Tag Archives: Avios

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

Posted on April 15, 2013 by | 5 Comments

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

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

Image from gcmap.com

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

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

LAN with Avios

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

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

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

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

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

Eligible subsidiaries of LAN for BA redemptions include LAN Argentina

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

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

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

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

Aerolineas Argentinas with SkyMiles

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

Image from airfrance.us

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

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

Image from expertflyer.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ticketing the SkyMiles Award

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

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

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

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

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

Ticketing the Avios Award

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

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

Recap

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

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

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

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Posted in Aerolineas Argentinas, Avios, Delta, LAN

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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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The Big Trick for Searching BA.com

Posted on March 12, 2013 by | 7 Comments

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

Reader Coleman emailed me to say:

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

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

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

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

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

First search for the return as a oneway.

 

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

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

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

Booking

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

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

50k Avios

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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Posted in Avios, Award Booking

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Anatomy of an Award: Sidetrip to Hong Kong from Tokyo

Posted on January 24, 2013 by | 18 Comments

Part I: The Main Award & Finding a Free Oneway

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

Part III: Adding a Great Sidetrip

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Option #1: Give the award an open jaw.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why did you choose Avios?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Recap

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

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

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

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

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Posted in Anatomy of an Award, Avios, US Airways

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Avios intra-Europe Redemptions are a Joke

Posted on December 8, 2012 by | 9 Comments

I was looking at some intra-Europe flights for my seven-week loop next summer. I had the brilliant idea that maybe I should oneworld-hub hop.

Munich to Berlin (airberlin)

Berlin to Oslo (airberlin)

Oslo to Helsinki (Finnair)

That would be all new cities for me and all direct flights. I priced out the Avios awards. Berlin to Oslo was 4,500 Avios and $45. That’s a bad deal, since the same revenue flights are only $63. Booking the award would value the Avios at about 1/3 of a cent each.

Berlin to Oslo–$3 base fare

Oslo to Helsinki is even worse. Avios awards are 4,500 Avios and $77.50.

$57 of that is a fuel surcharge. (Click the little i.)

Paid flights on the same route can be had for $62.

That means the cash component of the Avios award is more than a normal cash ticket.

Avios are not completely useless within Europe. Perhaps surprisingly to people used to transatlantic surcharges, the value play inside of Europe is to fly on British Airways metal or Iberia metal.

British Airways collects a low flat fee of $22.50 on its “Reward Flight Saver” intra-Europe awards on BA and IB metal.

BA.com explains Reward Flight Saver flights like this:

They don’t usually work out to a great value–domestic US flights are better–but they are certainly better than airberlin and Finnair awards within Europe. For instance, London to Athens goes for 10k Avios and $22.50.

The cash flight goes for $158.

That means this redemption gets 1.18 cents per Avios according to the MileValue Calculator. This is not a redemption I would personally make unless I were really looking to conserve cash since I value Avios at 1.7 cents.

Here’s a similar example on Iberia metal from Madrid to Paris. The Avios award costs 7,500 Avios and $22.50.

A cash flight on easyJet is only $85. (I prefer easyJet to Ryan Air by quite a margin.)

That means the award gets 0.83 cents of value per Avios–again pretty bad but about average for an intra-Europe Avios redemption.

Recap

Intra-Europe Avios redemptions on Finnair and airberlin get close to zero value from your Avios and sometimes negative value because of the dastardly surcharges. Surcharges are capped on Iberia and BA flights, so those awards can get 1 cent per Avios in value–maybe a bit more.

If you’re cash strapped, look for awards on BA and IB metal, but your best bet is to hold onto your Avios for more lucrative redemptions like domestic US, intra-Australia, or intra-South Africa among many options.

Just book with cash.

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Avios 30% Transfer Bonus from Membership Rewards

Posted on December 3, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Through January 14, you can transfer 1,000 Membership Rewards to 1,300 Avios. The transfer are hard-coded into the Membership Rewards transfer page, meaning you don’t have to know any special codes.

All my posts about Avios are contained here: milevalue.com/category/avios. The one-sentence cliff notes are to use Avios for direct itineraries, ideally short flights, and do what you can to avoid the nasty surcharges.

Incredible redemptions include 12,500 + $2.50 oneway from the west coast to Hawaii, 7,500 Avios and $33 from Johannesburg to Capetown, and 4,500 Avios +$2.50 on any American flight under 650 miles.

Here is a list of Avios redemptions from three cities:

New York

Los Angeles

Dallas

Avios bookings of AA economy grant priority AAccess to security.

I won’t transfer speculatively because Avios transfer bonuses are frequent and this year has seen 50% and 40%. But this is currently the best value for Membership Rewards.

Hat Tip One Mile at a Time

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Iberia 25% Off Transatlantic Awards and Low Surcharges

Posted on November 16, 2012 by | 5 Comments

British Airways is offering a 25% discount on its longhaul awards–flown by BA or Iberia. That would be great except British Airways charges humungous surcharges that make any redemptions an awful deal in my mind. To wit, British Airways business class from New York to London:

As the screen shot indicates, this is normally a 40,000 Avios award, so there is a 10,000 Avios, or 25%, discount. But the taxes and fees of $438 oneway make this an award I would not purchase. Roundtrip, taxes and fees would be over $1,000 because of the UK Air Passenger Duty.

Luckily Iberia is also offering the same sale that British Airways is offering! Link to promo.

And if you use Iberia Avios to book awards on Iberia flights, your out of pocket cost will be much lower!

Iberia and British Airways are owned by the same company. They both have a loyalty program with a currency named Avios, but the loyalty programs are separate and slightly different. Let me run through Iberia’s if you’re not familiar with it, so you can take advantage of its superior promo.

Iberia’s program is distance based, such that each flight adds to the cost of an award. Here’s its chart.

Blue class is discounted economy. Iberia offers more award space at “Full Fare (Turist),” which is called “Economy” on the award booking page. Both Blue and Full Fare/Turist/Economy are economy class, but the multi-named one costs 50% more.

We’re interested in booking Blue class and Business class, which costs double Blue class.

Every segment adds to the cost, so if you fly New York to Madrid to Venice, that will cost 27,500 Iberia Avios–20,000 for New York to Madrid and 7,500 more for Madrid to Venice.

Iberia charges big surcharges on British Airways flights and even American Airlines flights, but it doesn’t charge quite such large surcharges on Iberia flights.

Iberia’s current 25% off promotion offers 25% off the Iberia Avios price for all flights operated by Iberia and BA “from zones 4 and beyond.” I’m not sure what “from zones 4 and beyond” means exactly, but by poking around, it looks like all BA and Iberia flights of 7,500 Avios or more are 25% off. 4,500 Avios flights are full price.

How do you get Iberia Avios?

There are two easy ways.

You can transfer your BA Avios over. Both accounts need to be open for 90 days to make this work, so open your Iberia Avios account now to do this in the future if you don’t already have one open. Sign up here.

On ba.com, click on Manage My Account after signing in.

Next choose Combine My Avios.

Next click the red button that says Combine My Avios on the next page.

After that, select Iberia Plus from the drop down and type in your account info.

At this point, hopefully you’ll have a smooth, intuitive transfer. Unfortunately I got an error. I called BA at 800-AIRWAYS (hit 1, 1 to get to the Executive Club where you want to be) to straighten it out. The agent did a manual transfer that he said will show up in 24-48 hours.

The second way to get Iberia Avios is via a Membership Rewards transfer. Instead of selecting British Airways Executive Club, select Iberia Plus. It should be an easy, instant 1:1 transfer.

How do you search for Iberia Avios awards?

Sign into your account at iberia.com. Then click Redeem Avios under My Iberia Plus.

The default setting is to search only Iberia flights. Since this trick of using Iberia Avios only saves us money on those bookings, leave the default setting as-is. Select your departure city; they’re grouped by continent. Select your arrival city; some of the codes are not airport codes but city codes like NYC, LON, and PAR for New York-JFK, London-Heathrow, and Paris-Charles de Gaulle.

The search screen should show Blue, Economy, and Business. Remember that Blue is discounted economy, so that and business are what we want.

An X means there is no space. For itineraries with layovers, you have to select each individual flight. Once you’ve made your flight selections, you can click Consult to see the price. Here is New York to Madrid roundtrip in economy.

30k Avios and $166, not too bad for roundtrip to Europe!

This is about $400 less out of pocket than British Airways would charge for the same route!

Over $500 in taxes and surcharges roundtrip with BA Avios for the same JFK-MAD route

There’s probably an easy way to convert the taxes and surcharges from displaying in Euros to dollars on iberia.com that I am missing. If you can’t find it either, just type this into google for a conversion: “XXX eur to usd.” And while on the subject of currencies, make sure to book with a card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees. Even if quoted in dollars, your card company may consider it a foreign transaction.

New York to Madrid should be 20k Iberia Avios each way, so 30k roundtrip is a 10k, or 25% discount, as promised.

What about adding on an intra-Spain leg?

39k Avios and $231 to Seville

As I mentioned earlier, 4,500 Avios legs don’t seem to be discounted, so adding an intra-Spain leg bumps the price to 39k roundtrip and increases the taxes quite a bit.

What about seeing somewhere other than Spain?

41,250 Avios and $248 to Venice

Venice is normally 7,500 Avios each way from Madrid, but 25% was knocked off, so the total is 41,250 Avios instead of 55,000 Avios.

All the awards I’ve shown are economy class, Iberia also flies with angled lie flat business class seats. This space is searchable on Expert Flyer, like so:

For more information on using Expert Flyer, see my beginner’s post on Using Expertflyer.com. Unfortunately I searched from several cities in the US to Madrid and I saw just two total flights–one BOS-MAD and one MAD-JFK–with any space in business class. This deal seems basically limited to people interested in economy class flights.

Where does Iberia fly in the US?

Prices are listed in Blue/Business class per direction.

Boston <-> Madrid (20k/40k)

New York <-> Madrid (20k/40k)

Chicago <-> Madrid (25k/50k)

Miami <-> Madrid (25k/50k)

Los Angeles <-> Madrid (25k/50k)

I found economy class space available on all these routes, most readily on the shorter routes.

Is the Iberia promo a good deal?

Yes, there are two things I love about it. First it uses Avios or Membership Rewards for transatlantic travel with out of pocket costs of only ~$200 roundtrip. That’s pretty great for those of us with a ton of these currencies who can’t use them all up on 25k roundtrips to Hawaii or hopping around Australia or South America–the normal best uses.

Second the Avios price is incredibly low for the seasons it encompasses. Bookings must be made by November 19, 2012, but travel can run through May 31, 2013, when Spain and much of Europe are pretty nice. Last week I ran through all the off-peak-to-Europe deals, and Iberia’s promo’s dates are better than all of their dates.

You really can’t beat flying from New York to Madrid in May roundtrip for 30k Avios and under $200.

Recap

British Airways has a dud of a promotion running this week. You can knock 25% off the BA Avios price of awards to Europe and beyond, but not 25% off the insane, disgusting fees.

Iberia is running an identical promotion though, unlocking Iberia’s lower surcharges to Europe on its own planes. If you book between now and  November 19, you can fly through May 31, 2013 with a 25% discount on the Iberia Avios price.

Iberia Avios prices are already very low from the east coast to Madrid and quite reasonable from the west coast or to other points in Europe, so another 25% off is incredible. The taxes and surcharges are approximately $200 for a roundtrip in economy class.

Getting Iberia Avios–which are different from BA Avios–is easy. You can transfer directly from your BA Avios account online if both accounts are over 90 days old, or you can transfer 1:1 from Membership Rewards.

When the news of the BA Avios promotion circulated, I wasn’t excited, but the Iberia Avios promotion is a much better deal.

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Posted in Avios, Iberia, Membership Rewards

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Award Space on American Airlines’ Brand New Routes

Posted on November 5, 2012 by | 3 Comments

A few weeks ago, One Mile at a Time was all over the new American Airlines international routes:

  • Dallas (DFW) <-> Seoul (ICN)
  • Dallas (DFW) <-> Lima (LIM)
  • Chicago (ORD) <-> Dusseldorf (DUS)
  • New York (JFK) <-> Dublin (DUB)

Those flights went on sale yesterday, meaning that they were added to the award calendars. I decided to take a look at the award-space picture, and I found some surprising results. Let’s go through them one-by-one, so you can plan your international escape.

Dallas to Seoul

AA 27 DFW-ICN 10:30 AM – 3:00 PM on next day
AA26 ICN-DFW 5:00 PM – 4:20 PM on same day (time travel!)

Dallas to Seoul will begin daily flights May 9, 2013 on a 777-200 aircraft with 16 first class beds and 37 angled lie flat business class seats.

Korea is in American’s Asia 1 zone on the award chart. That means it costs 32.5k/50k/62.5k miles each way in economy/business/first between North America and Seoul. If you fly between October 1 and April 30 in economy class, you can take advantage of the off peak price of 25k miles each direction.

American is showing incredible availability on the Dallas to Seoul flight. There are 2+ first class seats available every Monday through Friday from the inaugural flight until the end of the award calendar.

If you’re after business class seats, there is space every Tuesday through Thursday for a pair of passengers.

Space on the return flight is even better, showing seven-day-a-week availability in first, and four-day-a-week availability in business.

If you’re a mile-pincher though, you are out of luck. American has released almost no economy award space at all on the flight.

What would my strategy be here? I would enthusiastically book a roundtrip first class award for 125k miles. The difference between the first class bed and the business class angled lie flat is dramatic, so for only 25k miles extra, first class is a no-brainer.

Getting to Dallas shouldn’t be a problem because American’s domestic availability is fantastic. Connecting beyond Seoul is much more difficult, since Seoul is not a oneworld hub.

Bottom line: the new Dallas-Seoul route is great for premium-cabin travelers who want to go to Korea.

Dallas to Lima

AA 2193 DFW-LIM 5:30 PM – 12:25 AM on next day
AA 2194 LIM-DFW 2:00 AM – 9:15 AM

Dallas to Lima will begin daily flights on April 2, 2013, operated by a 757. This is a very disappointing plane for the seven-hour flight, since it features only economy and business class–and business class is just domestic first.

Peru is in American’s Central America/South America Zone 1 region, meaning the flight is only 17.5k/30k each way in economy/business.

Dallas to Lima is showing incredible business class availability–two seats almost every day that the flight will operate!The return from Lima to Dallas is also showing absolutely fantastic availability for two people in business class.

Unfortunately I didn’t see any seats in economy class in either direction.

My strategy for an award to Peru would be to avoid this flight if possible. American’s partner LAN serves Lima from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, and New York with flat bed business class seats. For the same number of miles, you could enjoy a far superior product.

If you get to Lima on American from Dallas or Miami or on LAN, you should have plenty of connection options throughout Peru and South America on LAN, which has a hub in Lima.

Bottom Line: This route adds more premium cabin space from the US to Peru, but since the premium cabin on an AA 757 is far from premium, this route doesn’t do much.

Chicago to Dusseldorf

AA 242 ORD-DUS 4:45 PM – 8:15 AM on next day
AA 241 DUS-ORD 12:10 PM – 2:20 PM

American is operating its new flight to partner airberlin’s hub with a 767-300 with two cabins, starting April 11, 2013.

Business class is only angled lie flat, but the point is moot. American has not released any space in business class that I see.

Economy class has a little bit of space, for instance May 25th. Economy awards will cost 30k miles each way, 20k if you fly between October 15 and May 15.

Fear not. If you want to get to Germany and Europe with American miles from Chicago, your 2013 options are rosy. Airberlin is launching a new service from Chicago to Berlin (TXL) on March 23, 2013. Space on airberlin on this route and others is fantastic in economy and business (recliners) class.

ORD-DUS space in Summer 2013, completely powered by airberlin space

Bottom Line: Chicago to Dusseldorf on American will not be a great route for award space, but there are other ways to get to Europe with American miles.

New York to Dublin

AA290 JFK-DUB 6:55 PM – 6:55 AM on next day
AA291 DUB-JFK 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM

American will operate New York to Dublin with a 757 identical to the one they are sending Dallas to Lima. That means you have a choice between economy class and business class–domestic first class–for 30k and 50k respectively each way.

The good news (for American) is that this route must be forecasted to be especially popular. That’s the only reason I can think that American has not released a single seat in any cabin on the flight.

If you want to go to Dublin with American miles, you will probably have to route through London.

Bottom Line: Nothing in the new New York – Dublin route for award travelers.

Avios

Many people have tons of Avios that they are looking to burn. These new flights–like all AA flights–are all bookable with Avios. But that doesn’t make them a good deal.

Let’s take a look at the Dallas-Lima and Dallas-Seoul flights since those flights actually have decent space.

With AA miles, Dallas to Lima roundtrip is 60k miles and $66 in business class. That breaks down to 30k miles each way, $17.50 in taxes to Peru and $48 in taxes on the return.

The same flights with Avios cost the exact same number of dollars in taxes. The Avios needed are a bit more at 40k Avios each way for business class versus 30k AA miles.

At these prices, I would probably use 30k AA miles over 40k Avios. And for anyone who lives outside Dallas, the price difference balloons. The AA price is 30k whether you’re coming from Honolulu, Richmond, or Dallas, but the Avios price increases with each segment.

Dallas to Seoul is an even worse use of Avios. British Airways wants an astounding 210k Avios and $383 for a roundtrip first class award.

American wants only 125k miles roundtrip. And American will collect only government taxes. (I can’t pull up the exact amount right now–aa.com is buggy–but I am sure it is under $100 roundtrip.) BA is collecting the government taxes plus a nasty surcharge on this route.

New York to Dublin might be a good redemption with Avios in economy class, but there is currently no space available on that route.

The bottom line is that you should continue to use Avios intra-USA, intra-South America, intra-Australia and on short, direct, surcharge-free flights.

Recap

Last week American announced four new routes to three continents. The award space opened on those flights yesterday. None has good space in economy.

Dallas <-> Seoul has great business and first class space. I recommend first class.

Dallas <-> Lima has great business class space. I recommend looking for LAN space instead.

Avios redemptions are not a great deal on the new routes.

For more information on AA awards, see How Much Are AAdvantage Miles Worth? The Value of American Airlines Miles Part 1.

For more great posts like this, sign up for the MileValue RSS feed, like the MileValue facebook page, or follow me on Twitter @milevalue. Get your friends involved too, so you can have more companions for your Free First Class Next Month.

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Posted in AAdvantage, Avios, Award Booking

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Free First Class Next Month: Award Searches on AA.com

Posted on September 6, 2012 by | 13 Comments

Hey there, you’re reading an outdated post! The updated series from March 2013 can be found here.

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

This post presents the basics of using aa.com for award bookings. It is not a comprehensive guide to booking American Airlines awards. The rules of AA awards can be found throughout this blog.

When to use aa.com

Use aa.com when you are searching for award space on flights operated by American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Qantas, or British Airways regardless of what type of miles you are redeeming.

Reread that sentence. If you want to fly on a plane that is painted with the AA, Alaska, Hawaiian, Qantas, or BA logo, use aa.com to search for your space whether you’re redeeming AAdvantage miles, Avios, Hawaiian Miles, Delta miles, or some other mileage currency.

The reason I recommend starting on aa.com to get on one of those airlines is that aa.com has an easy to use search tool with easy to visualize and manipulate results.

Starting on the home page, type in your departure and arrival cities. Put in your dates, number of travelers, and click the box for Redeem AAdvantage Miles.

I’ve typed in Los Angeles to Honolulu from 5/1 to 5/8. After clicking Find Flights, the following screen comes up:

Along the top, color coded, are the possible redemption classes and rates; mine range from 22.5k per direction for Economy MileSAAver to 47.5k per direction for First MileSAAver.

The calendar below shows the lowest mileage cost per day. You can broaden the calendar from one week to one month by clicking Show Full Calendar. You can see availability for a different class of service by clicking on it above the calendar.

When you select the date and class you want, you are taken to the screen where you choose itineraries.

On this screen, you can select an itinerary. If you don’t see one you like, you can toggle the dates or the cabin.

If there are more options than you want, you can remove whole airlines or airports from the results by unchecking their boxes on the left.

On the itinerary screen, itineraries are ordered by shortest duration. If you click the “+ Flight Details” button, you can see the class and aircraft for each leg. You can use this information on seatguru, or you can click View Available Seats to see the seatmap.

After you’ve picked your itinerary, you can continue to book the award. The payment screen looks like this:

If you are using another carrier’s miles, say Hawaiian’s, now would be the time to go to their site, and search for the same flights you just found and book.

(If you are using Avios, you should have unchecked the Hawaiian Airlines box on the results screen since BA doesn’t partner with Hawaiian. They do partner with Alaska, but you have to call to book.)

The reason to start on AA’s site if you want AA flights but want to use Hawaiian or BA miles is that AA has a more convenient, easier-to-use calendar that makes finding the perfect itinerary easy.

Again these are just the basics of using aa.com to find award space on AA, Alaska, Hawaiian, Qantas, and BA flights. For more complex itineraries, you’ll need to learn more, perhaps from my Anatomy of an Award series, or you can hire a professional award booker like me.

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Posted in AAdvantage, Avios, Delta, Free First Class Next Month, Hawaiian Airlines

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How Americans Can Exploit US Airways’ Cheap Awards from South America

Posted on August 22, 2012 by | 23 Comments

Yesterday I talked about some great sweet spots on the US Airways chart for awards originating in South America. Maybe you thought that post was irrelevant for Americans.

But Americans can still get half the value of these sweet-spot awards by using open jaw itineraries.

US Airways sweet-spot awards can have tremendous value for Americans if they’re employed as part of something I’ll call a triangle award.

A triangle award is using three or more oneway itineraries to create a journey that includes two or more destinations. A picture of the itinerary I’ll be discussing in this post should explain why I call it a triangle award.

LAX-ZRH-EZE-LAX

The first leg of this triangle is Los Angeles to Zurich. The second is Zurich to Buenos Aires. And the third is Buenos Aires to Los Angeles.

The reason other airports like Lima, Frankfurt, and London are on the map is that they are layover cities.

The Sweet-Spot US Airways Award

The sweet-spot US Airways award from yesterday’s post that this post will focus on is South America to Europe roundtrip for 100k miles in business class.

That was a 40k mile discount over the equivalent roundtrip award with United miles!

Unfortunately most of don’t live in Europe or South America, so we can’t take full advantage of that incredible price. But we can take half advantage of that huge US Airways discount by flying an open jaw award that includes a Europe to South America segment.

As I’ve explained, US Airways awards are allowed one open jaw OR one stopover. If we use the open jaw by departing the US to Europe, but “returning” to South America, we will get half the benefit of the super cheap Europe to South America awards on US Airways.

The Half Sweet-Spot Award

Specifically an award like LAX to Zurich, Zurich to Buenos Aires will cost 100k US Airways miles, but 120k United miles. We aren’t getting a 40k mile discount, but a 20k mile discount is still like saving almost $400.

The rules

US Airways awards allow one stopover OR one open jaw. Using this technique uses your open jaw, so you can’t have any stopovers en route or an open jaw in Europe.

That means no stopping over in London, though 23-hour layovers are fine, and no flying into Zurich but out of Frankfurt.

Most US Airways agents kind of vaguely somewhat know about this rule, and it’s easy to tell if it’s been violated, so getting around it would be tough.

The other rule is that the distance between the two open jaw cities on a US Airways award must be shorter than both the distances of the flown legs.

In the LAX-ZRH-EZE example, the distance between LAX and EZE (Buenos Aires) must be shorter than the distance between LAX and ZRH (Zurich) and the distance between ZRH and EZE.

(I can’t find the text of this rule anywhere, so I don’t know whether it’s the distance as the crow files between the cities or the actual distance flown given the layover airports. If anyone can find the text of the rule, point us to it in the comments.)

In fact, my planned award runs afoul of this rule. LAX to EZE–the open jaw segment–is not the shortest segment. LAX to ZRH is slightly shorter.

But this rule is rarely enforced if the distances are close. I assume the reason is because US Airways agents don’t know how to or don’t want to check distances.

Whatever the reason, I was able to place the following award on hold with US Airways:

This is a screen shot from United, which wanted to charge 120k miles and $98.

I can’t get a screen shot of the US Airways award with its price, but the exact same flight on hold at US Airways cost 100k miles and $148. (The extra $50 is the US Airways award processing fee.)

The 20k miles savings per person is substantial. It’s almost enough to cover the third leg of the triangle.

Buenos Aires to Los Angeles–the third leg

Buenos Aires to Los Angeles has to be booked as a one way, so we’ll want to use United miles, American miles, or British Airways Avios.

On this hypothetical dream vacation, I want to add another stop in Lima. United doesn’t allow a stopover on oneway awards. American allows a stopover, but only in North America.

That leaves Avios. Avios are ideal for short, direct hops like EZE-LIM on LAN Airlines, which would cost only 10k Avios and $60 in government taxes–none of the nasty surcharges that dog many Avios awards

5k Avios and $125 is actually the best deal, but Avios Cash & Points is beyond the scope of this post. So is the fact that this five-hour flight is operated by a plane with fully flat business class seats that would cost 20k Avios and $65.

Then from Lima, it would finally be time to end the triangle journey. Here the best option to LAX would be to use American miles to fly the direct LAN flight. Not only is the flight only 17.5k AA miles in economy, but since I’d be landing at my home airport, I could tack on a free oneway to Hawaii at a later date.

I’d have to call AA to book a LAN flight, so I can’t show a screen shot.

Astute readers will notice this is an application of my free stopovers on AA awards outside the US trick. Except this stopover isn’t just free, it saves us miles!

Instead of paying 30k AA miles to fly EZE-LIM-LAX without a stopover in Lima, breaking it into an Avios award and an AA award makes the total 17,500 AA miles + 10k Avios, which are worth less combined than 30k AA miles.

Recap

As Americans, we miss out on half the fun of US Airways’ incredible awards from South America that I talked about yesterday. But we can still take advantage of the incredible business class price from Europe to South America by flying an open jaw from the US to Europe to South America.

To finish off the triangle award, simply book a oneway return from South America to the US. If you want a free stopover in South America, try my Avios + AA award trick. And no MileValue award booking is complete without a free oneway to Hawaii tacked on!

So who’s going to book the first triangle award to take advantage of US Airways’ sweet spots on its award chart?

For more great posts like this, sign up for the MileValue RSS feed, like the brand new MileValue facebook page, or follow me on Twitter @milevalue. Get your friends involved too, so you can have more companions for your Free First Class Next Month.

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Posted in AAdvantage, Avios, Free Oneway, How to, Routing Rules, US Airways

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