Category Archives: Avios

The Coolest Thing You Can Do with 57.5k United Miles & 10k Avios: The Island Hopper

Posted on April 18, 2013 by | 20 Comments

There are a lot of cool things you can do with miles. One of the coolest things I’ve thought up, and one which I am strongly contemplating booking, would turn 57.5k United miles and 10k Avios into:

  • A trip to a Pacific atoll to be determined, Guam, and Japan. Three places I’ve never been.
  • Fourteen hours on the famous Island Hopper route.
  • Flat bed business class for seven hours.

The center piece for this plan is the Island Hopper route, which I became obsessed with last week and read everything a google search could find. Three times a week, United flies from Honolulu to Guam with five stops along the way in the Marshall Islands and Micronesia.

The 4,365 mile route takes 14:30 to fly west; crosses the international date line; and requires an extra pilot, flight attendant, and spare parts. It takes you across the remote Pacific with all the takeoffs, landings, and souvenir photos you can handle.

Image from gcmap.com showing Island Hopper route. From united.com: Time on the ground in Majuro, Marshall Islands (MAJ) is 45 minutes. Time on the ground in Kwajalein, Marshall Islands (KWA) is 41 minutes. Time on the ground in Kosrae, Federated State of Micronesia (KSA) is 40 minutes. Time on the ground in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia (PNI) is 41 minutes. Time on the ground in Truk, Federated States of Micronesia (TKK) is 41 minutes.

The Island Hopper is a famous and historic route that has connected the Pacific atolls to the rest of the world for decades. It was originally flown my Air Micronesia (Air Mike!), then Continental Micronesia, and finally by United after the United/Continental merger.

Here are a few trip reports that got me excited:

Reading those got me very excited about flying the Island Hopper route from Honolulu to Guam. From Guam, United flies daily direct flights back to Honolulu with award space in economy class every day and business class most days.

Award space Guam to Honolulu direct is wide open.

But a direct return seems boring when I would be so close to Asia, plus the Guam to Honolulu 777 has recliner seats in business class, which I don’t want to fly.

I looked into other options. Guam has more flights that you might imagine, and four choices jumped out at me: Seoul, Tokyo, Cairns, and Taipei.

Image from gcmap.com

Since my brother and I just scuba dived the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns a few months ago, I ruled that out. Taipei and Seoul are interesting choices, but Tokyo caught my eye. Japan Airlines is a oneworld member airline that flies the route, and that means Avios can be used on the route. When I think short, direct flight, I usually assume the best deal will be an Avios award.

From searching ba.com, I learned that Guam to Narita has wide open availability in economy and business class on a Japan Airlines 767, which features recliner style business class seats.

Economy class on the 3:50 flight costs 10,000 Avios and $96. Business class costs 20,000 Avios and $96. That’s not much of a premium for business class, but it’s a short flight, and the business class seat isn’t great, so I haven’t decided which cabin I’d select.

or

Then when I was ready to go back to Hawaii from Tokyo, I would fly United business class. Business class awards between Japan and Hawaii with United miles is a major sweet spot at only 32,500 miles oneway for seven hours in a flat bed. That’s only a 10,000 mile premium on economy class.

Plus premium seats are widely available on the route.

Some days have both United space and All Nippon Airways space.

Perhaps surprisingly to some, United offers a way better product on this route than its Japanese partner. United flies to Tokyo on a 777 with flat beds in business and first. ANA has an angled lie flat business class.

Having flown United BusinessFirst (business) and Global First (first) before, I don’t think the 15,000 mile premium for seven hours is worth the price to fly first class between Japan and Hawaii. The business class beds are plenty comfortable, so I would return in United BusinessFirst class.

Putting the Trip Together

I’ve talked about three parts of the trip:

  • Honolulu to Guam on the Island Hopper in economy with United miles
  • Guam to Tokyo in economy or business with Avios
  • Tokyo to Honolulu in business with United miles

This would take two awards to ticket. One roundtrip, open jaw United award and one Avios award.

Since we are booking a roundtrip United award from Honolulu to Guam, returning Tokyo to Honolulu, we can take a free stopover.

I haven’t researched all the stops on the Island Hopper yet, but I would take the stop somewhere on that route, continuing on the next Island Hopper two days later. That would mean two days in the Marshall Islands or Micronesia, plus however long I want in Guam and Japan.

This would be a unique trip and the coolest thing I can think to do with 57,500 United miles and 10,000 Avios.

Image from gcmap.com

But you don’t live in Hawaii.

Not living in Hawaii doesn’t make this trip impossible, just a few more miles. You’d have a few options. Between the mainland and Guam, it only costs 32,500 United miles in economy, and you can definitely route on the Island Hopper.

Since the Island Hopper leaves at 5:00 AM, you won’t be able to connect to it without overnighting in Honolulu. You have two options for the time in Honolulu.

1. You can fly in to Honolulu the morning before the Island Hopper and spend close to 24 hours in Hawaii without burning your stopover. (Layovers of under 24 hours don’t count as a stopover.) This is a great option to get some beach time and save your stopover for somewhere along the Island Hopper.

2. You can fly into Hawaii and hang out for a few days or more before the Island Hopper. This will count as your stopover. That means no stopover along the Island Hopper, but you can still spend as much time as you want in Guam and Japan.

Then on the return from Japan, you can fly directly home instead of going through Hawaii. Unfortunately a business class trip from Japan to the mainland US with United miles is 60,000 miles, and first class is 70,000–quite a bit more than the Japan to Honolulu route.

I would anticipate that attempting to book this award would cause error messages on united.com, so find the space for each segment then call 800-UNITED-1 to book.

That means a mainlander would need 92,500 United miles plus 10,000 Avios to fly the Island Hopper, United business class home from Japan, and Japan Airlines between Guam and Tokyo. That’s well within reach.

Getting the Miles

The ideal currency for this trip is Ultimate Rewards points from Chase. Ultimate Rewards transfer instantly at a 1:1 rate to United and British Airways. The best Ultimate Rewards cards to get would be the Chase Ink Bold and Chase Sapphire Preferred, which combined offer 98,000+ Ultimate Rewards just for meeting their minimum spending requirements. You can apply for them at the same time.

Personal: Sapphire Preferred with 40,000 Ultimate Rewards after spending $3,000 in the first three months

Business: Ink Bold with 50,000 Ultimate Rewards after spending $5,000 in the first three months. Many people don’t realize they qualify for a business credit card.

Two Other Things about the Island Hopper

The Island Hopper as I’ve described only flies Monday and Friday. The Wednesday version skips the stop in Kosrae.

I haven’t seen any business class availability on the whole thing, though there seems to be space on the shortest hops individually. I wouldn’t want business class anyway, since it’s just a recliner.

Recap

I’m currently contemplating booking a trip that would get me onto the famed Island Hopper route, which hops between seven Pacific islands. I would combine that trip with an Avios award to Japan and a return in a flat bed. All that would cost only 67,500 Ultimate Rewards and $150 or so from Hawaii. From the mainland, it would be 102,500 Ultimate Rewards and $150.

Racking up the Ultimate Rewards for this ultimate trip is easy by getting these two cards at once:

Application Link: Sapphire Preferred with 40,000 Ultimate Rewards

Application Link: Ink Bold with 50,000 Ultimate Rewards

→ 20 Comments

Posted in Avios, Award Booking, United

Tagged , , ,

Anatomy of an Award: intra-Argentina Flights with Avios and SkyMiles

Posted on April 15, 2013 by | 5 Comments

I spent five hours booking a roundtrip from Buenos Aires to Bariloche this week. But at least I avoided an hour and a half in taxis to pick up paper tickets! HUH!?

Bariloche is 851 miles to the southwest of Buenos Aires as the plane flies.

Image from gcmap.com

I decided to book a last-second economy award for two because Bariloche is on the northern edge of Patagonia, and summer is over. I needed to get there quickly if I wanted to enjoy biking and hiking instead of skiing and snowboarding.

The route from Aeroparque–Buenos Aires’s domestic airport–to Bariloche is served by two carriers: LAN Argentina and Aerolineas Argentinas.

LAN with Avios

My first thought was to use Avios to book LAN flights. The number of Avios needed for an award depends on the distance, and this award would cost 15,000 Avios per person roundtrip.

I tried to search ba.com for space, but I ran into the same problem as I detailed for intra-Peru space. For whatever reason, ba.com doesn’t think it has any partners that fly to BRC, so I couldn’t input the airport code. That meant I couldn’t perform the search. (No, the solution I laid out for Peru didn’t work.)

I called British Airways at 800-AIRWAYS. I told the agent I wanted to fly LAN Argentina from AEP to BRC. She told me that British Airways had no partners that flew that route.

When I said LAN Argentina flew the route, she informed me that British Airways “partners with lan.com,” not LAN Argentina. A lot of phone agents for a lot of airlines are clueless, but saying your airline partners with a website not an airline is a new one from a phone agent. :)

I pointed out that British Airways lists LAN Argentina as a partner on its partner page, and LAN Argentina flies the route.

Eligible subsidiaries of LAN for BA redemptions include LAN Argentina

But I wasn’t sure how to talk her through booking LAN Argentina, so I hung up and called back. The second agent was competent, and found a few flights to choose from on my outbound and return dates.

She said the price was 15,000 Avios and $99 per person. I asked her to waive the $25 phone fee since the award wasn’t bookable online, and she said she had, and that it was still $99 per person. I asked for a breakdown, and she said it was $25 fuel surcharges and $74 in taxes.

I found that perplexing because the breakdown on the ITA Matrix was only about 300 pesos in taxes. I didn’t push the issue, though, because currency issues in Argentina are difficult. Maybe the 300 pesos was $60, and I was on the hook for 20% more because of a new tax on foreigners buying travel.

I thanked the agent and hung up. I wanted to check out my other option.

Aerolineas Argentinas with SkyMiles

I tried to search for Aerolineas space on airfrance.us. Here’s a post on how to use airfrance.us to look for SkyTeam space. I know airfrance.us shows Aerolineas award space on its one route to the USA.

Image from airfrance.us

But Air France’s site doesn’t display Bariloche as a city option, so I couldn’t search there. I headed to ExpertFlyer, which I explained how to use here.

Space was excellent, showing award space several flights a day. Note that Delta has access to T space, not X space.

Image from expertflyer.com

I called Delta at 800-323-2323 and told the agent my airports and dates and told her that I had my flights picked out. She quickly found the flights and informed me the cost would be 20,000 SkyMiles and $37.80 per person. I asked if that included a phone fee, which she said it did. I asked her to ask a supervisor to waive the fee, since the award cannot be ticketed on Delta.com. She came back a minute later and said the fee would be waived.

The new cost was 20,000 SkyMiles and $12.80 per person.

Which is better for intra-Argentina travel: Avios or SkyMiles?

That’s a poorly worded question. It depends on the route. SkyMiles will always charge 20,000 miles roundtrip plus minimal taxes. LAN flights with Avios will charge more cash and a miles price between 9,000 and 20,000 Avios roundtrip since the awards are based on the distance of the flights and Argentina is the 8th largest country in the world.

For each award where you have an option on Aerolineas Argentinas, LAN, and as a cash ticket, you should determine the cost of each, and which one you consider cheapest based on your mile values.

For me, the cheapest cash tickets would have been $600 per person. The Avios ticket was 15,000 Avios + $99. The SkyMiles ticket was 20,000 miles + $12.

I value Avios at 1.7 cents and SkyMiles at 1.22 cents. That makes the Avios redemption “cost” $354 (.017 * 15,000 + 99) and the SkyMiles redemption $256 (.0122 * 20,000 + 12).

From my valuations, I think only the shortest hops of under 650 miles would be a better deal with Avios intra-Argentina.

Ticketing the SkyMiles Award

I called Delta back and got the same award priced at 20,000 miles + $12 per person again. When it got time to give the credit card information, the agent panicked and put me on hold. She came back with some strange news: Aerolineas Argentinas wouldn’t let Delta issue an electronic ticket. I needed to go to an airport with Delta staff to have a paper ticket issued.

I hung up and called back several times getting the same information.

I want to spread this information because with some forewarning, this could be converted into only a minor inconvenience. If you can call Delta and put your Aerolineas Argentinas award on hold a few days before your trip to Argentina, you can then ticket it at an airport that Delta serves, which will probably include every airport you fly through on the way to Argentina.

But since I was already in Buenos Aires, it would have been very inconvenient and around $40 for a roundtrip taxi to the international airport (EZE). That combined with the fact that I wasn’t sure ticketing would go smoothly made me bite the bullet and purchase the more expensive Avios ticket.

Note that last week The Points Guy’s managing editor published a very different account of ticketing an Aerolineas Argentinas award intra-Argentina with SkyMiles. I can only attribute the differences to him booking the award a few weeks before me, and Aerolineas Argentinas having changed its policy in the meantime.

Ticketing the Avios Award

I called British Airways and had the Avios award ticketed in ten minutes. The British Airways confirmation number was recognizable by LAN, so online check in at LAN.com was easy the day of our flight.

LAN has a great baggage policy of 50 lbs of free checked bag per person on these flights, which we didn’t need. LAN also had a pleasant flying experience with free Havanna-branded–a recognizable snack brand here–snack boxes on the two hour flight.

Recap

I looked at all my options to get down to Bariloche in a hurry before it got too cold. Cash tickets at $600 per person were out. Luckily Delta and British Airways both have award partners that fly the route with plenty of award space. Plus neither program charges fees for ticketing awards at the last minute.

The Delta award on Aerolineas Argentinas was a better deal, but would have required an expensive and time consuming trip to the nearest Delta agents at Ministro Pistarini airport to get a paper ticket!

For that reason, I went with the Avios award and flew LAN to Bariloche. Based on my time in Bariloche so far, this award has definitely been worth it!

Join the 1,300 geniuses on Twitter and 3,000 mavens on Facebook who follow MileValue for more tips, tricks, and deals. Subscribe for one free, daily email on the top left of the page, so you never miss another post.

→ 5 Comments

Posted in Aerolineas Argentinas, Avios, Delta, LAN

Tagged , , ,

Anatomy of an Award: Membership Rewards to Argentina

Posted on April 2, 2013 by | 8 Comments

I recently booked a family of four an economy award from Miami to Buenos Aires with their Membership Rewards. It was an interesting award that I think demonstrates the complexities and fun of booking with American Express points.

I won’t talk about that award specifically, but I’ll use it as a jumping off point for discussion since it illustrates a typical Memberhip Rewards situation. Imagine you have a family of four trying for an economy roundtrip from Miami to Buenos Aires for two weeks in October with 300k Membership Rewards.

Membership Rewards are awesome because they can be transferred to any of the three airline alliances, so you can use them to book on almost any airline in the world.

But Membership Rewards are frustrating because they transfer to programs with which you may be unfamiliar like ANA or programs with major drawbacks like British Airways’ fuel surcharges.

I would approach an award like this looking first at the flying options, then at the transfer options. I know if I could find award space, I can probably find a transfer partner with access to that space. And if I find several ways to get to Buenos Aires, I cancompare the transfer options to see which is the best deal with Membership Rewards.

From checking the Buenos Aires international airport’s (EZE) wikipedia page, I know there are direct flights to/from Miami on American, LAN, and Aerolineas Argentinas. Of course, United and Delta also fly to Buenos Aires from their hubs.

Aerolineas Argentinas

Aerolineas Argentinas is the state-owned flag carrier of Argentina. I haven’t heard too many kind words about it, but it does have a direct flight from Miami to Buenos Aires. The best way to search for the space is on ExpertFlyer.

ExpertFlyer only displays economy award space on the airline. The space that Aerolineas’ SkyTeam partners like Delta have access to is T class space.

Aerolineas Argentinas flies twice daily between Miami and Buenos Aires–its only US route–once in the morning and one redeye. Up to seven seats are widely available on each!

The return is also wide open.

This was a promising start!

American

American has direct flights from Miami to Buenos Aires also. The best place to check for space on those flights is aa.com.

I can look at the whole month of October in just a few seconds with AA’s awesome calendar view. Unfortunately there is no MileSAAver outbound space–the low-miles-price space open to partners– in October, though there is some space on return flights.

Outbound: No Saver Space

Return: Some Saver Space

LAN

LAN is another oneworld airline with direct flights from Miami to Buenos Aires. I go to ba.com to check for LAN space to Buenos Aires, since aa.com doesn’t display LAN space.

I ca’t find any LAN space on ba.com, though it did pick up the same American Airlines space I’d seen on aa.com.

ba.com not finding any LAN space

…but it did find the same space on American Airlines

Delta

Yes, it seemed like a complete longshot that Delta would have space for four from Miami to Atlanta to Buenos Aires at the low-miles-price because Delta has putrid availability to South America, but I checked anyway.

Green shows low-miles-price itineraries. There actually are some returns possible.

While oneway tickets with Delta miles are a huge mistake since Delta charges the roundtrip price for all awards even oneways, I kept the returns in mind because AMEX has some transfer partners like Flying Blue that can be used to book oneway Delta awards reasonably.

United, TACA, Copa

The final place I checked was united.com to see what United, Copa, or TACA award space there was that I could snag with a transfer to a Star Alliance partner.

Green and yellow days have an award with four economy seats.

I found a few more possible awards to add to the bounty.

Search Results

I found space in both direction on Aerolineas Argentinas’ two daily flights. I found space in both directions on connecting United and Copa (via Panama) flights. I found return space on American Airlines and Delta, but no outbound space. I found no space on LAN.

Transfer Options

Delta

We can transfer Membership Rewards to Delta to book the Aerolineas Argentinas space and/or the Delta space. Delta charges 60,000 miles roundtrip to Argentina in economy class whether you fly it or one of its SkyTeam partners like Aerolineas Argentinas.

Although Delta does charge fuel surcharges for awards on a lot of its partners, it does not collect fuel surcharges on Aerolineas redemptions.

That means a transfer to Delta would mean the transfer of 240,000 Membership Rewards to 240,000 Delta miles. American Express charges $7 per 10,000 miles transferred to US-based airlines, with a maximum charge of $99, This transfer would incur that $99 charge. The award itself would have government taxes of around $75 per person, meaning a total cost of 240,000 Membership Rewards and approximately $400 for four people.

In return for that outlay, the family could get direct flights in each direction or could sub a one-stop itinerary on Delta on the return if they really didn’t want to fly Aerolineas Argentinas.

Flying Blue

Air France’s frequent flyer program, Flying Blue, is not always the best option because it levies heavy surcharges on several partners. But it doesn’t levy surcharges on Delta or Aerolineas Argentinas. And it’s price from the US to Argentina is 25,000 miles each way.

I’m not sure why the taxes collected exceed those collected by Delta by $15 per person, but that’s a minor concern. Flying Blue costs 25,000 miles each way, and it can be used to book oneways, which is a far better deal than Delta’s 60k miles roundtrip, which is the price whether you book oneways or roundtrips.

That means for 200k Membership Rewards and $360, a family of four could get on the same flights as with Delta miles: Delta and Aerolineas Argentinas flights.

British Airways

We can transfer Membership Rewards to British Airways Avios, but that would only enable booking the return leg in this case. Avios can be used to book American or LAN flights. We found only space on American, and only on the return.

The good news is that it’s only 25,000 Avios from Buenos Aires to Miami.

That means the return would be 100k Membership Rewards and $300.

ANA

I recently sang the praises of All Nippon Airways as a Membership Rewards transfer partner. ANA has a distance based award chart. You add up the distance of all the segments and see how many miles that trip will cost. Here is the economy chart.

Miami to Houston to Buenos Aires roundtrip is just over 12,000 miles. That works out 60,000 ANA miles (60,000 Membership Rewards) roundtrip. That’s not fantastic or awful.

But Miami to Panama to Buenos Aires is under 9,000 miles, meaning it is only 43,000 ANA miles roundtrip. That’s the lowest miles total we’ve seen.

image from gcmap.com

In neither case would there be fuel surcharges. ANA never charges fuel surcharges on United or US Airways flights, and Copa doesn’t collect fuel surcharges on this routing.

No fuel surcharges on Copa from Miami to Buenos Aires, so ANA won’t collect any.

That means ANA miles used to fly Copa would be 172k Membership Rewards and about $480 in taxes.

Transfer Options Summary

To summarize:

  • All the options here receive 1:1 transfers from Membership Rewards and incur only government taxes–no fuel surcharges.
  • Transferring to Delta is a bad idea. Why pay 60k Membership Rewards for a roundtrip when the same flights are 25k each way via Flying Blue? Total: 240k + $400
  • ANA is the cheapest option overall at 43k roundtrip if we route through Panama on Copa. Total: 172k + $480
  • British Airways and Flying Blue are the cheapest direct options at 25k each way. Total: 200k + $300

If you really value direct flights, take the Aerolineas Argentinas flight one direction for 25k Flying Blue miles and return on the American Airlines flight for 25k Avios.

If you really value the cheapest flights or want a free stopover in Panama, look for Copa flights for 43k ANA miles.

Recap

Membership Rewards have awesome versatility, which also means it’s more work to figure out the best deal. For a simple Miami to Buenos Aires roundtrip, all three alliances are possibilities.

Because some transfer partners have region-based charts, some have distance-based charts, some charge fuel surcharges sometimes, and some never do, you have to investigate every option for the best deal.

For Buenos Aires to Miami roundtrip, the best deals are with ANA miles on Copa to take advantage of the distance-based chart of a combination of Flying Blue miles and Avios to take advantage of their partners’ direct flights.

→ 8 Comments

Posted in AAdvantage, Aerolineas Argentinas, Air France, American Express, ANA, Avios, Award Booking, Best Of, Delta, ExpertFlyer, Flying Blue, LAN, Membership Rewards

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Spring Break 2013! A Proposed 26,000 Mile Journey

Posted on March 24, 2013 by | 25 Comments

As many of you may know, I am a college student by day and the amusing, yet mystical, Bengali Miles Guru by night. After traveling almost 100,000 miles since January, I knew that my upcoming spring break trip would have to be amazing. It would also have to help me attain my 12 months, 12 countries goal.

After giving it some thought, the best idea was to include my friends into the crazy trip I’m about to embark on.

Introduction:

I didn’t know where to go but naturally, I thought that maybe it should be Europe since I just flew to Asia a month ago. I set my sights on a Eurotrip themed adventure! I knew that it would have to be awesome and that my friends would have to be amused as well. I finally settled on this proposed route plan:

Los Angeles-Frankfurt

1 night in Frankfurt (Hotwire a Hotel)

Drive to Amsterdam

2 nights in Amsterdam (Radisson Blu Amsterdam)

Drive to Paris

2 nights in Paris (Radisson Blu Champs Elysees & Radisson Blu Le Dokhan’s Hotel)

Drive back to Frankfurt and visit cities a long the way.

Frankfurt- Los Angeles

Last time I drove in Germany, we somehow got this car:

The hotels alone were an absolute wonder to book. In Frankfurt & Amsterdam, I resorted to Hotwire and was able to get great rates that were sub $100 per night! The best feeling was going to hotels.com and seeing that the Radisson Blu Amsterdam was $296 on the nights I wanted to go. I got the same hotel on Hotwire for $86 plus tax!

In Paris, I elected to use my Club Carlson points to book two nights at two different hotels since we have a lot of people going. I was able to use the free bonus night stay that comes with the Club Carlson card and for 100,000 points, I got 2 rooms in Paris for 2 nights each (4 nights total for the price of 2)

In Paris, the hotel prices were about 330-430 Euros/Night depending on the hotels so I think I got great value from those points! (2.1 Cents)

It proved to be a stellar trip but I yearned for more, and that’s exactly what I got.

After booking my friends on a LAX-ATL-FRA-ORD-LAX flight (in Business Class because, you know, college students need to travel in style) for 100,000 miles, I looked into my own flights. Sure, I was going to all these cool places with my friends but I also wanted to make a great Trip Report out of it. I also wanted to get the most value out of my mile. ;)  

I sat down and thought about other routes till I could think no more. I came up with this masterpiece:

Los Angeles-Frankfurt in Lufthansa Business Class (A330) Part of US Airways 90K US-Europe-Asia

My parents modeling the Lufthansa Business Class seats

Paris-Kuala Lumpur  in Malaysian First Class (A380) 105,000 Amex-British Air Points

Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok in Lufthansa First Class (Yes, it’s not wrong) United 70K First Class Award. Picture could change based on flight availability.

Bangkok-Hong Kong in Thai First Class (A380) United 70K First Class Award

Hong Kong-Frankfurt (Lufthansa 747-8i 70K United Award)

Frankfurt-Los Angeles (Lufthansa First Class 70K Award)

My Proposed Trip

To make things more complicated, I used a 90k US Airways redemption to go US-Europe-Asia. I scheduled Europe-Asia as a later trip in September so technically, I end in Europe for now. I then transferred some Membership Rewards to get myself on the Malaysian Airlines A380 from Paris-KUL. I was never supposed to come back to Europe from Malaysia but I realized my flight wouldn’t make it in time to take a free ticket I had from Singapore-Los Angeles. That’s when I dipped into my United Miles to book a return from Asia-Los Angeles.

The Total Costs:

90,000 US Airways miles & $200 in Taxes

105,000 American Express Membership Rewards & $1,000 in Taxes

70,000 United miles & 100 in Taxes

The best part of this trip is that I get to test out a bunch of new products and hopefully report them back to you guys!

Some interesting tidbits about this trip include:

Kuala Lumpur – Bangkok is actually operated by Lufthansa. It is part of their Bangkok – Frankfurt flight so it goes KUL-BKK-FRA.

Overall, this trip should be fun for me and terrifying for my mom who will probably be worrying a little too much.

By flying this route, I’ll be at 4 different A380 First Class cabins in less than 3 months of each other! I’ve already flown Lufthansa & Singapore! Adding Malaysian & Thai to the mix will only leave me with Emirates, Korean Air, Air France, China Southern, & Qantas. I am most interested in flying Emirates and China Southern’ A380s in the future!

If you don’t see me on one of these flights in the upcoming days, you’ll surely see me at FTU DC in a few weeks! Hope to meet you all! You can also follow this trip on Instagram with the hashtag #flywithbmg.

Also, if you like what you see, use our Award Booking Service to build a trip like this! We’ve helped tons of people book trips of a lifetime!

→ 25 Comments

Posted in American Express, Anatomy of an Award, Avios, Award Booking, BengaliMilesGuru, Malaysia Airlines, Membership Rewards, Star Alliance, Travel Style, Trip Report, Uncategorized, United

The Big Trick for Searching BA.com

Posted on March 12, 2013 by | 7 Comments

Yesterday I said you can’t search Lima to Cuzco on ba.com. It turns out I was wrong! To search Lima to Cuzco, though, you do need to use a trick.

Reader Coleman emailed me to say:

Just wanted to let you know that although you cannot search LIM-CUZ, you are able to search CUZ-LIM. Obviously this will still need to be called in since nobody originates in CUZ, but at least you can view availability ahead of time by playing with the dates.

Coleman is right that you can search Cuzco to Lima on ba.com and be shown results. With just this ability, it actually is possible to find your LAN award space online before calling 800-AIRWAYS to book with Avios.

The trick we need is the exact same one that we occasionally have to use on qantas.com. If you want to go Lima to Cuzco rountdtrip:

  1. Search Cuzco to Lima oneway to find the return.
  2. Search for Cuzco to Lima roundtrip. Make the Cuzco to Lima flight any dummy date. Make Lima to Cuzco (the “return”) your preferred Lima to Cuzco date.

I’ll walk you through it with screen shots. Imagine you want a roundtrip from Lima to Cuzco May 1 to 8.

First search for the return as a oneway.

 

Now that the return is picked out, we move back to the outbound. Of course Lima to Cuzco can’t be searched, but Lima to Cuzco is the return of Cuzco to Lima roundtrip, which can be searched. So we search Cuzco to Lima roundtrip with a dummy date for the outbound and May 1 for the Lima to Cuzco return.

We’ll ignore the half of the search results about the March 28 leg from Cuzco to Lime we don’t want. We’ll pay attention to the second half: May 1 from Lima to Cuzco.

Those are the two searches necessary to find space online for a May 1 to May 8 Lima to Cuzco roundtrip. Now you have to book it by phone. Note the date and flight number, then call the airlines whose miles you are using to book.

Booking

If you’re using Avios to pay 9,000 only Avios roundtrip for what can be an expensive cash ticket, call 800-AIRWAYS. They may not mention a phone fee, but they are going to charge you one unless you speak up and ask to have it waived because the ticket cannot be booked online. See my conversation with a rep here for an example.

If you’re using American Airlines miles because these are just legs on an award from the US, book it as part of your main award by calling 800-882-8880. There will be a $25 phone fee, but American Airlines won’t waive it.

50k Avios

It’s redemptions like this–short, direct, no-fuel-surcharge itineraries–that make Avios so valuable. Avios are horrible for transpacific flights, and they aren’t good for transatlantic.

But there are some places they shine, and are by far the most valuable currency. Avios are incredible:

  • Within the US (flying American)
  • to the Caribbean (flying American)
  • within South America (flying LAN)
  • to Central America (flying American)
  • within Australia (flying Qantas)
  • within South Africa (flying Comair)

The cheapest flights from Lima to Cuzco May 1 to May 8 are $359.

Spending 9k Avios and $18 is almost 4 cents in value per Avios.

Avios’s distance-based chart makes them a great complement to earning other types of region-to-region miles. See the Five Types of Frequent Flyer Miles.

I like to say that the more American Airlines miles you have, the more your Avios are worth. What I mean is if you have to have one type of miles, you don’t want it to be Avios. But if you have several types, you want a healthy Avios balance as a complement.

 

→ 7 Comments

Posted in Avios, Award Booking

Tagged ,

BA.com No Longer Showing Some LAN Flights and What to Do About It

Posted on March 11, 2013 by | 21 Comments

A few months ago you could book Lima to Cuzco on ba.com with Avios. I made that redemption for family members for an incredible 4,500 Avios and $9 in taxes per person.

Lima to Cuzco meets the three criteria to be an ideal British Airways redemption.

  1. Direct flight (because each segment adds to an Avios award’s cost)
  2. Short flight (because each segment is priced by its distance)
  3. No fuel surcharges (because Avios charges nasty fuel surcharges on a lot of awards)

With my personal experience booking the award, I was surprised to get an email from a reader saying that she couldn’t book Lima to Cuzco online because ba.com doesn’t list Cuzco as a destination.

She is totally correct that ba.com no longer lists Cuzco as a possible airport in award searches. Performing the following search…

…leads to an airport code auto-correct screen…

…and trying to search by country is a dead end too.

With the intra-Peru space no longer showing on ba.com, I don’t think it’s available anywhere online. That doesn’t mean you can’t book intra-Peru space with Avios. It just means you have to call British Airways to book at 800-AIRWAYS.

I called today to test out availability. I picked an arbitrary date–October 10–and told the agent I wanted one economy class seat from Lima to Cuzco.

LAN flies the route 15 times on October 10, and there was an award seat on at least the first five flights of the day.

The wide open award availability didn’t surprise me. The story was the same when the space was on ba.com, and space tends to improve the harder it is to book like when you have to call in and specifically request it.

I told the agent I wanted to book the 7:40 AM flight. He quoted me a price of 4,500 Avios plus $34.40 “including all taxes and fees.”

He didn’t break it down, so I asked him: “Does that include a $25 phone fee?”

“Yessir.”

I followed up: “Can I have that waived because this is not bookable online?”

“Be right with you.”

He returned to the line in about 60 seconds to tell me that the price was now 4,500 Avios plus $9.40.

So it’s now a three-step process to book intra-Peru flights with Avios.

  1. Look up the LAN schedule to figure out what flight you want.
  2. Call 800-AIRWAYS and have an agent find you the space.
  3. Ask for the phone fee to be waived.

I don’t expect that it’s only intra-Peru space that’s disappeared from ba.com. If the award you want is not searchable online, you should call British Airways.

→ 21 Comments

Posted in Avios, Award Booking

Tagged

Free First Class Next Month: Searching BA.com to Redeem American Airlines Miles

Posted on March 1, 2013 by | 5 Comments

This is the twenty-first post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go. Previously Searching AA.com to Redeem American Airlines Miles.

Knowing how to use ba.com is crucial for making award bookings with British Airways Avios and American Airlines AAdvantage miles.

Why? ba.com displays award space for more oneworld partner airlines than does aa.com. That means you often need to search ba.com even if you are redeeming American Airlines miles. For instance, ba.com is a great place to search space on Cathay Pacific before calling American Airlines to book with American Airlines miles.

Award Searches on ba.com

First, you need to sign up for the British Airways Executive Club to be able search. The link is on the top right of BA.com. Next, you must log in.

Along the left side of the screen after logging in, click on Spending Avios. Several choices will emerge beneath where you clicked. Choose Book Flights with Avios.

On this screen, type in the details of your potential award trip. One trick is that if you’re willing to fly either of two classes, select the higher one. ba.com will always display worse classes with space available if the class you want doesn’t have space.

If you’ve selected a route British Airways flies, a screen will pop up asking if you want a stopover in London. Leave No Stopover selected, and click Continue.

If you’ve queried a route not served by British Airways, you’ll be brought directly to results.

The results are displayed by airline. British Airways is at the top and the rest are ordered alphabetically. You can change the sorting to Total Journey Time in the dropdown menu.

If your day comes back with no results, you can click on the nearby dates one at a time on the results screen or move one week at a time.

To get more info on a flight, click the linked flight number, and a new window will open with pertinent info including the aircraft and flight duration.

To see the price of an award including taxes and fees, select one and click the red Continue button.

If you don’t have enough Avios in your account, you will just be shown the Avios price and dollar amount without a breakdown.

LAX-HKG-MNL in First Class price

If you do have enough Avios, the price screen looks a bit different.

If you click on the little “i” icon, you will see how the cash component of the award breaks down. This is how the $311 in addition to the Avios needed to get from LAX to Budapest breaks down.

If you want to book the award you found with Avios, enter your credit card info, and you are all set. If you want to book the itinerary with American Airlines miles–both itineraries above are way better deals with American Airlines miles–note the flight dates, numbers, cabins, and taxes.

American Airlines will charge all the same taxes, but not the fuel surcharges. Call American Airlines at 800-882-8880 and feed the agents the flights you found.

ba.com shows space on airberlin, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Royal Jordanian, and S7, which is all of oneworld.

Continue to Using Qantas.com to Redeem American Airlines Miles.

→ 5 Comments

Posted in AAdvantage, Avios, Award Booking, Free First Class Next Month, How to

Tagged , , , ,

Aggravating Travel Fees and How to Avoid Them with Two Simple Tips

Posted on February 19, 2013 by | 23 Comments

For many people, the most aggravating travel fees are out-of-pocket fees charged on frequent-flyer-mile award tickets. At least that’s my impression from reading the comments on this New York Times article I was quoted in. Huge government taxes and fuel surcharges can make what should be a free ticket cost hundreds of dollars per person. People were furious about paying $600 for a “free” economy ticket.

And why wouldn’t they be? Most people think award miles get you a free ticket like they used to. When a phone agent tells them their two-person award will cost miles plus $3,600–yes, this really happened to a client of mine–they think the airline has changed the rules in the middle of the game.

Luckily avoiding these aggravating fees comes down to two simple tips:

1. Do not depart London, especially not in a premium cabin.

The reason is that the UK imposes a huge Air Passenger Duty on all departing passengers, and it’s even bigger on business class passengers–over $210 to the USA.

If you want to go to London and Paris on the same trip, fly into London and out of Paris. That award in business class is 100,000 American Airlines miles and $138. Flying into Paris and out of London in business class is 100,000 American Airlines miles and $284. $150 more!

Into London, out of Paris is $138 in taxes.

Into Paris, out of London is $284 in taxes. Don’t depart London on an award!

This does not mean you cannot connect through London. Connecting through London incurs an approximately $54 Passenger Service Charge, but not the $210 Air Passenger Duty. Connecting through London may not be ideal, but it will not break the bank.

Germany to the US, routing through London.

And your connection in London can be up to 24 hours before the Air Passenger Duty kicks in.

This is the itinerary with the taxes listed above. Twenty-three-and-a-half-hours in London, but the passenger is considered in transit, so there is no Air Passenger Duty charged. That means $200+ saved.

So avoid departing London to save yourself a couple hundred bucks per person. Avoid routing through London if you can, but stays of under 24 hours incur manageable taxes.

2. Use frequent-flyer miles on award partners who do not charge fuel surcharges.

United miles and US Airways miles are great because they don’t collect fuel surcharges on any awards. American Airlines collects surcharges on British Airways flights. Delta collects surcharges on a ton of its partners. See the list of Delta surcharges I’ve compiled.

If you use your American Airlines miles on a roundtrip to Europe with British Airways, you’ll pay $684 in taxes and fuel surcharges in economy class on top of the miles. That’s nearly $700 for a “free” ticket in economy!

Using American Airlines miles on British Airways flights is an expensive mistake.

If you use American miles on airberlin, Finnair, or American itself, you will pay $100 or so in taxes and no fuel surcharges. (Just remember to avoid departing London.)

So far, I’ve talked about using American Airlines miles on British Airways flights. You also should be careful using British Airways Avios for trips to Europe.

If you use British Airways miles for a transatlantic flight, you’ll pay at least $800 roundtrip in fuel surcharges if you fly most of its partners. The two big exceptions are Aer Lingus or airberlin. Use your Avios on these partners for huge savings.

Or just use your Avios for flights within the US. If you use Avios to fly American Airlines from Los Angeles to Hawaii, you’ll pay only $5 in taxes.

Finally, there’s the case of using Delta miles to Asia. If you use Delta miles to fly China Southern to Asia, you’ll see fuel surcharges of about $330 per passenger roundtrip. Use the same miles to fly to the same place in Asia on Korean Air, and you pay no surcharges, just government taxes.

Fly on Korean to Asia with Delta miles to avoid the surcharges Delta collects on China Southern, China Eastern, and China Airlines.

Recap

There’s nothing worse than paying hundreds of dollars for what should be a “free” award ticket. Luckily, there are two simple ways to save yourself the money and aggravation: don’t depart London on awards and make sure you fly on airline partners that don’t collect fuel surcharges.

→ 23 Comments

Posted in AAdvantage, Avios, Delta, United, US Airways

Tagged , , , ,

How to Redeem Miles on Malaysia Airlines

Posted on February 2, 2013 by | 3 Comments

Malaysia Airlines joined oneworld on Thursday, meaning you now have more options for your American Airlines AAdvantage miles and British Airways Avios to, from, and through Southeast Asia.

courtesy of Google Maps

An unaffiliated airline joining an alliance is always a good thing for us because our miles have more uses, and usually the new airline will have incredible award availability, at least until it adjusts to having more people snapping up its awards.

Where Malaysia Airlines Flies

Malaysia Airlines flies from its Kuala Lumpur hub all over Asia and Australia. It also has four flights to Europe–Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, and Paris–and one flight to the US–Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur flight flies via Tokyo in both directions. The entire route is operated by the same plane, so there is no worry about missed connections. The journey takes 21:40 heading west, and you land two days after takeoff. The journey takes 18:05 heading east, and you land the same day as takeoff.

What Planes and Premium Cabins does Malaysia Airlines Feature?

The two main longhaul jets in Malaysia Airlines’ fleet are the 777-200 and A380.

The 777-200 flies the Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur route as well as Kuala Lumpur to Frankfurt and Amsterdam. The 777-200 plane will disappoint people looking for luxury. There is no first class–just economy and business–and the business class seats are angled lie flat.

This photo is from Malaysia Airlines’ page on its 777-200s.

The angle of the photo seems to be designed to disguise the angle of the bed, but look at the bed in relation to the windows, and you can see this would be quite an uncomfortable angle for sleep.

I would generally pass on flying this business class cabin unless it was the only option available.

The A380 flies from Kuala Lumpur to London-Heathrow and Paris-CDG. The A380 has a more luxurious configuration. First Class suites have fully flat 7’3″ beds according to Malaysia Airlines’ page on the aircraft.

The rest of the suite sounds pretty incredible too with the same jumbo-sized 23″ screen Emirates First Class has, and single and double suites for people traveling alone or with a companion.

Its business class seats also claim to be fully flat beds, though I can’t verify that elsewhere. This seat map and this review make me think the seats are angled lie flats.

The menus for both premium cabins look incredible, and include the option to order your entree in advance.

Where do I Search for Malaysia Air Space?

I search for oneworld space in three places: aa.com, ba.com, and qantas.com.au. (Here’s where I specifically search for each oneworld partner’s space.) For Malaysia Airlines, the choice of search engine is easy. Of the airline sites I use to search oneworld space, only ba.com displays Malaysia Airlines space.

ba.com search result

For me, that makes ba.com the best place to search award availability. BA.com is an easy-to-use search engine. Sign in to your BA account, then click Spending Avios under the Executive Club tab.

Along the left side of the next screen, click Book Flights with Avios.

I’ll do an example search of Adelaide, Australia to Kuala Lumpur–a new route open to your American and British miles.

The one thing I recommend is selecting the highest class of service you might want. If it’s not available, you will always be offered lower classes. But if you search economy, and it is not available, you will not be offered business.

In this case, I requested first class even though the airplane operating the route doesn’t have first class. As you can see the results are returned showing business class with a note explaining first class was not available.

On ba.com, direct British Airways flights are returned first–there are none on this route–followed by direct partner flights, followed by routes with layovers. In this case, since Qantas–the biggest Australian airline is a oneworld partner, there are routes with Qantas and Malaysian flights.

If you ever want to know more info about one segment–its duration or aircraft for instance–click the flight number.

Clicking the MH0138 of the direct flight shows the flight time as 7:30 and an A330 as the jet operating the flight. For more information on what business class in like on a Malaysia Airlines A330, I would google “Malaysia A330.”

Other Ways to Search

Interestingly Expert Flyer–a paid service I explained how to use here–shows Malaysia Airlines economy award space and business and first class upgrade space.

See the letters in parentheses, A, I, and S? Those are the fare codes for first class upgrades, business class upgrades, and economy awards according to Expert Flyer. According to an American phone agent, the fare codes we want for award space are:

  • P = First Class Award Space
  • U = Business Class Award Space
  • X = Economy Class Award Space

That means Expert Flyer search results should not match up with ba.com or what an American Airlines agent can book.

My searches indicate that economy class space does not line up. Expert Flyer usually shows nine award seats in economy, while ba.com usually shows fewer.

Business upgrade space and business award space do not match up for every airline, but on all the searches I performed, business upgrade space displayed on Expert Flyer and business award space displayed on ba.com matched up perfectly.

Calling in to American, I could book the same business class space too, so Expert Flyer is an option to search Malaysia Airlines business space if you prefer its functionality to ba.com and you understand that its results might not always be accurate.

First Class Upgrade space on Expert Flyer didn’t match up with anywhere else. And I couldn’t find any First Class space on ba.com or with an AA agent. First Class might be off limits to American Airlines and British Airways miles at the moment.

How’s the Space on Key Routes

To me the most important routes for my likely needs are:

Los Angeles <-> Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur <-> London

Kuala Lumpur <-> Paris

intra-Malaysia

All of these routes had phenomenal space. I saw business and economy space on almost every longhaul route I checked–usually 4+ seats.

And intra-Malaysia had at least two economy class seats on every flight I checked.

At least for now, Malaysia Airlines space is wide open. That may change as miles-collectors take notice of that and American Airlines agents learn to route customers on Malaysia. Consider beating the rush.

Relevant American Routing Rules

If you haven’t read the Five Cardinal Rules of American Airlines Awards yet, now is the time. I’ll highlight a few relevant rules.

Stopover Rule

Since stopovers on American Airlines international awards must occur at the North American international gateway city, if you are flying between your home airport and Kuala Lumpur, you have only one stopover option–Los Angeles. In either or both directions, you can stop in Los Angeles since it is the gateway city both directions. (If you live in Los Angeles, you can get a free oneway both directions.)

That means you can’t get a free stopover in Tokyo en route to Kuala Lumpur, and you can’t get a free stopover in Kuala Lumpur on your way somewhere else. If you want multiple stops in Asia, look into Avios awards, United awards, or cash tickets on Asian low-cost carriers.

Published Fare Rule

If you fly Malaysian from the US to Asia, Malaysian must have a published fare from the starting airport of your journey to the final airport. I do not know on which routes Malaysian publishes fares. You can search on Expert Flyer–How to Use expertflyer.com–or ask an American Airlines agent.

Transiting a Third Region

American Airlines makes you fly directly between your starting and finishing region. If you don’t do that, you are charged for two awards instead of one. There are a few exceptions. One relevant exception is that you can fly from the US to Malaysia (Asia 2) via North Asia (Asia 1) on one award.

One relevant problem is that you cannot fly from the US to Asia via Europe. Nor can you fly from the US to India via Asia.

Relevant BA Surcharges

British Airways adds huge surcharges to its longhaul award redemptions. If you have enough Avios in your account to make a booking, you can click the little “i” in your booking price window to see the size of the surcharge. On an economy flight intra-Malaysia, there is no surcharge.

But on a business class roundtrip between the US and Malaysia, there would be $750+ out of pocket in addition to 200k+ Avios.

The standard Avios advice applies: use Avios for short, direct awards. Don’t use it for long awards with stops, especially not in first class.

How to Book

Avios Awards

You’ve found the space online, and you can easily book online. If you have trouble, call 800-AIRWAYS to book.

AAdvantage Awards

To book an American award that involves travel on Malaysia Airlines, call AA at 800-882-8880. The agent I spoke to was already competent in booking Malaysia Airlines. If you have trouble, tell the agent the Malaysia fare codes listed above. If you still have trouble, hang up and call back.

You can always put your AA award on hold for five days. You will be charged $25 per person for ticketing over the phone, and there is no way around it.

Recap

Malaysia Airlines joined oneworld on Thursday meaning we now have more options with our American Airlines and British Airways miles to, from, and through Southeast Asia.

The good news is that award space is incredible in economy and business class on Malaysia Airlines, first class looks fantastic, and the awards are easily searchable on ba.com.

The bad news is that the business class bed in angled, first class award space is not available, AA’s routing rules make certain Malaysia redemptions tough, and BA will gouge you on longhaul Malaysia flights.

→ 3 Comments

Posted in AAdvantage, Avios, Malaysia Airlines

Tagged , ,

Anatomy of an Award: Sidetrip to Hong Kong from Tokyo

Posted on January 24, 2013 by | 18 Comments

Part I: The Main Award & Finding a Free Oneway

Part II: US to Asia via Europe for 90k Miles in Business

Part III: Adding a Great Sidetrip

This is the third and final installment breaking down my trip to Asia using US Airways miles. The main award is posted below:

  • Washington-Dulles -> Istanbul (23 hour layover) [Turkish]
  • Istanbul -> Seoul-Incheon -> Tokyo-Narita [Asiana]
  • Tokyo-Narita -> Washington-Dulles [All Nippon Airlines]

US Airways is extremely relaxed with their routing rules as you can see above. I am transiting Europe to get to Asia from North America.

But one rule that really must be followed concerns stopovers and open jaws. US Airways only allows one stopover OR open jaw, not both. For further explanations of open jaws, check out Scott’s post, What is an Open Jaw? How Can an Itinerary Have Two Open Jaws?

I am traveling from Washington-Dulles to Tokyo-Narita and returning from Tokyo-Narita to Washington-Dulles. My award doesn’t have an open jaw. It’s a simple roundtrip.

I am also spending 23 hours in Istanbul. That is considered a layover. Anything over 24 hours is considered a stopover. My time in Istanbul will be brief, but I will do my best to have as much fun as Tahsir did when he went.

Having only 23 hours in Istanbul is actually great news! If I wanted to, I could still change my ticket to include either a stopover OR an open jaw.

(Thanks to reader Lisa for pointing me to http://www.istanbulinhours.com/. Turkish Airlines offers free city tours and free meals to anyone with a layover of up to 24 hours in Istanbul according the site.)

After sharing the details of my vacation, a few friends pushed me to tack on a side trip to Hong Kong. Who was I to turn down their free advice? I began to plot all of my options.

Option #1: Give the award an open jaw.

I would travel from Washington-Dulles to Tokyo-Narita. However, I would return to Washington-Dulles from Hong Kong. The destination of my outbound trip (Tokyo) doesn’t match the origin of my inbound trip to D.C. (Hong Kong). That’s considered an open jaw.

Leg #1 IAD-IST-ICN-NRT
Leg #2 HKG-NRT-IAD

To see if giving this trip an open jaw is possible, I logged on to United.com and searched for flights from HKG-IAD in business class. Unfortunately, business space (dates marked in green or blue) was extremely scarce. An open jaw wouldn’t be feasible with this award.

Option #2: Give the award a stopover. I could travel from Washington-Dulles to Tokyo and stop there for four days. This would allow me to enjoy the sites and culture of Japan before heading to Hong Kong. After spending several days in Hong Kong, I would hope on a flight for my journey back to the US. The trip would look something like this:

Leg #1 IAD-IST-ICN-NRT (stopover)-HKG
Leg #2 HKG-NRT-IAD

The award above is legal because it only has one stopover in Tokyo. It doesn’t have an open jaw. My arrival point and departure point are both Hong Kong. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single day with business award space from NRT-HKG, and I’d already decided returning HKG to Dulles wasn’t feasible.

Narita isn’t Tokyo’s only airport, though. The Haneda airport is much closer to the city and my hotel. I could fly into Narita and out of Haneda. This is allowed on awards because airlines consider the two airports co-terminals. It wouldn’t count against me as an open jaw. My trip would look like the following:

Leg #1 IAD-IST-ICN-NRT (stopover)-HND-HKG
Leg #2 HKG-NRT-IAD

Award space was great on the single daily nonstop operated by ANA.

Sadly, the time of ANA’s single flight just didn’t meet my schedule. I would need to explore booking a second roundtrip award ticket between Tokyo and Hong Kong. It was time to turn to other avenues.

Option #3: Book a separate roundtrip ticket between Tokyo and Hong Kong using cash or miles. This turned out to be the far better option for me. I left my original award intact and didn’t have to pay the $150 per ticket change fee. I have wiggled out of those before, though!

The decision to book with cash or miles was ultimately an easy one. Roundtrip fares between Tokyo and Hong Kong were too high for my tastes, going for over $600 in economy. I turned to miles.

US Airways charges 25k/30k roundtrip for economy/business awards in North Asia. Both American Airlines and British Airways charge the same 20k/40k roundtrip for spending their miles to travel on Cathay Pacific. I used British Airways Avios to book the award.

Why did you choose Avios?

The Mile Value Leaderboard prices the two types of miles very closely. The slight edge in value goes to American Airlines, though. I can effectively use AAdvantage miles for premium longhaul trips on Qantas, Cathay Pacific, or JAL. The same can’t be said for Avios. Their award chart is too expensive for those types of trips.

British Airways award chart is distance based and has some incredible sweet spot deals and strategic uses including Hawaii, South America, and South Africa. I prefer to use Avios to supplement my longer trips. This ticket is a perfect example.

Finding award space between Tokyo and Hong Kong was surprisingly easy. I used the British Airways improved award search tool and plugged in the dates I needed. Cathay Pacific and JAL offered several good options.

British Airways does impose fuel surcharges on Cathay Pacific on top of the taxes and fees of the award ticket. I paid about $98 + 40,000 Avios for each business class ticket. The complete breakdown for a single seat is below, showing a $59 surcharge.

I found the redemption to be well worth it: I preserved my original award ticket, I get to try out four international carriers on the trip, and I save my AAdvantage miles for when I plan another big vacation. My final award is below:

  • Washington-Dulles -> Istanbul (23 hour layover) [Turkish]
  • Istanbul -> Seoul-Incheon -> Tokyo-Narita [Asiana]
  • Tokyo-Haneda -> Hong Kong [Cathay Pacific]
  • Hong Kong -> Tokyo-Narita [Cathay Pacific]
  • Tokyo-Narita -> Washington-Dulles [All Nippon Airlines]

Recap

I was initially reluctant to explain this award over three parts, but I wanted to share my methodology and invite feedback. The goal of my trip was to see Tokyo, but I also wanted to test the business class experience on as many international carriers as I could. This trip includes four which more than satisfies me.

US Airways allows an open jaw or stopover on their award tickets. I wasn’t able to use either, but I did want to show that it’s possible to construct an award several different ways. After all, we want to squeeze the maximum value out of our miles!

British Airways Avios are known for their incredible value on expensive short haul awards. Clocking in at over 5 hours, Tokyo to Hong Kong is hardly a quick trip. It was still a solid use of Avios, in my opinion. I preserved my AAdvantage miles for another dream trip and still got to test out Cathay Pacific’s business class product.

Can it be November yet? I really want to fly this award now!

→ 18 Comments

Posted in Anatomy of an Award, Avios, US Airways

Tagged , ,