SpootyPuff

Hey all,

I'm wanting to send my parents to the Philippines for 2-3weeks in either first or business class (preferrably first) using points I've acquired via my credit cards.

I've been reading quite a few threads on airlines and their transfer partners, etc but I still need much help.

I don't have a timeframe on when they plan to go - they have so much vacation days they can pretty much go whenever so I'm assuming during non-peak months would be best... does this vary by airline?

Here are my point accumulations thus far:

AMEX MR: 260k
Citi TY: 30k
AA: 50k
Chase UR: 6k

What would be my best course of action?
I know I'll be short on points still so which should I cultivate/focus on?

Which airlines should I transfer my points to?

I've never actually redeemed points before for international flights, so would I be correct to assume this would have to be booked WELL in advanced? a few months to a year?

maverick17

Are they flying out of IAD/DCA as well? If so, ideally they could do one-stop, like Seoul or Dubai. Or are you willing to have them do 2 stops if you want a certain product?

Keep in mind some airlines offer a regional product into MNL from their hubs, so you either want to find a) the best regional product for that shorter hop b) find a flight with premium seats even though it's a shorter hop or c) look for the longer connections out of MNL and see if they have the long-haul product. Or d) just go with it because of availability etc, and they will still have good service and a nice TPAC/TATL flight even though the short flight is a recliner.

As for the best use of MR points, I'll leave that to someone else as I use mine for BA Avios and shorthaul. But with Emirates, Qatar, Japan Airlines, ANA, Korean, Asiana, Thai, and Singapore you have a number of options in multiple alliances with good premium products that reach MNL nowadays. Turkish has a new flight, so that could be an option too with good availability, but it's just J not F.

If you can do it all with MR points, that's great. If not, I'd apply for the US air card immediately (it's disappearing very very soon, maybe even gone by today but available still yesterday), and then with a little more spend or another AA card, you'd have enough AA miles for either the departure or return on CX. An excellent experience in one of the best airlines, and good connections to MNL. (And with the Phils no longer allowing fuel surcharges, booking one-ways might save you taxes rather than one RT ticket.)

In this case, as you're looking at sending them in F/J, non-peak would consider holidays and summer. The US summer time is harder to get seats. So is Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving. In the Philippines I'd add to that with Easter. And since you're possibly going to transit in Asia, Lunar New Year also makes some Transpacific routes hard to get seats on.

But give your flexibility on dates, this shouldn't be a major hurdle. Some well regarded F seats, like the Cathay flights from the US, fill up quickly far out. But quality F seats like JAL and Asiana can sometimes be found close to departure. And some airlines release more seats very close to departure, but it can be hard to be that flexible. So the earlier the better, but some seats can be found later if you want to try that.

linusyanez

Those point are enough to get your parents to the philippines. prices there are also cheap (if your money is in USD). so go ahead and sent them. make them have a vacation of a lifetime!

amyers

Not sure about the points but I have made this trip a couple of times. I fly out of ORD to HKG on CX business class. Nice flight, but about 16 hours. Then into MNL about 10:40pm or so local time.

I will end up going 4 or 5 more times in the next 12 months, but I think I'm going to try AA out of DFW/HKG/MNL. Flight time about the same and business class seats are identical. But, food/service? We will see.

spainlover

I'm going to the Philippines in May for a friend's wedding. I used American miles to book on Cathay Pacific (has to be done through an agent). Milesaaver economy was not available, so I'm going in business, which was basically the same amount of miles as Aanytime economy. Should be a nice ride

SpootyPuff

Wow, thanks guys - alot of gem responses I'm still trying to decipher here... guess I need to read more!

I was wanting to fly them via Cathay or Krisflyer so I mapped out the points below and found my points that apply at 1:1 ratio lean more towards Krisflyer

Krisflyer 1:1 ratio transfers
-AMEX MR 200k (I used 60k for a tv soundbar )
-Starwood 25k
-Citi TY 30k
-Chase UR 6k


However, according to this Krisflyer award chart, does that mean I need 420k points per parent to fly 1st, RT?
http://www.singaporeair.com/pdf/ppsc...wardCharts.pdf
ca-ray-zee!


@spainlover - how many AA miles did you need for business RT?


On a great note, I just found out that I have enough Marriott points to get them a 2week stay in the Marriot MNL
The hotel points usage is easy... this airline mile redemption thing is a beast of its own!


I don't mind waiting a few more months and earning more points - I'm curious what points would yield better value for what I am trying to do so I can start using that particular card to earn.

maverick17

AA is your cheapest option for this. For AA miles (Cathay, JAL) Biz RT is 110k for now. F is 135 RT. Rumors of an AA devaluation are out there after the merger, so it could potentially change.

Also if you have the regular non-executive Citi AA card, you get a 10% rebate on miles up to 10k per year.

Alaska miles are easy to get too, and they allow one ways with stopovers (i.e. they could spend a few days in HKG), and not much more than AA for F or J. And they partner with EK, so you could try to do Cathay one way and Emirates the other, but be aware EK award space is hard to find now I think I heard.

Yes Singapore, on my math, is 250k each for F in RT. ANA would be cheaper miles to fly F on Star Alliance at 160k RT from the west coast, but remember Singapore don't give out F space to partners (often? at all?). ANA, Asiana, and Thai have good F products though, but beware of taxes with them. Air Canada, another MR transfer parter, has rates a bit lower than Singapore for F, but not much.

Avianca lets you buy miles, and they have rates around 200k for F RT, but availability and booking issues with them are a hassle, so I wouldn't send your parents on an Avianca ticket.

By far AA and Alaska are the two best options here in my opinion for miles, flying on Cathay, Japan Airlines, or Emirates. The question is just going to be, do you want the best price and work for more miles, or want to use your MR points and pay a bit more to use what you already have.

SpootyPuff

Ah thanks maverick!

Seems I have a LONG ways to go if I were to choose Krisflyer..

If I were to go Cathay I could use my points like so:

(from a light research these transfer as 1:1 ratio)
AA: 50k to transfer to Cathay
Citi TY: 30k to transfer to Cathay
Chase UR: 6k to transfer to Cathay

As far as my MR points are concerned, I see that they are partners with British Airways... since BA is part of OneWorld - is it possible to transfer to BA then use those points towards Cathay?

AMEX MR: 200k to transfer to BA then to Cathay

Am I wrong for that scenario?
I wonder also, what the ratio is from BA -> Cathay... I couldn't find any online.


I'm confused at this point if I were to choose Cathay.... would that mean I would have to sign up for their Marco Polo Club? or should I sign up for Asia Miles and transfer all points there?

How then would I book tix for my parents? Should I be calling an agent in Asia Miles, AA, BA, or Cathay?

*thanks for your patience guys!*

SpootyPuff

Oh, I forgot: I can use my SPG points to transfer to AA as 1:1 ratio as well.


Unfortunately I've got the AA Exec card... I don't think that gives me any sort of rebate on miles...just medallions

maverick17

Hi Spooty. Let me back up just a bit here. Not to be too simple, but just so we're on the same page. I'm gonna post first on booking, then on transferring miles, then try to sum it up for you.

First let's be clear that you always pay the prices based on what airline miles you are using. This includes cost in miles, plus cost in taxes/fuel surcharges/booking fees etc. So if I am using AA miles, then I book on AA website or with their phone agents, and I pay AA prices from AA award charts for any airline that they let me fly on, which includes AA flights or their partner flights like Cathay. If I book with BA Avios, then I would use their system to book, and pay their prices for miles and taxes, whether flying on BA or on Cathay. So you book with whomever's miles you have, and you figure out prices based on whomever's miles you have.

And so on. You base the price off the type of miles you have, and you book with that airline for the type of miles you have.

maverick17

Regarding transferring miles, as far as I know AA miles DO NOT transfer to Asia Miles or any other miles. BA miles also do not transfer to Asia Miles.

MR points and Citi TY points DO transfer to various partners.

But I think that when you understand the above post, you realize that transferring miles to Asia miles isn't required. It is one option if you like their pricing or some other feature. But you can use your AA miles to book Cathay. Or you can transfer your MR points to BA, and use your BA miles to book Cathay. All without signing up for Asia Miles, or joining the Marco Polo club. I think there was just a little confusion before on how to book Cathay flights, and you thought you need to transfer miles, but really you can use any of their partner miles to book Cathay flights. The price, however, varies as I said above based on which miles you choose.

maverick17

So in my posts above I give you the AA price to fly Cathay. That means 135k AA miles for First RT, 110 for business, and booking via AA. To book Cathay you have to call in to the AA phone agents, as AA does not allow Cathay flights to be booked online for now. I gave you the AA price because it is the cheapest way to fly Cathay that I know of.

On the other hand, you can also use BA Avios miles to fly Cathay since the two airlines are also partners. Because MR points can transfer to Avios, you might choose this option if it is easier than earning/buying AA miles. BA pricing is based on distance, whereas American is by region. BA is also priced per segment. You didn't mention where you're from, but from IAD/DCA you would theoretically book DCA to JFK for 9k miles, then JFK to HKG for 150k miles, then HKG to MNL another 15k miles to fly in First. Business would be less, my math puts it as 9k, then 100k, then 15k. That is all one way. So over double AA.

Asia Miles I haven't looked at until now. They use distance based charts like BA. And they are comparable. 130k for First if you did AA domestic flight plus Cathay one way. So again, double AA. Biz is 85 one way, so much better, but still a lot more than AA.

So if you focus on Cathay, which is a good choice, then you have to decide if you want to earn AA miles and pay the lower cost in miles and cash, or earn BA or Asia miles and pay their rates.

If this was all too simple, I do apologize, as it seemed there was some confusion so I tried to back up a bit and make sure we both understand each other. And honestly I was quite long and some blogs sum it up much more succinctly than I do.

SpootyPuff

Ah - wow, so much clearer! :-: mav, I just want to say THANK YOU for breaking it down to elementary terms for me... best I've understood of the system yet. Thanks again! ^^^
All the threads I've been reading are beyond the basics and though I have some understanding of it, as a whole wasn't quite 'clicking in.'

You definitely explained it well at my level, no need for apologies - it's exactly what I needed!

Wow, ok so I'll leave my MR and TY points for other uses then.

I did see that SPG points transfer to AA miles at 1:1 so in total I would have 75k AA miles. I'll definitely hunker down and spend for AA miles as that would be the best course of action for me and least expensive.

So, just to clarify - I'll pool all my miles at AA then call Cathay to buy tix for my parents using the AAmiles (assuming I'll just pay for taxes, surchages, and misc. fees)


I'll have to read up on the AA threads on how many AA cards I can have for faster churning.

spainlover

Sorry @spootypuff, just saw this. I used 110K AA miles for redemption in biz.

Also, you must have a lot of Marriott points as the Manila Marriott is a Category 7, which is very high IMO compared to hotel rates in that part of the world. If you have Hyatt points, it's much better value. Do they want to stay in Manila the whole time? Unless they are visiting family there, they might want to visit other islands, just a thought.

oldflyguy

Make sure that your parents have more than 6 months left on their passports when they depart. In 2012, Hawaiian Airlines would not let me board my flight to Manila from Honolulu (traveling on AA miles) because of that. It cost me more than $1000 to fix that problem. I talked to immigration in the Philippines and they would have had no problem with that. The regulation states that it is at the discretion of the Philippine immigration officer. AA came through for me and rerouted me on JAL who never checked my passport expiration date. Upon landing in Manila, I watched a Japanese passenger with that problem allowed into the country and a short discussion with immigration. I am sick and tired of US airlines "trying" to enforce international regulations and unintentionally distressing their passengers by costing them time and money. Be especially carefully if you (or they) are transiting via Shanghai or Peking. AA tried to prevent me from boarding because I did not have a Chinese visa in my passport for a 36 hour layover in Shanghai. I was lucky that the agent was willing to do research and agreed with me that I did not need a visa. Others have not been so lucky.

On the visit side of things, I would strongly encourage your parents to pay for a chauffeured visit to Baguio, Banaue and Batad (3 days minimum).