Did I apply for the right cards?
 

I think I make a mistake, I'm trying to get my family of 4 to Japan.

I applied for these cards:

Barclays US Airways 50,000 miles

citi AAvantage platume select 50k points

AMEX 50k Points Gold Premier


Are there more that I should apply for? Also which hotel cards should I get?

I alerted the mods to move this to the credit card forum

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...-programs-599/

You are going to need a lot more points than that to get 4 people to Japan.

50K US points is just enough for 1 person to go to Japan from the US

We were going to travel in the off season, where the tickets are 25k. My husband will get the same cards as me but I was wondering if these points will able to transfer to american airlines, if so how?

The AA award chart is listed as one way prices. 25K one way i believe

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

USDM will become AA miles later this year, when the Dividend Miles program is discontinued. No one knows exactly when that will occur, and the miles cannot otherwise be transferred.

AA is not an Amex MR transfer partner. In order to convert MR points to AA miles, you would have to go through another program (like Starwood Preferred Guest), and you would sustain substantial devaluation if you did so.

If you plan to travel after the USDM conversion to AAdvantage miles, you could think about going one way with AA miles, and the other way on United, by accumulating UA miles through the Chase/UA card, and the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. You could transfer your MR points to Aeroplan, and redeem your Aeroplan miles on UA with no surcharge.

Welcome to FlyerTalk… let's see if some of the friendly folks here in the Credit Card Programs forum can help you out…

Good luck, and safe travels!

Moderator, Information Desk

Thanks so much, after looking at United's chart it costs 35k to fly. This is 10k more than AA, so I guess I will have to use the american express points for something else, any ideas?

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Where else do you want to go?

If you can wait until after the USDM/AAdvantage merger to book your flights, if you can amass a total of 200K AA points, and if you can find four award seats in each direction on AA/JL, then you're fine. If not, you may have to pay the higher price that UA (and Aeroplan?) charge, and book one way on UA.

I would start checking award-seat availability for four passengers on your preferred dates now. A cheaper award-redemption rate does you no good if you cannot find award seats for the dates when you actually want to travel. ;)

We are in no rush, we would have to go when the kids are out of school Christmas break, the summer would cost too much. This will be our first international flight, we are really open to any country but Japan has always been of interest to us.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"we would have to go when the kids are out of school Christmas break"

That can be a notoriously tough time to find low-tier award seats, especially if you want four seats on the same flights. You may be setting yourself up for a major-league disappointment.

It will be hard to book award travel during any Christmas break, any year. What I did one time was arrange a 2-week trip for my daughter and me over spring break. She had one week off and took the additional week, the school was very cooperative. The trip was to Bali and the school personnel were amazed that one of their students was going there. My daughter was 13 at the time.

I talked individually to her teachers and they sent work with her and she did written reports on the trip (plus kept a journal) for her English and Social Studies classes. It's now 14 years later and that trip is a real highlight for her. At age 16 she traveled alone and spent several weeks in Paris on a summer program, the next summer she traveled to Moscow to visit Armenian relatives who live there. When she was in college she traveled alone to Japan on spring break. We met her at the Osaka train station and she traveled with us around Japan by train then flew home alone.

Travel is a life-changing experience for young people. It may take you several years to accumulate enough points for your trip, but it will be worth it. Keep in mind Japan is fairly expensive, especially for getting around the country. I suggest being open to other destinations that are less expensive, like central America, Spain, and Portugal. Getting there and back is a small part of the trip. Food and lodging for a family costs a LOT in many countries, especially Japan.

Good luck on your quest.

Thanks so much for the advice, I will look into other locations

Sounds good to me. I'm basically doing the exact same thing except that I'm only trying to get myself there (first class, though).

You can also apply for the Citi AA Gold for an extra 25k AA miles (you can do both Gold and Plat simultaneously with the new links). That will give you 125k AA miles after the merger.

Also, while the 50k Amex MR pts are nice to have, you can't transfer them to AA, so I'm not sure that they will help you towards you current goal (which, I assume, involves flying to Japan on your AA miles, eg, with JAL)

Finally, note that required miles in the AA award charts that you can find online are one-way (not round trip) so, assuming that your plans also include getting the family of 4 back from Japan, make sure that you plan accordingly :)