MilesBuzz! - Million Miles saved, can't find award tix [NYC-BCN/PSA-NYC, 6/28 - 7/8/2012].

I have over a million miles saved, and I can't get any award tix to Europe for this summer.
Totals:

BA 53K
United 31K
Delta 102K
SPG 45K
Amex 215K
Chase 130K

Not miles, but redeemable for travel credits.
CapOne 368K
Citi TY 210K

What's the problem?
I'm looking for 2 tix for NYC-BCN/ PSA- NYC, on 6/28 - 7/8.
Nothing. I don't even care about the low/high levels, I just want non-stop outbound, and I'm relatively inflexible on dates. There's nothing available, and I've been looking for a few months.

Extremely frustrating, when there's a million miles and not a trip to be had.

What all have you looked at? Will be able to help you better. Plus you need to think about being a bit flexible on some things. For eg. there might be flights to BCN but not non-stop.

Europe during the summer is high season. Most book 8-10 months in advance.
Not only that you also have the Olympics going on in 2012 so awards are much more harder to come by. That is why you are not finding anything.

Europe during the summer is high season. Most book 8-10 months in advance.
Not only that you also have the Olympics going on in 2012 so awards are much more harder to come by. That is why you are not finding anything.

In that case, here's other alternative. You can sell your miles to get cash to purchase the ticket that you wanted on your specified dates and location.

Europe during the summer is high season. Most book 8-10 months in advance.
Not only that you also have the Olympics going on in 2012 so awards are much more harder to come by. That is why you are not finding anything.

Fighting the Summer Olympics on short notice is tough(less than 8-10 months). I'm sure tickets can be bought , but the price in dollars will be high. Your best bet is to route to another city and take the train? You will have to be flexible if you want to get there at those exact times.

I found a 125k coach ticket on DL for the dates provided. JFK-PSA-JFK non stop. AA does not have non stop, but ticket is 100k Busines class on 06/27-07/09

You should concentrate on a particular carrier to determine which one offers the schedule you prefer and then concentrate on transferring the points to that program.

Good luck.

I only count about 600,000 "miles" (or mile equivalents) ...

What's the problem?

You are inflexible on dates, inflexible on destination, inflexible on routing/stops, and are looking for tickets one month out during peak travel season.

Best bet is probably using the points to book revenue tickets rather than trying to get an award ticket.

Or if you don't care about miles/cost then why not a business class ticket that has a layover. I would take a long haul biz seat with a layover over a direct flight economy seat every time.

What's the problem?

You are inflexible on dates, inflexible on destination, inflexible on routing/stops, and are looking for tickets one month out during peak travel season.

Best bet is probably using the points to book revenue tickets rather than trying to get an award ticket.

Plus that the "million" miles are scattering around multiple programs... (how he comes up with the million count is beyond me.)

He can transfer all his AMEX pts to DL, and then simply use the miles to reduce the cost of a pay ticket at the 1 cent per mile value because as long as DL still sells tickets for his date(s), he can buy it and just subtract the cost by the miles. 100K = $1000 worth.
He can buy tickets and then redeem the C1 points to offset the ticket costs assuming it is the Venture card he has.
He can redeem TYPs for tickets at a 25% discount on the fare.

There are at least 3 methods to get him what he wants since he does not care BUT to get there the way he wants to travel... Buy the tickets would be the only means to achieve that.

Whether this is the preferred way to use miles is up to debate... but he would get what he wants.

Plus that the "million" miles are scattering around multiple programs... (how he comes up with the million count is beyond me.)
...

I did combine miles and points together, so perhaps million "miles" is not technically accurate...but "1,154,000 miles and points" doesn't make for a catchy title ;)

I have no problem paying for the tickets, but business class is in $5-6K range - far more than the miles/points will cover.
The easiest thing would be to purchase coach tickets for roughly $1500 each and charge it to CapOne for full credit, as I have over 300,000 points with them.
If I can't get business class, that's exactly what I'll do.

I can change inbound to 7/9, and fly out of FCO instead of PSA on UA for 125K..and AA does have a non-stop to BCN for 100K.
Problem is I have no AA miles (have some coming in the next few weeks from Citi AA, but not enough, and not soon enough).
Is there a creative way to transfer AmEx MR to AA at reasonable exchange rates?

I did combine miles and points together, so perhaps million "miles" is not technically accurate...but "1,154,000 miles and points" doesn't make for a catchy title ;)

Yeah, but half of your points can't be used for award travel.

The only way to transfer to AA is via SPG, and 3 AmEx = 1 SPG point, a horrible rate.

The best case is that for every 25K AA miles, you'll need to transfer 60K AmEx MR. You can transfer AmEx to BA, but just be prepared for fuel surcharges. But BA doesn't have access to AAnytime Awards, only AA MilesAAver.

As I understand it, with most airlines, partner awards have no High and Low (or High/Medium/Low) availability. It either is or isn't, and usually when it is, it is at the low levels. So if you want to fly to a destination that is not served by a carrier you have points on, there may be very very few seats that were ever available.

By comparison, I am pretty sure that Delta will let you book any flight, although the points required coul dbe quite high. You might have to pay 60K for a round-trip coach ticket, but you can get the seat.

So for international travel, you can't get the ticket just by throwing points at it. However, what you might be able to do is look at the transfer partners for Amex. I didn't look at who flies from New York to PSA/BCN, but you might find out who they are and if they are Amex transfer partners, you could use your Amex points to book directly on them.

You can transfer AmEx to BA, but just be prepared for fuel surcharges. But BA doesn't have access to AAnytime Awards, only AA MilesAAver.

From other posts, it sounds like there's AA MilesAAver business class seats available, so transferring to BA should work (and is undoubtedly a better option than transferring AMEX points to SPG and then to AA). And does BA charge fuel surcharges on AA flights?

From other posts, it sounds like there's AA MilesAAver business class seats available, so transferring to BA should work (and is undoubtedly a better option than transferring AMEX points to SPG and then to AA). And does BA charge fuel surcharges on AA flights?

Yes, they charge YQ on AA flights to Europe.

What's the problem?

You are inflexible on dates, inflexible on destination, inflexible on routing/stops, and are looking for tickets one month out during peak travel season.

Best bet is probably using the points to book revenue tickets rather than trying to get an award ticket.

Or if you don't care about miles/cost then why not a business class ticket that has a layover. I would take a long haul biz seat with a layover over a direct flight economy seat every time.

^^^ This! Honestly, I wish we had a separate board/thread entitled "Help me book my trip" and start off with the following disclaimer "Don't expect miracles when you are inflexible on dates, inflexible on destination, inflexible on routing/stops, and are looking for tickets one month out during peak travel season. Miles work best when you are flexible--flexible on dates, destination, routing, and seasonality. Of course we all don't have the luxury of complete flexibility, but the more you are willing to compromise on the above, the more likely that people can help you maximize the miles you have/get."

I sympathize with the original poster regarding his frustrations. The responses show that most miles and points holders have become accustomed to being treated like second class citizens. The only time I have found reasonable availiability to BCN in business was through Canada. You might see what the award availability is using that routing. I have long wanted to go to Rio and I finally found availability on AA and booked the trip - 330 days from the date of booking! I guess it will give me something to look forward to. I just don't think that planes are so full with full-fare passengers that awards should be this difficult to obtain. Loyalty programs should be a two way street.

Of course we all don't have the luxury of complete flexibility, but the more you are willing to compromise on the above, the more likely that people can help you maximize the miles you have/get."

For many of us, our inflexibility is not because of our unwillingness to compromise.
Once upon a time I had a job with paid vacations, sick days, holidays, and a scheduling change would only affect me. I would fly mid-week, with connections and layovers.
Now, time off is paid by me. My office bills out $1000/hr when I am there, and $0 when I am not. A change in schedule affects me, 8 staff, and dozens of other people who have made appointments to see us. An extra day taken off can easily cost me thousands of dollars. And I am sure there are many on these boards in the exact same situation as I am.
So we are all perfectly willing to compromise. It's just that our compromises may be different than yours.

But thanks for your post. :)

My office bills out $1000/hr when I am there, and $0 when I am not.

So work an extra five hours and pay for the tickets in cash ^

For many of us, our inflexibility is not because of our unwillingness to compromise.
Once upon a time I had a job with paid vacations, sick days, holidays, and a scheduling change would only affect me. I would fly mid-week, with connections and layovers.
Now, time off is paid by me. My office bills out $1000/hr when I am there, and $0 when I am not. A change in schedule affects me, 8 staff, and dozens of other people who have made appointments to see us. An extra day taken off can easily cost me thousands of dollars. And I am sure there are many on these boards in the exact same situation as I am.
So we are all perfectly willing to compromise. It's just that our compromises may be different than yours.

But thanks for your post. :)

Look I understand the vagaries of scheduling, but just like in paid travel, those decisions have a cost and that cost one month out in peak travel season may be prohibitively high or higher than you might otherwise achieve if you were willing to be a bit more flexible. By adding a connection you are talking about hours lost not an extra day.

Looks like people want to have the cake and eat it too...

The compromise would be either in the form of not-so-optimal schedule, or give up some form of income... A hard calculation would give you the answer on WHAT to compromise.

You simply could not HAVE IT ALL - It aint work in Any Area in the real life, not just the award travel.

So work an extra five hours and pay for the tickets in cash ^

The most succinct response so far! ^

And earn more miles and points for free hotel stays... Problem solved. ;)

Or put off the vacation plan for a period until you are satisfied with what is raked up via your office and it is about time to stop and smell the rose...

The choice is yours.

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

You'll find a number of tools to check award availability in the Travel Tool (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-tools/1327853-welcome-travel-tools-forum-please-read-first.html) forum. For example, awardnexus.com and awardtravlr (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-tools/1332252-awardtravelr-search-st-ow-awards-online-free.html) are very useful tools.

Using Awardtravlr, there's a coach seat available using DL miles from JFK to BCN via CDG on June 28. There's also a seat on KLM via AMS. I didn't check the return, and I think that DL requires a RT ticket. UA allows one way tickets. Are your chase miles UR points, so that you can transfer them to UA? There's 2 biz seats on a TAP connection via Lisbon. Also, your AMEX points can go to ANA and you can do Star redemptions with those points.

Perhaps you have done this, but I would draw up a matrix of how many miles it requires for a ticket on the carriers where you have miles. Does the carrier permit a one way award? That helps a lot. Are you willing to fly separately? My husband and I have when essential. If you absolutely must fly nonstop, then what carriers offer nonstop service? You can pretty quickly sort thru your miles and see what's relevant to this quest.

There are a number of folks who charge a fee, look at your points, and see if they can find awards for you. You'll find a list here;

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-tools/1296363-award-booking-services-list.html#post17711690

BA 53K
Amex 215K
Chase 130K


I found availability using a combination of BA Avios and Low Cost Carrier. I also found availability using MileagePlus on partners.

You can PM me and I'm more than happy to help.

In that case, here's other alternative. You can sell your miles to get cash to purchase the ticket that you wanted on your specified dates and location.

sure, if you want to go against the rules of the programs... :confused:

Yes, they charge YQ on AA flights to Europe.

Does anyone know where this particular YQ goes? Does it go to AA, or does BA just keep it?

Does anyone know where this particular YQ goes? Does it go to AA, or does BA just keep it?

AA/BA/IB have a transatlantic joint venture with revenue sharing.