How Are You Going to Use Your GS Miles?

Old Nov 16, 2011, 11:03 am
  #61  
 
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90k each for biz class to north asia between my wife's and my account the entire family is attending my grandma's 100th birthday next year
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Old Nov 16, 2011, 12:31 pm
  #62  
 
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Originally Posted by YYZC2
I'm going to go to South Africa in business class in 2013. 110K to Africa is one of the gems of the US chart, IMHO.
Same thought, but hoping for 2012
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Old Nov 16, 2011, 1:04 pm
  #63  
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Originally Posted by riversair
I just booked two roundtrip tickets in Continental Business First: PIT->EWR-DEL for 5/25 return 6/4

Lots of availability in J in continental to DEL in May June July. It may not be F, but it is very nice (and nonstop)
Whenever I have a choice, I'd rather redeem J than F except in rare cases (e.g., LH with a long connection in FRA). I guess my basic thought is that since most carriers have upgraded their J product in recent years and since most carriers aren't operating super-premium F experiences anymore, I'd rather hold the incremental miles for a later trip.

My 2011-2012 redemptions have been AA and BA, two airlines that seem to have more open F cabins and very tight availability on J. Just did AA to PVG in F, a pretty weak soft product. Going to DEL in fall '12 in BA F. I can't complain about it and I know we'll enjoy the trip, but there was ZERO business class availability, and that's what I looked for first.

If I end up holding these US miles through mid-next-year, I'll look to redeem to Asia in J.
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Old Nov 16, 2011, 6:31 pm
  #64  
 
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Originally Posted by pinniped
. Going to DEL in fall '12 in BA F. I can't complain about it and I know we'll enjoy the trip, but there was ZERO business class availability, and that's what I looked for first.

If I end up holding these US miles through mid-next-year, I'll look to redeem to Asia in J.
I have about 300k BA Miles (or Avios points, as of today). How many did you redeem for that? It's interesting you need that much lead time.
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Old Nov 16, 2011, 6:45 pm
  #65  
 
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Use the GS miles to take some kiddos to hike the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Mind you I have been teaching these kiddos to save their money and plan carefully while I have been investing in cookies, domain names, bonsai books, stuffed animals, and throwing credit all over town. After 2 months my $2,000 invested is worth about $5,000 in tickets while their $100 invested is worth about $100.05.
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Old Nov 16, 2011, 7:35 pm
  #66  
 
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Booked 3 off-peak award seats from PHL-PAR for my father's 75th birthday, and my niece's HS graduation (my sister got the 3rd ticket)!

All for 90K miles (saved 15K miles using the US MC). Thanks GS2011!
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Old Dec 3, 2011, 8:42 am
  #67  
 
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Originally Posted by dwcatty
It looks like I'm just going to hoard mine. I've spent hours (2-3 a day) the last three days on the ANA website trying to find combinations for two tickets to Italy next year.
After a week off at Thanksgiving I resumed my hunt this week. This morning I was successful in booking 2 biz class seats CLT-JFK-FRA-VCE with a return FCO-EWR-CLT. This is two years of GS points (200,000) with roughly $600 invested. The return is about $10,000 worth of tickets. I would never have booked this trip without GS.
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Old Jan 22, 2012, 9:54 am
  #68  
 
Join Date: May 2011
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Booking plans for GS miles?

Now that many of us have closed the books on the 2011 Grand Slam, I thought I'd see if anyone has some unique plans for using the miles you earned. This was my first year participating in the Grand Slam, and I'm definitely a newbie to booking awards using DM; the only experience I have was right out of college when I lived in Vegas and would save up 25,000 miles for a r/t flight back to the east coast. I now know that miles can go much further on partner airlines for complex or long-haul premium international flights, so I'm interested to hear other's thoughts on the best options out there

I took home just over 120,000 miles this year, so my account currently stands at 143,278. I am planning on keeping those until next year's GS so I can earn enough for some decent F/J international tickets for both me and my wife.

What else are people thinking?
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Old Jan 22, 2012, 12:20 pm
  #69  
 
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Originally Posted by Deemus7
Now that many of us have closed the books on the 2011 Grand Slam, I thought I'd see if anyone has some unique plans for using the miles you earned. This was my first year participating in the Grand Slam, and I'm definitely a newbie to booking awards using DM; the only experience I have was right out of college when I lived in Vegas and would save up 25,000 miles for a r/t flight back to the east coast. I now know that miles can go much further on partner airlines for complex or long-haul premium international flights, so I'm interested to hear other's thoughts on the best options out there

I took home just over 120,000 miles this year, so my account currently stands at 143,278. I am planning on keeping those until next year's GS so I can earn enough for some decent F/J international tickets for both me and my wife.

What else are people thinking?
Pretty much in the same boat....
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Old Feb 1, 2012, 11:39 am
  #70  
 
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Not sure. I missed 36 hits by 1, but have a total of 100,255 miles in my account.

Maybe go to napa valley envoy class next month, or save them until next year and go to Europe / Prague in low season.
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Old Feb 4, 2012, 4:22 pm
  #71  
 
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Booked today, for DH and myself:
SBP-SFO-EWR/JFK-BRU<stop for a month>-NBO<destination for 17 days>-ZRH-PHL-PHX-SBP in Business class for 110,000 miles each.
Very, very happy with this redemption, though it really took a lot of work to find availability.
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Old Mar 18, 2012, 4:07 am
  #72  
 
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Booked last month. Earned 184K on my account for a bit under $675.

120K for F award to Asia (won't give exact routing, but highlights include FRA FCT, LX F, TG F, BKK Spa ... hoping to pull off LH F close in since schedule change might give me a freebie).
60K for 2 J awards within South Asia ... BKK to India, India to Vietnam. All in SQ J (including the 77W).

Next year, will definitely bring in another account or 2 into the game (under family's names).
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Old Jun 7, 2012, 11:23 am
  #73  
 
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Already went to BKK on UA for only 60K in Y and I have another trip booked for BKK again in September on Thai for 80K. I usually prefer traveling in Y so I can make more frequent short trips instead of a long one in J or F (I have g/f in BKK).
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Old Jun 8, 2012, 9:21 am
  #74  
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Originally Posted by iang000
... (I have g/f in BKK).
You don't say....
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