Originally Posted by
crimson12
Hi,
I have ~2700 points expiring at the end of this year, and no real travel planned before then. (I do have travel planned, but not that I could use my Business Extra points.) I'm wondering what my best strategy is here.
In a similar situation, ended up booking 2 BX1A RTs to Cancun for May 2016. Redemption to Mexico (Canada) is the same as continental US, which generally means a better value than miles.
Downside of all BE travel awards is that unlike miles, ANY changes (including days of travel, flights) incur a $150 fee, so only book an itinerary you are happy with.
Originally Posted by
crimson12
I do often fly JFK-LAX/SFO, so I suppose I can redeem for 4-5 BXP1 certificates. Then I'd have a while to redeem them and I could always fly the family out to California for a short vacation or something. But if anyone has ideas on clever ways to "hedge" -- redeem the points before they expire but protect against the uncertainty of changed plans -- I'd appreciate any thoughts the experts in this thread have.
Thanks in advance!
As chicagoflyer1976 stated, BXP1 certificates cannot be used on most discounted fares. In many cases, discounted first (A fare bucket) fares can be about the same as higher coach fare buckets required to use the BXP1. For this reason, I stopped redeeming BXP1 certs.
Depending on your point of origin, number of flight segments, it can be difficult, painful to obtain an upgraded boarding pass when redeeming a BXP1 cert. While it has been more than 1 year since I have last attempted to do so, BXP1 upgraded segment boarding passes cannot be obtained online, from the phone app, most ticket counter agents are unaware of the process, often have to call a help desk for assistance, which still may not be successful. In other words, plan to arrive at the airport early, spend some time at the counter.