Tag Archives: Delta

Great Use for Delta Miles: Korean Air Flight Between Los Angeles and Sao Paulo

Posted on May 17, 2013 by | 6 Comments

Pop quiz, hot shot: What is the only airline with a direct flight between Los Angeles and Sao Paulo?

Korean Air

Three times a week, a Korean Air 777-300ER flies from Los Angeles to Sao Paulo on Mondays, Wednesday, Fridays. The return leaves Sao Paulo on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

Redeye outbound, daytime return

This flight isn’t just a novelty. It’s a legitimately great use of Delta SkyMiles–the least valuable and most reviled currency among the legacy airlines. Learn how to get on the flight yourself after the jump.

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Can You Get the 45k Delta Miles Offer

Posted on May 2, 2013 by | 20 Comments

The standard offer for the Gold Delta SkyMiles personal card is 30,000 bonus SkyMiles after spending $500 in three months. While the miles bonus isn’t eye popping, the spending requirement is very low compared to competitors’ cards, so I have recommended that very low spenders get a Delta personal and business card before.

But for people who have higher spending levels, the low minimum spending requirement is a not a benefit. They would prefer more bonus miles in exchange for a higher spending requirement.

Enter CARDMATCH from creditcards.com. Somehow CARDMATCH has worked out a deal to get exclusive targeted offers from American Express. One of the main ones that people are reporting is a 45,000 SkyMile offer from American Express.

The process to see if you’re eligible for the 45,000 mile offer is simple.

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Posted in American Express, Delta

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Charlie’s First Cards: Getting the Cards

Posted on April 10, 2013 by | 9 Comments

Charlie contacted me wanting to share his experiences with applying for his first rewards cards, 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.

Previously: Charlie’s First Cards: Planning

In my previous post, I described how my wife and I came up with a plan to apply for nine cards, six of them in my name and three in hers. For easy reference, here are the six cards I was applying for:

And here are the three we selected for my wife:

Applying for My Cards
As the day approached, I got all my links ready and made sure I had the information I would need handy. After some thought and a bit of research on how the credit checks would work, I decided to apply for my own cards all on one day and wait to see the result before applying for my wife’s cards. That way, if I were turned down for any cards, we could try again in my wife’s name. As it turned out, that wasn’t necessary, but it didn’t do any harm either.

The application process turned out to be fairly easy. I applied for cards in the order of their importance to me, grouping them by bank.

I started with the Chase Sapphire Preferred, filling out the online application and receiving an immediate approval.

Congratulations! Your application has been approved.You will receive your new card and your Cardmember Agreement within 7-10 business
days. When your card arrives, simply call the toll-free number provided to confirm receipt.Your new account has a credit line of $XXXXX. If this does not meet your needs, please discuss available credit line options with our CustomerService Specialist when you call to confirm receipt of your card.

This seemed like a really good start after only 15 minutes or so!

My next application was for the Chase Ink Bold card. I filled out the application, using my Employee Identification Number (EIN), which I have because my business is an LLC. If you are doing business under your own name, you can just use your Social Security number.

This application didn’t go quite so well as the first, although I wasn’t turned down flat.

Thank you for applying. Your application requires further review before making a decision.
Here’s what you can expect:

  • Our goal is to notify you in writing within 10 days; however, in some circumstances it may take up to 30 days.
  • If you are approved, you will receive your card and other important information in the mail.
  • Please do not resubmit this application.

From reading this blog, I knew not to wait for them to contact me. I immediately called the reconsideration line as recommended in Scott’s Free First Class Next Month: Best Practices for Your First Cards post.

The agent who took my call verified my identity and asked me a few questions that were already on the application. He was very friendly in his approach and wanted to know why I was looking for this card in addition to the Chase Sapphire. I explained that I always kept my personal and business expenses separate, which seemed satisfactory. I told him I had held a Citi-Business card for many years, but that I now wanted a card that would earn rewards. I picked Chase because the cards sounded terrific and because I already had a relationship with them–I have checking and savings accounts at their bank. He wanted to be sure that I understood the Ink Bold is a month-to-month charge card, and I told him that I pay my balance at the end of the month anyway and didn’t need any more extended credit at the moment.

Finally, he got to the point. He explained that he was a bit puzzled that I had so little credit history. I repeated some of my history, as told in my first post, how I had paid off my mortgage and loans a few years back and had not been using personal credit very much for the past few years. I also pointed out my excellent history with Citi, reflected in my business credit report. He was aware of this but told me that they mostly go on personal credit history for a small business like mine. This was something I had not realized, so I’ll keep it in mind from now on.

He asked me again about how much I would use the card. By this time, I could see I was going to be approved, so I explained that I’m about to go on a trip to Europe and will have business expenses. I wanted–I told him–to make sure that the card had a sufficiently high limit that I wasn’t forced to make payments in the middle of the month. He went off the line for a while and then came back with an approval. The limit was more than I had asked for and he told me that the Ink Bold has a “flexible limit” so I could exceed it by a pretty large amount without any penalty. That’s important to me, since this is a card I actually want to use.

At this point I was two for two and feeling pretty cocky. I moved on to the Barclay’s cards and filled out applications for both the US Airways Premier World MasterCard and the US Airways Business MasterCard.

Both of them came back with the same result…

Here’s where I discovered one mistake I had made. I did my application on a Friday afternoon on the west coast. It turned out to be too late to talk to Barclay’s, whose credit application department seems to keep limited hours as compared to the other banks I dealt with. I wouldn’t be able to talk with them until Monday.

With my spirits only slightly dampened, I moved on to the American Express applications. I filled out the application for the Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card from American Express and was approved right away.

But when I applied for the Gold Delta SkyMiles Business Card from American Express I saw this notice

I called the number right away. The agent I spoke to told me that the application had been automatically put in a pending status because I was applying for more than one card. I explained that I was applying for two different products but he told me that anyone applying for two Delta cards at the same time would have the second application held up “Sometimes,” he said, “people just submit the same application twice.” He gave me the date–three or four business days ahead–when I could call back for a decision.

Naturally, I immediately called back, using the reconsideration number this time rather than the one on the notice. A different agent told me the same thing and even added that “there was no other reason my application was being delayed.” I took that as a positive sign.

Final result at the end of the day: three applications approved and three pending.

More Calls to Make
On Monday morning I received an email telling me I had been approved for the US Airways Premier World MasterCard, making it four approvals and two more pending.

I next called the Barclay’s reconsideration line, knowing they were back in the office. While the Chase and AMEX agents I spoke with were quite helpful and friendly, I found the Barclay’s guy to have a bit of an attitude. Like the others, he brought up my “thin” credit history and mentioned that I had no track record at all with Barclay’s. He told me they couldn’t give me any more credit, having just approved me for a personal card. The fact that this was for my business didn’t hold any water for him.

I knew that my next step should be to ask them to move some credit from the brand new card to the business card, but I decided to just thank this guy and get off the line. I spent a few minutes thinking about what to do next. One option would be to call back and talk to a different agent. But frankly, I was aggravated and decided I no longer wanted to pay $79 to get these extra miles. From what I have read, I should be able to repeat my successful personal application in 91 days. If the no-fee link still works, this will be a much better deal. Suddenly I realized I was already planning my next cards. That made me smile.

On Thursday of that week, it was time to call about my Gold Delta SkyMiles Business Card from American Express and find out if it was approved. That call was routine. Just a few questions that called for the same information as the initial application and I was approved.

Getting My Wife’s Cards
The next day, I sat down to make the three remaining applications on my wife’s behalf, with her standing by in case I needed any extra information from her. Two of the cards were identical to applications I had already made and they went the same way. Her Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card from American Express was immediately approved and the US Airways Premier World MasterCard was left pending. Now feeling like quite the expert, I told her she would get an approval email in a few days–which, in fact, she did!

The United MileagePlus Explorer Visa application was a new one for me, but no more difficult to fill out than the others. I made sure to add an authorized user–myself–in order to get an extra 5,000 miles. The application was immediately approved.

Recap
I applied for nine cards for me and my wife and was approved for eight of them. My own applications were all done in one day and my wife’s on a separate day about a week later. Four cards were approved instantly two a few days later and two after talking to an agent–although only one conversation really got into any detail.

After spending $12,000 on these cards in the next three months, we will have 98,000 Ultimate Rewards, 70,000 Dividend Miles, 153,000 SkyMiles and 36,000 United miles.

That’s enough for quite a bit of travel for two people domestically or a few big international trips.

In the process, I learned a few things that will help me the next time.

Next week I’m going to beg Charlie to talk about getting the cards, tracking his spending, and setting up tracking for his annual fees.

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

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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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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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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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Eleven Months Out: Sydney Harbor for the New Year Fireworks

Posted on March 4, 2013 by | 18 Comments

Award travel reservations can usually be made up to eleven months in advance. Often, but not always, eleven months out has the best availability. Eleven Months Out is my new series looking at what you can book today for travel in eleven months. (This post is one month late, since New Year’s Eve is only ten months out.)

New Year’s Eve at Sydney Harbor is on my bucket list. Not only are you among the first in the world to ring in the New Year, but you’re in shorts and a t-shirt, watching fireworks over one of the most iconic buildings in the world–the Sydney Opera House–with over a million of your closest friends. That sure beats a winter in the US.

In general, getting to Australia with miles is one of the toughest tickets to nab. Add in traveling during peak times–Christmas, New Year’s, and their summer all in one–and most people don’t even know where to start. Surprisingly the answer is to use Delta SkyMiles to book flights on Virgin Australia.

When I think of easy ways to get places, Delta miles rarely top the list, so I first searched for New Year’s Eve 2013 on united.com and aa.com.

United

United flies two daily flights to Sydney (and on to Melbourne)–one from Los Angeles and one from San Francisco. Having flown in Global First on the LAX to Sydney flight, I can say that it is a great way to arrive in style.

Unfortunately United is not offering seats in any cabin from either city during December or January except for one seat in business class from San Francisco on December 2–far too early to be convenient for the fireworks.

United might be a good last-second option since it tends to release award seats in the last few days if the seats are unsold, but for now United miles are not useful to Australia for New Year’s unless you are willing to route through Asia.

Qantas via American Miles

American Airlines doesn’t fly to Australia, but its oneworld alliance includes Australia’s flag carrier Qantas.

I recently flew Qantas business class back from Melbourne to Los Angeles and enjoyed the experience, but it’s not one that you’ll have the chance to copy for New Year’s Eve 2013.

Qantas space, which is searchable on aa.com, has been released in economy on some December and January days on the Los Angeles to Sydney, Melbourne, or Brisbane routes, but there is no space in business or first class.

Dates with economy space from LAX to Sydney are green.

There are a few economy seats (and a few more via Melbourne and Brisbane), so if that’s what you want, they are a good value at 75k miles roundtrip–less than any other airline’s price. If you want to hold out for business or first class space, don’t bother. In my experience, Qantas won’t release any more space in any cabin between now and departure.

Virgin Australia via Delta Miles

The solution to getting to Sydney for the 2014 fireworks is to fly Virgin Australia with Delta SkyMiles. I’ve talked about Virgin Australia before. The gist is that business class bed is incredible, and the awards cost only about $130 in taxes–no fuel surcharges or other fees since they are bookable online.

And I’ve also mentioned the problem with searching Virgin Australia on delta.com–namely that you have to do it one day at a time since delta.com’s calendar doesn’t pick up partners.

That said, I will save you the time. As of the time of posting, there is 1+ business class seat from Los Angeles to Sydneyfor 150k SkyMiles roundtrip the following dates between December 15 and December 30, 2013.

  • December 16 direct on Virgin Australia
  • December 17 direct on Virgin Australia
  • December 22 via Brisbane on Virgin Australia
  • December 24 direct on Delta
  • December 29 via Brisbane on Virgin Australia
  • December 30 direct on Delta (this flight lands on January 1 and misses the fireworks)

And there is lots of space on the return from Sydney to Los Angeles between January 1 and 12.

  • January 3 direct on Delta or Virgin Australia
  • January 6 via Brisbane on Virgin Australia
  • January 7 direct on Virgin Australia
  • January 8 direct on Virgin Australia
  • January 9 via Brisbane on Virgin Australia
  • January 10 direct on Virgin Australia
  • January 11 direct on Delta or Virgin Australia
  • January 12 direct on Virgin Australia

To search for business class space on delta.com, start on the advanced search page.

Select only flights that price out at 150,000 miles because that is the low business class price with Delta miles from the US to Australia. Feel free to mix low price Delta space and Virgin space–which is all at the low miles price. Picking out a suitable outbound and return will cause the award to price at 150k miles and $130.

Getting to Los Angeles

The real issue I have with SkyMiles is domestically. There just isn’t a lot of space offered at the low level, and you need every segment of your award to be low miles price space for the award to price at the low level of 150k miles.

There is no trick to make space appear that doesn’t exist, but be sure to check:

  • domestic first class space on Delta
  • domestic economy space on Delta
  • space on Alaska

Any of that space that you find at the low level can link up with your international flat beds to get you to Sydney in style for the fireworks.

Getting Delta Miles

There are a few ways to get Delta miles. The main two are to fly Delta or open new credit cards.

The credit cards that earn Delta miles are all issued by American Express. Any card that earns Membership Rewards–AMEX’s proprietary points–can be a Delta card since Membership Rewards transfer 1:1 instantly to Delta (with a $0.60 per 1k mile fee, capped at $99.) The SPG American Express with a 25k point sign up bonus can be transferred to 30k Delta miles.

Delta also has its own co-branded cards.

The Gold Delta SkyMiles card has a 30k mile sign up bonus after $500 in spending in the first three months.

The Business Gold Delta SkyMiles card has the same 30k miles sign up bonus after $500 in spending in the first three months.

If you get the both, that’s a solid 60k miles after only $1k in spending–a pleasant alternative to some of the super high minimum spends that other cards have.

Recap

Book now if you want to see the fireworks in Sydney on New Year’s Eve 2013. Your best bet is to accumulate 150k Delta SkyMiles to fly on Delta or Virgin Australia in business class direct to the fireworks from Los Angeles.

You can earn the miles through Membership Rewards-earning cards, the SPG AMEX cards, or the Delta SkyMiles cards from American Express.

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Free First Class Next Month: Using delta.com to Redeem Delta Miles

Posted on March 4, 2013 by | Leave a comment

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

Delta.com is a frustrating, broken piece of junk, but it’s the first place to start when looking for award reservations with your Delta SkyMiles on flights operated by Delta, Air France, KLM, Virgin Australia, Alitalia, or Korean.

On the Delta.com home page, type your departure and arrival airports into the flight search box. I always search oneway on Delta.com searches because it is so bad at pricing awards that I don’t want to give it the chance to try adding the outbound and return’s cost.

Make sure to check the boxes that says Book award travel and My dates are flexible.

Because we checked that our dates are flexible, we’ll come to a color-coded calendar that shows which of the three miles prices each day has. We are only interested in green low-priced flights.

To toggle to business availability, click First/Business on the Calendar.

All January 2014 business class seats are at the High Price (in miles) also

Delta’s availability on its own flights is putrid. You’ll see a lot of yellow and blue days. We want the green days to get the most value for our miles.

Select a day with low level priced mile tickets, and you’ll be shown the possible itineraries, ordered from shortest to longest duration.

Click Show Details for more info on the flight.

Once you are looking at a single day’s options, the lowest priced itinerary should have a yellow coloring in the price box. To ensure you are looking at a low-miles-price itinerary, consult the SkyMiles award chart.

Double whatever the chart says in the appropriate column since Delta charges the roundtrip price for oneways. The low roundtrip economy class price from the USA to Israel is 80k miles, so the above itinerary is the low miles price.

If you’ve found low-miles-price space, note the date, time, and flight number, then do a search for the return leg.

If you don’t like what you’re seeing on a day, you can always get back to the award calendar by clicking View Award Calendar on the left. And once there, you can toggle the cabin choice.

Once you’ve found each suitable segment of your itinerary through oneway searches, you can piece together those flights on a roundtrip or multicity search and purchase online.

Unfortunately using delta.com often does not go according to plan. Delta.com is a piece of junk that misdisplays how many miles are needed for certain trips, doesn’t show all partner options, and generally doesn’t work well. When you’re having trouble, you can call Delta at 800-323-2323 to search availability or make a booking.

I use delta.com to search Delta, Virgin Australia, Air France, KLM, Alitalia, and Korean space. Korean space isn’t searchable anywhere else. Virgin Australia space isn’t convenient to search elsewhere. Air France and KLM have stopped releasing all their space to Delta, so delta.com is the only place to figure out what space Delta has.

One huge annoyance about searching Korean and Virgin Australia space is that the calendar view doesn’t factor it in, so you have to search day-by-day.

Example: There is space on June 7 from LAX to Sydney at the Low Price. (Yes, Delta charges 100k roundtrip for this route in economy. US Airways charges 110k roundtrip for this route in business, with a stop in Asia if you want.) But the Delta flight is at the medium price of 140k roundtrip.

As you can see, the calendar only takes the Delta space into account, listing June 7 as a Medium Price day.

So if you want to book on Korean or Virgin Australia, ignore the calendar and search day-by-day.

You have to know about delta.com, and occasionally you have to use it. But I also do a lot of my award searches on Expert Flyer when I want to use my Delta miles. More on that tomorrow.

Continue to Using Expert Flyer to Redeem Delta Miles.

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A Major Problem with Delta.com and The Only Solution

Posted on March 2, 2013 by | 13 Comments

You can use delta.com to search Delta, Virgin Australia, Air France, KLM, Korean, and now Alitalia space. Korean space isn’t searchable anywhere else. Virgin Australia space isn’t convenient to search elsewhere. Air France and KLM have stopped releasing all their space to Delta, so delta.com is the only place to figure out what space Delta has.

One huge annoyance about searching Korean and Virgin Australia space is that the calendar view doesn’t factor it in, so you have to search day-by-day.

Example: There is space on June 7 from LAX to Sydney at the Low Miles Price on Virgin Australia. (Yes, Delta charges 100k roundtrip for this route in economy. US Airways charges 110k roundtrip for this route in business, with a stop in Asia if you want.) But the Delta flight is at the medium price of 140k roundtrip.

As you can see, the calendar only takes the Delta space into account, listing June 7 as a Medium Price day.

I’ve told you how to trick the united.com calendar. There is no way to trick the Delta.com calendar.

if you want to book on Korean or Virgin Australia, ignore the calendar and search day-by-day. It’s a frustrating solution, but it’s the only solution to make sure you get the Low Miles Price on your awards.

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

Posted on February 19, 2013 by | 27 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Germany to the US, routing through London.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Recap

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

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