Originally Posted by
womanofaction
Okay, great ideas. We're trying to minimize out of pocket costs and also we know we won't be using any miles to fly internationally for at least another couple of years, so we feel comfortable "burning" the miles on this trip and taking a couple years to build up another stash.
It looks like the Alaska Air CC with the companion cert might be a great option for 2 seats on one AS flight. So that's 2 seats, one way.
You understand that the companion cert option requires purchase of tickets and no use of miles. Don't get me wrong, it's a good deal but seems to contradict your desire to burn miles and minimize out-of-pocket.
Originally Posted by
womanofaction
Not married to the UA flight but it seemed easy to redeem 40,000 UR Points x 4 = 160,000 miles. Are you guys saying it would be too tricky to get 4 F award seats on the same flight?
I don't think it would be out of the question to get 4 F awards on the same flight. Doing sample searches on AA.com shows many dates with 4 F seats available on AS flights between the bay area & Hawaii.
Originally Posted by
womanofaction
Okay, great ideas. We're trying to minimize out of pocket costs...
Another question, are you married to flying F? Like others here have suggested, fares between the bay area and Hawaii are often cheap. Even if you'd rather not pay cash, you could get 4 RT tickets in coach for 100k Avios and save most of your UR points for hotels as well as having the AA miles available to transfer to hhonors if desired.
I've flown F several times to the west coast as a non-rev airline employee but would never pay cash or miles for the priviledge as I'm perfectly fine in coach even being 6'4" and big.
Originally Posted by
guv1976
Amex occasionally offers transfer bonuses when converting MR to Avios. Keep your eyes open.
Definitely keep your eyes out for this if you decide to go the route of transferring to Avios! Wait until you're ready to book before doing the transfer.