Tag Archives: Membership Rewards

Get the Most Out of Your American Express Platinum Card

Posted on March 18, 2013 by | 26 Comments

The American Express Platinum cards come with annual fees of at least $450 (unless you use the link the Bengali Miles Guru found.) But they also come with a litany of valuable benefits worth more than $450.

Unfortunately none of those benefits are automatic. In order to get the most out of the card, you need to spend a little time signing up for each one.

All American Express Platinum cards receive the following benefits. The three main ones to consider are:

The Platinum Card from American Express (personal) with 25k Membership Rewards after $2,000 in purchases in the first three months.

The Business Platinum Card from American Express OPEN (business) with 25k Membership Rewards after $5,000 in purchases in the first three months.

The Platinum Card from American Express Exclusively for Mercedes-Benz (personal) with 50k Membership Rewards after $1,000 in purchases in the first three months.

The Mercedes-Benz Platinum and “regular” personal Platinum are considered different cards, so you can get one then the other. The Business Platinum is one of the best current business card offers from American Express and pairs well with a personal AMEX card during app-o-ramas.

$500 in Free Statement Credits

$200 ($400) Airline Fee Credits

Platinum cards come with a $200 airline fee credit each calendar year. That means in almost everyone’s first year of holding a Platinum card, you can get $400 worth of airline fees credited back to your card.

For instance, I got my Mercedes-Benz Platinum (personal) card in February 2013, so I will take advantage of this benefit in 2013 and January 2014 for $400 in statement credits.

The airline fee credit is supposed to be for fees likes change fees, cancellation fees, and bag fees. The fee credit is not supposed to apply to ticket purchases, miles purchases, or gift card purchases.

But American Express’s computers decides whether a certain purchase qualifies for a fee credit, and in the experience of thousands of people, certain airline gift card purchases will result in a statement credit. That makes this benefit like getting $400 in free flights, which almost completely offsets the annual fee in one swoop.

In order to get the $200 airline fee credit, you have to choose a single airline on which you will receive credits for fees incurred. I decided to designate American Airlines as my airline to receive fee credits in hopes of purchasing gift cards that I can then use to book flights on AA. Designating your airline is as simple as picking up the phone and calling the 800-number on the back of your Platinum card.

I called the number and had to listen to a menu of options. Rather than doing this, simply press “0″ in order to speak to an operator. I told the woman who answered the phone that I was calling in order to designate an airline for my fee credits, and she put me down for American. She did say that it can take time for the fees to be credited back to your account, and to feel free to call back if I had a fee that I wanted to dispute.

I plan on buying two $100 American Airlines gift certificates soon and two more in January 2014. The latest reports on FlyerTalk are that these purchases are generating a corresponding credit within two weeks. Where should I go with me $400 in free AA flights?

$100 Global Entry Fee Credit

Platinum card holders are entitled to a $100 statement credit when they pay the $100 Global Entry enrollment fee with their Platinum cards.

Having Global Entry allows you to skip the immigrations and customs queues when arriving in the US. Instead of spending time in line and talking to an agent, you tap a few buttons at a kiosk and get to the curb in a few minutes. Global Entry membership is valid for 5 years. Scott raves about it. And having Global Entry also lets you skip immigration queues in Australia and New Zealand.

There are two steps involved in obtaining Global entry: an application and an interview.

First, you need to fill out the online application.  To do this as efficiently as possible, make sure you have on hand: Proof of Citizenship documents (I just used my passport); your driver’s license, if you have one; and both your address and work histories for the past five years. The online application process took me about 30 minutes to complete.

If you have never registered with GOES (the Global Online Entry System), you will be prompted to register when you click the online application link above.

Once you are registered with GOES, log in to the system. You will see that you are not a member of any programs. Click “Enroll in a New Program” to begin your Global Entry application.

Select the link that allows you to start the application for the trusted traveler program.

From here, you will have to fill out a variety of personal information. There are 16 categories of information.

Fill out all the sections and submit your application. You will be prompted to pay the $100 application fee–make sure you use your new Platinum AMEX to pay this in order to have the fee credited back to you!

Unfortunately, the GOES system doesn’t email you when your application is approved or denied. I set a reminder in my calendar to check on the status of my application in a week. Once your application is approved, you can use the GOES system to schedule your in-person interview, which will take place at any airport that participates in the Global Entry program.

Free Lounge Access

You can get free lounge access at US Airways Clubs, American Airlines Admirals Clubs, and Delta Sky Clubs by showing your American Express Platinum Card and boarding pass–no set up required! I took advantage on a recent trip from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires, enjoying drinks, a comfortable place to sit, and free wifi at the American Airlines lounges along the way.

You can get even better lounge coverage–especially internationally–by signing up for a free Priority Pass Select membership to complement the automatic free lounge access.

Priority Pass Select

Priority Pass is the world’s largest independent airport lounge access program. Platinum Card holders get free Priority Pass Select membership, which entitles them to free access to hundreds of lounges worldwide (everything on the list except United Clubs).

Signing up for Priority Pass Select is easy. I did it on the same call as setting up my airline fee credits. After designating AA as my airline to receive fee credits on, I asked the agent if she could enroll me in the Priority Pass Select program. It literally took her 10 seconds to enroll me. I received my shiny black and gold Priority Pass card in the mail only 5 days after I called.

This card has to be shown and swiped at participating Priority Pass Select lounges. I downloaded the app on my phone, so I can search for participating lounges by airport while I travel.

There’s more information about this benefit here.

Starwood Preferred Guest Gold Status

Platinum Card holders are entitled to free Gold status in the Starwood Preferred Guest program. Gold status will entitle me to late checkout, free internet, and other benefits on any stays at a Sheraton, W, Westin, Four Points, and other hotel brands.

Not only did I not have Starwood Preferred Guest Status, but I wasn’t even enrolled in the Starwood Preferred Guest program when I called AMEX to set up my Platinum benefits. After enrolling in Priority Pass, I asked the agent about getting SPG Gold, expecting that I would have to go online and dig around in order to do this. I was pleased when she simply transferred me to a Starwood agent. Since I did not already have an account with Starwood, the agent took down my information and promptly enrolled me.

I got an email from SPG with my account number, and when I set up my account online, I had Gold status.

I expect to get the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express on my next app-o-rama, so having Gold status for the stays I take with those points will be a real plus.

Recap

The American Express Platinum cards come with big annual fees, but even bigger benefits. The benefits require a little bit of work to set up: a phone call, some gift card purchases, and a Global Entry application. But setting up and enjoying your benefits is easy–even for a Rookie.

Call American Express at the number on the back of your AMEX card:

  1. Designate an airline to receive your $200 annual (calendar year) airline fee credit.
  2. Ask to be enrolled in Priority Pass Select.
  3. Ask to be given Gold status in Starwood Preferred Guest (and enrolled in SPG if necessary). You will be transferred to SPG.

Buy gift cards with your AMEX Platinum on the airline you designated that will be reimbursed by the airline fee credit. Then use those gift cards for free flights.

Apply for Global Entry, paying the fee with your AMEX Platinum. Then enjoy plane-to-curb times under ten minutes on international flights.

There are even more benefits of holding a Platinum Card–many more than would fit here, and most of little use for the majority of people. For a complete list including benefits at Neiman Marcus, Equinox Fitness Clubs, car rental agencies, and more, see here.

Bonus

For me, a ten minute phone call was the easier way to enroll in these benefits. If you prefer not to speak to an agent, you can enroll for most benefits online here.

Application Links

The Platinum Card from American Express (personal) with 25k Membership Rewards after $2,000 in purchases in the first three months.

The Business Platinum Card from American Express OPEN (business) with 25k Membership Rewards after $5,000 in purchases in the first three months.

The Platinum Card from American Express Exclusively for Mercedes-Benz (personal) with 50k Membership Rewards after $1,000 in purchases in the first three months.

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Posted in American Express, Best Of, Membership Rewards

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How to Use the ANA Search Tool for Awards with United Miles

Posted on March 13, 2013 by | 11 Comments

Yesterday I warned about the drawbacks of searching United.com for Star Alliance award availability  Sometimes, United.com will display phantom award space. Seats will show as available but in reality they simply aren’t there.

The best way to confirm Star Alliance award space is using the All Nippon Airways (ANA) search tool. ANA’s tool is trickier to use, but it’s the most reliable.

Unfortunately, ANA restricts members from searching Star Alliance availability unless they have miles in their account. This is presumably to curb the usage of the search engine by people who have United or US Airways miles but want to search ANA. ANA wants their site to be used by loyal ANA frequent flyers.

Fortunately, there is a trick to using the ANA search tool without any miles in your account! If you haven’t already, the first thing you need to do is sign up for a ANA Mileage Club account here. Though this page looks like a credit card application (no annual fee!) simply click “Apply Here” at the bottom of the screen.

After filling in your pertinent information, you will be assigned a Mileage Club frequent flyer number and a password. You can now click on the “Mileage Club” button at the top of the screen.

You will then be taken to the main ANA frequent flyer page. Click “For Details” on the Using Miles tab.

Once on the Using Miles page, you should click “Partner Flight Awards.”

You will be taken to page with the handy ANA distance-based mileage chart and their routing rules. From here, click the small tab “Application & Ticketing” near the top of the screen.

You are given the option of phoning the ANA call center to book your award or simply searching using their online tool. We want to search online, so click the “members-only function” to reach the search query page.

You will be asked to log in to your account before continuing. Enter your ANA number and your password before hitting continue.

We have finally reached the award search page! To skip the previous steps, it might be handy to bookmark the search page for future queries.

Though we arrived at the award search page, notice that the Star Alliance Partner search is grayed out. I don’t have any miles in my account. Luckily there is a work around. Click “ANA International Flight Awards” to search for award seats on ANA-metal only.

You have to start with a dummy search because you can only search ANA operated flights.

The route you enter doesn’t matter just as long as it’s served by ANA. I always enter Los Angeles <-> Tokyo-Haneda (feel free to choose a different ANA route) and select the number of seats I want. The dates don’t matter either as you can change them later. After entering the airport codes and number of passengers, I then hit “Next” to look for award space.

You will see plenty of options on the next screen. After all, ANA serves Los Angeles to Tokyo with several nonstops. They are immaterial, though. You need to scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click “Use Star Alliance Member Airlines.”

Congratulations, as you have gone through the backdoor and can now search all Star Alliance partners. The search screen is nearly identical to the ANA-only screen. You should delete the “LAX” and “HND” airport codes before beginning your real search. Also change the third drop down (below “Select Region” and “Select Country”) back to “Select Airport.” If you don’t, your new search will likely yield an error message.

Can I plug in my city pairs and expect ANA to come up with good itineraries?

No. Searching Kansas City <-> Mumbai likely won’t yield anything usable. You should search segment by segment.

How do I search multiple segments?

Click the blue button “Flight Search” to add segments to your query.

This seems tedious. Any shortcuts?

Searching united.com is faster but can sometimes display false positives as we detailed yesterday. United’s site is a great place to get ideas while confirming them using ANA’s tool.

I never fly ANA, what’s the best way to deposit miles in my account to lift the Star Alliance search restriction?

American Express Membership Rewards transfer to ANA at a 1:1 ratio. Note that the minimum transfer amount is 1,000, and it usually takes around 48 hours for the miles to post to your Mileage Club account.

ANA is also a transfer partner of Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) points. Regular SPG members with no status must transfer a minimum of 2,500 points. Gold members  have a 1,500 point transfer minimum, and Platinum members have no restrictions. They can transfer 1 mile.

I value my Membership Rewards highly, do ANA miles have any value?

Absolutely! Scott detailed ANA’s great distance-based award chart in his post, How to Save Thousands of Miles Booking United Flights: Use Membership Rewards on ANA.

Though ANA assesses fuel surcharges on all Star Alliance partner flights except United and US Airways, their chart has some great sweet spots that allow for low mileage redemptions.

Recap

ANA’s search tool is the final word on Star Alliance availability. If united.com displays the space but you don’t see it on ANA’s site, the award isn’t bookable.

ANA restricts Star Alliance partner award searches to its own frequent flyers with a mileage balance. Luckily there is a work around that lets you bypass this requirement, though it takes a few extra steps.

If you don’t have the patience, simply utilize ANA’s two primary transfer partners American Express Membership Rewards and SPG Starpoints. Having a balance will ensure the Star Alliance search restriction is lifted.

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Free Oneway Principles on ANA Awards

Posted on March 8, 2013 by | 37 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Can you put the oneway after the roundtrip?

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

Are these free oneways?

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

Is this a big deal?

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

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

My Plan

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

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

Recap

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

Full ANA Award Rules

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

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

Posted on March 7, 2013 by | 30 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

What You Need to Know to Take Advantage of the Deal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Recap

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

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

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

Pad your Membership Rewards balance with:

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

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

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Membership Rewards Transfer Options: Singapore KrisFlyer

Posted on January 27, 2013 by | 27 Comments

With the recent 100k American Express Platinum sign up bonus–now dead–and 75k American Express Business Gold card–available until 1/28/13–it is time to update and enhance Tahsir’s series on Membership Rewards. This is the first installment.

American Express Platinum, Gold, Green, Centurion, and Corporate cards earn Membership Rewards points, which are transferable to dozens of hotel and airline points at varying ratios. Each article in this series focuses on one of the best options.

Singapore Airlines

There are two reasons I like to transfer Membership Rewards to Singapore KrisFlyer miles: cheaper domestic Star Alliance awards and it’s the only way to get into Singapore’s premium cabins.

Singapore Airlines is recognized as one of the most luxurious airlines in the world. Their commitment to service and fairly new cabin layouts change long haul travel from a chore to a pleasure. To get a seat on Singapore Airlines (even in economy) is an experience in itself. And Singapore releases way more award space–especially in its over-the-top Suites Class–to its own award program, meaning this is a program worthy of study.

American Express Membership Rewards transfer 1:1 to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles. That makes Singapore one of three Star Alliance transfer partners of Membership Rewards–the other two being ANA and Air Canada’s Aeroplan. Since the Star Alliance often has the best award availability, certainly it does in business class to Europe, we have another reason to closely study Singapore’s program.

To start, let’s look at Singapore’s Star Alliance redemption chart:

And it’s definition of those regions:

This chart is the relevant chart when you want to use your KrisFlyer miles on a Star Alliance airline other than Singapore itself.

What Stands Out?

Domestic US in first

The first thing that stands out is Singapore’s award pricing of awards within the continental US, Alaska, and Canada.

The roundtrip prices are 25k/40k/60k in economy/business/first, and you get oneways for half price.

If you travel a lot in premium cabins domesticall, there is actually an awesome redemption available through KrisFlyer. You see, like most airlines, Singapore codes domestic first class on two-cabin planes as business class.

That means that most first class seats with United Airlines and US Airways are coded at the business class rate on Singapore’s chart, which is only 20k miles each way. This includes Dreamliner beds when the 787 is operating domestic routes, since United’s Dreamliner is a two-cabin plane. (See Tahsir’s United 787 Trip Report from their first day in operation.)

First class on a three-cabin plane prices at the higher level of 30k each way, like JFK-LAX in United p.s. Other than those flights, you can book into first class for a roundtrip of only 40,000 points–a 25% discount over the 50,000 miles charged by United and US Airways for the same seats.

Singapore Airlines requires you to call into their service center anytime you need to book a Star Alliance award. Before calling into their center, do some research with United’s online award search program. (Here’s how.) After finding the flights you want, call Singapore at 213-404-0301, and give the agent the date, cabin, and flight number of your desired flights

Note: Some people may get a busy tone. I’ve singled this out to be a Verizon Wireless issue only. Hang up and dial from a non-Verizon phone.

Hawaii

Singapore’s miles price from the continental US to Hawaii is cheaper than United’s in all three cabins.

35,000 miles roundtrip is a 5,000 mile discount over United in economy class though it’s far from The Cheapest Ways to Get to Hawaii. 60,000 miles roundtrip for domestic first class is a 20,000 mile discount over United. And 80,000 miles for three-cabin first class is also a 20,000 mile discount over United, which does fly some three-cabin planes to my favorite state.

Other Routes

I find using Singapore miles on other routes to be a bad deal because the surcharges Singapore charges on international awards are usually prohibitive.

What about booking Singapore Airlines flights?

Singapore Airlines categorizes awards on its own planes into three miles-prices: Saver, Standard, and Full. Like always, we’re only interested in the cheapest awards–in this case, Saver awards. Singapore Airlines has a separate chart for travel using just Singapore-operated flights. Here is the saver award chart:

Unlike the Star Alliance chart, the prices quoted are for oneway awards. 

If you are trying to go to Singapore, the first column is what you need to look at. For example, JFK-SIN is 37,500 miles in economy, 85,000 in business, and 110,000 in first. But if you book an award online, Singapore will discount your miles needed by 15%. So New York to Singapore is really 31,875/72,250/93,500 each way in economy/business/first if you book online.

In the US, Singapore flies out of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Newark, and New York-JFK.

From these points, Singapore Airlines offers a ton of availability to any of its destinations, and Singapore has a very strong route network. But Singapore only releases its premium seats to its own program. Singapore doesn’t release any business or first class long haul seats to its Star Alliance partners.

This makes Membership Rewards the only way most of us can get into Singapore premium cabins, since few of us credit miles to KrisFlyer accounts otherwise.

Singapore Airlines recently started releasing saver availability on their new A380 Suites Class (better than normal first class), and those redemptions can be quite a good deal, especially after the 15% discount!

A First Class trip on the new A380 oneway from the West Coast to Singapore will cost you 91,375 miles plus taxes, fees, and fuel surcharges of $342. Considering that you can get on an A380 Suite for almost 20 hours, 91,375 and $342 may be a good value for some luxury lovers.

But if you’re like me, you want to avoid fuel surcharges, so you have one option. Perhaps the best redemption you can make with Singapore Airlines miles is a First Class seat from Sao Paulo, Brazil to Barcelona, Spain because flights originating in Brazil can’t charge fuel surcharges.

For 58,225 miles and $36 you can get 10 hours in Singapore First Class on a 777-300ER. Not only are there no fuel surcharges, but the miles outlay is low too. American charges 90,000 miles oneway from Brazil to Europe in first class.

Economy on the same flight is even better because it is only 17,000 miles one way! To put that into perspective, United charges 47,500 one way for the same flight. In addition, because there are no fuel surcharges levied from Brazil, this flight would only cost you $36 in taxes!

(Hat Tip: Amol for this gem.)

What’s the catch?

The big downside to KrisFlyer is that they have fuel surcharges on most flights. This can drastically reduce the value of your ticket because these surcharges can often get over $500 for a roundtrip flight. The way to get around this is to fly airlines or routes with your Singapore miles that don’t incur surcharges. I’ve mentioned these already: United and US Airways domestic flights and Sao Paulo to Barcelona on Singapore itself.

On roundtrips, Singapore allows one stopover. On oneways, you don’t get a stopover.

How to Book

I’ll show how to book New York to Mumbai roundtrip on Singapore metal.

First, you have to sign up for a KrisFlyer account and click Book a Flight.

Note:

  • Make sure the KrisFlyer redemption box is check marked.
  • If you want to do a one way trip, click the “one way trip?” button.
  • This won’t search for other Star Alliance availability, just Singapore’s own space.
  • If you need a stopover, just call in because it will be a lot easier. In my experience, Singapore agents are super knowledgeable and friendly.

Note:

  • Flights are displayed in segments (JFK-SIN)(SIN-BOM) so make sure you select both for the outbound and both for the inbound.
  • You need to find Saver space listed as Available. If it says Waitlist, look for another day.
  • Click the display total cost button to see how many miles it comes out to with the online discount.

Note:

  • These images are just showing how to book a flight on the Krisflyer system. The actual itinerary itself is really horrible because 89,250 miles plus $936 in cash is a horrible price in economy class to India. The going rate for a roundtrip flight on these exact flights was about $1836 when I checked, and that trip earns miles.
  • If you want to avoid fuel surcharges, use United miles if you have any because I was able to find the same exact flight on the same exact day for 80,000 United miles plus $57 in taxes. A savings of $890 and almost 10,000 miles! Or you could get the flights for 80k US Airways miles and $107.
  • If you see any redemption with Silkair (a subsidiary of Singapore), you cannot book those on other Star Alliance partners because Silkair is not a Star Alliance partner.

Transfers

Do the points transfer instantly?

AMEX Membership Rewards do not transfer instantly. FlyerTalkers report it takes 12-48 hours for them to post. For me, the transfer posts in about 24 hours. This is an issue because some people report that Singapore doesn’t allow you to hold award tickets. I kind of debunked this myth because I was able to put my flights on hold for two days while my points came in from AMEX. In addition, I’ve noticed that if you transfer points before 10AM Pacific Time, the points should post exactly at midnight that day.

What if I don’t have enough miles?

Singapore requires that you have at least 50% of the miles you need for a redemption in your account before you can buy anymore for a redemption. They will let you buy points at an extremely high $40 per 1,000 miles or 4 cents each. Don’t buy miles for 4 cents.

The best way to get around this is to call American Express and have them loan you however many points you need. American Express loans up to 15,000 points for Gold cardholders and up to 60,000 for Platinum members. You have a year to earn these points back or else they charge 2.5 cents per point. This is still far better than the 4 cents per point that Singapore will charge you.

Getting Membership Rewards

This week is a good time to get Membership Rewards. The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN has a 75k Membership Rewards sign up bonus. Bill explained why you may not want to get this card, though. Hint: $10k spending requirement in the first four months to unlock the bonus.

You can pair that with the personal Mercedes-Benz American Express Platinum with 50,000 Membership Rewards after spending $1,000 in three months, $100 credit for Global Entry signup, $200 calendar-year airline-fee credit, and free airport lounge access. Note: You don’t need to be affiliated with Mercedes-Benz, and this version of the card has a better sign up bonus than the “regular” version.

This card has a $475 annual fee not waived the first year, but I count $500+ in benefits in the first year not even including the Membership Rewards.

Recap

There are two good reasons to transfer Membership Rewards to Singapore Airlines: to get discounts on awards within the US and to fly Singapore Suites, First, and Business classes.

To book partners, refer to the Star Alliance chart, and call Singapore. To book Singapore flights, book online and enjoy a 15% miles discount for doing so.

Getting Membership Rewards is easy, especially before the 75k Business Gold card offer expires.

 

 

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100k Membership Rewards American Express Platinum

Posted on January 7, 2013 by | 10 Comments

Lucky has the details. I don’t have much to add.

This is the best credit card offer out there by far. I assume it will be available only briefly, so consider getting it now.

The $450 annual fee should not deter you. You can get $200 in airline gift certificates for free today. And you can get $200 more next January before you pay the next annual fee.

Here’s a definitive list Bill made of the airline gift certificates that are reimbursed under this benefit.

If you don’t yet have Global Entry, the $100 fee is reimbursed. This benefit will save you countless hours over the life of your passport when entering the country. I know it has for me. See Why and How I Got Global Entry.
That’s $500 in value right there that cancels out the annual fee.

Don’t know how to use 100k Membership Rewards? Tahsir had an incredible series on the topic that I’ll be editing, updating, and posting shortly.

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Hotel News Roundup-Membership Rewards Transfers, Elite Status Increases, and More

Posted on December 5, 2012 by | 3 Comments

Hilton HHonors-33% Bonus on Membership Rewards Transfers

Per this thread on FlyerTalk, Hilton is offering a 33% bonus when transferring Membership Rewards into Hilton HHonors points. This offer is good for transfers through January 31st. Transfers must be made in increments of 1,000 Membership Rewards points. 1,000 Membership Rewards will convert to 2,000 HHonors points with this promotion.

The standard transfer ratio for Membership Rewards into HHonors points is 1:1.5.

 

Is this a good deal?

Absolutely not! Though our hotel valuations are still being discussed, the Mile Value Leaderboard values Membership Rewards at 1.79 cents. Even being extremely generous to Hilton, valuing HHonors points at 0.8 cents means this is still a poor play and loss of value.

Membership Rewards should be saved for transfers to frequent flyer programs such as British Airways Avios and Delta Skymiles. For some great redemptions using both airline programs, see Scott’s posts below:

How Much are Avios Worth? The Value of British Airways Avios

Delta Still Not Charging Surcharges on Virgin Australia Awards

If Avios are such a great transfer partner, is American Express running any transfer specials with them?

As a matter of fact, they are. Scott wrote up a quick summary of the Avios 30% transfer bonus through January 14th. For details, see Scott’s post, Avios 30% Transfer Bonus from Membership Rewards.

I really need HHonors points badly and have a stash of Membership Rewards. Is there any way to get an even better transfer ratio than 1:2?

Through December 29th, there is! Virgin America is currently offering a 35% transfer bonus for Membership Rewards. As I wrote in the AMEX/Virgin Atlantic Transfer Bonus article, you can essentially earn 2.7 HHonors points by transferring your AMEX points to Virgin Atlantic. That is ratio is still not incentive enough for a speculative transfer, but it’s certainly a better option than the direct AMEX into HHonors route. A hypothetical example is below:

15,000 Membership Rewards –> 30,000 HHonors points (with 33% bonus) OR

15,000 Membership Rewards–>20,250 Virgin Atlantic miles (with 35% bonus)

20,000 Virgin Atlantic miles–>40,000 HHonors points

Hilton Increases Qualifying Requirements for Gold/Diamond Elite Status

According to this thread on FlyerTalk, Hilton has quietly tweaked their terms and conditions to reflect new requirements to earn both Gold and Diamond elite status in the Hilton HHonors frequent guest program.

Gold elite status used to take 16 stays, 36 nights, or 60,000 base points earned in a calendar year to earn.

Diamond elite status used to take 28 stays, 60 nights, or 100,000 base points.

Per Hilton’s site, the new earning requirements are below:

I have absolutely no problem with the increases. Hotel chains will often do this in an attempt to “thin the herd,” so to speak, and cut down on the number of elite members they have. Hilton Gold and Diamond elites, in particular, receive a generous number of benefits in relation to other chains. Hilton’s mid-tier Gold members receive continental breakfast at Conrad, Hilton, and DoubleTree properties. A sampling of Hilton Gold status perks can be found below:

Starwood’s top-tier Platinum elites receive this breakfast benefit. Marriot’s top- tier Platinum elites only receive breakfast when there is no club lounge (and weekends are excluded). Priority Club’s own top-tier Platinums don’t receive breakfast at all!

These changes shouldn’t keep any of us from elite status with Hilton, which is quite easy to acquire. Both American Express and Citi offer credit cards with instant Gold status. The American Express Hilton HHonors Surpass card grants Gold status for the first year of card membership. To requalify, you need to spend $20,000 each subsequent year on the card. The American Express comes with a $75 annual fee.

The Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve Visa comes with Gold status for the life of the card without any future requalification via spend. The Citi card comes with a $95 annual fee. Both the Citi and American Express cards simply offer a far less painful way to quickly boost up to Gold status.

My real issue with this announcement, as echoed by other FlyerTalkers, is this information dropping with no notice for 2013. These last minute (or no notice) changes set a really dangerous precedent in the loyalty community. Mistrust is not a feeling that should resonate between traveler and frequent flyer/guest program.

Cornell University Study Links Hotel Reviews to Room Rates

According to this blog post on FlyerTalk, a new study by the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration links favorable hotel reviews to higher rates at those properties. Granted, this is a very common sense approach to room rates in general: the better the property, the more favorable review, the greater the demand, the higher the room rate.

However, as many of you know, sites like TripAdvisor or even Hotels.com are filled with questionable reviews from unknown sources. It would be quite easy for a hotel chain to paper its own properties with smashing reviews while panning its competitors.

I bring up this blog post because MileValue will soon begin releasing hotel point valuations and the methodology behind our numbers. Room rates are tied to redemptive value, but only if you are otherwise willing to pay the full price without points. For example, if you redeem 10,000 Starpoints for a $600/night room, you only receive 6.0 cents per point in value if you would have otherwise paid that sky-high room rate. Depending on the property, very few people I know would do so. Room rates aren’t necessarily tied to value, so tread lightly when crunching the numbers.

Recap

American Express is promoting a 33% bonus on Membership Rewards transfers to Hilton HHonors points. Making such a transfer, bonus or not, is really wasting the value of Membership Rewards especially when there is a method for an even more favorable transfer to HHonors points (via Virgin Atlantic) makes this promotion not worth your time.

Hilton also changed their elite qualification requirements for Gold and Diamond elites. The changes are relatively minor, but they come very late in the year, so many have booked travel for 2013. The adjustments weren’t announced publicly either. Poor form, Hilton. I’ll continue to maintain Hilton status through credit cards.

The FlyerTalk blog posted an interesting article from Cornell University regarding travel reviews and room rates. I’m passing it along simply to remind everyone that room rates are not always products of expected value, but a myriad of factors including location, reputation, and demand.

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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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AMEX / Virgin Atlantic Transfer Bonus & United Club Fees Increase

Posted on November 28, 2012 by | 5 Comments

Virgin Atlantic-35% Bonus on Membership Rewards Transfers

According to the American Express Membership Rewards website here, Virgin Atlantic is offering a 35% bonus when transferring Membership Rewards into Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles.

This offer is available through December 29th. Transfers must be made in increments of 1,000 Membership Rewards. The minimum transfer will yield 1,350 Flying Club miles.

 Is this a good deal?

Unfortunately not. Virgin Atlantic features an incredible onboard product and great club lounges. However, they impose extremely hefty fuel surcharges on flights…so hefty that it isn’t even worth a redemption for most travelers.

Scott has actually written several articles about Virgin Atlantic’s frequent flyer program in the past. In his post, Redeem for Virgin Atlantic Upper Class without Surcharges, he detailed how you could avoid those sky high surcharges by using Hawaiian Airlines miles to book Virgin Atlantic awards instead of Virgin’s own miles! There are several ways to amass Hawaiian miles quickly, including transferring Membership Rewards. In many cases it made sense to transfer to Hawaiian instead of Virgin to save hundreds of dollars out of pocket.

Sadly, as Scott detailed in his recent post, Hawaiian’s Virgin Atlantic Chart Devalued, the substantial increase in the amount of Hawaiian miles required to book Virgin awards really turns this into a poor use of Hawaiian miles.

So I should avoid Membership Rewards transfers to Virgin altogether?

Not necessarily! Virgin Atlantic miles are still valuable. Virgin miles can be transferred to Hilton HHonors points at a ratio of 1:2. That means 1 AMEX point becomes 2.7 HHonors points during this Virgin Atlantic transfer bonus. Membership Rewards actually transfer directly to HHonors at a much worse 1:1.5 ratio.

We’ll be rolling out our hotel point valuations soon, but provisionally let’s value one Hilton point at 0.4 to 0.6 cents. At 0.4 cents, these transfers would value one Membership Rewards at 1.08 cents. That’s a pretty awful because Membership Rewards are worth much more than that.

At 0.6 cents, the the implied valuation of one Membership Reward is 1.67 cents, still too low, but getting reasonable if you are topping off for a specific AXON or GLON redemption.

For further reading, check out Scott’s post Transferring Virgin Atlantic Miles to HHonors Points. You can also read more about these transfers on Virgin Atlantic’s website here.

Keep in mind the minimum transfer is 10,000 Virgin Atlantic miles and they must be converted to HHonors in increments of 5K. If you are in desperate need of HHonors points, you will yield far more points by using Virgin Atlantic as the middle man in this transaction. Move your Membership Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic and then convert them to HHonors. Check out the math on a sample transfer below:

15,000 Membership Rewards –> 22,500 HHonors points OR

15,000 Membership Rewards–>20,250 Virgin Atlantic miles (with 35% bonus)

20,000 Virgin Atlantic miles–>40,000 HHonors points

By routing through Virgin Atlantic you net 17,500 more HHonors points! That’s a nifty 77% bonus!

How long does it take for Virgin Atlantic Miles to convert to HHonors points?

Virgin’s website states that transfers can take up to 30 days, but reports on FlyerTalk vary from a week to two weeks. If you have a specific hotel redemption in mind, be warned that this is not instantaneous!

I have tons of Membership Rewards points, where should I transfer them?

Scott actually tackled this question in a previous post, What to Do with an American Express Annual Fee Coming Up and Unused Membership Rewards. Membership Rewards are inherently valuable due to their flexibility. If you have a specific award redemption in mind, the ability to transfer to airlines such as Delta, Singapore, British Airways, or even Virgin Atlantic makes them much more useful than just holding, for example, only Delta Skymiles.

Your best option is to keep your Membership Rewards, but if you have to transfer due to an upcoming annual fee, British Airways Avios have some good sweet spot redemptions, especially on normally expensive short haul trips. For more reading, make sure to check out Scott’s posts, How Much Are Avios Worth? The Value of British Airways Avios as well his recent entry Avios Awards within South Africa.

Referencing the Mile Value Leaderboard, we value Membership Rewards at 1.79 cents. Avios are a slight step down at 1.70 cents, which is the option value lost when you transfer a flexible point to a specific program.

United Airlines to Raise Club Membership Fee By $25

According to this thread on FlyerTalk and United’s own website, United will be raising the price of all membership rates by $25, effective January 1st. Three year membership terms will also be discontinued. The new rates beginning next year are below.

As I’ve stated before, lounge access can be a huge benefit when traveling, especially in bad weather or when your flight experiencing mechanical delays or cancellations.

The fact that United is raising prices is a bit surprising. As I detailed in a previous post, Elite Status Offers for Delta/US Club Memberships, purchasing a US Airways Club membership actually allows you access to all United clubs (and vice versa). US Airways’ standard one year membership fee is $450, $25 cheaper than United’s new pricing chart. If you are looking for access to United lounges, buying a club membership with US Airways seems like an easy decision.

Recap

Virgin Atlantic is offering a 35% bonus on all Membership Rewards transfers. While this may seem like a great deal, Virgin has run transfer promotions in the past. 35% isn’t even the most generous bonus they have offered in the past, as they just wrapped up a 40% bonus in September.

Still, if you need to top off an account or potentially boost your HHonors balance, this might make sense. We aren’t advocating you transfer speculatively, though. Membership Rewards are valuable due to their flexibility–they transfer to a variety of carriers. Retaining that flexibility is important if you don’t have a specific redemption in mind at this time.

United is raising the price of their Club memberships by $25. The standard price for a one year lounge membership is $450 with the other three legacy carriers, so it will be interesting to see if they follow suit and nudge their prices upward. US Airways club membership remains $25 less expensive and includes access to United lounges as well. If you are in the market for a United Club membership, save the $25 and join up with US Airways.

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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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