rlj51

Hi,

I've got 235K chase points and I'm trying to book an international trip from Seattle for my wife and myself. The basic criteria we have is:

1. We prefer direct flights as we want to minimize travel time
2. Any class is OK but would love to travel business class as we've never experienced it before

I thought Japan would be great and ANA has a direct flight to Tokyo. Also ANA is a partner of Virgin Atlantic which has great deals on partner award tickets: 90K miles for round-trip business class. I called Virgin and tried to book a trip in May of 2018 but there were NO seats available in any class for any of the dates that worked for us.

Any advice on booking international travel from Seattle using Chase points? I get the impression that booking though any partner airline is going to run into the same issue: no seats available. Are there any international flights from Seattle on an airline that we can transfer points to directly from Chase?

Would love to heat some success stories!

Thanks,
Randy

acarney

Sorry I can't add anything to this but I'm very interested in the feedback you get! That basically is exactly what I'm thinking of (though have no idea of what dates yet, possibly 2019 spring for the cherry blossoms if award levels and stuff haven't changed by then :P) and was thinking ANA Biz class from SEA as well.... So excited to see what kinds of suggestions you get and please keep us updated on what you finally book and how the travel goes! (Plus where you stay if you use Chase points to help pay for hotel stays as well or book them through Chase or anything)

Troopers

Welcome to FT rlj51!

Simplest is to transfer the UR to UA. I see nonstop RT on ANA SEA-NRT, departing Mon May 21 in J and returning Mon May 28 in Y. 230k miles + $91.12.

krazykanuck

For these awards, 2 things. You're a bit late to try to book saver business/first. Other thing is use the United website to search for ANA award space. If it's bookable by United at the saver level, Virgin should see it. Call them and feed them the dates and flight numbers. Don't call them and ask what dates have availability, as you've found that's a waste of time

missamo80

ANA via Virgin Atlantic in business is the way to go to Japan. Just be more flexible on your dates. Spend a bunch of time on the United website searching for availability, then call up Virgin.

There's a thread over in the Virgin Atlantic forum with all the details on how to do this, including some notes from me when I successfully did this booking in the spring.

You can also use the UR points to transfer to Hyatt to book hotels for relatively inexpensively. We did that for several of our hotels on the trip. Also don't forget about getting the Hyatt credit card which (at least used to) offer you two free nights anywhere after hitting minimum spend, which works out nicely for two nights in, say, the Park Hyatt in Tokyo.

Highly recommended

Neil

355F1

Does VS allow one-way award tickets on partner metal?

mrkymark

Isn't there YQ if you book ANA via Virgin Atlantic?

missamo80

You can't book a one-way on ANA via VS.

Neil

missamo80

The fuel surcharges on my two SEA-NRT RT tickets in J totaled $336. Considering the tickets retail for a total of $7,719.62 I'd say it's still a pretty good deal.

Neil