Need advice: How to use points?
Sep 15, 2014, 5:53 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 54
Need advice: How to use points?
Dear FT Friends--
I'm relatively fresh to the FF programs as I only quite recently started earning miles -- this is my first season.
However, looks like by the end of the year I'll have collected approximately 400,000-500,000 AY points.
How can I use them?
Ideally, I'd aspire for three types of target program benefits:
(A) Business to First upgrades on other OW airlines, especially BA, when I fly for business
(B) Business upgrades on family holidays, i.e. HEL-BKK-HEL, on Finnair flights
(C) First class tickets for U.S. family vacations
But the realities of AY+ program hit against these aspirations
By target outcome, how I _believe_ AY+ can help me reach my targets:
(A) I learned a while ago that for the Business to First upgrade, I'd have to become a BA FFer and have some Avios. So AY+ is worthless, I'm in a worse position than a BA Bronze card holder. No game here for me
(B) HEL-BKK-HEL upgrades on AY own metal. I booked coach tickets a while back and signed up for the business upgrade list. However, the helpful AY+ call center has now advised that there will be no business upgrade allocations on the flights that we are booked on, given it's busy holiday season. When I heard it, I was moderately piss** ***
(C) The remaining benefit, First Class tickets on U.S. vacations. Given that AY has no real U.S. footprint, I'll have to look for BA flights. How do I do it? I'd like to go to the U.S. West Coast (HEL-LON-SFO) on BA First in Summer 2015. What are the next steps – how do I book? How likely is that I will get what I want? Given our busy work calendars, both me and my wife have rather limited flexibility regarding the travel dates..
If benefits A, B and C won't realize, is there anything AY+ can deliver? How others are perceiving this?
I'm relatively fresh to the FF programs as I only quite recently started earning miles -- this is my first season.
However, looks like by the end of the year I'll have collected approximately 400,000-500,000 AY points.
How can I use them?
Ideally, I'd aspire for three types of target program benefits:
(A) Business to First upgrades on other OW airlines, especially BA, when I fly for business
(B) Business upgrades on family holidays, i.e. HEL-BKK-HEL, on Finnair flights
(C) First class tickets for U.S. family vacations
But the realities of AY+ program hit against these aspirations
By target outcome, how I _believe_ AY+ can help me reach my targets:
(A) I learned a while ago that for the Business to First upgrade, I'd have to become a BA FFer and have some Avios. So AY+ is worthless, I'm in a worse position than a BA Bronze card holder. No game here for me
(B) HEL-BKK-HEL upgrades on AY own metal. I booked coach tickets a while back and signed up for the business upgrade list. However, the helpful AY+ call center has now advised that there will be no business upgrade allocations on the flights that we are booked on, given it's busy holiday season. When I heard it, I was moderately piss** ***
(C) The remaining benefit, First Class tickets on U.S. vacations. Given that AY has no real U.S. footprint, I'll have to look for BA flights. How do I do it? I'd like to go to the U.S. West Coast (HEL-LON-SFO) on BA First in Summer 2015. What are the next steps – how do I book? How likely is that I will get what I want? Given our busy work calendars, both me and my wife have rather limited flexibility regarding the travel dates..
If benefits A, B and C won't realize, is there anything AY+ can deliver? How others are perceiving this?
Last edited by JustFlyer; Sep 15, 2014 at 10:36 am
Sep 15, 2014, 2:27 pm
#2
Moderator, Finnair
Join Date: May 2011
Location: MMX (CPH)
Programs: Eurobonus Diamond, QR Gold, AY+ Platinum, A3*G, Nordic Choice Lifetime Platinum, SJ Prio Black
Posts: 14,195
For b) the best advice is to check the availability before making a booking. This can be done from AY web page.
You didn't tell us your tier with AY, but assuming you are platinum the better option to do family trips in J on AY metal is to buy one J fare for yourself and upgrade the rest of the family. The benefits of this is you spend fewer points and also you need lower upgrade availability.
Again assuming, being a plat puts you on top of waitlist for upgrades. However, there seldom are more than 4 seats available and if you are late to the game and requested something like 3-4 upgrades on a single flight, that prio won't help you.
I personally find the family upgrades very good value and the perk of AY+ program. In the past, I very rarely have not been able to upgrade at will. Lately, it has been very difficult to upgrade, and speculation is that AY silently have devalued the upgrade system by severly limiting upgrade space.
Other than upgrades, the points are IMHO worth very little and the burn options and ratio are bad. But since they are worth so little, I find myself burning them on bizzare things like the Finnair shuttle bus and intra-eu award flights. Award space is also limited, but J awards are much easier to find and thus a good way to get rid of some points.
You didn't tell us your tier with AY, but assuming you are platinum the better option to do family trips in J on AY metal is to buy one J fare for yourself and upgrade the rest of the family. The benefits of this is you spend fewer points and also you need lower upgrade availability.
Again assuming, being a plat puts you on top of waitlist for upgrades. However, there seldom are more than 4 seats available and if you are late to the game and requested something like 3-4 upgrades on a single flight, that prio won't help you.
I personally find the family upgrades very good value and the perk of AY+ program. In the past, I very rarely have not been able to upgrade at will. Lately, it has been very difficult to upgrade, and speculation is that AY silently have devalued the upgrade system by severly limiting upgrade space.
Other than upgrades, the points are IMHO worth very little and the burn options and ratio are bad. But since they are worth so little, I find myself burning them on bizzare things like the Finnair shuttle bus and intra-eu award flights. Award space is also limited, but J awards are much easier to find and thus a good way to get rid of some points.
Sep 15, 2014, 9:45 pm
#3
Ambassador: Finnair Plus
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: HEL
Programs: AY+ Plat, HHonors Diamond, Hyatt Discoverist, Priority Club Plat Amb, Miles and Smiles Elite
Posts: 5,308
I personally find the family upgrades very good value and the perk of AY+ program. In the past, I very rarely have not been able to upgrade at will. Lately, it has been very difficult to upgrade, and speculation is that AY silently have devalued the upgrade system by severly limiting upgrade space.
Other than upgrades, the points are IMHO worth very little and the burn options and ratio are bad. But since they are worth so little, I find myself burning them on bizzare things like the Finnair shuttle bus and intra-eu award flights. Award space is also limited, but J awards are much easier to find and thus a good way to get rid of some points.
One-way intra-Europe tickets are pretty good value, if r/t tickets are not cheap.
And, welcome to FT and AY+ Forum!
Sep 15, 2014, 10:37 pm
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: HEL
Programs: lots of shiny metal cards
Posts: 14,111
(C) First class tickets for U.S. family vacations
(C) The remaining benefit, First Class tickets on U.S. vacations. Given that AY has no real U.S. footprint, I'll have to look for BA flights. How do I do it? I'd like to go to the U.S. West Coast (HEL-LON-SFO) on BA First in Summer 2015. What are the next steps – how do I book?
(C) The remaining benefit, First Class tickets on U.S. vacations. Given that AY has no real U.S. footprint, I'll have to look for BA flights. How do I do it? I'd like to go to the U.S. West Coast (HEL-LON-SFO) on BA First in Summer 2015. What are the next steps – how do I book?
I think OW partner flights must be booked via the call center.
TA F in BA is really hard to snatch even with BA's own currency (avios)
A final note - if you mainly earn your AY points while flying BA, AY+ is not a good choice of FFP - look at BAEC. I did
Sep 16, 2014, 5:25 am
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 54
Thanks for the valuable advice!
On (B), yes I'm a Platinum customer. Need to consider switching the HEL-BKK-HEL tickets for this Holiday season as you suggested (one J ticket + family upgrades). I'll give a call to the call center to check if they could do something after paying more.
On (C), flying BA First on a day-flight is my goal. I somewhat count on European premium carriers' ability to deliver high service quality more than Americans. As there are only four European airlines with First offering (Lufthansa, Swiss, Air France and BA), and BA being the only one in OW, there is no choice. Having been spoiled by a company policy that enforces Business Class as the travel class and doing extensive business travel (16 Atlantic crossings since late April), I'd like to do my leisure travel in First if I ever get a chance for that.
Agree, choice of FF program should have been BAEC. Need to change it for next season.
However, I'm curious to see if anything happens in AY+ program after you pass 400,000, 500,000, … points per year. So far, there has been little benefit, leaving me with a belief that I'd have been better off had I transferred my flights to BAEC right away after reaching the Platinum level. So far the conclusion is that there doesn't seem to be any hidden benefits that would be available to you after spending $$$$$ on AY tickets. Given this context, it's very disappointing to see that AY+ cannot fix my family HEL-BKK-HEL tickets once when there is opportunity to deliver a benefit that I'd value.
Like Intuition has done, I probably end up wasting 500,000+ AY+ points for nothing. Makes me rather sad about the state of AY+ program. Intuitively, I thought that it would make sense to believe that the more $$$ you spend on tickets, the more benefits you'd get. But the curve seems to flatten at 150,000 or so points. This seems like a program design issue to me.
On (B), yes I'm a Platinum customer. Need to consider switching the HEL-BKK-HEL tickets for this Holiday season as you suggested (one J ticket + family upgrades). I'll give a call to the call center to check if they could do something after paying more.
On (C), flying BA First on a day-flight is my goal. I somewhat count on European premium carriers' ability to deliver high service quality more than Americans. As there are only four European airlines with First offering (Lufthansa, Swiss, Air France and BA), and BA being the only one in OW, there is no choice. Having been spoiled by a company policy that enforces Business Class as the travel class and doing extensive business travel (16 Atlantic crossings since late April), I'd like to do my leisure travel in First if I ever get a chance for that.
Agree, choice of FF program should have been BAEC. Need to change it for next season.
However, I'm curious to see if anything happens in AY+ program after you pass 400,000, 500,000, … points per year. So far, there has been little benefit, leaving me with a belief that I'd have been better off had I transferred my flights to BAEC right away after reaching the Platinum level. So far the conclusion is that there doesn't seem to be any hidden benefits that would be available to you after spending $$$$$ on AY tickets. Given this context, it's very disappointing to see that AY+ cannot fix my family HEL-BKK-HEL tickets once when there is opportunity to deliver a benefit that I'd value.
Like Intuition has done, I probably end up wasting 500,000+ AY+ points for nothing. Makes me rather sad about the state of AY+ program. Intuitively, I thought that it would make sense to believe that the more $$$ you spend on tickets, the more benefits you'd get. But the curve seems to flatten at 150,000 or so points. This seems like a program design issue to me.
Last edited by JustFlyer; Sep 16, 2014 at 6:14 am
Sep 16, 2014, 7:45 am
#6
Ambassador: Finnair Plus
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: HEL
Programs: AY+ Plat, HHonors Diamond, Hyatt Discoverist, Priority Club Plat Amb, Miles and Smiles Elite
Posts: 5,308
I have received a special gift after 200.000 points/year. Did little hacking when choosing it, and they seemed to have higher tiers (250.000 and 350.000?) as well.
How many programs have a 'hidden' level after the highest public one?
I have been upgraded to BA First once (LHR-PHL), on AY ticket (AY 5467, http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22073994-post4.html). Nice, no doubt about it, but I'd actually almost prefer spending that time in CX J...
How many programs have a 'hidden' level after the highest public one?
I have been upgraded to BA First once (LHR-PHL), on AY ticket (AY 5467, http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22073994-post4.html). Nice, no doubt about it, but I'd actually almost prefer spending that time in CX J...
Sep 16, 2014, 12:45 pm
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 54
I have received a special gift after 200.000 points/year. Did little hacking when choosing it, and they seemed to have higher tiers (250.000 and 350.000?) as well.
How many programs have a 'hidden' level after the highest public one?
I have been upgraded to BA First once (LHR-PHL), on AY ticket (AY 5467, http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22073994-post4.html). Nice, no doubt about it, but I'd actually almost prefer spending that time in CX J...
How many programs have a 'hidden' level after the highest public one?
I have been upgraded to BA First once (LHR-PHL), on AY ticket (AY 5467, http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22073994-post4.html). Nice, no doubt about it, but I'd actually almost prefer spending that time in CX J...
I was just curious about the hidden levels. I wanted to see whether they would offer "Platinum VIP" (that a colleague who travels less got) or not.
I may be wrong on this (sorry for the low quality info!), but doesn't Singapore Airlines have a "second" FF program, to which you become eligible after becoming Gold? I have heard some crazy rumors about some of their most qualified members' travel experiences (or from people who have traveled together with them as company).
At BA, I have never got upgraded as AY+ card holder (OWE), but after getting to know some of their crew members, I have been offered some First service elements, e.g. one of the FAs brought Cristal bottle from First to me when the B747 upper deck was almost empty on a 11 hour day flight. A great trip, I must say!
Sep 16, 2014, 1:00 pm
#9
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 54
Nevertheless, BA F on a long day-flight like LON-SFO/LAX is still my dream. Probably on my next BA CW flight I will simply purchase the upgrade with money. It's not that expensive when I have asked, like 1000 EUR.
Sep 17, 2014, 9:24 am
#10
Ambassador: Finnair
Join Date: May 2003
Location: HEL
Programs: AY Lumo, BA Silver, HHonors Gold
Posts: 4,270
Unless you're absolutely loaded, don't pay such money for F on BA.
Sep 19, 2014, 4:37 am
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 54
An update concerning this benefit (B): my family HEL-BKK-HEL tickets were just upgraded to confirmed business class tickets. I mean, the entire package, each one of them.
It all happened after posting this message. Can't believe this.
Thanks AY+ (if you are reading this)!
Make no mistake, AY+ is great.
It all happened after posting this message. Can't believe this.
Thanks AY+ (if you are reading this)!
Make no mistake, AY+ is great.