Hi All - extremely new to both flyertalk and leveraging cards and other creative ways to earn points/miles for Hotel & Airline redemption.
I try to stay current with a number of newsletters and blogs (million mile secrets, noobtraveler, frugal travel guy, the gate, the points guy, various blogs on boardingarea as well as flyertalk).
Earlier this year I picked up some American Express Gold Rewards cards before making a trip to Asia. Unfortunately I wasn't 'hip' to this game so I potentially missed out on earning some crazy points. I'm trying to fix that now and am looking for some advice.
Through a 'promotion' we were offered a 6D/5N stay at the Westin Ka'anapali Resort on Maui (along with a $185 voucher toward an Avis car rental and either 5k SPG points or a $75 resort certificate) for a hair under $800. It seemed like a good idea - but now we (2 adults) somehow need to get to Maui in May/June. The real kickers though is we can't break the bank because
we're expecting our first,
have to visit family in France (before the end of 2013) to show off the baby
So, I'm looking for advice on how we can get from Washington DC (DCA preferred; IAD)
to Maui Hawaii on the cheap (read: 'free')
island hop while we're out there on the cheap (read: 'free')
get to France (CDG) in First or Business class on the cheap (read: 'free' again )
Wife has about 2 years worth of credit history; score is 756
My credit score average is 773
I have a [small] business
Monthly spend is a bit over $2k
In terms of accounts...
Aegean Air: 1K
ANA: 26154 (2 accounts with 13077 in each)
British Airways: 0
Lufthansa: 500
United: 4345
USAir: 19597
Virgin America: 13646 (2 accounts: 11066 + 2580)
Virgin Atlantic: 0
SPG: 1748
AMEX MR: 90074
So I'm hoping to get some suggestions from the community on
which cards I should seriously consider for my first app party
clever ways to use some of these points (and others that we'd earn between now & next year) to help us meet our goals and then some
I'm pretty much sold on these cards because of the low spends and some other strategic reasons:
American Express Business Gold Rewards Card - 50k for $5k in 3 months
Citi Hilton HHonors™ Vista Signature - 40k for $1k in 4 months
American Express Hilton Card 40k for $750 in 3 months 25K for $3000 in 6 months (And I want the Surpass card too!)
But I don't see me racking up the kinds of miles I think we're going to need to meet our goals.
I've considered some of the Hawaiian Airlines Visa's, both US Airways cards, but maybe I should just try the Ink, Sapphire and SPG line of cards & transfer to airlines?
I'd say that the SPG Amex card is a poor recommendation for the OP's situation. The OP needs a lot of miles quickly, and the typical sign-up bonus for that card is only 25,000 Starwood points.
If the OP and his wife can each get two Citi/AA cards -- and meet the spend requirements -- each could have over 100,000 AA miles within a few months. Another option would be for each to get the Chase/UA Explorer card, and the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, and have close to 100,000 UA miles within several months.
The UA miles might be better for flying in or out of WAS, but the AA miles could be used to fly Hawaii-NYC (stopover) - Europe for the same cost as NYC-Europe alone. (But the OP would have to get himself from and to NYC to take advantage of that option.)
Keep in mind that both AA and UA offer one-way awards.
Programs: DL GM, WN CP; MR Plt, PC Plt, BW Gld, CC Sil
Posts: 3,292
Quote:
Originally Posted by JuliusPIV
So, I'm looking for advice on how we can get from Washington DC (DCA preferred; IAD)
to Maui Hawaii on the cheap (read: 'free')
island hop while we're out there on the cheap (read: 'free')
get to France (CDG) in First or Business class on the cheap (read: 'free' again )
I'll take a swing at this. There are really two separate trips here. Here is ONE way to handle this; there are several other (subjectively) good options too.
Use United miles for Hawaii. This is cost effective and should be relatively easy to book. You can get one free island hop as part of the ticket. So you could do something like this:
It would price as 40k miles per person in coach or 80k miles in first class. The UA card = 50k after $1000 spend. You could add on one of the Ultimate Rewards cards with a 40k or 50k signup and transfer to UA miles, if you really want first class.
With that award you also get an open jaw. So your return could be, say, LIH-SFO-DCA - then you'd only need a one-way ticket HNL-LIH to get an extra island. If you want to drift into advanced territory, you could also theoretically use that open jaw at the end of the trip, to tack on a free one-way flight somewhere else in the domestic US for later in the year. EDIT: Just checked my math - you could END somewhere else in the domestic US but since you already used the stopover, you can't stop in DCA on the way there.
FOR FRANCE, I'd look at using American miles. If you can travel off-peak (Oct 15 - May 15) it's 40k in coach or (any time of year) 100k in business. The routing would be something like:
DCA-JFK-CDG and the same on the return. A stopover would be allowed at JFK if you wanted it.
You can each get 100k miles by signing up for two AA credit cards, plus the cards give a 10% rebate on 100k of redemptions each year.
(Another option might be to transfer the Membership Rewards points to Delta miles and try to book on Air France or KLM flights. You'd certainly have enough for one ticket already.)
Best thing you can do right now is start to run some availability searches. Go to each of the major programs and search by segment on some possible dates to see what's available.
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Last edited by MDtR-Chicago; Nov 15, 12 at 9:25 pm..
I'm doing this exact trip pretty much for April and June. United miles LAX-OGG (20K united) HNL-LAX(stop)-LHR (on BA First for 62.5K AA miles) and FRA-LAX (on LH Business 747-8i 50K united). Send me an email if you still need help, or you can visit my blog. Not sure if I can post it here, but PM or look me up on Google.
If I was u I would get chase ink bold for urself (50k miles) and chase sapphire preferred for wife. Total 90k. Put your business expenses and home cable, cell phone electric on ink for 5x points. Start buying your inventory with credit card. Amex is also good but chase UR is best for low point redemption on United to Europe.
U should both get 2 cards within 24 hrs. In 3 months each get 2 more. And again repeat. By end of 2013 u will be up to your balls in miles.
100k United miles (fom chase) each plus $35 for the round trip to CDG (Paris) from Dulles. Direct.
Also another strategy is to expand your business nd improve profitability over the next year. Read blue ocean strategy.
I'd say that the SPG Amex card is a poor recommendation for the OP's situation. The OP needs a lot of miles quickly, and the typical sign-up bonus for that card is only 25,000 Starwood points.
If the OP and his wife can each get two Citi/AA cards -- and meet the spend requirements -- each could have over 100,000 AA miles within a few months. Another option would be for each to get the Chase/UA Explorer card, and the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, and have close to 100,000 UA miles within several months.
The UA miles might be better for flying in or out of WAS, but the AA miles could be used to fly Hawaii-NYC (stopover) - Europe for the same cost as NYC-Europe alone. (But the OP would have to get himself from and to NYC to take advantage of that option.)
Keep in mind that both AA and UA offer one-way awards.
2 x Amex Biz Gold for total of 110k Amex (you & wife)
Then look to either transfer your miles to DL for IAD-CDG on AF which has fairly good availability generally
or
transfer to Aeroplan and fly on United metal IAD-CDG (or DCA-EWR-CDG). UA's business product is actually probably better than AF and no fuel surcharges on Aeroplan when you fly UA metal (and I believe it's only 90k pp)
then
2 x AA for both you & wife for total of ~210k AA
This is more than enough to get you to Hawaii in biz and island hop while you're there.
3 cards each isn't too bad and you'll have miles to spare afterward. Use things like Bluebird to help meet spends if you need to.
You can get one free island hop as part of the ticket.
Unfortunately this part is not true. I don't know of any airline that can work an interisland stopover in for free. The interisland hop(s) will be 5,000 miles each one-way.
OP: As alluded to by several posters already, stopovers can be very useful in maximizing your miles. As mentioned by MDtR there are many ways to do this, but the following is how I might look to construct this trip:
Apply for 1 Chase Ink Bold/Plus and spend until you reach a total of 58k UR
Apply for 2 Citi AA cards each (5ok miles each)
- Transfer 40k UR points to UA and use for 2 one-way tickets to Hawaii
- Use 3k VX miles for each one-way inter-island ticket desired. (I have no experience with this but the Elevate website seems to indicate that one-ways are possible.)
- Use 100k AA miles for 2 one-way tix in J from Hawaii to CDG with a stopover in JFK
- Transfer 18k UR to BA for 2 RT awards in coach from JFK-IAD to return home during the JFK stopover
- Use 100k AA miles for 2 one-way tix in J from CDG home (or tack on another stopover in JFK and fly back to Hawaii later for free)
Note that you probably don't need the Ink application in there as you could use your MR points for both the one-way to Hawaii and the transfer to BA.
Programs: DL GM, WN CP; MR Plt, PC Plt, BW Gld, CC Sil
Posts: 3,292
Quote:
Originally Posted by saacman5033
Unfortunately this part is not true. I don't know of any airline that can work an interisland stopover in for free. The interisland hop(s) will be 5,000 miles each one-way.
This is strange. The United award rules say:
Quote:
A stopover is permitted on roundtrip award travel only. One stopover is permitted, unless otherwise noted. Additional mileage may be required for Saver Awards within the mainland U.S., Alaska and Canada.
A stop in Hawaii would be permitted based on that, as long as the routing was valid. HNL should be a valid stopover, then, on something like DCA-SFO-HNL-OGG plus a valid return. And yet it won't price that way.
I'm almost certain a few months back I priced a trip like this and it was only 40k roundtrip.
Maybe I'm going a little crazy...
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Unfortunately this part is not true. I don't know of any airline that can work an interisland stopover in for free. The interisland hop(s) will be 5,000 miles each one-way.
This is strange. The United award rules say:
Quote:
A stopover is permitted on roundtrip award travel only. One stopover is permitted, unless otherwise noted. Additional mileage may be required for Saver Awards within the mainland U.S., Alaska and Canada.
A stop in Hawaii would be permitted based on that, as long as the routing was valid. HNL should be a valid stopover, then, on something like DCA-SFO-HNL-OGG plus a valid return. And yet it won't price that way.
I'm almost certain a few months back I priced a trip like this and it was only 40k roundtrip.
Maybe I'm going a little crazy...
I think that UA awards to Hawaii only permit a stopover on the mainland, not within Hawaii.
A stop in Hawaii would be permitted based on that, as long as the routing was valid. HNL should be a valid stopover, then, on something like DCA-SFO-HNL-OGG plus a valid return. And yet it won't price that way.
I'm almost certain a few months back I priced a trip like this and it was only 40k roundtrip.
Maybe I'm going a little crazy...
Yeah, it should be possible in theory but I've never seen it work with any airline. I thought it might have just been Hawaiian, so I had to check the pricing before responding, but even Island Air flights get charged the extra 5k.
)
