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70000 Avios miles for Philippines emergency trip

70000 Avios miles for Philippines emergency trip

Old Oct 25, 2014, 6:33 pm
  #1  
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70000 Avios miles for Philippines emergency trip

Hi I need help to use the 70000 miles from IAH to MNL or IAH to CEB. Will be flying on next 15 days for family emergency. I also have 95000 pts on Chase reward in case to top it off. Thanks for the help.
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Old Oct 25, 2014, 7:05 pm
  #2  
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Welcome astig19, what help is it you are looking for?
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Old Oct 25, 2014, 7:09 pm
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Is the meant to be in the BAEC forums...? (If so a quick look and it's about $990 with Korean air with a layover in Seoul in Y - If you need to fly OneWorld you could book with AA with two layovers, DFW and NRT for $1,100, again in Y)
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Old Oct 25, 2014, 7:13 pm
  #4  
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Possibly for for the DL board as he lists DL in this programmes info.
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Old Oct 25, 2014, 7:57 pm
  #5  
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I'm looking for cheapest way to fly from Houston to MNL using 70000+ avios thru its partners. I search the British airways website but they only offer inbound flights but with no return availability. I'm even considering flying to ORD for flexibility.
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Old Oct 25, 2014, 11:54 pm
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Originally Posted by astig19
I'm looking for cheapest way to fly from Houston to MNL using 70000+ avios thru its partners. I search the British airways website but they only offer inbound flights but with no return availability. I'm even considering flying to ORD for flexibility.
Do you have to book this as a return trip, or could you book the outbound now and sort out the inbound later?
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Old Oct 26, 2014, 12:01 am
  #7  
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Originally Posted by astig19
I'm looking for cheapest way to fly from Houston to MNL using 70000+ avios thru its partners. I search the British airways website but they only offer inbound flights but with no return availability. I'm even considering flying to ORD for flexibility.
IAH-MNL is a horrible use of Avios.


Let's break it down into parts:

IAH-DFW = 4500
DFW-HKG = 50000
HKG-CEB/MNL = 7500
Total = 62000

If you get yourself to SFO, the numbers are a little better because SFO-HKG is just under 7000 miles:

SFO-HKG = 35000
HKG-CEB/MNL = 7500
Total = 42500

This is for economy class travel, and is only one way. By way of comparison, 55k AA miles gets you all the way from IAH to the Phils in J on the same flights.

BA points are awesome if you use them according to their strengths (e.g. nonstop flights to/from fortress hubs), but the current system sucks for long flights and/or connections... and your mission requires both of the above.

In addition to CX, JL via TYO also works, but I didn't bother throwing those numbers out there because the YQ costs almost as much as a revenue ticket this time of year. (Same deal with BA metal, but worse because the distance is much greater ---> 80k points required each way.)
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Old Oct 26, 2014, 3:25 am
  #8  
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If I'm not mistaken, using BA miles would also mean having to split the ticket so lose the accompanying protections. If you combine two partners on a ticket, the metrics change again (the award becomes mileage based) and I think it's usually even worse value...

http://www.britishairways.com/travel...e/public/en_gb

I'm not sure but I suspect it's distance flown, rather than the distance from A to B..
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Old Oct 26, 2014, 4:06 am
  #9  
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Welcome to Flyertalk astig19

Originally Posted by astig19
Hi I need help to use the 70000 miles from IAH to MNL or IAH to CEB. Will be flying on next 15 days for family emergency. I also have 95000 pts on Chase reward in case to top it off. Thanks for the help.
Welcome to Flyertalk astig19, welcome to the BA board, and firstly I am sorry to learn that you have a family emergency on your hands. Trying to sort out travel in that context must be particularly troublesome. However welcome on board, and I hope we can see more of you in the future, in better times.

I haven't looked at the numbers in detail, but I doubt that Avios would help in this particular situation. As mentioned by the other posters, there are some things which work really well using Avios but this scenario doesn't appear to be one of them. It may help as an adjunct to other services, for example if you find a cheap cash fare to HKG, and assuming (e.g.) Cebu Express isn't coming up with a cheap fare from HKG to MNL, then perhaps using Avios on Cathay would work. However there is such fierce competition to Cebu in particular (40 flights a day, 4 airlines) that even that looks doubtful.

Good luck, I hope it works out for you.
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Old Oct 26, 2014, 4:32 am
  #10  
 
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My sympathy for you, only a few months ago my wife had to rush to Spain in a family crisis.

Strangely, a return ticket - even though she didn't know when she would be returning - was a third less than a single. If paying cash, might be worth checking that out too.
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Old Oct 26, 2014, 5:10 am
  #11  
 
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Originally Posted by astig19

I'm looking for cheapest way to fly from Houston to MNL using 70000+ avios thru its partners.
How about QR IAH-DOH-MNL: available from USD1,060 economy return? Being part of the OW alliance you might be able to burn Avios on QR.

By a strange coincidence I've just booked Mrs PtF a CAI-DOH-HKG-CEB J QR/CX return itinerary for January/February 2015 - all for less than GBP1,000. Quite a bargain.
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Old Oct 26, 2014, 6:41 am
  #12  
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Originally Posted by Swiss Tony
If I'm not mistaken, using BA miles would also mean having to split the ticket so lose the accompanying protections. If you combine two partners on a ticket, the metrics change again (the award becomes mileage based) and I think it's usually even worse value...

http://www.britishairways.com/travel...e/public/en_gb

I'm not sure but I suspect it's distance flown, rather than the distance from A to B..
You're right about the higher, multi-partner redemption rate, but if the OP were to book only AA and CX flights, AA guarantees protection in the event of IRROPS, even on separate tickets:

http://www.aa.com/i18n/agency/Bookin...tkt_policy.jsp
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Old Oct 26, 2014, 7:44 pm
  #13  
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Thanks for all your help I decided that I'm going to book just an outbound flight only now.
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Old Oct 26, 2014, 8:57 pm
  #14  
 
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Originally Posted by astig19
Thanks for all your help I decided that I'm going to book just an outbound flight only now.
Remember that you will probably need to show an onward ticket from Philippines. Most airlines will ask to check this (but rarely will Philippine immigration actually check). You can often find something cheap with Air Asia or Cebu Pacific to BKI, MFM or TPE just to use as a throwaway ticket. Or just book a ticket with miles on CX/KA and just cancel when you arrive.

Also remember that QR flies to CRK/Angeles City which is often cheaper than MNL and often has better reward availability.
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