fafa123

I have over 200,000 UR points and am trying to get to Buenos Aires for about one week around 6/28 (could leave as early as 6/24, must return by 7/9 the latest). No luck on United, BA, etc. Wondering if there are Korean Air partners I can find flights with. How should I search for reward availability? Any help would be appreciated!

mtkeller

Where are you starting? How many pax? What class of service?

Aerolineas Argentinas is a SkyTeam member, so you should be able to redeem KE miles on them (round trip only). I think AR space shows on delta.com and the FlyingBlue search engine.

gq_dq

Whyever would OP consider these relevant to the ask?

Flippancy aside, IAH (and most other US gateways) to EZE shows 30,000 UA miles availability in Economy for almost all days between June 24-29 outbound and least two days for 30,000 miles on the return in early July to IAH with another day to ORD. Lots of Business 55,000 miles availability on the return to LAX. So the nub would be the connections which could be a whole 'nother ballgame depending on OP's origin.

fafa123

Sorry I wasn't clearer in the original post. Leaving from NYC, 2 passengers, econ ok, one stop per leg ok. IAH is a bit out of the way...

gq_dq

Using UA miles: Apart from lots of IAH connections which you don't fancy, 1-stops are available from NYC (which includes EWR) to EZE which connect in GRU with the 2nd leg on TK on the outbound for 30,000 Economy, and 1-stop in Business 55,000 on CM connecting in PTY on the return so 170,000 for 2 pax R/T which you have enuf URs for. Seems quite doable.

I don't know much about KE points or miles. But the DL website shows some outbound non-stop JFK-EZE availability on AR which is a SkyTeam partner and should be bookable with KE points or miles, and of course there's the 1-stop on DL through ATL. It is 30,000 one-way in Economy using DL miles. The return is trickier. There is only one day in your return window which shows 30,000 mile availability on AM with a 1-stop in MEX. Business on AM may be available on several days on the return. The AF website is cleaner and shows pretty much the same availability.

Doesn't KE levy heavy YQ or other scamcharges? Or maybe that's just an urban myth.

You could also have considered Xferring your UR to BA but as you noted yourself, there appears to be very scant availability at this late stage on either AA, LA or 4M so that will probably be fruitless.

mtkeller

Depends on the route. I see an embedded Q-surcharge on AR, AM, and DL for JFK-EZE, and I know that KE has been known to collect those on some carriers. However, I don't know if they would on AR/AM/DL. (Surcharge is $280 each way.)

In general, I find the KE surcharges on their own routes tolerable. JFK-ICN-NRT in F was ~$200 one-way for November. Given the phenomenal availability, I'm willing to pay a little bit.

fafa123

[QUOTE=gq_dq;24763825]Using UA miles: Apart from lots of IAH connections which you don't fancy, 1-stops are available from NYC (which includes EWR) to EZE which connect in GRU with the 2nd leg on TK on the outbound for 30,000 Economy, and 1-stop in Business 55,000 on CM connecting in PTY on the return so 170,000 for 2 pax R/T which you have enuf URs for. Seems quite doable.

Yes I see outbound flights but see NOTHING available the week I want to return. Am I missing something? Not seeing any return on any carrier, that's why I'm trying to think (perhaps unsuccessfully) out of the box. Open to any and all suggestions.

gq_dq

1) Yes, there is Business Saver 55,000 miles availability on CM connecting to UA on the 4th of July 1-stop thru' PTY, and I believe another date with Saver Business on AV but that's a double connect. Just do a simple EZE to NYC search (1 pax only) on united.com and when the calendar comes up you will see the 4th of July in darker blue indicating Saver Business availability. But there's only 1 Biz Saver seat so the 2nd pax would have to do the Standard 65,000 award (see below).

2) I just realized, as you have 200,000 URs, if you don't mind using them up, the easiest thing at this point may just be to book one of the 30,000 mi Economy Saver outbound dates, and then on the return you can use a 65,000 mi Economy Standard award. That will be 95,000 per person and you have enough points for that. Standard awards can generally be used on UA flights with revenue availability. However, most Standard awards will route you through IAH because they are usually for all-United routings only -- albeit I did find some Standard awards CM-CM or CM-UA through PTY. There are at least two or more Standard award options on UA, CM or CM-UA on each and every day between the 2nd and 9th of July on the return. The CM options are at the very bottom of each page.