I apologize to everyone for the lack of details and direction; I'm trying my best to learn as I go along.
Originally Posted by
samwkchan
Do you have more information about your trip, such as dates and preferred carriers? It would help us know the situation better and answer your question more accurately.
Dates I'm looking at are either the second to last week of May or first / second week of August. Those dates can be moved around quite liberally, as my schedule is completely flexible. Would like 5 nights, can go longer but not more than 7. Looking to just get a full breath of the city, not going for any single purpose or event.
Originally Posted by
Stubtify
So my 2cents is to just book the trip with cash at this point, and work on mileage for a future trip. For example maybe your next trip will be to Paris in Business/First... all for about the same cost as a coach ticket? Sounds good, right?
If I were to book this trip with cash, would it be possible to upgrade rooms or flights using points after the fact? How much does something like this typically run (just an estimate, know it's hard to give exact numbers) and how do I go about doing so?
Originally Posted by
points guy
What airline(s) are you looking to travel on? Based on your current miles/points it may be tough to leverage points for airfare depending on where you are traveling from. Might make sense to find a good deal on tix you want for the time frame you want and pay cash for the airfare and utilize the points for the hotel.
Depending on what kind of accommodations you are looking for you may be able to combine your points from AMEX and Sapphire into one hotel account and score 2-4 nights at a higher end property, or might be able to snag 5-6 nights at a more basic property like a Holiday Inn etc...
Traveling from Boston, MA. I have no preference on airlines or hotels, except that it not be a bargin basement trip. I don't want to spend a fortune, nor to do I want to wind up with a horrible flight and room just to save a few dollars. I'm trying to spent $3k max for 2 people, just on flight and hotel. The points from Chase were a recent acquisition (signed up for the 50k points promo) while the Amex is my main card.
I guess what I'm wondering is how can flight + hotel be $2k while the same exact thing, booked separately, be $1k more? Is it possible to get the "package" rate with the reservations booked separately, and apply any miles or points to that?
Thanks for all the replies and help so far.