Category Archives: United

Charlie’s First Cards: Planning

Posted on April 9, 2013 by | 9 Comments

Charlie contacted me wanting to share his experiences with his first credit card applications, hoping it would be useful for other newbies. Each person’s ideal cards are different. Charlie had to convince a skeptical spouse and had unique goals for his upcoming travel. For comparison, see how this shaped his card choices differently than Rookie Alli’s.

Charlie is a software developer and consultant, now mostly retired, in Poulsbo, Washington. He writes about testing and test-driven development at It’s the Tests.

After following Scott’s Free First Class Next Month posts over the past month or so, I finally got organized to get my first rewards cards. This post describes what I did, how I did it and what I learned. But first, I guess an introduction is in order.

Introduction

I’m Charlie. My wife and I are in our 70s and are (mostly) retired. In the past, we had various mortgages, car loans, and credit cards. Between us, we have paid for four houses and half a dozen cars. But a bit over 20 years ago, we simplified our lives quite a bit. We generally have not been using credit. We now have one personal credit card between us, and I have a card for my consulting business. We pay our balance off every month.

You might imagine that a bank would consider someone like me as a good risk. Well, although I eventually got almost all the cards I wanted, it turns out that I have what they call a “thin” credit file. Essentially, to their credit departments, I don’t look much different from somebody just getting started financially. As you will see, I had to deal with this in one reconsideration call.

Planning

While I did most of the research and applied for most of the cards, this was a family effort. So the first thing I had to do was to convince my wife that applying for eight or nine credit cards was not completely insane! We talked about it several times. We discussed the impact it could have on our credit scores at length and took a lot of time to figure out how we would manage the required minimum spending requirements on all those cards. Eventually, Phyllis not only agreed but even began contributing her own ideas. That’s when I knew we could make it work.

Our talks also covered what my wife was willing to do in the process. She didn’t want to make calls to reconsideration lines or to attempt to negotiate in any way with the issuing banks, so we agreed that I would do it where necessary. She didn’t want to have to justify having a business card, so we decided to avoid those in her applications.

We were looking for a number of things in selecting the cards:

  1. Good signup bonuses that we could use for our travels. Mostly, this has been to Europe, but South America and New Zealand are on our horizon as well.
  2. One business and one personal card that could be used abroad without paying foreign transaction fees. This was particularly important because we’ll be making some of the required spending to earn bonuses while traveling in May and June. Some of the travel can be treated as a business expense, so a separate business card will make things easier.
  3. We wanted to earn a mix of airline miles and transferable points, so we could “top up” our airline accounts when we need to.
  4. I wanted to include a solid business card I’d be happy to keep using. This will replace my current Citi card, which doesn’t earn miles.
  5. Of course, we wanted to be able to earn good bonuses for the things we typically buy.
  6. Finally, since we already have miles with United and Delta, we decided to aim for at least one card for each of those airlines.

The Cards

After a lot of research–much of it right on this blog–I ended up with this list of cards:

For me: Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, Delta personal, Delta business, US Airways personal and US Airways business.

For her: United MileagePlus Explorer, Delta personal, US Airways personal

1. Chase Sapphire Preferred

This will be one of my two cards with no foreign transaction fee, a big savings on purchases made while traveling out of the country and even on certain online purchases, like paid tickets on some European airlines.

It gives us 40,000 Ultimate Rewards after spending $3,000 in 3 months. We plan to hang on to those and use them to “top up” our airline miles when we need more miles to buy a ticket. We’ll also use this for a lot of our paid travel and for eating out in order to earn double points–at least when no better deal is available.

  • 40k Ultimate Rewards after $3,000 in purchases in 3 months
  • Ultimate Rewards transfer 1:1 to United, Korean, British Airways, Southwest, Marriott, Priority Club, Virgin Atlantic and more
  • 2 points per dollar on travel and dining at restaurants
  • 7% annual (calendar year) dividend on points earned from purchases
  • No foreign transaction fee
  • Human agent answers number on back of card
  • No annual fee for the first year, $95 thereafter

2. Chase Ink Bold

This card gives us 50,000 Ultimate rewards after spending $5,000 in 3 months. It’s a charge card–the balance must be paid off each month–but that’s what we already do with all our bills, so no problem. I expect the Ink Bold to become my main business card. I’ll be able to put my telephone and internet on this card as well as all office supplies we buy. Like the Sapphire Preferred card, it has no foreign transaction fees, so these two cards will get a lot of use when I’m in Europe in May and June.

  • 50k Ultimate Rewards after spending $5,000 in the first three months
  • Ultimate Rewards transfer 1:1 to United, Korean, British Airways, Southwest, Marriott, Priority Club, and more
  • 5X points on the first $50,000 spent annually at office supply stores, and on cellular phone, landline, internet, and cable TV services
  • 2x points on the first $50,000 spent annually at gas stations and hotel accomodations purchased directly from the hotel
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • No annual fee for first year, $95 thereafter

3. United MileagePlus Explorer Visa

With the Sapphire and Ink Bold cards, I can’t apply for anything more from Chase, so my wife will apply for the United MileagePlus Explorer card. We already have United accounts with miles–earned the hard way–accumulated, although we have pretty much emptied them to buy tickets for this coming trip. Getting this card will add 35,000 miles to her account.

  • 30,000 United miles after $1,000 in spending in the first three months
  • 5,000 extra United miles when you add another cardholder to the account
  • First Checked Bag Free on United Flights
  • Two United Club Passes annually
  • no annual fee the first year, then $95 thereafter

4. Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card and Gold Delta SkyMiles Business Card from American Express

Although Delta miles are often harder to use than United miles, we’ve gotten some good use out of them in the past and both of us have existing Delta balances. Originally, I planned to apply for the 30,000 mile offer that has been around for a while: 30,000 SkyMiles after spending $500 over three months. But only a few days before I was scheduled to do my applications, my wife received a targeted offer from Delta for a better deal. I got the same offer the next day.

The new offer came with a bonus of 50,000 miles after spending $1,000 in the first three months and seemed too good to pass up. In fact, so good that we now plan to get three cards–personal and business cards for me and a personal card for my wife–for a total of 150,000 Delta miles. Each card’s offer was:

  • 50,000 bonus miles after spending $1,000 in the first three months
  • Double miles on Delta purchases
  • Priority boarding
  • One free checked bag on Delta flights
  • Delta Sky Club access for $25
  • 20% statement credit for inflight purchases

Note: The above link works the first time you use it. When I tried to go back to the page to check the link for this article, all I saw was a screen thanking me for applying for the card. I used a different computer to verify the link. Most likely, I could have cleared my cache and cookies to the same affect. If you decide to apply for both a personal and a business card, don’t close the initial window. Instead, either open the application link in a new window or use your browser back button to return to the initial screen after the first application. Here’s the link to see if you get a targeted offer.

 

5. US Airways Premier World MasterCard

Since we didn’t have anything from Barclay’s and since this card gives you 35,000 miles on first use, we added them to the mix as well. We’ll each get one. Of course, if we don’t use them right away, we’re anticipating that they will eventually change into American miles, which I plan to start collecting soon!

  • 35,000 US Airways Dividend Miles after first purchase
  • 5,000 mile discount on all awards operated entirely by US Airways
  • 10,000 anniversary miles each year, upon paying the annual fee
  • Two $99 companion passes annually
  • First Class Check In
  • Zone 2 Priority Boarding
  • One Complimentary US Airways Club Pass Annually
  • 2 miles per dollar on US Airways purchases
  • $89 annual fee, waived the first year

Note: The link and deal above is better than the current US Airways deal, but it could stop working at any time! The current offer only gives 30,000 miles and doesn’t waive the fee the first year. There is no mention of the 10,000 mile anniversary bonus either.

6. US Airways Business MasterCard

The US Airways business card isn’t really all that attractive, but it does allow me to essentially buy 25,000 miles for $79. If approved, that would bring my US Airways total up to 60,000 miles.

  • 25,000 US Airways Dividend Miles after first purchase
  • One Complimentary US Airways Club Pass Annually
  • 2 miles per dollar on US Airways purchases
  • $79 annual fee

If we are approved for these nine cards, we will earn 370,000 bonus miles and points after spending $12,000 in three months. That’s a lot, but we’ve examined our upcoming expenses and we think we’ll do it pretty readily, provided we get into the habit of paying by credit card whenever possible. With 2X and 5X earnings in some categories, I expect that amount will earn us 20,000 miles over the three months, bringing our total up to 390,000 miles.

Next time, I’ll write about the application process and how it worked out.

Recap

After some careful thinking–and family discussion–about our goals for these cards, my wife and I picked out nine cards to apply for:

After spending $12,000 over the next three months, we expect to accumulate about 400,000 miles and points in our accounts.

Concluded in Charlie’s First Cards: Getting the Cards

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Posted in American Express, Barclay's, Delta, United, US Airways

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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!

—————————————————————–

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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Do I Have Enough Miles? A Beginner’s Guide to Navigating Award Charts

Posted on April 1, 2013 by | 7 Comments

Not sure where your miles can take you? Not sure if you have enough miles to contact the MileValue Award Booking Service or whether you’d be better off getting a Free Credit Card Consultation first?

In order to determine if you have enough miles to take that trip you’re planning, look at the award chart for the program where you have your miles. Don’t worry what partner you want to fly. Look at the chart that corresponds to the airline with which you have a miles balance.

Here are the award charts for the four major US carriers:

American Airlines Partners Award Chart

United Airlines Interactive Travel Destinations Award Chart

Delta Award Travel Mileage Chart (travel from the US)

US Airways Partner Award Travel Chart

All four of the legacy carriers have region-to-region miles. Their award charts group travel destinations into regions, and set a fixed number of miles needed to travel from one region to another.

That means it doesn’t matter whether you are going Los Angeles to Paris or New York to London–both are North America to Europe and cost the same number of miles.

You will have to determine what region your departure and arrival cities are located in by using the chart’s region legend. Then you’ll read the miles price off the chart, which varies based on three factors:

  • Cabin: Is your award in first class, business class, or economy?
  • Peak or off peak: American and US Airways have discounts for flying certain routes certain times of the year.
  • Low/Saver or Medium/High/Standard/AAnytime: Only a small fraction of all seats can be had for the headline price on the chart. These seats are called low or saver award seats by the airline, and are what we strive to book. Other seats are usually available at double the price of these seats and go by names like standard space or AAnytime space.

American Airlines

The award chart used by American Airlines is a good place to start. American splits the world into nine zones. Find out what zone your departure and arrival cities are in by scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking on the Zone Definitions.

Clicking one of the regions brings up a pop up with the countries in that region. Here is Asia 1:

There are two things to keep in mind when looking at American’s award chart: all of these miles prices are for oneway travel, and this chart shows the miles prices for all of American Airlines’ flights as well as their partner airlines.

The main part of American’s award chart is at the bottom. You find your origin city’s zone along the top of the chart and your destination city’s zone along the lefthand column.

You’ll notice that each square has three or four different values. These are the miles prices available for each class of travel: Economy Off Peak, Economy, Business, First. The miles price you see is how many miles, in thousands, you will need for that trip each way.

The rightmost column breaks down which classes are available for travel between those two zones. The breakdown of peak dates and off peak dates, which are different for each region, is in the Economy Off Peak Season Dates box on the bottom left of the chart.

Let’s look at a specific example.

If I wanted to fly from Los Angeles to Santiago, Chile in Business class, I would first determine which zone those two cities are in–North America and South America Zone 2 in this case. I would then find both zones on the chart and line up which class I want from the righthand column. As you can see, this award would cost me 50,000 miles each way.

So far I’ve ignored the top section of the chart. Let’s talk about it. The top section of the chart is for those traveling within one zone or specified group of countries:

These zones are listed along the top, and the options for what class you can travel in are listed in the lefthand column. Simply line up which zone and class you want, and the chart tells you how many miles, in thousands, you will need for that trip each way.

Sometimes award charts will also let you in on certain rules related to award travel. Look at the top left of the American chart.

These symbols show up throughout American’s chart. They all relate to American’s unique rule that, except in special cases, you cannot transit a third region on an award from one region to a second region. See The Five Cardinal Rules of American Airlines Rules.

If you have ever booked an award on American, you may have noticed that it offers MileSAAver and AAnytime award seats, its names for low- and high-miles-price seats. But on this chart, this distinction is not found. That is because this chart is the partner chart, and partner space is always bookable at the MileSAAver (low) level. Here’s American’s chart for awards on American flights; you’ll notice the MileSAAver/AAnytime distinction.

United Airlines

United publishes a PDF of their award chart that you read just like American’s, but they also have an interactive award chart that lets you visually select your origin and destination.

Below you can see that I selected an award originating in the Mainland US, Alaska & Canada region of the North America zone with a destination in the Southern South America region of the Latin America and Caribbean zone.

Once you have made your selections, a box will pop up below the map detailing how many miles your award will cost you. As you can see, United lists both the oneway and roundtrip prices for Saver and Standard–their names for low- and high-miles-price–award space in economy, business, and first class. United allows you to book a oneway for half the price of a roundtrip.

My economy roundtrip Saver Award from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires will price out to 60,000 miles.

United’s is my favorite chart to use because it is so easy and straightforward. However, it’s tough to compare prices between zones. Sometimes it’s nice to see how much more or less one trip is compared to another.

If you like to compare this way, United also provides a PDF of its award chart in the more traditional spreadsheet layout. The PDF also includes the Star Alliance award chart. This is exactly like American’s partner award chart. It makes no distinction between Saver and Standard awards because all partner space is low-miles-price space.

Delta

Delta has a fairly straightforward award chart as well. Below is the chart for travel originating in the US (excluding Hawaii.) Find what region your destination city is in using their definitions and find that region in the lefthand column of the award chart. Simply read across to determine how much your award will be, based on what class you want to fly in. The first three miles prices are for Economy Low/Medium/High–Delta’s three-tiered version of Saver and Standard award space–and the last three miles prices are for First or Business Class Low/Medium/High.

Delta charges you the roundtrip price whether you book oneway or roundtrip, so obviously we only book roundtrip Delta awards. But the award chart is listing oneway prices based on a roundtrip purchase. Basically, if you only book a oneway ticket, you will be charged double what is listed here.

If I were flying Economy from Chicago to Istanbul (in the Europe region), it would cost me 30,o00 miles each way, for a total of 60,000 miles.

If you are traveling from an origin city outside of the US, you can find the rest of Delta’s award charts here.

US Airways

US Airways has a very straightforward partner award chart. You select your origin and destination regions along the sides of the chart based on their definitions at the bottom of the page. There are three roundtrip miles prices listed, in thousands of miles: one each for Economy, Business, and First class.

The US Airways partner chart only shows low-miles-price awards, just like the American partner chart and United’s Star Alliance chart. This is because all partner space is always bookable at the low-miles price.

You can see the different levels of award space available on US Airways flights by looking at the US Airways award chart. Like Delta, US Airways has a three-tiered version of Saver and Standard award space: Low, Medium, and High.

US Airways offers some off-peak dates for travel on their own flights. Here are US Airways Off Peak dates, which are a fantastic value to Europe and South America.

 Recap

Miles are an arbitrary currency, so you can’t intuit how many you need for a trip. You need to know how to check the sometimes intimidating charts with their low/medium/high priced awards, off peak dates, different cabins, and different charts for partner travel.

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Posted in AAdvantage, Delta, United, US Airways

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First Class Space from New York to Seoul on the Asiana 777

Posted on March 27, 2013 by | 8 Comments

Asiana recently announced that starting on July 22, it would be flying a new 777-200ER daily on its New York-JFK <-> Seoul-Incheon route with the following flight times.

OZ222 departs Seoul-ICN at 10:00 and arrives New York-JFK at 11:00 AM (same day)

OZ 221 departs New York-JFK at 1:00 PM and arrives Seoul-ICN at 4:10 PM (next day)

This is big news because the three-cabin Asiana 777-200ERs have a fantastic first class. See video of the enclosed suite here (in Korean!):

The Quadra Smartium business class also looks incredible in this Korean video showing the staggered fully flat configuration.

I took a look at the award space on the route, and it looks like this will be a great way to get to Asia in first class with United or US Airways miles.

Award Space from New York to Seoul

Using my technique to trick united.com’s award calendar, I was able to get the calendar to display space for just the New York to Seoul route.

There was no award space in any cabin in the end of July when the new 777-200ER takes over the route.

August and September show good award space in premium cabins and no award space at all in economy. Unfortunately the calendar doesn’t specify whether the premium space is in business or first class. I clicked on several of the dates that are shaded blue. All had one first class seat and no business class seats.

October and November showed a lot more award space.

Economy class space starts to appear at then end of October. In these months, some of the blue and green days have business class, and some flights have more than one award seat.

Space in all cabins

Specifically November 7 has three economy seats, one business class seat, and two first class seats. November 7 is not atypical. These are the days this fall with 2+ award seats in the same cabin from New York to Seoul.

And finally the Christmas and New Year’s space is strong too.

Getting to New York-JFK

Let’s say you don’t live in New York, but you want to enjoy 14 hours 30 minutes of flight from the east coast to Korea. Unfortunately your convenient options are limited. If you are using United mile or US Airways miles, you can fly in on United, US Airways, or Air Canada.

US Airways only flies to JFK from Charlotte and Phoenix. United only flies in from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington-Dulles. Air Canada only flies in from Toronto.

United’s hub in the New York area is Newark. On United and US Airways awards, you are allowed to fly into Newark and out of JFK. It counts as a normal layover. But, of course, it’s not a normal layover. It’s an expensive and inconvenient trip from Newark to JFK. United and US Airways also fly a number of flights into LaGuardia, which is an easier trip to JFK, but still annoying.

The bottom line is that this route is of the most use for people who can use JFK as their home airport.

Connecting to Asia from Incheon

The good news is that this route is of great value even if you don’t want to go to Korea. Asiana flies to dozens of Asian countries from its Seould-Incheon hub with great award space, so you should be able to go anywhere you want in Asia on an award that features the JFK-Seoul leg.

Free Oneways

Like all international United roundtrip awards, this would be eligible for a free oneway. Read the Master Thread: Free Oneways on United Awards. Note that even if you arrive in New York-JFK, your free oneway can depart from Newark or LaGuardia, since the three are coterminal.

Like all international US Airways awards, this would be eligible for a free oneway. Read the Master Thread: Free Oneways on US Airways Awards. Note that even if you arrive in New York-JFK, your free oneway can depart from Newark or LaGuardia, since the three are coterminal.

Bulking Up Your US Airways Balance

US Airways has a sweet spot to North Asia. If you are just flying to Korea, the award would cost only 60k/90k/120k US Airways miles roundtrip in economy/business/first.

Unfortunately US Airways miles are harder to come by than United miles. You can earn 30k US Airways miles on first purchase with the US Airways Premier World MasterCard. The card has an $89 annual fee.

You can also earn SPG Starpoints and transfer them to US Airways miles at a rate of 1 point to 1.25 miles if your transfers are in increments of 20,000 points. That makes the 25k point SPG American Express offer worth 30,000 more US Airways miles.

Application Link: Starwood Preferred Guest American Express

Recap

Asiana is going to put a three-cabin aircraft on its New York <-> Seoul route starting July 22. The first and business classes are incredible and have plenty of award space that you can snag with United and US Airways miles.

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Posted in Asiana, United, US Airways

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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

Anatomy of an Award: Negative 7,500 Miles to Fiji/Bora Bora Using United Miles

Posted on March 19, 2013 by | 23 Comments

At MileValue, we constantly champion the free oneway on award tickets. Adding a free oneway is possible (to varying degrees) using all four legacy carrier’s miles. For more information, make sure to check out Scott’s comprehensive posts below:

Master Thread: Free Oneways on United Awards
Master Thread: Free Oneways on American Awards
Master Thread: Free Oneways on Delta Awards
Master Thread: Free Oneways on US Airways Awards

Free oneways are great, but nothing gets us more excited than “negative” awards. Negative awards occur when you add a segment that lowers the price of your award and allows you to add another destination to your vacation. The airline is rewarding you for flying more! For specific examples using American Airlines AAdvantage miles, make sure to check out Scott’s great post 7,500 Miles to Europe and Negative 7,500 Miles to South America.

I wanted to give another example of a negative award that we just booked for a client at our Award Booking Service, this time using United miles.

Our client wanted to travel from Los Angeles to New Zealand in business or first class and explore the country in earnest. The client wanted to depart in December and return in January, peak travel times to Down Under. This award would price at 135,000 United miles roundtrip or 67,500 oneway. On paper it was going to be a difficult award to secure.

As I detailed in the post, Where is the Award Space to Australia and New Zealand? These Exact Routes, premium cabin award space is readily available between Asia and New Zealand. This is legal routing on United awards, so it was the first place I looked. Sure enough there was plenty of space from Los Angeles to Singapore via Tokyo-Haneda. We then got our client to Christchurch, New Zealand on Singapore’s nonstop.

 

 The client’s outbound read as follows:

  • Los Angeles -> Tokyo-Haneda [ANA Business]
  • Tokyo-Haneda -> Singapore [Singapore Business]
  • Singapore -> Christchurch [Singapore Business]

With the outbound secured, our client asked if he could use his open jaw to return to Los Angeles from Auckland on the inbound. United allows both a stopover AND two open jaws on awards, so this was perfectly legal. We began to build his inbound originating from Auckland until he asked the million dollar question:

“Can I add a side trip anywhere?”

I began to look for great side trips that could connect in Auckland before continuing back to the US. My main weapon? Wikipedia. For more information, check out Scott’s post: How to Use Wikipedia to Book Awards Like a Pro.

Pulling up Auckland International Airport, I suggested he try Nadi, Fiji or Papeete, Tahiti. Our client opted for the former because Air New Zealand only operates the Papeete <-> Auckland flight twice-weekly and the Papeete flight was nearly twice as long.

Air New Zealand seemed to have business class space on nearly every Sunday but economy all other days. We selected a business class leg from Nadi to Auckland and then worked on getting him back to Los Angeles.

We used the same method of routing through Asia to get his party home in premium cabins.  His inbound itinerary read as follows:

  • Nadi, Fiji->Auckland [Air New Zealand Business]
  • Auckland->Shanghai [Air New Zealand Business]
  • Shanghai->Tokyo-Narita [ANA Business]
  • Tokyo-Narita->Los Angeles [ANA Business]

As I mentioned above, a roundtrip business class award ticket from the US to New Zealand is 135,000 miles/person. I placed the itinerary on hold using the method I just wrote about in my post, The Trick to Hold United Awards.

I was expecting the entire itinerary to price at 270,000 miles (135,000 x 2). When I called in to finalize, the phone agent took an eternity to price it out. When she finally returned, she said the entire award would be only 255,000 miles! I couldn’t believe it!

Why did the award price lower than expected?

Simply put: an award chart sweet spot! United charges 67,500 miles for a oneway business class ticket from the US to Australia/New Zealand. United only charges 60,000 miles for a oneway business class ticket from the US to Oceania. Adding the oneway from Fiji to Auckland actually saved miles on the award ticket. United priced the award as 67,500 + 60,000 as opposed to 67,500 x 2. We received a mileage rebate for including another city!

How is the client getting from New Zealand to Fiji?

They will be purchasing a cheap economy ticket with cash. They were already making their way across New Zealand, but this award chart discrepancy allows them to save miles and extend their vacation for the cost of a oneway cash ticket. That’s a great trade off.

Could this award be even better?

Absolutely! Our client wanted to make his way around New Zealand on his own. Remember that United awards allow a stopover AND open jaw. He already was using his open jaw to arrive in Christchurch but depart from Nadi. He still had a free stopover to use.

He could have flown US -> Asia -> Christchurch (stop) -> Wellington // Nadi ->Auckland -> Asia -> US

At 127,500 miles, the above itinerary is an insane value. The stopover in Christchurch would have helped the client continue to Wellington for no charge, but he opted to drive instead. After all, New Zealand is pretty scenic. Scott knows, he just spent time in Wellington and Queenstown himself.

Recap

I inadvertently tripped over a United award chart sweet spot. The cost in miles to fly from the US to the South Pacific is 7,500 miles less than from the US to Australia/New Zealand. By adding a oneway from Fiji to Auckland on an award ticket, we lowered the cost of the ticket by 7,500 miles per person.

Tricks like these help extract the maximum value from your miles. Award charts aren’t perfect because they’re designed by humans. Using these charts and the airlines’ own routing rules to your advantage saves you miles and creates incredible vacations like the one we just booked for our client.

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Posted in Anatomy of an Award, Award Booking, United

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The Trick to Hold United Awards

Posted on March 17, 2013 by | 19 Comments

The ability to hold awards is extremely valuable especially at our increasingly popular Award Booking Service. Our clients might need to transfer their Chase Ultimate Rewards or American Express Membership Rewards into their frequent flyer accounts. They might need to purchase additional miles to reach the next award threshold or just simply firm up their hotel plans. Having a few days to hold an award is critical in these cases.

Of the four legacy carriers, American Airlines is the most generous. American offers a 5 day award hold. US Airways allows you to hold most awards for three days. Delta actually allows 48 hour holds, but you need to be creative to do so. For more information, check out Scott’s post, The Trick to Hold Delta Awards.

Unfortunately, unlike its legacy counterparts, United doesn’t allow award holds. This makes booking United awards for clients a frustrating challenge. Luckily, we have discovered a loophole that enables you to do so.

(You used to be able to hold United awards through a different, now-defunct trick. Hat tip to Meshugener of the Dan’s Deals Forum for letting me know of its demise.)

Similar to the Delta trick, you need to have a United frequently flyer account with little (or no) miles in in it. I created a second United account with my business address and all my relevant personal information. It has a 0 mile balance at all times.

When I need to book an award for a client, I start online and try to collect as many segments of the trip as possible. This makes future steps quite a bit easier. United.com is quirky, though, and will often spit back an error message if you are trying to piece together an ultra-complicated itinerary.

Subtract a segment or two and try your search again. As an example, I tried to hold a simple Denver -> Chicago oneway award for two people in business class. When I select the itinerary I want, I’m met with the following screen.

I need additional miles to secure this award. United should allow me to hold the itinerary for a day or two to get the necessary miles in my account, but they don’t have that option. Instead, I’m given options to pay for the privilege of holding the award for three days or one week. Both are terrible deals.

Instead of paying to hold the award, just go back to the search screen and add any segment to your itinerary that includes a Star Alliance partner. It does not matter if it’s domestic (on US Airways) or international. It also doesn’t matter  when this segment occurs as long as it is not flown on United metal.

I searched for Denver to Tokyo-Narita via Chicago because All Nippon Airways, United’s Star Alliance partner, has two daily nonstops on this route with good award space. I selected an itinerary that included my previous Denver -> Chicago leg and came to the checkout screen.

The Fare Lock option is no longer available. Instead I am met with exactly the button I want to see: “Reserve.” I click the Reserve button and enter all the passenger information. After giving United my pertinent contact information, I am asked to hold the award itinerary with a credit card.

After entering my credit card information, I can click “Reserve” to officially hold the itinerary. Note that the expiration date provided on this screen is always incorrect. The correct expiration date is given on the next screen.

After clicking Reserve, I am taken to the confirmation screen. United generates a confirmation number/record locator and gives the correct expiration date/time. I have circled the correct date in red.

When I’m ready to book, I simply call United.com support at 1-800-396-1751 and give the record locator that my reservation generated. I ask the agent to discard the segments I don’t want and ticket the award from the United account that has miles. That’s the second part of this trick. I started the award in a dummy account with no miles, but over the phone I can give the agent any account number to use to ticket the award.

(Beginner tip: In all major frequent flyer programs, anyone’s miles can be used to book an award for anyone. But you can’t easily or cheaply combine miles between two airline accounts.)

What if I can’t grab all the segments I want online?

If you have a lot of segments in your desired itinerary, chances are united.com will not let you secure them all at once. Grab as many as you can online and reserve them to generate a confirmation number. Immediately call united.com support to add the remaining segments you need.

You say that united.com initially displays an incorrect date for award holds, what is the real expiration date?

Award holds done via this method expire the next day at midnight. Because of this, you always want to reserve your United awards in the morning. That will give you as close to 48 hours as possible.

Shouldn’t these awards be subject to the $25 phone booking fee?

No. If an agent brings up this fee when you book, push back. Politely let them know that the award was initiated online but you weren’t able to grab all the segments you needed. They should waive the $25 fee or not even bring it up. If the agent does insist on the fee, hang up and call back.

Will my credit card be charged if I don’t book the award?

No. United asks for a credit card to hold the award. You might see a pending transaction of $1.00 labeled “Continental” on your credit card that will eventually fall off whether you book or not.

Does adding a segment in a different price category affect the final cost in miles for the award?

No. United will recalculate your award price once you finalize everything. I wanted a simple Denver -> Chicago itinerary but added the leg to Tokyo. Discarding the Tokyo leg will drop the price in miles back to the appropriate level.

Does the United frequent flyer account that reserved the award need to be the one that tickets it?

No, which is great news! I often reserve awards for clients under my dummy account and let them call in to confirm everything. I have not had a single issue doing this.

Recap

United does not allow award holds unless you are creative and trick their site. First you need an account with little to no miles in it. Then you need to search for an award that includes at least one non-United segment. Awards with partner segments can be reserved online, while all United-operated awards cannot be.

Reserve as many segments as you can online and then phone united.com support to tweak the itinerary. Finally have United ticket the award from whatever United account you want.

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Posted in Award Booking, Best Of, United

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Beware Phantom Award Availability on United.com

Posted on March 12, 2013 by | 24 Comments

Searching for award space can often be an exercise in frustration. The dates you want don’t have availability and premium cabin seats are often scarce. There is nothing in the world, however, more frustrating than phantom availability. You think you’ve found your dream trip only to have the rug yanked out from under you.

We recently received a request through the Award Booking Service where this came into play. A family of four was looking to travel from New York to Johannesburg, Africa in July using their US Airways miles. This was going to be a tough award to book, and it wasn’t made any easier by the phantom award availability on united.com.

What do we mean by “phantom”? We decided to look for Star Alliance space to Africa using united.com. For more information, make sure to check out Scott’s post Free First Class Next Month: Star Alliance Award Searches on United.com. At first glance, we would have no trouble finding space from the East Coast to Africa. There were dates with plenty of seats!

We were suspicious, though. That’s quite a few dates with four premium cabin seats to Africa. To find out out if July 10th really had four open seats, we verified the award space All Nippon Airways (ANA) Star Alliance search tool. The ANA tool is more accurate in displaying award space. The drawback? It’s more cumbersome to search than united.com.

We plugged in the individual New York -> Cairo -> Johannesburg segments into the ANA search tool. The initial results were promising! The EgyptAir JFK -> Cairo segment had at least four business class seats (indicated by the “OK” under the business class box).

 We weren’t so fortunate with the Cairo -> Johannesburg leg unfortunately. That segment was showing “X” in both business and economy, meaning there weren’t four award seats in either cabin.

This wasn’t an isolated incident either. We checked other dates on ANA that united.com displayed as having four business class seats. They simply didn’t match up. We couldn’t trust united.com for this route, especially using Star Alliance partner EgyptAir. We decided to look elsewhere.

Scott, who is currently in Argentina, had some success booking an award from Buenos Aires to Johannesburg (and beyond) using US Airways miles. For the complete breakdown, make sure to check out his incredible post, Anatomy of an Award: South America, Africa, Europe, and North America in Biz for 100k.

US Airways has very liberal routing rules. Scott and I both know that first hand. I was able to book a business class trip to Asia routing through Europe. For the breakdown of that trip, check out my post, Anatomy of an Award: US to Asia via Europe in Business Class for 90k Miles.

We decided to think outside of the box yet again. Perhaps routing this family of four from New York to South Africa through South America was the best option. South African Airways, another Star Alliance partner, has nonstop flights from Sao Paulo, Brazil to Johannesburg. We plugged in this segment and searched united.com. There were plenty of dates with business space again!

Or were there? We went back to the ANA tool to verify, and unfortunately, we were greeted with dreaded X’s from ANA’s search results.

Even if we tried to connect to Brazil using Star Alliance carrier TAM Airlines, we were met with phantom award space! We found a direct flight from New York to Rio de Janeiro on united.com on several July dates…..

But we were met with X’s on ANA’s search tool.

Which Star Alliance carriers have you seen phantom availability on united.com?

I have personally encountered this problem with Austrian, Brussels, EgyptAir, South African, Lufthansa, and TAM. There are reports that even United itself are also displaying seats that aren’t bookable. Proceed with caution!

If united.com displays the availability, shouldn’t United and US Airways agents be able to see the same seats when I call to book an award?

No. They are not going off of what you see on united.com. If a seat shows as available on united.com, but it is not available on the ANA search tool, a phone agent will not be able to book it.

Can I verify the space with ExpertFlyer?

Unfortunately, no. ExpertFlyer is pulling its data from United.com. For example, here are the results from our previous Sao Paulo -> Johannesburg route on South African Airways. (ExpertFlyer now gives yes/no answers on Star Alliance searches.)

Make sure to check out Scott’s post Free First Class Next Month: Using experflyer.com to learn more about searching for awards on the site.

If ExperFlyer isn’t reliable, what do I do about this issue?

Always check ANA’s tool before booking a Star Alliance award. Their site seems to mirror what phone agents can actually see and book, so you will save yourself time and anguish by doing a cursory check before calling in to reserve your award tickets.

Recap

United.com is a great place to start a search for Star Alliance award availability, but it’s only a starting point. Not all queries will display bookable award space. Unfortunately, united.com can sometimes act as a mirage: availability seems great when in reality there are far less seats for award tickets.

This story has a happy ending. We were eventually able to route the family through Vienna and Istanbul to Johannesburg and back. The search process, however, was much more complicated than expected.

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Posted in ANA, Anatomy of an Award, Award Booking, United

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Free Oneway Principles on ANA Awards

Posted on March 8, 2013 by | 37 Comments

Update at 9:31 AM ET on 3/8/13. Disregard most of this post. Commentor Angel pointed out trouble getting ANA to price this, and I found the problem. ANA rule: “The departure airport and the final destination on the itinerary may differ, but must be in the same country.” I’ll try to figure out a way to salvage some of this idea.

Yesterday I was effusive about the fact that ANA–a Japanese airlines most of us have never flown–stopped charging fuel surcharges on United and US Airways flights booked with ANA miles. I called it the deal of the month on twitter.

The value comes from ANA’s awesome distance based chart and the fact that it is a Membership Rewards transfer partner.

But I wanted to give some tips to get insane value out of ANA awards using free oneway principles.

The key principle of all free oneways is a stopover at your home airport. By stopping over at your home airport, you can get 1.5 trips out of what the airline thinks is only one trip. (And if the airline thinks it’s one trip, it only charges you for one trip.)

ANA has stopover rules that are liberal and strict at once. The liberal part is that you can have four stopovers on one award! But you can’t have any stopovers in your country of origin, you can only have two in Europe, and holes in your itinerary count as a stopover at both cities!

(The example ANA’s site gives is Tokyo to Frankfurt to Munich, returning after an open jaw from Frankfurt to Tokyo. The open jaw between Frankfurt and Munich counts as a stop in both, so you can’t get a stopover in Frankfurt en route from Tokyo to Munich.)

So how can we apply the free oneway principle of a stopover at our home airport when ANA prohibits stopovers in the country of origin? Easy. Add half of a trip on to the beginning of our main award, thus changing our country of origin.

Let me give an easy example. If you live in Newark and want to fly roundtrip in business class to Paris on United with ANA miles, you’d already get a great deal. The roundtrip is 7,298 miles, so the award would cost 68,000 ANA miles.

This is of course, a steep discount on how many miles United or US Airways would charge–100,000.

But here’s where my trick of adding a prior leg comes in. Add in a oneway from Lima to Newark four months before, and you’ve got the return half of a second trip on the same award. (How do you get to Lima? One way award, cash ticket, walk.)

Now the distance of the award increases substantially to 10,929 miles.

But that’s only one band higher up on the chart, so the mileage price only increases to 85,000. This is remarkable since Lima to Newark–in flat bed business class–is only adding 17,000 miles!

Of course, I can hardly say I’ve maximized the itinerary. You can take two stops in Europe after all.

Here’s a possibility: add Lima to Newark onto an award from Newark to London to Istanbul to Newark with stops in London and Istanbul.

This award traverses 13,690 miles, which is another band higher up. It would cost only 90,000 ANA miles total in business class! (Note that London to Istanbul would be on Turkish Airlines, so you would be on the hook for a modest fuel surcharge for flying a carrier other than United and US Airways intra-Europe.)

There’s nothing special about living in Newark or having every section of the trip be direct. Imagine you want to add the return half of trip to Santiago onto a trip to Tokyo, and you live in Los Angeles. Let’s even throw in a free stopover in Hawaii on the way to Japan.

That 17,850 mile trip would cost only 105,000 ANA miles in business class, which is spectacular since LAX to Tokyo roundtrip is 120,000 United miles and Santiago to LAX would be another 50,000 miles.

That means using Membership Rewards transferred to ANA miles saves 65,000 points!

So far all my examples presuppose a major international hub for United as your home airport. We’re not all so lucky. Living at a hub helps because it means fewer flights, and every flight adds to the cost of an ANA award.

But you don’t have to live at a United or US Airways hub to maximize ANA awards. I’ll give an example for the home airport of Medford, Oregon, which only features two United flights–to Denver and San Francisco.

This award has a return from Sydney to Medford, then a roundtrip to London.

Normally in business class Sydney to Medford would be 67,500, and a roundtrip from Medford to Londond would be 100,000 more. But instead of 167,500 United miles, this itinerary would cost 115,000 ANA miles.

Can you put the oneway after the roundtrip?

No. Imagine reversing the first example. Newark to Paris roundtrip then Newark to Lima. You’ve stopped over in Newark, which is in the origin country. ANA prohibits stopovers in the origin country.

Are these free oneways?

No, the oneways are all adding a bit to the miles price since they are increasing the number of miles flown on the award. There are probably free oneway opportunities to Mexico or the Caribbean. Post them in the comments.

Is this a big deal?

Yes! I already had Membership Rewards worth more than United miles. Now they may be worth more than Ultimate Rewards! If that sounds crazy, let me explain.

United has a great business class bed and releases a great amount of award space. It has a route map that covers most of the places I want to go. Using the techniques in this post, you can use about 1/3 fewer Membership Rewards to book United business itineraries than the number of Ultimate Rewards it would take.

My Plan

I’m going to open the The Business Platinum Card with a 25,000 Membership Rewards sign up bonus to pad my Membership Rewards balance.

I’ve already had the Mercedes-Benz personal Platinum, and the “regular” personal Platinum has a sign up bonus that’s below where I’ve often seen it in the past.

Recap

Booking 1.5 trips with the half trip first unlocks incredible savings on ANA awards that fly United or US Airways.

Full ANA Award Rules

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Posted in American Express, ANA, Award Booking, Best Of, Free Oneway, Membership Rewards, United, US Airways

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How to Save Thousands of Miles Booking United Flights: Use Membership Rewards on ANA

Posted on March 7, 2013 by | 27 Comments

American Express Membership Rewards are valuable because of their ability to be transferred to dozens of partners. But they have a glaring weakness: they don’t have a top-tier Star Alliance transfer partner–US Airways or United.

Membership Rewards can be transferred to Singapore, which is great because this is the only way to get into Singapore business or first class.

Membership Rewards can also be transferred to Aeroplan and ANA. The problem with all three is that they charge massive surcharges on Star Alliance award tickets, making our “free” ticket cost several hundred dollars–even in economy.

That’s the main reason I called US Airways and United the top-tier Star Alliance partners; neither charges surcharges on awards booked with their miles. Both charge just the miles and the government taxes and fees.

But as recently reported by Dan’s Deals, ANA is no longer charging fuel surcharges on United or US Airways flights. This is huge news for a few reasons:

  • ANA has an award chart with some incredible values.
  • ANA is a Membership Rewards transfer partner. With all the great Membership Rewards earning cards’ sign up bonuses lately, many of us are flush with Membership Rewards.
  • United and US Airways fly a lot of convenient routes for Americans. If ANA had to pick two partners on which they wouldn’t charge surcharges, these are ideal.
  • United and US Airways both have world-class business class beds. (United business review.)

What You Need to Know to Take Advantage of the Deal

The deal involves booking with ANA miles. That means you need an ANA account. (Sign up for one here.)

Don’t transfer your Membership Rewards yet. You can do that after you find space. You don’t want to transfer them and then not find space. ANA miles expire after 36 months regardless of activity.

This deal involves flying United or US Airways flights. The best place to search for award space on those airlines regardless of the type of miles you’ll be using to book the award (in this case ANA miles) is united.com. Here is a basic post on how to search on united.com.

On united.com, you must find Saver award space for it to be bookable with ANA miles. Saver space shows up as a blue button on united.com.

For instance, in the above screen shot of a flight from San Francisco to Sydney on December 2, 2013, there is Saver space in business class, but not in economy or first. ANA miles could only book this flight in business class.

If you find flights with Saver space on united.com, write down the flight date, time, and number to book it on ANA.com.

ANA award bookings cannot be made oneway. You have to book roundtrip awards. If you really only want a oneway, Dan has screen shots of what to do. Book your oneway award and any short hop other oneway on United or US Airways together as a “roundtrip.” Make sure the short dummy leg “return” is the second flight. If you make it the first flight, you will have the whole itinerary cancelled when you don’t show up for the dummy leg.

The mileage needed for your ANA award booking is based on the award’s distance. This is one of the key sources of value. Use the Great Circle Mapper (as explained here) to add up the distances of all segments of your itinerary and check its cost here.

Here are some sample itineraries to show you the incredible value of ANA awards. Remember that ANA and United would charge the exact same government taxes. US Airways would charge those plus a $50 award processing fee.

The best deals are from the east coast to Europe, but there is a discount to every continent.

Of course I cherry-picked this list. Adding connecting flights from your home airport may drive up the price.

In general this deal is best for those who live in United or US Airways cities with international flights: Newark, Dulles, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Philadelphia, and Charlotte.

When you find the award space you want, initiate the Membership Rewards transfer, which will take at least two days.

When you book, you will not pay any close-in fees like United and US Airways charge ($75 within 21 days of departure.)

If you want to change your date, you can do that for free.

If you want to change anything else, you have to cancel. There is no cash cost to cancel, but you lose 3,000 miles. This beats the US Airways and United cancellation fee of $150 per ticket.

Open jaws are permitted. Double open jaws are permitted. Sticking two unrelated segments together and never planning to fly the second one in an attempt to get a oneway pricing is permitted. (See the Dan’s Deals post for examples of this.)

Recap

Now that ANA no longer charges fuel surcharges on awards that fly on US Airways or United, we have an incredible new use for Membership Rewards and a way cheaper way to get onto United and US Airways flights.

This deal is great for those with a mountain of Membership Rewards and who live at an airport with direct international flights on United or US Airways. People who don’t live at such an airport may get a slightly worse deal because the distance-based ANA chart adds up the distance of all segments.

The deal is best if you want to fly from the east coast to Europe.

Pad your Membership Rewards balance with:

American Express Mercedes-Benz Platinum (personal) with 50k Membership Rewards after spending $1k in three months. $475 annual fee.

American Express Platinum (business) with 25k Membership Rewards after spending $5k in three months. $450 annual fee.

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