MilesBuzz! - Florida to Rome Sept 2K13

Looking for the best way to get as close to 2 free round trip tickets from Orlando to Rome for the fall of 2013.

What credit card would you recommend for building up points? Do you think it would take around 120,000 miles/points?

I've looked at the british airways card but i could probably only get up to 75,000miles from that offer bc i wouldnt reach the additional spending incentives.

Any help would be appreciated for the newb!

Per ticket you're looking at 60k for coach rt, 100k for biz rt, on the US airline charts. BA Avios is higher than that.

Do you have any miles with an airline to start with?
Is the other person flying with you willing to sign up for credit cards as well?
Are you willing to fly on different airlines?

starting oct 15 it is 40k rt pp on aa....60k for sept....

you can buy tickets for this year sat-sun 9 day trip for ~$1200 each for another data point....

Milez.biz is a great website to show you how many miles you need with each airline to get between destinations. I'd suggest checking it out.

Clacko is right, it drops to 40k a person on AA if you can wait until after October 15th. If you travel peak, it is 60k.

United is also 60k roundtrip a person.

I recently walked my buddy through the exact same steps, traveling from New York to Rome in September of this year. I had him get the two Citi/AAdvantage cards (visa and amex). That gave him 100k AA miles.

Then, he waited 65 days and got the Citi/AAdvantage Visa business card. That's another 50k, putting your total at 150k, enough for the round trip ticket.

If you didn't want to get the business card, but had a partner who could get cards also, you can double dip and have them get the Citi/AAdvantage Visa and Amex as well. All of a sudden, you are sitting on 200k AA miles, plenty to go to Europe roundtrip and have tons to spare!

There are also ways to get there using United miles by getting Chase credit cards, but I'd consider the Citi/AAdvantage cards to be your best option.

Let us know if you have any questions!

I just did this trip a couple of weeks ago. As I'm sure you know, there are no direct flights from MCO. To go in business, the shortest route is probably going to be picking up the 2 AA cards each and flying MCO-MIA-FCO on American. BUT, if you can find a way to snag some Delta miles, I highly highly recommend Alitalia's new business product. They are running it between MIA-MXP for sure, and I think MIA-FCO and it is really top of the line. In my opinion, their new biz product rivals first on other airlines.

If you're flying coach and can wait, the 40K AA is a helluva deal (still would need to connect in MIA).

you all are awesome. thank you for your help!

Def looking to fly coach, and thats a good points about the Oct 15 date. I'll check out the Citi/AA cards as well as United. I have 11k United points, but so I'm not sure how much that will affect my choice. Looks like they are both offering 30K miles right now for their cards so perhaps I'll wait around until either bumps up to 50k and then make the move. think i'll pass on the BritishA card for now.

Its my wife travling with me - Can she sign up for a card as well seperatly and still be able to transfer the points to my account so we can pool the points together? Or would she have to get 2 cards as well and book her own seperatly?

Looks like Alitalia's is 50k - are they a delta partner I could fly with delta miles?

Thanks again!

couldnt i also get the british airways card and try to get 75k miles from that, then convert those miles to American Airlines? Or do they not convert at a 1-1 ratio?

couldnt i also get the british airways card and try to get 75k miles from that, then convert those miles to American Airlines? Or do they not convert at a 1-1 ratio?

BA miles don't "convert" to AA miles. You can use BA miles to book travel through BA on AA (their partner), but it will be at BA's redemption rates and taxes (which are astronomical for Trans-Atlantic travel--think >$600pp).

There are supposedly 50k AA links out there, but I don't know where to point you for that... Could always also double up on Saphire and Ink for a quick 100k UR points that you can convert to UA miles fee free.

@robby04 - the signup bonus may be different if you access it from your Mileage Plus account. If you use the links that are around, but not logged into your MP account, I suspect it may give you a worse offer. I have one for more miles than that - but only if logged in.

good point about making sure i am logged out.

i hear the fall is usually the best time for CC offers, any truth to that? Since we're not going till Sept of 2013 i imagine i could wait around for the right offer

Looking to fly out of Miami to Rome, and wanted to confirm my thinking of how to get there with points. From an earlier post, I got some great feedback, now want to confirm the logic.

If I wanna fly in Sept of 2013 I'm gonna need 60k miles to fly American or United roundtrip coach. Double that since i'd like my wife to go as well.

So if i get the Chase Saffire Card I'll get 40k points which i can convert to United Miles. Plus I have about 20k Cont/United Miles saved up. That covers one ticket. For the second I was going to get the United Miles Plus Explorer card which would give me 30k miles if I add my wife as a user, and then have HER also get the Chase Saffire Card for another 40k. All in all I'd have 130k miles to work with.

See any potential roadblocks with this plan? Thanks!!

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

The potential problem is that you might not be able to secure low-level awards for your desired dates of travel. Fortunately, Star Alliance has a lot of carriers that can get you to Rome, so you might be OK.

You might find a more lucrative sign-up bonus for the Chase/UA card if you first log in to your Mileage Plus account at www.united.com.

Since we're not going till Sept of 2013 i imagine i could wait around for the right offer
Agreed with guv. You may be able to wait for the CC, but then the award tix won't be there. You've been given several viable options that work right now. You have to remember that once you get the cards, you may or may not have to meet spend. Then, it could be another month or two before your points actually post. Don't wait too long.

It is a good idea to plan early. September is not peak travel season to Italy, but it is pretty close to it. To get saver seats, I would try to accumulate the miles sooner than later. Star Aliance probably has more routing options than OneWorld or SkyTeam. So your best bet would be to start accumulating miles on United or US Airways.

Looking to fly out of Miami to Rome, and wanted to confirm my thinking of how to get there with points. From an earlier post, I got some great feedback, now want to confirm the logic.

If I wanna fly in Sept of 2013 I'm gonna need 60k miles to fly American or United roundtrip coach. Double that since i'd like my wife to go as well.

So if i get the Chase Saffire Card I'll get 40k points which i can convert to United Miles. Plus I have about 20k Cont/United Miles saved up. That covers one ticket. For the second I was going to get the United Miles Plus Explorer card which would give me 30k miles if I add my wife as a user, and then have HER also get the Chase Saffire Card for another 40k. All in all I'd have 130k miles to work with.

See any potential roadblocks with this plan? Thanks!!

if you log inot your united account there will then be a link below that should offer upto 65k for united card. its 50k on first purchase and 5k for adding an additional user the last 10k is for spending 25k in a year. you will not see this offer unless you log inot your united plus account and have some miles already posted to the account but since you said you have the miles ther is should not be a problem.

if you have your wife get the cards also she will have the miles in her account, this is not a problem if you call to book they can book your and hers at teh same time using miles from each of your accounts, or you can each book one ways on aa or UA and say you book outbound with your miles and she books return with hers.
after you get the airline flights com back and start to learn about how you can get the hotel for free too

you all are awesome. thank you for your help!

Def looking to fly coach, and thats a good points about the Oct 15 date. I'll check out the Citi/AA cards as well as United. I have 11k United points, but so I'm not sure how much that will affect my choice. Looks like they are both offering 30K miles right now for their cards so perhaps I'll wait around until either bumps up to 50k and then make the move. think i'll pass on the BritishA card for now.

Its my wife travling with me - Can she sign up for a card as well seperatly and still be able to transfer the points to my account so we can pool the points together? Or would she have to get 2 cards as well and book her own seperatly?

Looks like Alitalia's is 50k - are they a delta partner I could fly with delta miles?

Thanks again!

Robby,
Great news is that you have some time to do card sign-ups and look for availability.
Regarding coach, don't sell yourself short. If you become a FlyerTalk addict and follow the card sign-ups/ promos you shouldn't have to fly international coach again!
The AA card approach is a good and easy one. You and your wife should each take out 2 cards for 100K miles per person. That's good for 2 business class tickets.
You may as well get the Chase United card too (again one for each of you).

The only way I can juggle all of my cards and accounts is www.mint.com and www.awardwallet.com. Check those sites out. Makes managing your new hobby a lot easier.