal out of Canadian airports, but can open jaw return to US airports.
$4273 CAD/$3240 USD on BA website, if you can get it priced out on Chase then it's 216K UR points roundtrip, all taxes included
Everything books into I, which earns you back 53K Alaska Miles, or 32k Avios, or 26K AA miles, more if you have any status
https://www.wheretocredit.com/calculator#YVR-LHR-BA-I/LHR-JNB-BA-I/JNB-LHR-BA-I/LHR-SFO-BA-I
Have you tried searching at delta.com? Some of the options there might work for you (DL is a MR transfer partner), though the mileage costs are on the higher side.
It's probably not worthwhile to position to SIN or elsewhere in SE Asia. NRT-DMK-BNE (AirAsia) is available for $255 on July 19.