Just your opinion on where to go between these places
Feb 12, 2015, 4:17 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 62
Just your opinion on where to go between these places
Hey FT-
Just looking for some opinions here on what people think might be good and/or better. I'm 34 years old and single if it matters. One thing I plan to do is get scuba certified this year. I am also based out of LAX. Anyway my dad gifted me his approx. 200K BA Avios, and I have really been struggling to find availability of flights. So far though I have been able to find these trips for October / Nov or early 2016.
Trip 1:
LHR>CPT, 180K Avios and $1,145 for first
Then I would have to buy a ticket LAX>LHR or rack up some miles/CC offers between now and trip time.
Trip 2:
LAX>DUB, 138K Avios and $998 for first
Could probably use the balance of the avios for a free trip to Hawaii then (also never been).
Would likely do a stopover in London too. If I can get the extra time off work I could probably buy some other cheap hop around flights to other spots in Europe.
I haven't been to Europe in forever (AMS in 2001) and never S.A. I realize these are two completely different destinations. I can definitely think of a lot of reasons to visit S.A but not as many for Dublin, aside from Pubs and nice Irish girls to meet. Obviously I have to do a lot more research on what I will enjoy doing in this part of the world. I think I'll have fun no matter what.
In any event, I want to take a poll, if they were your miles where would you go and why? If you have some alternate ideas I really want to hear those too!
Thanks!
-RP
Just looking for some opinions here on what people think might be good and/or better. I'm 34 years old and single if it matters. One thing I plan to do is get scuba certified this year. I am also based out of LAX. Anyway my dad gifted me his approx. 200K BA Avios, and I have really been struggling to find availability of flights. So far though I have been able to find these trips for October / Nov or early 2016.
Trip 1:
LHR>CPT, 180K Avios and $1,145 for first
Then I would have to buy a ticket LAX>LHR or rack up some miles/CC offers between now and trip time.
Trip 2:
LAX>DUB, 138K Avios and $998 for first
Could probably use the balance of the avios for a free trip to Hawaii then (also never been).
Would likely do a stopover in London too. If I can get the extra time off work I could probably buy some other cheap hop around flights to other spots in Europe.
I haven't been to Europe in forever (AMS in 2001) and never S.A. I realize these are two completely different destinations. I can definitely think of a lot of reasons to visit S.A but not as many for Dublin, aside from Pubs and nice Irish girls to meet. Obviously I have to do a lot more research on what I will enjoy doing in this part of the world. I think I'll have fun no matter what.
In any event, I want to take a poll, if they were your miles where would you go and why? If you have some alternate ideas I really want to hear those too!
Thanks!
-RP
Feb 12, 2015, 11:49 pm
#3
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 8,771
Hi RastaPasta, welcome to the BA board.
It's always hard to answer 'where should I go' type questions as there are so many factors involved, but here are a few thoughts based on what you've said:
- I absolutely love Cape Town and would highly recommend it - it's one of my favourite places - but if you're keen to learn to scuba dive I'm not sure it's the best place for this, mainly because the waters are COLD and can be quite rough. That said I haven't scuba dived there myself and there may be great bays to do learn in, I don't know.
- CPT is also a long trip from LAX and as you've seen will cost you a lot in fuel surcharges on top of all those avios and that's just from LHR. I imagine the cash fare from LAX-LHR in premium cabins is not cheap. Note CPT will also go from T3 so no CCR if you're flying First.
- As such, have you considered other oneworld options from LAX if you want to try first class? My first thoughts were, why not try somewhere in Asia going via HKG on CX or NRT on JL? Both have excellent first class products, widely considered better than BA's. You could connect (either with cash or avios) onto Thailand (e.g Koh Tao) or Bali for example, which have excellent diving and are very cheap places to do your Open Water, provided you don't mind being in the company of some Australians...
- On that note, have you considered QF to SYD/MEL/BNE? Again QF F probably trumps BA F and Australia has outstanding diving, though is very expensive.
- Your Europe option is of course a different ball game, and there are obviously a million things you could do here using London as your gateway. Dublin itself may only need a weekend but as you say you could hop off to many places cheaply from there. Europe followed by a later trip to Hawaii would certainly make sense.
- Equally I would not get too fixated on flying First if it gets in the way of planning the right trip. AA's 77W from LAX to LHR is an excellent option in J (if there's availability) and would only use 100k avios, leaving you enough for another long-haul J trip somewhere else. Similarly consider IB via MAD which will be a lot cheaper in surcharges if you can convert to an IB plus account, and actually even fewer avios after the major changes come in April. Not sure if that'd work with your father's avios though.
- Finally, no need to use 18k to get from LHR to DUB. Y is fine for the short hop, either 9k avios or just buy cheap as chips cash ticket.
Hope some of that is helpful and apologies if it's inconclusive. Best of luck with your trip.
p.s. I take it you're a fan of Reggae Reggae sauce? http://www.leviroots.com/recipes/qui...y-rasta-pasta/
It's always hard to answer 'where should I go' type questions as there are so many factors involved, but here are a few thoughts based on what you've said:
- I absolutely love Cape Town and would highly recommend it - it's one of my favourite places - but if you're keen to learn to scuba dive I'm not sure it's the best place for this, mainly because the waters are COLD and can be quite rough. That said I haven't scuba dived there myself and there may be great bays to do learn in, I don't know.
- CPT is also a long trip from LAX and as you've seen will cost you a lot in fuel surcharges on top of all those avios and that's just from LHR. I imagine the cash fare from LAX-LHR in premium cabins is not cheap. Note CPT will also go from T3 so no CCR if you're flying First.
- As such, have you considered other oneworld options from LAX if you want to try first class? My first thoughts were, why not try somewhere in Asia going via HKG on CX or NRT on JL? Both have excellent first class products, widely considered better than BA's. You could connect (either with cash or avios) onto Thailand (e.g Koh Tao) or Bali for example, which have excellent diving and are very cheap places to do your Open Water, provided you don't mind being in the company of some Australians...
- On that note, have you considered QF to SYD/MEL/BNE? Again QF F probably trumps BA F and Australia has outstanding diving, though is very expensive.
- Your Europe option is of course a different ball game, and there are obviously a million things you could do here using London as your gateway. Dublin itself may only need a weekend but as you say you could hop off to many places cheaply from there. Europe followed by a later trip to Hawaii would certainly make sense.
- Equally I would not get too fixated on flying First if it gets in the way of planning the right trip. AA's 77W from LAX to LHR is an excellent option in J (if there's availability) and would only use 100k avios, leaving you enough for another long-haul J trip somewhere else. Similarly consider IB via MAD which will be a lot cheaper in surcharges if you can convert to an IB plus account, and actually even fewer avios after the major changes come in April. Not sure if that'd work with your father's avios though.
- Finally, no need to use 18k to get from LHR to DUB. Y is fine for the short hop, either 9k avios or just buy cheap as chips cash ticket.
Hope some of that is helpful and apologies if it's inconclusive. Best of luck with your trip.
p.s. I take it you're a fan of Reggae Reggae sauce? http://www.leviroots.com/recipes/qui...y-rasta-pasta/
Feb 13, 2015, 1:01 am
#4
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: The greatest wee nation on earth.
Programs: Iron Maiden FC, GE, Rapidly falling down the Tiers to oblivion.
Posts: 2,604
Burn a small amount of ba miles getting to gcm, learn to dive there as 200ft visibility, perfect temperatures (no wet suit needed) and perfect depths for learning, back to lax and then do another trip! Or can you build in a stop over at mia and take the short hop to gcm, get certified then back to mia to carry on your journey. Gcm is full of mid 20s-30s looking to get wasted, nonprofessional staff looking to have some fun on their days off often through the week, and professionals at the weekend. Makes for some pretty messy nights out if you know where to go.
Feb 13, 2015, 1:19 am
#5
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: North East
Programs: Hilton HHonors, BAEC Silver
Posts: 1,204
I would second the above, GCM is an amazing place and the diving experiences are second to non. I would consider just travelling in coach though, as the first on the LAX-MIA is a large number of avios to use for a short ish flight. Also the MIA-GCM in business is just not worth it either. You could do this trip just less than 3 times for the same avios. There are loads of decent bars along Seven Mile Road for your age bracket, and even a night in Camana Bay is decent too. Rum point is also good, although somewhat remote if planning on drinking........even if the driving limit there is the equivalent of roughly 4 pints of beer (be careful) 
Feb 13, 2015, 1:32 am
#6
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: The greatest wee nation on earth.
Programs: Iron Maiden FC, GE, Rapidly falling down the Tiers to oblivion.
Posts: 2,604
Mardi gras in cayman next week too, tues night and wed is a big one...i'll be there but have to work the wednesday. Booo. If you are looking at end of year then go after nov 15th when hurricane season is over. Although water temps drop...id go to gcm in april/may, get certified then carry on later in the year.
Feb 13, 2015, 2:32 am
#7
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: SE1, London
Posts: 23,441
If you want to learn how to dive and enjoy the process I would pick somewhere in the Caribbean. Caymans is good but somewhere like Saba, Bonaire or Dominica or better. If you want to go longhaul Thailand is good or one of the Gili isles in Indonesia (one of which is a real party island). Neither DUB or CPT would be my pick though there is some fabulous but challenging diving elsewhere in S Africa and Mozambique.
Feb 13, 2015, 11:19 am
#8
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 62
Thanks everyone! I think I should have been more clear though, I actually plan to get scuba certified in LA since I don't really have the time or extra funds to go somewhere like GCM (although that sounds amazing).
@ldnn1 - Thanks for the Asia suggestion, but actually this was the first type of trip I did when I first got 100K BA sign up bonus. I used those miles to do LAX>NRT>BKK>LAX with some jumps to Phuket and SIN mostly all in First and biz. So I am looking to do some different countries this time.
I also have about 240-260K Chase UR points I might convert to Korean and was thinking to do something like LAX>ICN>BKK>SYD>LAX or some variation thereof, or maybe with Krisflyer. Anyway I digress, that is still in the planning stages and I am trying to rack up another 40K UR points via bonuses now. In any event I plan to use the UR to get to SYD at some point.
So back to the BA Avios I would like to use before the April devaluation. I'm not totally fixated on First and lounges aren't a huge deal for me either. I've been playing a lot trying to find availability to either CPT or JNB from any US cities to try and keep Avios spend and costs down as now when I am thinking about it, probably not worth it to book LHR>CPT in first but then spend 1200-1500 on a ticket to LHR
This has been a fun game tho I'll also take a look at Bali and some other places too
@ldnn1 - Thanks for the Asia suggestion, but actually this was the first type of trip I did when I first got 100K BA sign up bonus. I used those miles to do LAX>NRT>BKK>LAX with some jumps to Phuket and SIN mostly all in First and biz. So I am looking to do some different countries this time.
I also have about 240-260K Chase UR points I might convert to Korean and was thinking to do something like LAX>ICN>BKK>SYD>LAX or some variation thereof, or maybe with Krisflyer. Anyway I digress, that is still in the planning stages and I am trying to rack up another 40K UR points via bonuses now. In any event I plan to use the UR to get to SYD at some point.
So back to the BA Avios I would like to use before the April devaluation. I'm not totally fixated on First and lounges aren't a huge deal for me either. I've been playing a lot trying to find availability to either CPT or JNB from any US cities to try and keep Avios spend and costs down as now when I am thinking about it, probably not worth it to book LHR>CPT in first but then spend 1200-1500 on a ticket to LHR
This has been a fun game tho
I'll also take a look at Bali and some other places too