Guster14

Hi,

I'm relativley new to the whole miles game and have read through alot of posts on this forums. I typically fly CO and have accumulated roughly 25k miles over the past couple years and just signed up for a chase account - should have 50k miles soon.

My question is: when I search for flights to try to use miles, I find it pretty hard to find a SaverPass domestic flight for 25k miles. And it seems spending 50k miles on one flight probably isnt worht it. So how does everyone spend thier miles most effectivley? upgrades? waiting for saverpass?

I'm also thinking about signing up for a CO credit card and expect to charge between 20-25k annualy, but if I cant even find a saverpass flight, is this worth it? Ive seen other credit cards that offer 1 domestic flights (up to $500 for 25k miles) which would seem like a more foolproof way to go about things.

Am I missing something here? Is there a better way to accrue/use miles? Thanks a lot

dergon darkhelm

Welcome to FT, Guster14!

Many people do not find purchasing domestic RT to be a great use of miles ....so your instincts are correct. For me (and a lot of this is personal preference), I only redeem miles domesticly when flight prices are outrageous last minute fares or expensive destinations.

I prefer to use my miles for Internation flying to upgrade to BF or u/g on domestic transcon flights.

I also use miles for friends sometimes.

As for earning you can keep an eye on these forums....every opportunity will be mentioned...usually within 30 minutes of it becoming available.

But Credit Card and financial partners are a great way to earn miles....so is flying!


I like OP Shopping a lot ...other people find it clunky/frustrating/infuriating.

COEWR2587

Agree with the upgrades. I would rather get more out of my miles, with spending a bit on a ticket, and upgrading for F on a coach fare. You get more F flights out of you miles that way, then just spending it all one domestic Y ticket.

tarheelnj

Try to keep just enough miles for a last minute trip. Had to fly EWR-GSO midweek with 2 days notice a couple weeks ago. Airfare more than $1,000, but got SaverPass 10k miles each way. No brainer. It helps that as Platinum there are no fees, other than about $5 in taxes.

cova

With OnePass miles, you will find that reward flights on USAir seem to be easier to obtain - they show on co.com. UA flights do not show on co.com so you need to call. You should be able to redeem a 25K domestic ticket if you plan far enough in advance. Coach tickets seem to be available in the 10 month time frame (from flight time) for CO. BF and F tickets tend to come and go. F domestic tickets are hard to get unless off peak times/days.

For 55K miles you should be able to get a reward ticket to Europe in the non peak times.

Note that when rewards are generally easy to get - that is when the prices for the tickets tend to be cheap - so you need to balance the cost of the ticket versus the reward.

Delta2010

I believe that is incorrect. UA and USAir both domestic flights can be booked through co.com. Infact, that is the only reason I am collecting miles on co as compared to UA. I fly a lot domestically between WA and TN. Unfortunately both departure and arrival airports are small with limited flights. From departure city, I have UA while in arrival city, I have USAir. Both UA and USAir tend to block the partner redemptions and donot even show any partner options online. co.com shows all available options with partners. Infact I have booked a few reward trips through co.com and not even one flight was CO metal. All were either UA or USAir.

bmg42000

Occasionaly the florists on CO.com (1800FLOWERS.COM & FTD.COM) offer 50 miles (if you use the continental credit card) or 25 miles (without the card). I think thats a better deal then the mileage you get from flying .

Delta2010

and you can also keep wifey (or significant other) happy. Just dont tell him/her, you ordered flowers with miles in mind