Best Uses of 104,000 Ultimate Rewards

Read more about booking Korean First Class

5. 23 Award Flights (103,500 Avios)

British Airways Avios are very often the best miles to book short, direct, economy flights.

I like international First Class as much as the next guy, but sometimes I just want to fly from Los Angeles to Hawaii, Hong Kong to Tokyo, or Chicago to Dallas–short flights on planes without a great First Class cabin anyway.

While most major airline miles are region-based, Avios are distance-based. British Airways charges a price for each segment of your award. The number of Avios is determined by only two things: the distance of the segment and the cabin of the segment.

Here is the award chart:

…except that any flight that touches the United States costs at least 7,500 Avios, so this is the award chart for flights to/from/within the United States:

You can get 23 4,500-Avios flights like Vienna to , Lima to Cuzco, or Sydney to Australia after meeting the minimum spending requirement on the Sapphire Reserve.

Or you can get eight flights to Hawaii (12,500 Avios each) on the following routes:

For more information see Avios Basics and All the 12,500 Avios Awards to Hawaii.

6. Three Roundtrips to London (105,000 Virgin Atlantic Miles)

Here are some Virgin Atlantic deals I particularly like:

• Economy from Atlanta, Boston, New York, Washington DC, Chicago, or Detroit to London: 17,500 miles + $134.60
• Premium Economy from Atlanta, Boston, New York, Washington DC, Chicago, or Detroit to London:  27,500 miles + $234.60
• Economy Class from Hong Kong to London: 25,000 miles + $22
• Upper Class from Shanghai to London: 50,000 miles + $277

For more information, see this post. The basic idea is that the fuel surcharges are annoying but bearable because of how few miles you need. Limit the taxes by only booking awards to London and not home from London. (Use United miles or another type of miles for the return from Europe.)

7. One Roundtrip to London and One to Buenos Aires (85,000 Virgin Atlantic Miles)

Virgin Atlantic offers some great deals on awards on partners like Delta and Air New Zealand.

• Atlanta to Buenos Aires roundtrip in Economy Class on Delta: 45,000 miles + $99
• Los Angeles to Auckland roundtrip in Business Class on Air New Zealand: 125,000 miles + $69
• London to New York roundtrip in Economy Class on Delta: 40,000 miles + $186

For more information on partner sweetspots with Virgin Atlantic miles, see this post.

8. 4 Roundtrips to Europe, Israel, or North Africa (100,000 Flying Blue Miles)

Every month, Flying Blue releases a new list of Promo Awards, which allow travel from specified cities in the USA to anywhere in Europe, Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, or Algeria for 25% or 50% off the normal miles price.

Usually you have one month to book awards that must be flown 1-4 months in the future.

So what does 25% and 50% off an award to between the United States and Europe look like?

• 25% off an Economy roundtrip ticket: 37,500 miles + taxes + $112 in surcharges
• 50% off an Economy roundtrip ticket: 25,000 miles + taxes + $112 in surcharges

Business Class Promo Awards can be reduced to reasonably competitive mile prices, but the excessive fuel surcharges tacked on negate their value.  But as you can see, the Economy prices are absolute steals.

An important point to keep in mind with Promo Awards is that they cannot be changed, cancelled or refunded, so speculative bookings are not an option.

Here are the current available Promo Awards.

9. Roundtrip Singapore Suites to Europe (115,000 Singapore Miles)

Singapore’s A380s feature one of the world’s best First Class products that it calls Suites Class, and it is only bookable with Singapore miles. Singapore releases no First or Suites Class space to partners. Here is a list of routes that feature Singapore A380s (and thus Suites Class.)

Singapore awards include fuel surcharges when an identical cash ticket would have fuel surcharges, but sometimes the mileage price is low enough that it’s worth paying fuel surcharges to treat yourself.

Here are some deals I particularly like:

• Los Angeles to Tokyo: 74,375 miles in Suites Class + $113
• Los Angeles to Tokyo to Singapore: 91,375 miles in Suites Class + $276
• New York-JFK to Frankfurt: 57,375 miles in Suites Class + $203
• New York-JFK to Frankfurt to Singapore: 93,500 miles in Suites Class + $286
• Singapore to Hong Kong: 31,875 miles in Suites Class + $30
• Singapore to Mumbai: 42,500 miles in Suites Class + $160
• Singapore to Beijing: 42,500 miles in Suites Class + $160
• Mumbai to Beijing: 61,625 miles in Suites Class + $322
• Hong Kong to Sydney: 63,750 miles in Suites Class + $188

For more information on booking Singapore Suites, see this post.

10. Three Roundtrips to Hawaii (105,000 Singapore Miles)

It is cheaper to book the exact same United flights to Hawaii with Singapore KrisFlyer miles than with United miles.

• United charges 22,500 miles each way in economy and 40,000 miles in First Class between the mainland and Hawaii
• Singapore charges 17,500 miles each way in economy and 30,000 miles each way in First Class between the mainland and Hawaii

That’s a humongous difference. Instead of costing 135,000 United miles to get two people from your home airport to Hawaii and back, you could pay 105,000 Singapore miles. Instead of paying 160,000 United miles for two roundtrip First Class tickets, you could pay 120,000 Singapore miles–even occasionally for flat beds!

To reiterate, these are the exact same flights with vastly different prices depending on which miles you use. Singapore has access to all the same Saver award space United releases to people with United miles (except for some space set aside only for United elites and credit card holders.)

And although using Singapore miles to fly United to Hawaii costs more Ultimate Rewards than using Korean miles to fly Delta (#3 on this list), United releases a lot more award space than Delta does, so you are much more likely to be able to use the Singapore/United deal.

What’s the catch? For Singapore bookings to Hawaii, there really isn’t one.

• Singapore awards cost fewer miles than United awards
• Singapore awards are way cheaper to change or cancel than United awards if your plans change
• Singapore awards do not have a fee for booking within three weeks of departure like United awards do (though here is how to get out of that fee on United awards)
• Singapore awards of United flights do not have fuel surcharges, so both types of awards will just have identical taxes of around $11 roundtrip.
• Singapore miles are easier to get than United miles because you can also transfer Amex, Citi, and SPG points to Singapore

For more info on using Singapore miles to fly United to Hawaii, see Guide to Booking United Flights to Hawaii with Singapore KrisFlyer Miles.

Transferring Miles

All of the top ten deals require you to transfer Ultimate Rewards from your chase.com account to a specific partner airline’s miles and then use those miles. That process is very easy and laid out in the linked posts in each section of the top ten.

Bottom Line

The brand new Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers 100,000 bonus Ultimate Rewards after spending $4,000 on the card in the first three months. Those points are insanely valuable when transferred to United, British Airways, Korean, Singapore, and Virgin Atlantic miles and used to book First Class, trips to Hawaii, short hops, and a lot more.