Scott in Nairobi, Kenya
MileValue is the only miles-and-points blog that thinks systematically about the value of your miles and how to maximize that value! Scott Grimmer is a miles aficionado and avid traveler, born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and probably currently on the road. He has earned and redeemed tens of millions of miles for himself and others. Traveling in first class for free, the 25-year-old has been to 30+ countries.
Tahsir, the Bengali Miles Guru
Tahsir Ahsan, the Bengali Miles Guru, was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He has been fascinated with traveling ever since he was a youngster. At 21 years old, he is currently majoring in Business Administration at the University of California, Riverside. Tahsir gets his motivation and inspiration from his mother who has been working for an international airline for most of Tahsir’s life. He has traveled the world ever since he was a toddler and has had the opportunity to visit many of the world’s most amazing wonders!
Tahsir joined the MileValue team to partner with Scott on award bookings. He will also occasionally post his insights on award bookings, mileage runs, and points accrual.
Bill at the Armory and Napoleon’s tomb in Paris
Bill Wilkes was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. The son of an American Airlines pilot, he grew up with airplanes being his home away from home. He currently works for the baseball team in Baltimore, MD assisting with Major League rules interpretation and administration. Some of his favorite destinations to travel (with miles, of course) are Spain, Argentina, and Hawaii. He hopes to visit all seven continents before he turns 30.
Bill joined the MileValue team to write Forum buzz, contribute his expertise on hotel programs, and help with the MileValue Award Booking Service.
I have earned millions of points, primarily though credit cards, to travel the world in first class for pennies. This blog will show you how to earn and redeem points to do the same!
Pingback: Southern/Eastern Africa for a Solo Traveler for 1 Week - FlyerTalk Forums
Really enjoy your site, particularly your “anatomy” series.
I understand it costs money to run the blog. Please put up any credit card sign up links, and I certainly will use one of them when it comes time for applying. There are still some cards which I need to apply in September. Hopefully your links will be posted at that time.
I learn a lot from your series. Keep up the good work and hope this site will blossom as much as TPG. You are one of the few who knows the “stuff”.
Thanks J. I am hoping soon to have links from credit cards to make a little off my time running the site. When I do, I won’t be shilling for the cards at all. Instead I’ll put up a long post for each one analyzing the value of the sign up bonus (based on my series valuing the major loyalty currencies) and a post analyzing the card’s value for continued spend.
Fantastic site. Have been a Star Alliance Gold holder for several years and have learned more in one hour from this site how to maximise awards on SA Gold than in years of frustrating web browsing – thank you.
Two questions/requests:
1. Following Aeroplan’s (my ‘home’ card) increasing restrictions, including notably its expanding stinginess in terms of allowing accumulation of Status Miles on overseas flights, I am looking for an alternative SA carrier in North America to switch my future accumulation home to. United seems good… but the rules are so complicated, and opaque, particularly for ‘complementary upgrades’. Do Gold Card members actually get these, or is it simply ‘in principle’? Will United or Air Canada allow me to benefit on upcoming flights from my current Aeroplan Gold Status (which expires in Feb 2014) – ie business check-in, extra bags, lounge access, etc – even if I ask that miles for these flights now get accumulated on United?
2. You have such an impressive range of airlines covered and reviewed. Please won’t you take a trip to South Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt – and places in between on these African carriers – and start working your magic in extracting the amazing deals on these Star Alliance partners’ program which surely are lurking somewhere deep in the rules and web pages of these airlines. Your African frequent flyer fans are waiting in anticipation!
FYI—The “President” of AAdvantage is suzanne.rubin@aa.com
If I could have an email address for you, I would be happy to send useful (I hope) info to you from time-to-time.
Citi Business cards. Beware: The MC is primary insurance for rental cars. The Visa card is only secondary after your own car insurance.
Really great work in this blog. Impressive.
Thanks
Scott,
Well, as a newbie, man your site is the bomb. I have learned sooo much s a beginner and we will have to use you for our Trip to Paris. My moms new husband served in the pacific campaign in WWII and we need to get him to Normandy beach, he had several friends there…he is getting up there in age. OK, back to my question, We just applied for the Chase Saffire and have met the bonus points; need to move to the next card. Sounds like United is the best one according to your blog and we will also apply for Chase ink bold. We can meet the 10K in3 months for all of their points. Any other cards that are hot right now? i assume CitAA is also a good pick for us.
Thank you sir an keep up the great work? Marc
Get both Citi AAs at the same time to earn 100k per person who gets them. With all those United/UR and AA miles, you’ll have plenty for the trip. Thanks for reading.
Hi Scott!
What an awesome blog which so much useful information! Thank you so much! I just got into the miles game and can’t believe we have been spending so much money in flying economy. We can’t wait to travel once like this. Here is our situation:
Me and my hubby will be flying from Mumbai to San Francisco (where we live) in January 2013. We would like to get a free one-way from San Francisco to Montreal or Toronto in July 2013. When I tried the Multi-city reward in AA.com, I got British Airways from Mumbai to San Fran and American Airlines to Montreal (for free) in 67,500 miles business. However, the BA charges very high fuel surcharge and we would not like to fly with them.
I know both American Airlines and Jet Airways (I’m not sure about their fuel surcharge) fly from Bombay to the US but I can’t see them in AA reward search. Can you please tell me how I can avoid the fuel surcharge? Thank you sooo much!! I really appreciate your help!
To avoid the surcharges, don’t fly BA on an AA award. But if you avoid AA, you won’t get SFO as your North American International Gateway City, so you won’t get the free oneway. I don’t think there’s a cheap way to do what you want.
Hello Scott I’m really excited to have found your blog. I’m a platinum on United on my way to 1K status this year. I met your parents on the plane and we had some fun discussions on you and your airline / travel endeavors which I’m sure will be wildly successful over time.
If you type in your email address in the upper left and hit subscribe you get the error message “The feed does not have subscriptions by email enabled”.
I’ll look into it. Thanks.
Scott,
Love the content, but digging the old site design slightly more. Either way, keep playing with it. When are you coming through NYC?
Adam K
1. Here is my email address that you asked for.
2. The CitiBusiness/AAdvantage World Master Card has been downgraded to secondary car rental insurance.
Hi Scott,
I signed up for the Citibank card about three months ago. Can I sign up with Amex now and get another 50K miles on American? Great blog!
Thanks,
Steve
No, you have to wait 18 months between applications if you don’t do them the same day.
Thanks for the quick response!
Scott,
I have accumulated a lot of points through Chase. I need to book some flights ASAP.
I would like some assistance. I have a flight from LAX to Paris, might need to upgrade from Coach to Business Class with points. Other trip is from LAX to San Salvador, and i want to use points. Possibly I can pay you for assisting me with the conversion of points to air tickets?
Please advise.
Randy
Of course, fill out the form at milevalue.com/award-booking-service and I would be happy to help.
This site has been officially bookmarked on all my wireless computing devices and telecom devices hehe…
Hi there,
I am working on a project and was hoping maybe I could impose on someone.
My boss is a member of US Airways’ FF Program, which is a part of the Star Alliance Program. He likes to get upgraded using his miles. He has found that when he books certain class fares on Partner Airlines, his ticket is not eligible to be upgraded using his US Airways miles.
I am finding that it needs to be a Y or a B Class Fare. Do you know anything about this? I have contacted most of the Star Alliance Airlines, and they don’t seem to know either.
Any thoughts or insights you might have would certainly be appreciated.
See http://www.usairways.com/en-US/dividendmiles/star-alliance-upgrade.html and http://www.usairways.com/en-US/dividendmiles/programdetails/upgrades/mileageupgrades.html
In general upgrades are a horrible deal compared to simply booking a premium cabin award. Direct your boss to my award booking service, the next time he wants to fly in a premium cabin.
Pingback: 2012 Year In Review | milevalue.com
Hi,
I am a chase visa “British Airways Executive club” card holder and for the last 10 or so years have spent around $800k per year on the card with my business.
Since the new Avios has started I am finding it very hard to book trips with my miles.
I am only a blue tier member as I am not purchasing BA tickets.
Is this why there is so many black outs.
Trying to book Business or First from LAX to Sydney anytime towards the end of the 2013 for 3 weeks and there is zero availability. 1 seat on Christmas day!
I just booked San Diego to London and I can usually get 1st class out of SFO or LAX but there has been no availability for over 6 months.
Ironically I have a friend who is crew and said they are half empty in 1st and business a lot of the time.Of course if I want to pay then they are available.
I am so over BA now, can you recommend a better card with better availability. The hard part is it has taken me a few years to get my card limit up to 100K and a new card may not offer me that high a limit. AMEX offered me 15K which my company can spend in 2 weeks!
Thanks,
Robert
what is the cheap award travel itenary from detroit to mumbai or delhi via either combodia/vietnam/nepal/thailand with a combination of avios/AA miles. I can get to chicago if necessary (but AA flies from DTW) and back (ideally wants to touch different country each way ) Any help is greatly appreciated….
To go on one award USA-India with miles you have to route through Europe or the middle east. To route through Asia is a second award. It’s tough to do cheaply; you probably want to book an Explorer Award.
Hey Scott, what’s up my friend. Thanks again for your blog. I love how it’s grown and expanded. I’ve told many people about this blog.
Two questions for ya
- I’ve been re-reading all your posts about one of the US AIR sweet spots being from the US-Australia via Asia. I’ve seen routes through the pacific. Could you go through Europe to do this? Such as BOS-ZRH-BKK-SYD and then back through Europe?
- Secondly, you talk a lot about how busy you are with your award booking service. What would it look like if you wanted to grow and have more people working with you on this?
Scott,
Your information and blog is unbelievable. I have been reading and am truly a newbie…
I have a question as I am just starting out and now reading that you should never pay an annual fee. I have a Delta Skymiles card for years- that I have paid an annual fee for years! I also opened a SW to gain bonus miles for a trip as well. The Delta I was saving for a trip to Italy. Should I cancel this card after all these years and will I still have my miles if I do?
Then start with the beginner series on opening the cards you suggest. Thank you…
If you cancel it, your Delta miles are safe. They are in your Delta account already. You only ever have to worry about losing points when they are bank points like Ultimate Rewards or Membership Rewards–never airline miles like Delta miles. I recommend cancelling the Delta card before the next annual fee. I don’t see value in holding it.
Reposting the text below – I think I mistakenly sent it as a reply to a post from last year. Apologies.
Thanks for this fantastic site. Have been a Star Alliance Gold holder for several years and have learned more in one hour from this site how to maximise awards on SA Gold than in years of frustrating web browsing – thank you.
Two questions/requests:
1. Following Aeroplan’s (my ‘home’ card) increasing restrictions, including notably its expanding stinginess in terms of allowing accumulation of Status Miles on overseas flights, I am looking for an alternative SA carrier in North America to switch my future accumulation home to. United seems good… but the rules are so complicated, and opaque, particularly for ‘complementary upgrades’. Do Gold Card members actually get these, or is it simply ‘in principle’? Will United or Air Canada allow me to benefit on upcoming flights from my current Aeroplan Gold Status (which expires in Feb 2014) – ie business check-in, extra bags, lounge access, etc – even if I ask that miles for these flights now get accumulated on United?
2. You have such an impressive range of airlines covered and reviewed. Please won’t you take a trip to South Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt – and places in between on these African carriers – and start working your magic in extracting the amazing deals on these Star Alliance partners’ program which surely are lurking somewhere deep in the rules and web pages of these airlines. Your African frequent flyer fans are waiting in anticipation!
I will be flying two longhauls in South African biz this year and look forward to reviewing them.
You get the status of the program listed on your ticket. If you book a United ticket with your Air Canada status, you will get treated to the appropriate benefits. THEN IF YOU WANT TO CREDIT THE SAME FLIGHT TO UNITED after getting the Air Canada status benefits, have the gate agent change the frequent flyer number to United at the gate after getting all your benefits.
Interesting, thanks for this. I’ll try it out tomorrow. The only problem I foresee is flying from my home airport (Toronto), where most UA flights are codeshared with AC and the gate agents are AC… and a misery to deal with at the best of times. I can imagine them causing a fuss about redirecting the miles, ie refusing to do so for one ‘technical’ reason or another. I imagine it would be different if I were to have UA agents, eg somewhere in the States.
Enjoy SAA biz. But while you’re on the mother continent, please try out Ethiopian, which now flies direct nonstop from the US and Canada to Addis on the Dreamliner. (Err, oops…) ET often does excellent deals on normal ticketing and fly everywhere in Africa. I wonder if their recent entry into Star Alliance offers new opportunities for Africa-focused travellers. Hamba kahle.
Re: SAA just wanted to mention they usually have a 2 for 1 in Jan. if you keep an eye on their site or sign up for email solicitations. Don’t know if it’ll apply to biz though… we were in coach… ;-( (prior to our now getting educated in points)
Thanks for your insights and strategies!
L
Yes that’s right, SAA always has deals in Jan-Feb. But no, they are not business. The GOOD news, though, is that if you book via UA’s website you can get some cheap SAA flights @150% MileagePlus status miles (as opposed to SAA and Air Canada, which give 50% for the same flight and same price… incredible). That’s one of the reasons I’ve switched from Aeroplan to MileagePlus: 2 cheap returns to SA on SAA and you get your gold card for the year.
Good morning, I love your site. I just wanted to ask a question about a US air award to North Asia. I undertstand that I can fly NY to Japan, stopover for a bit, then continue on to Germany as my destination, and then complete the trip by flying back to NY. I need to be in Hawaii about two weeks later. Is there any way of adding on a free one way to Hawaii on that kind of award? Thanks so much for any help. Mike
NY-Japan-Germany-NY is fine for 90k. But that’s all you could do because that has a stopover in Germany and US Airways awards only get one stopover or one open jaw. Free oneways also require a stopover, which you would have already used, so no free oneway.
Signed up for British Air (Chase) 100000 award points, plus with over $30000 charged in one year received free companion ticket. I now realize that any business class flights via London carry very large fees and taxes (over a $1000) and companion ticket cannot be used on partner airlines to avoid these fees etc. Also, available dates that will let you use companion ticket are almost non existent. Will most likely never use companion ticket and use my Avios points (have over 200000) to use partner airlines and fly though a different city then London.
Can you do a stopover (a few days) on any of the partner or BA airlines?
Please comment on BA miles and use of companion tickets.
Thank you, Marc Butler
Every segment of a BA award factors into the price of the award AND that is the only factor in the price of the award. So you can have unlimited free stopovers on BA awards no matter what airline you fly. Why? Because booking a roundtrip award costs the same as booking every individual segment of that award separately.
Thanks for the reply. I have one other question. I am in the process of completing my 3rd month of $750 spend on the Barclay’s US Air card. My statement closes on the 17th of this month, and I notice that the monthly points post instantly. If I do my $750 of spend this month by the 17th, do you have any idea of how quickly the 15,000 bonus miles will post? Is it along with the normal spend, or a considerable amount of time afterwards? Thanks!
I don’t know. It might take weeks after the statement close.
When searching for first class tickets, and seeing only one available, does the following tend to happen:
1) Reserving the lone ticket, and the carrier opens up a another lone ticket soon afterwards… or
2) Does the carrier release additional tickets based on other factors?
Thanks.
I am trying to utilize American’s free one way. I will be in HNL and want to return to NYC, and then later in the year add on a free one way with a trip to say London. The only flights I can find back from HNL to NYC are ones that connect in LAX. By connecting, does that eliminate my chance of adding on the free one way later to London? Thanks.
Pingback: It’s March Madness and That Means One Thing–Tournament of Bloggers Time! | Point Me to the Miles
Pingback: 7 Countries, 26,000 Miles & First Class on 3 Airlines. A disaster in the making! - FlyerTalk Forums
Hi Scott,
My girlfriend and I saw you interviewed at Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles during a Facebook improv show last year. We are currently trying to book travel and just wanted to see what kind of service you offer and how we could go about getting your help.
We are trying to fly from LAX-PHL (or Atlantic City) on July 3 or 4, returning on July 7. I currently have 60k miles on my credit card, and another 68k with British Airways. Not sure how this helps but thought we would give you a buzz and see what you have to say.
Please feel free to email me anytime.
Thank you,
That image of Scott kissing the giraffe is:
Dimensions 4608 × 3456
File size 5.3 MB
You really should shrink it…
Hi Scott,
I was referred to you by Greg of Frequent Miler. Can you send me the links on what’s the best way to route flights? I had such a headache getting out of LAX with BA miles. It was truly an awful experience.
Cheers,
PC
This whole blog is about the best way to route flights. You may be interested in my paid award booking service –> milevalue.com/award-booking-service