pinniped

US Airways also has another personal distinction for me: it's the last time I actively participated in a big airline partner promotion. (The Grand Slams.) Those used to be quite common across US, AA, NW, and maybe others. The Flyertalk community always had lots of active threads, ideas, advice, and a more thorough Q&A about the promos than anything the airlines had. The Milesbuzz forum was always busy: even if it was an individual airline promo, if it was big and "buzzworthy", it went there for all to see.

The last Grand Slam netted me something like 150k all told. (I want to say 40k in the base miles from all of the different partners + 110k in bonuses for the "hits".) Ranged from weird little things like buying a $6.99 bottle of wine to a bunch of tiny hotel transfers to actually *buying* Silver Elite status from US Airways. But totally worth it when I redeemed my last 2 North Asia J awards before the exit from Star Alliance...

These days it's all about credit cards, churning, manufactured spend, etc. No more fun promos like that...

price123

Quite a few good ones - BMI and US were great value but no longer around.

Another recent loss was HKG-SIN-BCN-GRU in SQ Suites / First for around 100K one-way with a 6 month stop in BCN.

This week and still available, 25K Etihad miles for PRG-ICN one-way with Czech in business. Availability is good

pinniped

In all the talk of great awards, I guess I should include my "rookie mistake" award: MCI-DFW-MCO R/T for 25,000 miles in 1994. College buddies were visiting there from the UK, and I had just accumulated my first 25,000 AA miles. I was super excited about my "free" trip.

I don't even want to know what the airfare would have been. Probably $175 R/T. That route has been operated by WN for as long as I can remember, so I'm sure I passed up a cheap nonstop on them to connect through Dallas on AA.

MCIUnitedGuy

Two really good redemptions stick out to me using United/Continental miles (under the old rules obviously):

2012 - IAH-HKG in NH J, HKG - BKK in TG F, BKK - IAH in OZ J with a 15 hour stopover in Seoul and OZ's Quadra Smartium product for 135k r/t.

2014 - RDU - SYD in UA J, (open jaw) AKL - NRT in NZ J, four day stop in Tokyo then NRT - IAH in UA J for 135k r/t.

Writing those out makes me miss the Multi City award search and those aren't even tricked up awards.

I haven't had any bad ones other than lack of availability, yet....

SocialAdept

Ain't that the truth, The Grand Slams and the US Airways 50% discount point sales was the last hurrah of great FF program events for me. With the Mint dying about the same time and hotel programs starting to come down hard on BRG it felt like the "scene" changed almost overnight.

dlnewbie

worst - DCA-ATL 25k last minute
best - UA award IAD-JFK-SFO(UA PS F first time)(24hr layover)- SIN (SQ F first time)-SYD / DPS-SIN-LHR(24hr layover) - FRA(stopover)(1st time FCT) - DUS-ORD-IAD.

likry2000

In April my husband and I will be flying BUF-HNL-OGG-BUF extra comfort, plus 5 nights at Hilton Hawaiian Village resort and 5 nights at Hilton Grand Wailea. 100,000 Chase Ultimate rewards and some cash. 400,000 Hilton points. Total cash for 10 nights hotel and RT air 700.00( hotel taxes and resort fees isn't included). I don't know how you would rank that but to me it's pretty good.

desi

Best: 150k miles on BA to fly roundtrip on Concorde plus omward to Asia in First. (Being able to see sun rising from west due to late departure- priceless)

most bang for value: Pan AM 30 (30 days of unlimited flying on Pan Am) for 90000 miles

keitherson

I am so jealous rn

JayhawkCO

Never had a bad one, other than maybe some arduous phone calls with phantom availability.

Best redemption was on CO:

In Business:
BKI-ICN on OZ
ICN-HKG on OZ
HKG-SYD on VS
SYD-RAR on NZ (destination)
RAR-AKL on NZ
AKL-ZQN on NZ (stopover)
ZQN-AKL on NZ
AKL-SYD on NZ
SYD-SIN on SQ
SIN-CGK on SQ

All for 60K miles.

Chris

loomis

My best redemption value experience was getting three award tix from ORD to OGG for 25K BA each. That was under the old BA award redemption program.

My worst experience with frequent flyer programs was watch DL swallow up NW and their creative frequency program, subsequently hugely devaluing it, then maddening many by not even providing an award chart any more.

pinniped

Hilton *shouldn't* hit you with garbage fees on an award stay.

Confirmation from HH, as of a few months ago:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilto...ard-stays.html

And yes, I'd always rank using HH points at GW as a damn good award. HH has devalued several times over the years, but adding that property to the Waldorf lineup was a solid "get" for their Hawaii lineup.

My best Hawaii award was 100,000 for 6 nights at the HWV on the Big Island. I hotel-hopped in the summer of 2001, completing a bunch of "Conquest Bonuses" to earn enough points to cover 3 of our honeymoon weeks and then some...

HWV is still there and still a good hotel...albeit for a lot more points than it once was.

eponymous_coward

Best experience:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...ok-berlin.html Includes awards that are impossible now using dead airline programs (US *A "RTW" redemption, CO redemption that included stopovers and EK A380 J). Similar awards would be more expensive and use different airlines/routings.

Worst experience:

Trying to cancel Avianca frequent flyer awards. I usually end up at the three hour/multiple calls end, not the twenty minute end.

CaseyFlies

My worst experience doesn't have anything to do with the technology. It's the fees that some airlines charge. And by some airlines, I mean British Airways. Paid miles to fly business class to Europe last summer outbound on Lufthansa: fees were about $80 per ticket. Paid miles to fly back business class on British Airways: fees were in the hundreds. (I forget the actual figure, but it was probably over $300 or $400 per ticket.)

Also: Upgrading with miles on cash-paid tickets is a pretty user-unfriendly process. Phone calls, waiting and wondering if you'll get the upgrade, dealing with the airline lingo of "fare classes" -- it makes the whole process feel like a crapshoot at the end of a maze.

Mcflyneo

TK. In total i clocked hours, on the phone to book tickets.