Originally Posted by
guv1976
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)
Quebec is a big place. Do you mean YQB, YUL, or someplace else? Have you checked current award availability yet at aa.com and united.com? Have you priced a cash ticket for possible use of your Arrival+ credit?
Sorry, I meant to say Montreal, Quebec. It’s STL -> YUL.
With UA and AA, I can still buy one round trip economy ticket for 25,000 points, but in reality I will have to book, say, in May to travel in July. It probably means I’ll end up paying 50,000 points per ticket.
The cash prices are (note that they can vary a quite a lot depending on the departure time):
AA website: $740 = 1.48 cents per point.
UA website: $700 = 1.4 cents per point.
Orbitz: Delta – Air Canada, $365 - ???
I don’t understand how Orbitz can sell a similar ticket for half the price, and that’s one reason I asked for advice here.
The UR points I can use for UA cost me 0.67 cents per point, whereas AA points are almost free because they come from a bonus. It looks like it makes sense to get another 50,000 bonus for AA and use it, unless Orbitz can indeed deliver a ticket at half price, in which case I can apply Barclays Arrival. Please let me know if I got something wrong and/or if there is an alternative strategy (eg, opening a Delta card).