My five biggest points-and-miles goals for the next year are to fly:
The first three are surprisingly easy and cheap to piece together into one short trip around the world. I’ve been working on a few permutations for fun that I’ll share in this post.
From now until June 22, Chase is increasing the sign up bonus on the Ink Bold and Ink Plus to 60,000 Ultimate Rewards after spending $5,000 in three months.
These are two of my absolute favorite cards. I’ve gotten the Ink Bold for two of my businesses and the Ink Plus for one, earning about 200,000 Ultimate Rewards in the process that I’ve used to book Rookie Alli on her first flat bed business class experience, my United Global First flight to Australia to see the Aussie Open, and my upcoming trip in Thai First Class on an A380 with an hourlong massage on the ground.
What’s the full deal, how can you use 60k Ultimate Rewards, and what has my experience been with the Ink Bold and Plus?
Posted in Avios, Chase, Hyatt, Ink Bold, Ink Plus, Rapid Rewards, United
Tagged 60k Ink Bold, 60k Ink Plus
One of the best and most easily accessible First Class awards for an American is Lufthansa First Class with United miles.
If you’re going to fly Lufthansa First Class, you might as well fly the newest Lufthansa planes, right?
Check out Tahsir’s trip report of Lufthansa First Class, which is enough to make me jealous, though note that neither the A380 nor the 747-8 have the seat-plus-bed design.
Wyndham is giving away one million United miles as four 250k mile prizes. Sign up is easy.
You can earn 1k to 10k Virgin Atlantic miles for referring people to the program. This is especially valuable since 13k Virgin Atlantic miles is enough for a one way flight from New York to London.
Membership Rewards is offering a 20% bonus on transfers to Hawaiian miles through June 27.
Points Hound has a 100k Hawaiian Miles giveaway running through June 21.
Deborah writes:
Goal: I want to start planning for a trip to Japan. My home airport is Washington-Dulles. Assuming I am starting from scratch, for which airline does it make most sense to start collecting miles?
So which program is best from the east coast to Japan? My advice and reasoning after the jump.
A few months ago, Bill wrote a great piece titled Beware Phantom Award Availability at United.com. It’s true that United.com occasionally lists Saver award space that just doesn’t exist and that you can’t book online or by phone.
I’ve just come across the opposite: phantom non-award space. United.com is showing no availability in business class on the Ethiopian 787 Dreamliner from Toronto to Addis Ababa when such space is in fact bookable with United miles by phone.
This is huge news because this is a solid product (angled lie flat bed on a 787) to Africa with award space this summer that most people don’t know about. That means you can get the award space for yourself if you follow a few simple steps.
I’ll discuss my findings and how you can get this secret award space after the jump.
Posted in Dreamliner, Ethiopian, United
Tagged 787, Aeroplan, Ethiopian Dreamliner, United
You can get a free hold of up to three days on United Airlines awards. There is one technique for a hold if you have the miles in your account to ticket the award, there is another technique if you don’t have the miles, and there’s a way to extend those 24 hour holds to three days.
Dawn writes:
I wanted to ask a question that I didn’t see an answer for on your site or clearly on the interwebs.
I am hoping to do a trip this winter to SE Asia and NZ. The way my schedule is looking, I won’t have the 80,000 miles I need until about a week and a half before the trip…
My question is, how difficult is it going to be to get an economy seat that close in? Any info I’ve found always seems to be about business class.
Thanks again for your great site and have fun on your travels.
Keep reading for my answer to how difficult getting last minute economy space will be for Dawn and how to estimate this for your own trips.
Posted in Award Booking, Reader Question, United
Tagged Award Booking, Reader Question, United
Rookie Alli just flew her first international business class flight. I asked her to share the perspective of someone seeing the front of the plane for the first time. She flew United BusinessFirst, which is widely accessible to Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America with miles, so if you haven’t flown up front, pay attention to this trip report. For my perspective on the same cabin, see my trip report from London to Los Angeles.
I recently experienced my first flight that wasn’t in economy, flying from Buenos Aires to Newark in United BusinessFirst on my way to Washington, DC.
Was it worth the extra miles? What can you expect on your first trip in business class? How comfortable are those beds? Fly with me, and find out.
Posted in Rookie Alli, Travel Style, Trip Report, United
Tagged BusinessFirst, Review, Trip Report, United
It’s May 21, and you just realized you want to go to Europe this summer. You’re not alone–that’s probably the most common request my Award Booking Service is getting right now.
The good news is that finding award space to Europe this summer is still possible, especially if you are flexible.
Which routes have space? Which airlines will open up more award space?
I have earned millions of points, primarily though credit cards, to travel the world in first class for pennies. This blog will show you how to earn and redeem points to do the same!