As you might guess by the name, I am new to the BMI DC. I have 126992 destination miles to spend. I would like to take the family from LHR (2 adults, 2 children over 2 but under 10) to somewhere in the US this year. No preference, just a warm holiday resort. I have read all the guidance on booking flights with destination miles and I am a member of the ANA. I think I might be stupid, but it seems incredibly hard work! I cannot find any flights that appear to be applicable. I do understand that I need the ANA as a tool before calling the ICC.
With the amount of miles I have, can someone give me some guidance? I am better to book a flight in the normal manner and use the miles to upgrade to business or should I be looking to book as business via the ICC using part miles & cash?
Help!

Reading the title I thought Willie Walsh was posting on the BD forum

Give it a few hours and I`m sure the helpful people on this board will help

Welcome to FT ScotttheNovice, and no, you're not a numpty, you're just on a learning curve.

I do think you should re-read the master sticky at the top of the forum. It is very comprehensive, while I appreciate there's a lot to take in you'll find most of your answers there. In your position, with a family in tow. I think you should consider beginning your journey ex Dublin, this saving on UK air passenger duty.

CO (Continental) has flights to Newark (EWR) and onwards to all points in the US. Availability is patchy, but a quick look has shown up several possibilities, though admitttedly I haven't spent much time on ANA. You can get to Dublin cheaply on Aer Lingus, Ryanair or even BMI if you're lucky !

I'll leave it to others to post further advice, and do let us know how you get on. It's always nice to hear the resolution.

Finally, I was a newbie once - FT offered me opportunities I could only ever have dreamt of - am off to Costa Rica next week, with Mrs Grantosol, flying business class all the way. Cant wait !

Grantosol

You can only upgrade bmi flights with miles, and since there aren't any BD flights to the US any more, that's out. For 4 people in business class, that can take a bit of creativity - you'll struggle from LHR direct, but generally LH and LX can be a good bet as long as you don't mind a detour via the continent.

What sort of time are you thinking of going? If it's the summer holidays, don't forget that a lot of the availability might already have been snapped up, as seats can be released almost a year in advance.

Hi, ScotttheNovice, and welcome to FT. Not sure that there is a heck of a lot more you can give you in terms of tips and advice other than that which is in RAPC's excellent master faq, which you have already looked at.

Raijke is right that upgrades are only possible on BD-operated flights, on which there are none left to the US.

Bear in mind that looking for 4 award seats in a premium cabin is always going to be difficult. One approach would be to see whether you can get 2x2 awards on different flights (or cabins) if this is a feasible/acceptable solution for you and your family. It is also worth checking what would be the costs of getting some tickets with miles+cash and some as revenue tickets (say 3+1 or 2+2): if you are flying at a time when there is little business travel, you may be able to find some reasonably-priced business class tickets.

Even if you are LON-based, it is also worth looking at routes from somewhat smaller non-hub airports, such as MAN, EDI, GLA, BFS, DUB as US and CO have quite a few routes to their respective hubs from there. Go onto those airlines websites and have a look at their route maps for suggestions of less obvious routes which might have some availability.

Can't think of anything else right now which is not already in the faq. Good luck!

Welcome ScottTheNovice, lets start;

Unfortunately those children are going to be charged 100% of your miles as its going to be on a BMI partner flight. That actually leaves you in a bit of a bind;

4 x C+M Returns to the USA in business will cost you 150,000 miles and �840 in cash - you add any airline/government/airport taxes/charges onto that. To put that into an example - flying with Swiss from LHR via Zurich is going to cost (per person) �90 UK APD, ~�190 of taxes (fuel fees etc) plus a credit card fee of �4.50.

So thats a grand total of ~�2000 and 150,000 miles for 4 people (which you don't have, so you'd have to either buy more - you can just squeeze in the 24k a year and take you up to 150k, but that would cost you another ~�260 from BMI.

Better idea to get a few more miles: Get your partner to sign up for BMI and get a few free miles from whatever promo they have going and create a household account. Even better - you can also sign up the two children and do the same linkage to your BD account. Unfortunately at the moment there isn't a miles for sign-up promo (see this thread, there might be some alternative ways - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/bmi-d...ue-status.html). Even then you're still going to be short - unless you get a bmi credit card to get another 20k airmiles then you are going to either have to have 1 person take an economy flight for one of the legs across the Atlantic (and book as 2 1-ways, extra �4.50 fee) or buy miles.


I don't know if that figure blows your budget, as mentioned, if you go from Dublin (or anywhere else not in the UK) you'll save that �90 per person (total of �280), which if you travel out on a cheap ticket might just be worthwhile. Personally if with kids I wouldn't bother as the saving isn't that huge compared to 4 tickets at �40, a night in a hotel (so you don't miss your connecting flight) and more flying. The �90 will go up to �120 in November, but suspect that will be after you fly.

As for routes: Normally I'd say go via FRA/MUC/ZRH/VIE to get a much nicer flight from one of the European airlines - don't know if with young kids this would be attractive or not? If so then Swiss have their new business class on the ZRH-JFK route (very nice flat business seats on the A330 that would be a lovely treat - they are also great with availability). Unfortunately without a miles and more/expert flyer account checking availability is hard for Swiss.

The very best option from London would be something like Air New Zealand to Los Angeles, with great business class and from London. Unfortunately finding 2 seats is hard in business, I suspect 4 seats will be near impossible? Some of the US airlines will do trips straight from LHR and may have reasonable availability and will get you directly to the resort/city you are interested in most likely without needing a connection.

In case you are thinking of using economy tickets after those prices.. this thread will be very relevant/interesting;
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/bmi-d...ee-ticket.html

To get the best value from your miles: Book as two one-ways and do 2 stopovers e.g. LHR-JFK-MCO and on the way back do MCO-PHL-LHR, so you can get to see Philadelphia and New York for the same price - you just pay an extra �4.50 booking fee. Again not sure if with your children this is a good or a bad thing to be going to different cities.

I can't really advise on US based resorts: There are too many really. I like the West Coast for heat, Disney is nice, San Francisco is also very pleasant: Its better value for your miles (longer flight that would be more expensive), however with young children the difference between 6 hours and 12 hours might be significant! I've written enough though, so I'll let someone else offer those suggestions

�90*4 is usually considered to add up to �360 rather than �280 (). I agree that saving is probably not worth it if it adds to routing, but this is likely to be so only if the OP has a direct flight ex-UK. If award availability is on a US-bound flight from DUB or FRA anyway, it does not add anything to routing to start the redemption from there and get a cheap ticket to there, with the caveat that it would probably require an overnight to avoid any risk of misconnect as it would then be on separate tickets, and therefore not protected in case of delay/cancellation of first flight.

For those not quite thinking like parents:

First off, most of the smaller cities that have direct service to the US on CO or US are operated with 757s, meaning the seating is 3-3 and less than desirable for a family in Y; if in C, then 2-2 is fine.

My second thought is that if travelling business with kids, then an old-shape business cabin will suit better (ie US, CO etc - not NZ) because the seats are beside each other and not in a herring bone configuration. (You don't want a 4 yr old unbuckling at the moment of take off).

Third, forget the trip to DUB to save on APD - adding 5 hours to a journey to save even �360 is just not worth it when kids are involved.

Next, depending on the age of the kids, I'd try to avoid the west coast due to the length of the journey. If they have no concept of time, no problem. If they can watch a film, eat ice cream and then watch another film, with gameboy here and there, no problem. However, if they have a concept of time, but no concept of patience (ie 4-7) stick to the east coast (probably Orlando at a guess).

Orlando is a good spot for heat, kids and redemption availability on LH. Taxes will be high, though, compared with some of the American airlines or even NZ. (You could trade this off against a trip to DUB (just to contradict myself )). I did DUB-EWR-MCO with a 3 and a 1 yr old recently and, despite, irrops (delays, snowstorms, missed connections) it was quite manageable and no one melted down (honest!). Another plus for DUB is that you can pre-clear immigration there, rather than queueing for 30 mins-3hrs at the other end.

You've some great advice from Goldcircle & Littlevoices which is undisputable, I'll just add my wee bit.

I also agree that Orlando is a great family option. The LH flights from FRA on the 346's have seat layouts that are good for families and the crew are good with kids too. We flew FRA-ORD with a 18 month old and she was spoiled rotten (she's extremely cute tho ).

You could do a week in Orlando then a week on the Gulf coast and fly back from Tampa with LH.

If Florida is not your thing then consider the east coast resorts. We love the Carolina's for real old school family holidays with great beaches, great hotels, B&B's and beachfront lodges. This is where American families head in the summer as the weather is great and value for money is the name of the game. It needs some research but is easily reached as you could fly into Charlotte with US or Newark with CO then catch a connection.

Have a look here for some ideas as its a great way to see the real America rather than Florida's version.

http://www.destination360.com/north-...rolina/beaches

Have a great one!

It might be worth researching the Texan coast (e.g. South Padre Island - a bit like Benidorm but i'm sure there are better options that where my college friends went on "Spring Break")...

edit: I've now been assured that South Padre Island, Lake Havisu (AZ) and all the other favoured "Spring Break" locations are fine - any time except the two weeks in march they are filled with uni students on the lash.

IAH is a relatively painless port of entry and CO has two daily non stops from LHR with connections right the way down the coast (and into Mexico if this appeals)

I must say that I am rather puzzled by these comments. I am not sure who "those not quite thinking like parents " in this thread are supposed to be.

On the "first off" point, the OP was talking about traveling business class, not economy, therefore 2-2 on the 757s.

On the adding 5 hours bit, I am rather confused as to how traveling via DUB would add five hours to the journey for a LON area-based flyer.
Clearly, you would have to travel to DUB the night before as a same-day connection on separate tickets would be far too risky given that US-bound flights depart in the morning.
The point about the APD saving is that it pays for your hotel in DUB (or FRA, etc..). As I said in my previous post, it is probably not sensible if you can get a direct flight ex-LON. However if you can't due to lack of availability and you need to connect elsewhere, then it seems to me that it is not entirely stupid to look at making the first leg on a separate, paid booking, use the savings for an overnight stay and start the redemption from DUB (or FRA, etc...). It also means a break in the journey rather than having one very, very long day with several connections in multiple airports.

Many many thanks to all for your comments and advice. It really is a great help because although the guides tell you how to do it, getting good advice more specifically from people who have done it before it has really helped to push me in the right direction. Thanks again.