SEA to ??? How would you fly?
 

Hey Everyone! I'm looking to do a little flying late this year (September, October, November, December) to anywhere that looks best. I want to preface this post with my points: 62,490. And I am going with my girlfriend who has no miles. So half the flight/money will be from $$$.

A few questions:

Is there a great destination to go that utilizes the points well? Where would you go?

Should I get another card that might compliment my own AmEx skymiles card?

I like Europe and Asia, she's more a europe fan, but also Australia. Idk, send me off ladies and gentlemen! Any help would be great!

Thank you very much!:)

Start by using the flights.google.com map and determine what destinations are affordable with a purchased ticket. Then, start searching on Delta.com for award tickets - ideally finding dates and destinations that you can buy one award and one revenue/paid ticket on so you can fly together.

Your other option is to book two one ways with miles, then pay for the two one way return trips with money on a separate ticket. But that often results in prices being higher (round trip paid tickets are usually, but not always, cheaper than one ways.)

Note that the number of points you have is actually relatively low - barely enough for one round trip to Europe in coach, and not enough for a round trip to Asia or Australia. If you can wait until you accumulate about 125,000 miles to redeem, you'd have enough to fly in business class - a better value for your miles since the paid ticket usually costs so much more than a coach ticket. Fly business out to start your trip, and coach home!

Don't use Pay with Miles - it's a bad value in most cases.

Last bit of advice, look from YVR - Vancouver is often much cheaper than Seattle for paid tickets, especially to Asia.

Roundtrip tickets to Europe from SEA rarely can be found for less than 125k miles. Years ago I snagged a great roundtrip to Rome (via AMS) for 77.5k miles but have never seen seen a deal close to that since.

So, unless you supplement your miles with cash, you're probably stuck flying somewhere domestic...

Dan

Have you considered Mexico City? People are just loving it these days and you can get there and stay there for a lot less than Europe or Asia, and it really will be like going to a whole different world. You can get a coach ticket for 40K miles round trip if you book in advance.


Do you already have the Delta Sky Miles card? If not, you could get the card and get a nice sign on bonus (anywhere from 25K to 50K bonus miles depending on the deal you find) and then you would have enough miles for 2 roundtrip coach tickets SEA-MEX. I will also offer (this is shameless self promotion) to send you a link for the bonus and then I also get a bonus for referring you. (am I breaking a FT rule by doing that?)

There are lots of interesting destinations in Mexico (and with DL partner Aeromexico one can find award tickets to many) but a ticket to Mexico (paid or award) will get tagged with U.S. and Mexico customs/immigration/airport fees of almost $100/person.

True, though spending $100/person with free tickets is much less than buying a paid ticket to Europe or Asia for the GF. Also, there will be still be some amount of taxes on any award flight. And again, once you get there, it is very affordable. So for miles + $200 cash you get 2 people to Mexico.

Shanghai (PVG) and Beijing (PEK) are pretty good from SEA. It's too hot right now but should definitely cool off by your planned time frame.

Shanghai has a lot of European flare and its air is pretty clean by Asia standards. It can be pricey if you hit up the prime areas, just like any big cities. Tons of great shopping, way more luxury brands and stores than even Beverly Hills but a lot of affordable places to shop or eat as well.

If you want affordable, I highly recommend Taipei, Taiwan (TPE). Very westernized but everything is very very affordable of all the major Asia cities. there are a lot of outdoor/scenic things you can do - a lot of beautiful places to visit.

Hong Kong is pretty nice but it's very costly...

If you want to split up with your GF, you can find cheap flights on other airlines:
China Airlines (Sky Team), or Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong, Korean Air/Asiana via Seoul. You can usually find very competitive fares in that region. RT Fares to Shanghai was as low as $550-$600 a few months ago and should come down when vacation seasons are over.

Just remember that Shanghai and Beijing will require a PRC visa, which is relatively pricey and annoying to obtain ($140, plus you either need to pay a visa agency or drop it off yourself in person in San Francisco).

On the plus side, once you have that visa, it's good for ten years, so it's a great time to get one! But the extra $300+ in visa fees could be an unpleasant surprise in an otherwise good award travel deal.

You can certainly find coach tickets to Europe for less than 125K RT, particularly if you travel in the fall. OP never said anything about flying in biz.

I would stay away from the business class tickets idea. You are short of the needed 125k and even if you get there, that would only be for one of the tickets and you'll be surprised at the amount of $$$s needed for the second... that is assuming you want to travel in the same cabin with your girlfriend.

Go to Europe if she wants to go to Europe.

If your ticket is free and she has to pay for hers, the decision may be to go as a single person to Asia or Australia ;)

Where to go?

That is a wide open question. Lots of people could answer with Chicago, New York, Miami, Orlando, Vegas, San Diego, New Orleans, etc. etc. Also a ton of places in Europe. Since you are on the West coast, there are lots of options to Asia.

You easily double your miles in a few months by getting new credit cards with 30-50k bonus's. Since you are on the Delta forum, I am guessing your miles on Delta.

As said, you need many more miles to get a business flight.

There were some $1,500 biz flights from the west coast to Europe recently. Not sure if they still exist.

Do some checking with google flights. Go to Delta.com and pick some flights to see what they cost in miles or dollars. Check both one way and RT.

Shanghai is a fascinating place and late October/November is a good time temperature wise.

Google flights searches today find RT non-stop flights for just under $600 for that time period.

https://www.google.com/flights/

Whereas Delta flights e.g. for London, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona are upwards of $1200 or more

I agree with wlau that Taipei is a great alternative. And I find it cleaner air and better food than Shanghai. I also find it easier to navigate the subway, trains, etc there.

Google flights shows $600 plus for RT to Taipei.

Cheers for a great experience wherever you go!

I just looked at SEA-AMS, which is usually the least expensive, for 14 day RT in November. There are 60K coach awards available almost every day (SEA-SLC-AMS). $ are over $1100.

There's a 50K miles offer available from AMEX for a DL Gold with a $2K spend to get them.

If you can get the card and charge $2000 quickly, those 50 K miles will put you at 112K+. You can then buy 8K miles for just under $300 and get 2 award tix.

So, $300 and spending on a CC gets you Europe.

Added: No visa costs and you can get lots of places via European LCC's or trains.

Thanks a lot! I've been kind of going that route, checking googleflights, will continue to do that. I would love to accumulate those points, but it's hard to find em! Especially on a college student budget. Thanks, I would love to fly 1st class, never done that before.
Can you explain the "Don't use Pay with Miles" bit? I'm not sure how else to redeem...
Thanks!