Category Archives: Award Booking

How Adding a Stopover Can Increase Your Award Options

Posted on May 18, 2013 by | 4 Comments

The four legacy carriers–United, Delta, US Airways, and American–all allow stopovers on award tickets (though stopover rules vary greatly.) Adding a stopover en route is a great way to add another city to your trip and get extra value from your award.

Usually adding a stopover increases the complexity of an award, but sometimes it makes your life easier. Sometimes adding a stopover is the best way to increase your award booking options.

I’ll give an example of how taking a stopover can save 27,500 US Airways miles when booking an off peak award to Europe. This example can be generalized to other airline programs.

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Posted in Award Booking, US Airways

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Free Changes on United Awards within 21 Days of Departure

Posted on May 9, 2013 by | 11 Comments

Disclaimer: I use the word “upgrade” a few times in the post. I am not referring to buying a cash ticket in economy and trying to use miles or cash to get it into business class. I am referring to using miles to change an award from economy to business. The first type of upgrade is almost universally a bad deal. The second type is a fine deal.

United has a litany of award fees. Booking by phone is $25. Cancelling is $150. Changing the origin, destination, award, type, cabin, or anything within 21 days of departure is $75.

But I’ve had some pretty good luck changing United awards without incurring the stated fees. I wrote about the way I figured out to Save $100 or More on Cancelling United Awards.

And I once changed an award from Europe to the US without incurring a $75 change fee or having the 20,000 extra miles for my upgrade from economy to business class deducted from my account. (That was a fluke caused by the fact that fees seem to be manually applied by agents over the phone.)

I’ve figured out another way to save up to $75 per ticket in certain circumstances.

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Expanded Free Oneway Choice on American Airlines Awards Booked Online

Posted on May 8, 2013 by | 22 Comments

Two months ago, thexfactor emailed me to tell me that he’d booked something online at aa.com that was against one of the rules I laid out in The Five Cardinal Rules of American Airlines Awards.

His discovery greatly increases where you can take a free oneway when booking American Airlines awards online. I’ll break down what my research has uncovered about the new possibilities and give a little background on free oneways on AA flights.

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Posted in AAdvantage, Award Booking, Free Oneway

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Comprehensive Plan for A Roundtrip to Europe in Business Class with Two Free Oneways

Posted on May 6, 2013 by | 41 Comments

Or: A Letter to a Friend’s Mom

My friend’s mom wants to go from Los Angeles to London in early April with her American Airlines miles. This post contains all the information she needs to understand her options.

If you view the specifics of her situation as merely an example, this post should be hugely helpful to you in you want to plan an award to Europe with your American Airlines miles. This post hits on free oneways on American Airlines, fuel-surcharge avoidance, tax avoidance, when to book, specific examples of Aggravating Award Travel Fees and How to Avoid Them, and much more.

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Posted in AAdvantage, Award Booking, Best Of, Free Oneway

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The Cheapest Ways to Get to the Carribean and Mexico with Miles

Posted on May 3, 2013 by | 17 Comments

I recently had a reader ask me about the best miles to collect to get from Salt Lake City to Cozumel, Mexico. The answer illustrates the best ways to get to the Caribbean and Mexico, so I thought I’d share and expand upon it here.

Near international destinations like Cozumel can be an excellent deal on region-based award charts like those used by American, United, US Airways, and Delta. They can also be a great deal in distance-based programs like those run by British Airways and All Nippon Airways.

How to Get There

The first step is to determine the actual route one would take from Salt Lake City to Cozumel. You could go to kayak.com and search or go to wikipedia for the options. The three shortest in this case are through Houston on United, Dallas on American, and Denver on Frontier.

image from gcmap.com

There are additional ways to get to Cozumel on Delta, Sun Country, United, American, US Airways, Air Canada, and more. But those ways won’t be cheaper, and will be less fun to fly, so let’s ignore them.

The list of the cheapest ways to Cozumel sheds light on transferable points–especially Ultimate Rewards and Membership Rewards–and should help you plan your next near-international getaway.

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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

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Posted in Avios, Award Booking, United

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How to Tell If You’ve Been Hung Up On by an Airline

Posted on April 9, 2013 by | 5 Comments

Airline phone agents have probably hung up on me a dozen times in my life. The story is usually pretty similar.

I call in with an award request that is complex. The computer prices it incorrectly according to published rules. I ask for clarification on the rule that is causing my award to misprice.

The agent makes up a rule. I point out that rule doesn’t exist. I speak to a supervisor. The supervisor makes up a rule. I point out the rule doesn’t exist.

At this point, the supervisor might go to the airline’s internal experts on awards. Sometimes they try to explain a real rule, but the rule is posted nowhere online, and the internal experts won’t get on the phone with customers, so we are left at the mercy of the supervisor mediating the conversation. Since the supervisor knows very little about award booking rules, the supervisor is a horrible person to ferry messages between me and them.

Eventually I am hung up on. But the supervisors are clever. They want plausible deniability. So they tell me I am being transferred somewhere, then during the transfer, the call is dropped.

It’s the perfect crime.

They know they’ve hung up on me. I know they’ve hung up on me. Google voice knows they’ve hung up on me.

But there’s no way to prove the agent intentionally hung up on you. The agent can get away with it easily and rids himself of a pest.

Two recent calls from Google Voice. I ended the call with my friend. Delta ended the call with me while I was on hold.

I’m not just basing the likelihood that the agent intentionally hung up on me solely on the Google Voice data. I’m also basing it on the fact that when a phone call with an airline reaches about an hour, and I am put on hold, the chances of the call being dropped are at least ten times higher than if I am put on hold at the beginning of a call. I can update the probability that the call was dropped as well as the next Bayesian.

Unfortunately I can’t think of a way to get hung up on less–at least not while maintaining my success rate in ticketing tough awards. I could be less persistent about ticketing difficult itineraries, but that just guarantees I won’t get the best awards ticketed. I am better off being hung up on a few times.

The real solution is probably actually to book all my awards with US Airways. The hang ups always stem from disagreements when I want the agent to override a computer. That never happens on US Airways bookings since computers don’t price US Airways awards. Humans do, and they tend to be very pliant.

Too bad I expect this hang-up-free-zone to disappear when US Airways and American Airlines merge, bringing computers into the award pricing of ever more awards.

Have you been hung up on by an airline?

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A Letter in My Outbox

Posted on April 7, 2013 by | 14 Comments

There are a lot of reasons to use an Award Booking Service, like the MileValue Award Booking Service. One great reason is because you have miles in several accounts and want to use the most efficient type for the trip you have in mind. Different miles have different best uses.

Recently I was contacted by a friend who had mid-six-figure account balances in his American, United, and Delta accounts. He wanted a simple open jaw trip to Europe in economy class. From Washington-Dulles to Nice and returning from London to Dulles.

Below is the email I sent to him. The only edits are that I have inserted images that I attached to the email, and I have added some hyperlinks to other posts that expand on a point I am making in the email.

In the email you’ll see the options I presented, and how I was able to book him a free oneway and an award that got him 2.3 cents of value for each United mile!

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Hey [buddy],

I wanted to let you in on what I’ve found.

First, I don’t know if you have any flexibility, but when possible on open jaw trips I recommend flying into London and out of France. The UK has the highest departure taxes in the world of about $155.

The UK departure taxes is if he went ahead with his trip plans.

This is more of an issue when flying business class where it’s more like $250. But you could save money by reversing the directions of this trip. If that’s possible, let me know.

United miles

I started with United miles as you directed. The return is super easy. There are four direct flights on your preferred date, all with space in economy. These are all the saver price of 30k miles.

Four perfect, direct options on the return.

The outbound is a lot trickier. The best option, and the only one that gets you in on your desired day leaves the day before and has an overnight in London. It’s one of those weird daytime flights to Europe, then a night at an airport hotel and London-Frankfurt-Nice then next day, arriving at 2:05 PM on your desired day. This is the earliest arrival possible. It’s not ideal, but it is the best 30k saver option.

Daytime flight to London connecting to…

 

…after an overnight in London, it’s two more flights to Nice to arrive in the afternoon.

The other option for the outbound is to book a “standard” award for 55,000 miles. The itinerary is a lot better, since it is one stop, a redeye across the Atlantic, and doesn’t require an overnight en route.

Ideal itinerary, but an extra 25k miles.

 

I hate to book “standard” price awards, but this might not be horrible for a few reasons. One, the roundtrip award would only be 85k miles + taxes, which is a steal compared to the $2,200 itinerary you found, and the award itinerary would actually be more convenient than the paid one you mentioned. [The paid itinerary he was considering had a one-stop return.] Second, within a week of departure United and Lufthansa tend to open up a lot of award space if seats are unsold–especially in business and first, but also in economy. When that happens, we can rebook that space.

If we rebook to saver economy, the award would be 60k miles like we want. If there is no saver economy space, but there is saver business, that would be an 80k mile award. It would save 5k miles and get you in business one way as a surprise treat. The one drawback of a last minute rebooking is the $75 fee for making a change within 21 days of departure, but that is swamped by saving 25k miles or saving 5k and upgrading to business class.

There are no guarantees with award space, but I would estimate the chances of a good saver economy itinerary opening up at 50%; a good saver business has an 80% chance of opening up.

American Airlines miles

For good measure, I looked at award space with AA miles next. The big problem is that if you book British Airways flights with AA miles, you incur fuel surcharges of about $300 per transatlantic segment. This is a big enough drawback on business awards, but on economy awards like this one, it’s a near deal killer.

I didn’t find any transatlantic award space that we could use on the no- or low-surcharge AA partners. I did find space on a BA flight, leaving and arriving one day later than you want. It cost 30,000 AA miles and $315.

A nasty surcharge on an AA award on BA flights is deal-killer in economy.

This compares to taxes of about $40 to $60 on the outbounds with United miles.

There were no good return options with AA miles.

Delta miles

Finally I checked space with your Delta miles. This was a bust. I didn’t find any good space on Delta or any of its partners. (I even looked at routing you through Russia on Aeroflot, which surely would have been an adventure!)

Putting it All Together

Both United and American can be used to book oneway awards. The return should pretty clearly be on your preferred flight of the four direct LHR-IAD flights on United.

For the outbound, you can choose the overnight in London, the “standard” award with the great schedule, or the fuel-surcharged and day-late BA itinerary.

If you choose to overnight in London, the total cost will be 60k United miles plus taxes and fees of about $210. The cool this is that you can add a FREE ONEWAY to this trip. By that I mean that sometime between your return from London and April 2, 2014, you can fly a oneway trip on United from Dulles to somewhere else–pretty much anywhere else. If that somewhere is in the continental US or Canada, it will cost $2.50 and zero miles to add to the award. If that somewhere else is in Hawaii, it will cost 2,500 miles and a few dollars. If it’s in Peru, it will cost 10,000 miles. Let me know when and where, and we’ll book the award to include the free or cheap oneway.

If you choose the perfect outbound via Frankfurt, the total cost will be 85k United miles plus taxes and fees of about $220. This trip would be eligible for the same additional free or cheap oneway (although some of the cheap oneways’ mile costs will be slightly different than those quoted in the last paragraph.)

If you choose the day-late outbound on BA, the total cost will be 30k United miles, 30k AA miles, and taxes/fees of about $500. This trip would be eligible for a free oneway but only between now and your departure date from anywhere in Canada, the US, or Mexico to Washington on AA or an AA partner.

Please let me know your thoughts on how you want to proceed. If you select something, I should be able to put it on hold for you to call in and ticket.

————————————————————————–

I wanted to give an example of how I think, how I search, and how I communicate about award bookings. As you can see, I left a ton out of this email. For instance, I obviously searched for business class options instead of the “standard” option via Frankfurt, and I searched other dates near his date. But I left those searches out of the email for brevity.

I didn’t write a treatise on free oneways into the email, perhaps confusing someone who had never heard of them before. He did decide to book one to San Francisco once he understood the concept.

Once he made his selection, I held the award online. This did not go smoothly as United had its most common problem on multi-city searches: not showing all the options. I held something online using Bill’s trick, and I called in to edit the reservation to the correct flights.

Although it is not part of the ordinary service, I will be checking for award space to make a last second change to his award.

In general, I think the award booking went well. He was certainly thrilled with the results. I was a bit bummed to be booking an award that was dinged by UK departure taxes and included a “standard” (high-miles-price) component, but a lack of flexibility necessitated those choices.

I think something approaching good value was still achieved with the addition of a cross-country free oneway with a sticker price of $214 and not having to buy a ticket with a sticker price of $2,200.

The Mile Value Calculator says he got 2.3 cents of value per mile!

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Posted in AAdvantage, Award Booking, Free Oneway, United

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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.

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

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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!

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