Need help using MR to go SFO(or SJC)-SGN
 

Hi All,

Hoping to get some guidance here about what some of the better redemption are going from the West Coast to Asia in December, ideally business one way, coach the other (have 135K miles, so thats how it would work out). Outbound Dec 13th +/- a couple days, Return Dec 30th, minus a couple days is ok.

So far I have looked at:

Aeroplan - Limited full business availability (usually economy on the long leg, business on the short one), overall not great.

Singapore - due to the routing rules, you cannot go SFO-SGN on any 1-way award ticket that is not at full fare (which is an unreasonable amount of miles). There is plenty of availability in business on those flights when you look RT, but not 1 way. One possibility is to book Business SFO-SIN then SIN-SGN on another award, but would cost about 120K 1-way, as opposed to the usual 101K.

I signed up for ANA but do not have my membership card yet so I cannot search anything, but I believe that availability would show @ united or Aeroplan for which I do not see anything but economy.

Are any of the other partners going to be helpful? I tried to search BA and it gave me absolutely zero results on any day, I assume because they think most people wont fly to Europe just to get to Asia.

Thanks for the help!

BA wouldn't be of any use transatlantic, but you might be able to find something transpacific on AA or CX. Also try searching out of LAX, it's easy enough to get down there for cheap and you may find more options.

If on the BA website it doesn't show any AA or CX for those dates, is it safe to say there is nothing available or is it like Star Alliance where not everything shows on a single search?

On Dec 10th, 70,000 SkyMiles will get you China Eastern in J (new 777) LAX-PVG and then Vietnam Airlines PVG-SGN. Adding the SFO-LAX segment on all but a few days doubles the miles...because additive Delta pricing. I didn't check the return options but you are potentially just 5,000 MR points away from round trip in J.

Aeroplan has a great award chart in theory, but I haven't had any luck putting together a full itinerary due to a dearth of domestic saver availability on UA or complete lack of J availability on airlines w/o high surcharges.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

For about $2,250 USD, you can currently buy 110,000 AA miles directly from AA. That's enough for a roundtrip in J to SGN, on some combination of AA, CX, and JL, if you can find award space.

If that is of interest to you, search ba.com for each leg individually (i.e., SFO-HND, SFO-HKG, SFO-LAX, LAX-NRT, LAX-HKG, HKG-SGN, NRT/HND-SGN, etc.) I'm not sure if JL serves SGN from both NRT and HND, or just from one of them.

If there is availability and you can afford to buy the AA miles, I might just hold on to the MR points and hope to get better value with them in the future.

How to use AMEX points to travel USA to Vietnam?
 

I have about 145K AMEX rewards points.

I am trying to fly LAX --> Hanoi evening of Friday February 3rd, 2017.

The itinerary is multi city and would likely include the follow legs.

Siem Reap (REP) --> Phuket (HKT) Evening of Thursday Feb 16th, 2017

Phuket (HKT) --> LAX either February 19th or 20th, 2017

Economy flight is fine.


Any thoughts on how best to use these AMEX points? The only additional miles I have are on American and United and both are <40k miles

You can transfer Amex MR points to Singapore Airlines and redeem a RT trip for ~70K miles in economy.

Hmm. Was hoping to get there in 1 stop. The Singapore rewards flights I see are all 2 stops.

I wouldn't be opposed to using points for a one way business class ticket, and then paying for economy on the return.

I should mention I will need tickets for me and the spouse.

Is there a way I could somehow use the points on United rewards flights? They have a few business saver options at 80k miles one way.

You can not transfer amex points to united mileage plus (and since you only have 145K i am not sure how 80k pp ow for two is an option).

You can however use points on start alliance flights by transferring and redeeming through air canada aeroplan or ana. Aeroplan transfers are near instant, not sure about ana.
Join aeroplan to search and quote the rates and taxes.

If those flights are operated by UA or another Star Alliance airline those same seats should be available through Aeroplan (or ANA or Singapore Airlines) but the number of miles required may be different because you use Aeroplan's partner reward chart, not United's chart.

That's not true, you can transfer Amex MR points to chase, it's just not a good rate. Its 1.5:1 I believe.

Welcome to Flyertalk

You cannot transfer American Express Membership Rewards to Chase. If you meant to United Airlines, read this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html

The only available path is:

60,000 Membership Rewards (USA)
20,000 Starwood Preferred Guest
12,500 United

60000:12500 is 4.8:1

Which airline to use to get to Vietnam?
 

Hello,

I would like to know which airline to use to get 4 people to Ho Minh City, Vietnam from JFK or EWR for next summer. We have approximately 290,000 mileage plus miles. We also have 200,000 membership reward points to help with this itinerary if necessary. Ideally I am looking for two business and two economy seats (or 4 business if possible). Which airline will help me maximize the points I have.

Thanks!

Best Use of MR for NYC to SGN
 

Hi,

Trying to get my family of 4 to Vietnam in late December, business class. I can use MR for all 4 (which would be ideal), pay for 2 and use MR for 2, pay for 4 and upgrade w MR, wash dishes or airplanes... whatever. Any advice for where and how to search? ANA shows only waitlist for the flights. I have about 500k MR to use. Thanks in advance!!!