Originally Posted by
Mwenenzi
You may be getting confused between standard/saver and anytime awards
On UA FRA-JFK a business award is 57500 UA ff miles one way or 115,000 return
http://www.awardace.com/redemptions/...p_type=one_way (this interface has gone backwards)
http://www.flyermiler.com/
Frequent flyer miles are not equal to earn or burn between ffp’s. 10,000 frequent flyer miles in 1 ffp may get you a longer award flight than 15,000 frequent flyer miles in another ffp. Each airline ffp has different rules for using (burning) those miles/points for awards and different copay/surcharge $$ fees. There are award cash surcharges with some ffp’s/routes/airlines. With awards taxes are the same for all airlines for the same route and class. Award surcharge can/are different.
I'm aware of the US saver award.
However, it presents another restriction on burning miles.
And more importantly, the routes available as saver awards are exactly the ones that wouldn't be very wise to burn miles on in the first place.
When burningn miles, experienced travelers always take the most exotic routes that are extremely expensive when purchased, and these are never available as saver awards.
Anyway, 115k is still considerably more than 80k, more than 43%. And OZ's fuel surcharge is none to very little depending on the airline you actually fly.
I'd prefer paying 80k+$100 over 115k+$35 any day.
Ironically enough, OZ is the best FFP and UA the worst if you fly UA often:
- OZ credits 50% of flown miles on discounted economy while UA does around 25% on UA metals
- OZ *G grants US domestic lounge access while UA *G doesn't when flying economy.
I did an intensive research on *A FFP and came to the conclusion:
- OZ is hands down the best FFP for not-so-frequent-flyers thanks to the factors mentioned so far.
- OZ is the ideal secondary FFP for heavy flyers because of the eventual lifetime status and "exotic award routes" including a free stopover at ICN.
As a sidenote, the BoA Asiana VISA Signature credit card is a real blessing:
- 30,000 miles welcome gift (spend $3000 in the first 90 days)
- 10,000 bonus miles EVERY YEAR
- 2 miles per dollar spent at groceries and gas stations (1 mile anywhere else)
A family of five wil have 200,000 miles after three months which is good for two trans-Atlantic reward tickets in First class cabin, for just $495 annual fee. ($99 each)
Even after that, 50,000 miles every year isn't shabby at all.
Considering most trans-Atlantic business fares are around $4000, I would buy 10,000 OZ miles for $99 any day.
$792(annual fee) + $100(fuel surcharge) is even less than premium economy.
God bless (Bank of) America