My apologies if this should not be a new thread, I am new to the site. I am planning to take a couple of trips this August with my wife to Alaska and Australia. I was interested in trying to either sign up for a credit card to get enough miles to defray the costs or at least get the benefit of racking up a number of miles from the purchase of those tickets. Also, I would be interested in a card that would help with free/cheaper seat upgrades.

If anyone has any thoughts of the best strategy to maximize my miles or end up with decent deals to either of those places, I would be very appreciative. Again, sorry if this is not posted in the right place. Thanks!

Welcome to Flyertalk

You will receive better replies if you mention where you will begin your trips, and which airline(s) you expect to fly. Do I understand correctly that you will be travelling to both Alaska and Australia in August 2012?

Thanks! My trip to Alaska will be originating from Memphis, Jackson (MS), or New Orleans, depending on what is cheapest and that trip will be in August.

The Australia trip will be originating in the Washington, D.C. area later in August and will carry over until mid-September.

My travel dates are flexible for Alaska and quite flexible for Australia, which is why I am hoping to get a decent deal on airfare/miles, etc. I do not have status or enough miles on any airline for that to matter, so right now I'll book based on price, unless I end up with a card tied to a specific airline.

Thanks!

So you could sign up for two Citi AA cards using two browser trick, which should get you enough free miles for the trip to Alaska. I don't know anything about availability on that route.

For the Australia trip, you could conceivably get enough bonuses for the flights, but it would be close, and definitely in coach. Example: both you and your wife sign up for Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Chase United Explorer card. Gives you each 100k United miles, and the tix are 40k each way, so 160k roundtrip total for two. You wouldn't have a lot of options on the route. Another option could be to sign up for two cards total, and use points for one way flight, cash for the other. If you fly United and pay with the United card it gets you more points.

also, getting to Australia is an incredibly long flight in coach. you might prefer getting the United miles and using them to upgrade paid tickets to business class. 25 hours in coach seats just does not sound like the way to start an amazing trip. There would probably be a co-pay and it doesn't reduce the cost, but so much more comfortable.

Thanks! Between the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase United Explorer is one card better than the other if we only end up with one?

I think most people would consider the Chase Sapphire better as an all purpose card. The points aren't limited to United, so you have more flexibility, plus access to the Ultimate Rewards mall. Sapphire also gives you double points on all travel spend, while the United card is only on United spend. Advantages of the United card are priority boarding and a couple club passes...not really worth it in my opinion. Biggest advantage however is the the United card gives you the points after first spend, while the Sapphire has a minimum spend of $3k. So if you're in a hurry to book, that can make a difference.

Assuming your credit is good and you don't have a ton of recent history or Chase cards, they'll usually approve both cards. You'll have to call, but it's not difficult.

From what I hear, award availability to Australia is very difficult to get. People start looking 11 months in advance. Before you count on doing a redemption, check availability, which of course can change between now and the time you have the miles in your account. Good luck!

Award availability for premium seats is very difficult to get. Especially if you're looking to fly Air New Zealand. Economy seats are usually findable - route might suck however.

Upgrading with points on a paid ticket is often very difficult. Usually your economy fare has to be in a higher fare class than you could get otherwise.

You are probably better off trying to get a business-class ticket with points. I'd suggest just paying for your ticket to Alaska, and trying to amass the points for an upgraded ticket to Australia. Getting cards for both of you, and getting both an airline-specific card and a non-specific card with transfer possibilities might work. Keep in mind that some airlines run transfer bonuses. I follow American Express and Delta most closely. Delta has had transfer bonuses of 50% or more. Some months ago they had a "bonus" promotion where you could transfer miles to someone else for 1 cent each plus $30 and get a 100% "bonus." So in effect you could buy miles for 1 cent each, and if you can get a business-class ticket to Oz for (say) 125,000 miles, that's a darned good deal of in effect buying it for $1250.

There's a lot of information on this board, but your first step is to identify the most likely airline to get award tickets to where you want to go, then try to accumulate the miles.

Looking into something similar, planning a trip in 2013 to Australia & New Zealand, possibly one of the nice little islands too (Fiji, Cook Islands) and I need to sign up for a CC as the one I currently have doesn't offer any points right now.
I'm most concerned with hotel stays for the trip and trying to get & use points!
I am open to hotel chains.
Also interested in what CC would be best for flights between Australia & New Zealand?
I'm sorry if this isn't the right threat, but it looked very similar to what I am looking for!

Thanks for your help!

I ended up with the Chase Saphire Preferred, which with the points bonus and then any dining/travel spending offeres a decent way to obtain points. After looking around, I did not have much luck finding a card that was great for Australia travel...you could also get a UnitedPlus or other US carrier related card and then utilize one of the flights that carrier offers.

Someone with better knowledge on this topic may reply with more help. Good luck!

Thanks for your help. I am only interested in points for hotels, as I work for an airline, so will be flying on a pass.

Sounds good, Chase has 1:1 transfers with Hyatt, Marriot, Priority Club, and the Ritz. Otherwise I do not know the best bet for a card for hotels, but hope someone is of more help!

Don't forget you can use the SP card to reduce the cost of the paid fare by 1.25 cents per point if you can't find reward availability. If you're set on flying coach, you're unlikely to exceed 2-3cpm anyways, so by using Chase points in this way you'll save some money ($500 per SP card you get with the current bonus) and you'll earn miles on the flight as well since it's booked as a revenue ticket.

It's not free, but it could reduce a $1200 rt, for instance, to a much more palatable $700 and you'll also earn ~20k miles (so a roughly ~$200-400 return on investment if you'll be booking coach awards) on whatever alliance you fly--brings the effective cost down to $300-500.

The Hyatt credit card gives 2 free nights at any Hyatt with $1000 spend and payment of the $75 annual fee. They say it is "any" Hyatt but their entry-level room has to be available (no "Deluxe"). Also, I think the award is only good for 12 months, so don't apply for the card until a year before you plan to go.

The Sapphire Preferred card would give 40,000 points on signup, which I think would be worth a $500 credit toward hotels if booked through Chase. (I know it works that way for flights, and I think for hotels also, but I'm not positive.) You could also transfer 44,000 Chase points to Hyatt and get two nights at one of their top properties, or possibly more nights at a lesser venue.

When looking at credit cards, keep in mind that most give one point per dollar spent but the redemption rates are different. The top award room at Hyatt is 22,000 points, while I think that for Hilton it's 50,000 points. So a Hyatt point is much more valuable than a Hilton point.