Need Help planning Trip to Greece, New to Miles
 

I'm planning to Greece in April for (2), my wife and I. We will be departing from USA - Northern California. Our trip is going to be approximately 10 nights. Our dates of travel are very flexible as we own our own business. Our goal is to get our flights for free through miles & new credit cards.

Although I am new to points & miles, I have a very experienced friend who has been a great advisor through this start & I've also done extensive research on what is currently available

However....... I am struggling to put together what would be the best churn of cards to accomplish my traveling goal.

So here is where we sit.

- My wife is maxed out on credit cards for the time being, but does has 43,000 Chase Ultimate Reward Points that we will transfer.

- I spend ~$6,000 per month, but am only comfortable with getting (3) credit cards in this churn (and 1 of them I already received - SPG Amex).

- So I have $6,000/month to spend and need (2) Credit Cards that will get me (2) free flights to Greece from USA - Northern California.

- in USD, Trips to Northern California to Greece cost $1100-$1500/ticket.

- As of today, in Miles, Round Trip Tickets range anywhere from 60k (United) to 150k.

SO THIS IS MY CURRENT PLAN... does anyone think there is a better way to get these miles by early January (so that I can purchase my flight 90 days in advance and still get a good deal) by only getting 2 credit cards?

- Get the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, spend minimum to clear bonus. $3,000 spent... earn 40k Ult Rew Pnts (TOTAL of 43k potential miles)

- Get the United Mileage Plus Explorer Card, spend $25k over next 4 months, get 30k mile bonus for $1k spent, get 10k mile bonus for $25k spent, get 25k miles for $25k spend (TOTAL of 65k United Miles)

- Transfer Wife's 43k Chase Ult Rew Pnts into My Chase Ult Rew Accnt (TOTAL of 86k Chase Ult Rew Pnts)

- Transfer 86k Chase Ult Rew Pnts into United Mileage Accnt for TOTAL 86k United Miles.

TOTAL UNITED MILES... 86k (transferred from Chase Ult Rew) + 65k earned United Miles............ 150k UNITED MILES

CONCLUSION

Even if flights go from 60k United Miles roundtrip to 70k-80k United Miles, I theoretically should be able to get (2) roundtrip tickets to Europe for free (sans the taxes).

Anyone have a better plan?

Thanks!!!

Scott

Hi jmacxc2 and welcome to Flyertalk.

As this is primarily a destination forum, and your query is more about general miles earning, I don't think you'll get much of a response here. So I'll move your thread over to MilesBuzz, where the experts should be able to help you out.

stut
Moderator
Europe

You should be able to get 2 award tickets on UA and its partners (LX, LH, OS) in April for 60K without difficulty, especially since you're flexible about dates. April is not high season. You can book either OW flights for 30k or RT for 60k. RT tickets would allow you a stopover, if you wish. Depending on the airlines involved, Vienna or Munich would be attractive possibilities.

If you already have a Sapphire Preferred in the household, get an Ink card instead for 10K more points, and more bonus categories.
Also, consider adding an AA 50K card, even if a little later, and book one way on United for 30K miles and the other on AA for 20K miles off-peak, if you find OW flights available for booking with AA miles.

Awesome feedback........ thanks guys!

Being a left coaster with Chase cards, you need to be as wise as an Owl. PM to bulk those UA miles. Just back from a month in Greece and Turkey.

If your dates are truly flexible, then no, it does not range. It is always 60k in the saver award level (lowest level). If you see any other price, it's not the low level. Keep trying different combinations of carriers and dates until you find a routing that will work.

There are many different ways to get to Greece. You'll want to try searching for individual flights, find them at the low level, than combine them into a single award in order to book at low level. For example, you could combine a UA flight SFO-ORD with Lufthansa ORD-FRA with Aegean FRA-ATH. Each layover can be up to 24 hours and one can be a stopover of any length. So that gives you plenty of flexibility in how to combine segments to get there.

An easy way to visualize possibilities is to use: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ows-based.html

You can pick a city, then filter by Star Alliance Only, to see which airlines fly from which cities to get there.

Any reason you're not considering one of the Ink business cards for 50k?

There is a widely available offer for 50k after $2000 spend, plus 5k for authorized user, plus 10k for $25k spend. In that scenario, you earn a total of 50k+5k+10k+25k = 90k from this signup. Look for the thread in the Credit Card Programs section of FT.

As Greek, I'd recommend you to use the United Miles to book 2 r/t tickets and use the free stopover to visit a Greek Island (Santorini preferably which is pretty far)

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

If the OP wants to travel to and from Athens, then AA miles aren't too useful: the OP could only fly on BA (via LON), or IB (via MAD), and there will be some surcharges on either carrier.

However, if the OP wants to travel to or from one of the Greek islands at a time of year when Air Berlin's seasonal service is operating, then AA miles might be useful.

The card advice others have posted seems good.

For me, I also like to gauge the value of the redemption. You should weigh the costs of using 120-150k miles for flights (plus possible taxes/fuel surcharges) along with possibly (likely?) less desirable routes/timetables against the fact that you could purchase the tickets for $2-3K (with possible spend bonuses on your card for buying airline tickets).

If possible, consider using some extra miles to obtain a business class award, or perhaps adding in extra stops to your trip to maximize value.

Thanks guys........ Based on the suggestions, did a bunch of research on the supposed United 50k deal... tried sending a secure msg & 2 phone calls to United to ask for 50k bonus instead of 30k bonus............... but no dice. After I am approved & receive my card, I will call and ask again.

So I think I'm ready to commit to my (2) cards to get my (2) flights.

- Chase Ink Bold (50k bonus miles, 5k earned after $1k spend........ 50k + 5k = 55k total)
- United Explorer (United 30k after $1000 spend, plus 5k for authorized user, plus 10k for $25k spend....... 30k+5k+10k+25k = 70k total

this will put me at 125k miles... good for (2) Super Saver flights to Greece via United... and I can save my wife's 43k Ult Rew Pnts for something else...


Appreciate the advice!

On this page http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...redit-111.html find post#1654 of the United personal thread. Follow all the instructions there, the application that loads will be 50K+5K. Hundreds of positive datapoints in that thread.