Originally Posted by
Patybear
We are very new to the miles/points world (other than Southwest - Rapid Rewards Visa Card). We are looking to fly from US to Africa. I see I can just book thru UR but is it better to transfer points to the Airline that you want to fly? How do I know if 2 seats are available on the flights we want to take? We will be flying home from a different part of Africa - better to book a multi city round trip or one ways? Would the answer be the same for booking a hotel directly thru UR or transfering to Hotel program?
I did try to search to see if i could find an answer although I did not, I did learn some helpful information. If I missed this information If you can just direct me to the right area that would be great.
Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.
Generally if you're flying economy it's better to book through the portal. You won't be subject to program capacity controls and you'll even earn airline miles on your ticket (excluding basic economy if offered). However, many want more value per point and seek out business class saver awards through programs like United (not necessarily on United, but partners). However, this requires searching for availability (you can do a dummy booking on Uniteds website) and having flexibility (especially booking for two).
Most of the time it's not a good deal to transfer Chase UR to hotel programs. For example, Marriott points are valued much lower than Chase UR. The exception here is Hyatt. Hyatt's new category (even the recently added new top tier) doesn't charge much compared to their competitors (new top tier is only 40k/night). The downside being Hyatt has a limited footprint.
Essentially, depends on how you're flying and where you're staying specifically.