Originally Posted by
dukerau
The problem with travel agents and (some) low-cost carriers is you wouldn't be able to book via the UR portal to get the 1.5cpp. What's the aversion to award tickets? You could do the SJC-NRT-SGN-SEA (throwaway) + SGN-CDG with UR @ 1.5cpp then use 30k UR transferred to UA + $76 to book the CDG-SFO non-stop on 12/12 (it's available as an award). Total cost: ~113k UR + $76
My main aversion to award ticket is what happens in case of medical cancellation. The Chase travel insurance policy will only reimburse 1 cent per UR point transferred to partners in this case if booking an award flight when there is no dollar value for the flight. I have a history of frequently getting sick so that is a particular concern.
It seems that this is still worth taking a chance on, though. The one-way CDG-SFO or SFO-CDG, when booked for cash, is priced at $2500 - $4000 all year long. Roundtrip is in $700 - $1200 range on good days depending on seasons, assuming a throwaway return ticket.
However, Flying blue just let me book an award one-way flight without the exhorbitant cost, and without throwaway ticket. In this case I change the itinerary and chose to go to Paris first. I paid only 18750 miles + $79.56 for SFO-CDG one-way nonstop earlier in November (sat, Nov 12). I just did an instant transfer from UR to Flyingblue of 19000 points and the taxes with CC.
When switching the fares from miles to dollars on Flyingblue, the same SFO-CDG one-way flight was showing at $2687 ! And I don't have to worry about any throwaway return ticket. This is like getting
(2687 - 79.56) / 18750 = 13.9 cpp .
This is a bit better than redeeming the UR points for 1.5cpp. I guess I figured out a better redemption option after all.
Now on to booking the rest of the trip.