jets47

Hello Everyone,

I'm planning on taking the following trip to Europe for my anniversary:

- Oct 11 - JFK to Paris (redeye arriving on Oct 12)
- Oct 15 - Paris to Rome
- Oct 19 - Rome to JFK

I have about 100,000 SPG points and about 100,000 AMEX MR points. Please note that I'm not that savvy when it comes to point transferring (which is why I came here)...can anyone give advice on the best way to transfer my points to an airline program to give me the best possible usage out of my points. I understand that I won't be able to use all of my points for all 3 flights for 2 people, but even if we can take care of one person with the points it'll be helpful.

Also, I'm debating whether or not to use the 100,000 Starpoints towards the flight, or towards the Rome stay at the St. Regis, which would just leave me with the AMEX points for the flight.

I would greatly appreciate ANY help that can be given (even if the help is simply letting me know that I'm asking this question on the wrong board). As I mentioned before, I'm not too knowledgeable about the point lingo so I would appreciate if someone can define any abbreviations they use and to speak to me like I'm 12

Thanks again for any help! I greatly appreciate it and look forward to your answers!!

MSPeconomist

Don't transfer MR or SPG points to an airline until you have carefully checked for availability of award tickets. Transfers are generally irreversible.

Do you plan to fly coach? Any flexibility on dates?

Mile-a-holic

I'll add another question to MSPeconomist's - where are you flying from? Also, with only eight days, do you really want to spend that much time in the airport? Rome and Paris are amazing cities, but you will lose most of one day with the airport el al.

We are also looking at business availability into Italy next October, and it's not good. My bad for not booking in November (sick). BA first with my 2 for 1 is the best, since I don't mind paying the $1k in fees pp. AA seemed to have coach from some cities, but I wasn't checking CDG. You would need to open AA cards or use your SPG, and I would recommend the former. We really liked the St. Regis, upgraded to the butler room. Could walk everywhere. Rome is expensive for hotels, but lots of reasonable apartments.

jets47

Thanks for both of you for answering so quickly!

MSPeconomist - That's one of my problems...I'm unsure how to check award availability. I go to the airline websites, but they all make you log into an account to check it (which I don't have). I figure I can create an account when I'm ready and transfer the points then. I did try out some test bookings (Alitalia, Delta, and British Airways for code share) but it seems like they either didn't have the availability or they won't let me search for a multi-city flight for an award booking.

I plan on flying coach...as much as I'd love to fly business or first class I can't afford it. Perhaps I'd do an extra leg room seat...how much more do those usually cost? My days are semi flexible, but I'd prefer to leave on a Friday night and come back home on a Saturday

Mile-a-holic - I'm flying from JFK. I planned the trip so that I would leave on a Friday night for Paris, arrive Saturday morning, stay through Tuesday night and fly to Rome, and then I would have all day Wednesday through Saturday in Rome. Is that not enough time for each city?

What do you mean by BA first with 2 for 1? (sorry, I don't understand the lingo). And for American Airlines, I would need to open up a mileage account or a credit card to get a good deal? If it's the latter, why would the credit card help?

Do you think 100,000 points is worth it for the St Regis for 4 nights, or is that better spent on a flight? My questions really come down to that...what are the best ways to maximize my points so that I'm spending points where I get the most value and cash where it just makes more sense?

Thanks again for your help!

guv1976

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

You do not need to log in to check award availability on aa.com or united.com, and each offers one-way awards, so you can search for each leg separately. Note that aa.com is not capable of displaying award availability on AA partner Iberia, which might be a useful carrier for some of your legs.

I would check availability first, and then let us know what you find, so that we can better advise you.

If your credit is good and you can meet the spend requirements, you can easily get yourself ~105,000 AA miles and/or ~100,000 UA miles by taking advantage of current credit-card bonus offers, as detailed in the MilesBuzz! forum (two Citi/AA cards; the Chase/UA "Explorer" card, and the Chase Sapphire Preferred card).

You might find that it makes more sense just to pay cash for CDG/ORY-FCO, if you can find a decent one-way fare on a nonstop flight. If you Google "FCO airport wiki", you'll get a link to the FCO Wikipedia article, which will list the airlines that serve FCO, and where they fly.

Mile-a-holic

NP. Honestly, only you can answer the "worth it." our first trip we did the blitz for two weeks (Venice to Vienna) but now we try to minimize the travel time. Check-in, get to the airport, etc kills a lot of time. We did three days on the Amalfi Coast (train/driver) with five nights in Rome and are going back to Rome this year because there are still things we didn't see. With SPG, you get 5th night free, so I try to do that for higher redemption hotels.

I would price it out for the hotel/air, but my recommendation is to hold onto the SPG for now or use for high end hotel IF you value that. Coach TATL comes cheap compared to Rome/Paris high end hotels. But, if you hang around here and start getting the sign up bonuses, you may also start liking business @:-). That changes the value you may place on the points.

BA offers a two for one voucher after you spend 30k in a calendar year. In addition to the spend, the issue is that they charge high fees except for Air Berlin and aer lingus, and the cert is only good on BA metal. For those of who got 100k sign-ups though, it's like a first class seat for a cheap economy fare with just one credit pull. Not the best redemption, but available and fair. Worthless for coach in most cases.

jets47

Thanks for the SPG tip! It probably makes sense for us to stay an extra night in Rome (is a day trip to Venice or somewhere else possible?), so the itinerary would be:

- Oct 11 - JFK to Paris (redeye arriving on Oct 12)
- Oct 15 - Paris to Rome
- Oct 20 - Rome to JFK

I looked up the flights on various sites, trying to put together reward possibilities, and it's very weird...on Delta, certain legs of the trip will appear on the payment side and not the reward side, and vice versa.

I looked up the same flights on Alitalia as they have some code shares with Delta and Air France and the flights are showing up for me to purchase, however, NOTHING shows up at all when I try to look up the award flights. And it's not just those days...I tried multiple days throughout the year and I could never get ANYTHING to show up???

Does anyone know where you get the best point for dollar trade in when I trade MR and/or SPG to an airline (For airlines that fly directly through these routes)? I'd prefer to book it all as one 3 stop trip, but I can split it up if it makes more sense to maximize my points. If I don't have enough points for both myself and my wife, could I use all the points I have and pay the rest cash and keep it all in one booking?

Thanks!

jets47

Another option I'm considering would be to just do a multi city flight for the first and third legs of the trip, and then book one of those lower cost carriers between Paris and Rome. Anyone have any feedback on Vueling or EasyJet? I heard terrible things about RyanAir, not sure about these ones though.

Thanks!

Mile-a-holic

I'm not an expert (someone may correct me), but I think you could do this as a stopover/open jaw with Delta using their partners IF there is availability. I'm not sure about what sites you used, but Alitalia doesn't show on Delta - you need to call so I would pick up the phone ASAP. Delta will hold reservation, and you can transfer your MR points. If you transfer to AF for the same flights (better availability), you'll pay higher fees. I'm not sure about Alitalia - I'd do a search on that.

Delta does have a "pay with points" but I haven't found it a great use of miles - you'll need to calcuate it though. Again, my basis is that 100k MR = one roundtrip in business class, which I value at around $3k (what I'm willing to pay out of pocket). If you're happy with getting two coach tickets or 120MR, at a value of around $1800 - $2200 (two coach fares) then the pay with points may be an okay option.

If you strike out with Delta, then maybe check Air Berlin/Aer Lingus through Avios (to avoid fees) or ANA. I can't remember if there is still a transfer bonus going on fo Avios, but that mkes it more attractive. ANA opens up partners, and is distance based but will be more complicated.

Venice is a loooonng day trip (4-5 hour train each way IIRC), but Florence or Pompei would be a great day trip.

jets47

I'm fine with spending about 100-120K MR points on a roundtrip flight, however, I tried this out on Delta and it comes up as 95K Delta points for the full trip per person. The weirder thing is that the price doesn't go up or down whether or not I include that middle flight from Paris to Rome.

Mile-a-holic

That's "mid-tier" pricing - 60k is low tier and what you really want. And, it confirms that you can do the stopover/open jaw (those don't add miles). Definitely call for availabiliy, as they may have low tier (60k) with Alitalia - you could check ExpertFlyer too, but calling is easy enough. Since you're flexible, be sure to check for one and two seats, as you could alway purchase the second. I probably would not purchase the second now, as there is likely to be a better rate closer in - the only disadvantage is you can't choose your seat but those can disappear if aircraft changes, etc.

If you meant you're okay spending 100k MR on ONE ticket, then you should also check out business availability. Then, you can sit in the back of the bus and let your wife ride in front

jets47

Apologies...I meant that I would be ok spending that on TWO tickets

Would I call Delta and ask what their availability is for Alitalia...or call Alitalia directly? So if I book this flight, they won't let me choose my seats? If they do, is it possible to pay for any premium economy/extra leg room seats? Do you know what those typically cost? I'm not sure what the proper class is for each airline, but I'd just be looking for something with extra leg room. Would LOVE business class for the 2 long haul flights but I don't have the points for it, and something tells me I can't afford the dollars it would cost.

jets47

And what exactly is ExpertFlyer? I just googled it and it seems like I need to pay for an account in order to search for award flights. Is that true?

AirJam389

Here's a thought: if you SPG balance is actually over the 100k threshold, you can transfer 100k SPG points to US Airways. SPG gives you an extra 5k miles for every 20k points you transfer, so your 100k SPG points will turn into 125k US airways miles. Coach tickets to Europe are 60k per person round trip, which would allow you to cover both your flights.

5 minutes of searching tells me that availability is possible, with one connection on each leg, on your desired dates (and better if you're willing to use EWR instead of JFK).

If you were transferring SPG points to US Air and did it by tomorrow they would probably show up in your US Airways account by Wednesday. A little bit of risk in the wait time, but I think you'd still be able to find something you could make work.

This would leave you without SPG points, so you'd have to figure out your hotels with MR Points/cash. But, you'd both be getting over there for just a couple hundred bucks of taxes and fees.

mia

Learn about Expert Flyer in FlyerTalk's Travel Tools forum:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-tools-701/

They do offer a free five day trial, but it's well worth the subscription fee if you travel (award, upgrade or award) frequently.

You must call Delta to redeem SkyMiles. Alitalia is not involved at this stage.