Need

I was able to book the seats online at Delta after I bought from UR portal using CSR. These are business class seats though. I just log into my Delta account and my flight is already there. I just need to pick the seats.

FUA

Hello All,

New member here in search of some advice. Been lurking for a while and now it's time to consult with the experts

Would love to take my wife to Spain for vacation in September.
Have about 400K Chase UR points.
Been searching on chase transfer partner websites but nothing interesting shows up.

Any thoughts on using those points to get to MAD/BCN from SFO/SJC/OAK in business class?
Maybe points + cash, if necessary.

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated!

Jasper2009

Welcome to Flyertalk!

Are you talking about Sept. 2017 or Sept. 2018?

The former would be extremely last-minute and the latter isn't bookable yet.

Based on experience, I'd say you're most likely to find award availability on Star Alliance airlines, and you can then book the award using UA miles transferred from Chase UR.

Yoshi212

Normally least valuable redemption: purchasing via either Chase Travel Portal or airline and using your UR points to offset the cost. Upside is you get to purchase what you want.

Normally much better redemption value: Transferring UR points to a partner. Generally either United Airlines or Flying Blue give you the best options.

Be sure to also checking using LAX, SAN, SEA, LAS for options and then possibly doing a positioning flight. If you're intending on traveling in September 2017, which I imagine you are as you mentioned trying to search, you're ~10 months late to the game as awards open up ~330 days before travel. Finding 2 award tickets in J class is not going to be as easy. Another tactic may be to use UR points to redeem for 1 ticket and then using the remainder to offset the purchase cost of the second seat. There are some irrop potential problems but those are the risks.

beckoa

@FUA welcome to Flyertalk.

Please follow the redirect as we send this to the UR forum.

~beckoa, co-moderator Information Desk

FUA

Thank you guys for the info.
Yes, I am talking about Sep 2017. I know... quite last minute.

Duke787

SFO - ZRH - MAD is currently showing as available for 2x J on LX booked via UA (so 70k/person) on September 18th.

I'm seeing some MAD/BCN - FRA - IAD/DTW - SFO availability for the return as well. Big asterisk on this one - it appears the last leg on all of them is in Y which means you are looking potentially at IAD/DTW - SFO on a 73X in Y which isn't an ideal way to end a trip but the TATL would be on LH J.

UR transfers to UA instantly so if you see anything you can grab it. Other places to check - FlyingBlue for any AF availability (for some reason the AF website isn't working for me) and KE for SkyTeam availability (good rates but require RT).

Also LH F tends to be released starting at T-15 (as does some additional J). That'll run you 110k/person each direction with UA miles but that is a good option to keep an eye on as we get into September but you may have to be flexible in your plans and book the outbound without knowing the exact date of your return (or run the risk of being able to find say IAH - FRA space but no SFO - IAH space and either flying that in Y or having to pay for that last leg).

FUA

Thanks for the info.
Took me a while to decipher all the jargon and abbreviations due to my severe lack of proficiency in airline talk

wilmer007

hi all my cousin is going to FRA and MAD September 8-21 and i would like to meet up with her at MAD if it makes sense but i do need to be at FRA as final destination. i would like to get the most per cent value out of my 143k UR points that i have accumulated.

i don't mind connecting from other airports if it makes sense.

i plan on booking my flight in the next 24 hours if possible so please respond ASAP.

Yoshi212

Not sure what you're expecting. FT isn't a booking agency and since you're doing a very close in booking it's no longer about which program offers the best deal but rather which has availability.

Good luck.

guv1976

You probably need to identify the lowest cash fare on the route before you can decide if it makes more sense to pay cash or to investigate award-seat availability.

ccerts

Departing June 24th from Chicago O'Hare outbound to Milan, returning 10-11 days later from Rome.

My first thought was transferring UR points to United Airlines points (30k pp each way), but UA points are worth about 1.5 cents each, so that translates to about $900 each person round-trip which seems like a lot to me.

I've saved 200,000 UR Points (but also have 200,000 SW points). What's the most best way for 3 of us to travel? Thank you in advance

Diplomatico

Google Flights shows round trip cash fares for that route in the $1200 or so range for those dates (and UA is at $1697). So 60K UR points for a $1200 ticket is more like 2.1 cents per point.

Have you checked how many points would be required to book via the Chase UR portal?

Lastly, you're not likely to find astounding cpp value on economy tickets - the really good value (when measured by cpp) tends to be on international F/J tickets, IME.

madmike283

cross-posted from my thread in the UK/IE forum, hope that's ok. Figured I may get a little more information here.

Hello all, I may be behind the ball but I'm starting to think about a trip to Ireland with my wife next year. We prefer to avoid the peak tourist season, thinking May preferably or Sept, but pretty flexible. We have just over 280k UR points together, and I have about 78k UA points. We've never flown international. Would like to relax and experience J class for the first time. Based out of DEN.

I'm thinking DEN-DUB and SNN-DEN ideally. DEN-DUB RT would work if needed. If a cool stopover is easy, I'd take that too.

How would you get there? We don't want to take the trip to fly as priority #1 , but if we're going to do it, we might as well try to find a decent product to fly J if possible and enjoy the experience being first-timers.

Aer Lingus seems to be one of the easier solutions, but is the J class experience there and shortish haul from Boston the best way to spend my points? Their early departures and arrivals are a little bit of a turn off too. Should I not be so picky? United doesn't seem to show much availability for their awards, especially for May. Am I too late, or too early? Any other better ideas?

I'm not too savvy with search and booking as I've never done it, but have done a bit of reading to get somewhat familiar so far. Thanks for any help or info!

Mike

Yoshi212

In general, it's best to keep topics focused in one thread which is why crossposting is "against the rules"/discouraged. In the future you can always ask a MOD to move your existing topic to a thread you find if you feel it would get more attention. But in the end no harm no foul.

You are a little late but not too late to the game. For myself I'd honestly suggest doing DEN-LHR and DUB-DEN for experience & availability. Then doing London to SNN/DUB as a cheap cash ticket or train & ferry ride. London is a great city and the combination of London + Ireland makes for a good trip. Availability into London can usually be better with the variety of options for airlines & routings. If you were to do London on the return you'd incur the ADP tax for premium passengers but not for transit or arriving passengers.

BA also is a UR transfer partner for the short hop between the UK & Ireland if you wanted to also do that as a redemption but be sure to checkout actual fares first & be aware of the taxes on redemption tickets as they may be about or even more than the fares available as BA, EI & FR fly those routes. As BA or IB Avios can be a good value & useable also on EI you may find that favorable for award inventory and/or fees involved. With both UA & Avios programs you can do 1-way awards so search both for inventory. Avoiding AA&BA for the transatlantic will save you quite a bit compared to other programs. If flying EI back to DEN I'd look for flights via ORD, LAX or SFO over BOS or EWR. Also look into ET's DUB-LAX flight as an option. In the Spring I believe UA had seasonal nonstop to London also or one can connect via MUC, FRA or other gateways giving you a solid J experience and minimizing domestic/intraEurope premium classes which aren't much to scream about.