chummy23

Hi everyone, i'm new to this mileage/points earning game. I applied for Chase Sapphire yesterday and got approved with the 50K bonus miles. My goal is to be able to go to Paris or London by next year after i accumulate enough miles to fly for free or minimal cash out for a family of 3. I also currently have 23K American Express points that I can use. My question is, what is the best mileage program/airlines to transfer my points to get maximum use of my points with little cash out.

biggestbopper

Congrats on your success.

AFAIK, your best value will be to transfer to UAL miles. BUT, no transferring yet. You may want some flexibility later on and transfers can be done at any time.

First step, get some more bonus miles. For example, apply for Chase INK Bold with 50K bonus. Spouse should also apply for Sapphire Preferred and INK Bold cards RIGHT NOW.

Also think about the new UAL Explorer card with 50K bonus.

Once you have the 150K potential UAL miles available for both you and spouse consider options.

Happy

You need 60K for a r/t reward in coach, and 100K in business if using UA's program.

Also, it would not be easy to get 3 business class seats on the same flights unless you book months ahead. Even that, you may only find 1 to 2 business class seats.

AMEX MR pts currently running a 50% bonus bonus for transfer to BA which tends to have excellent availability because BA charges hefty YQ on its awards which are priced by segment. If you are willing to shell out the YQ, BA actually would be a good option due to the 50% transfer bonus (ends on May 31st) and the excellent award seats availability, direct flight from West Coast.

TimesTwo

Get the two Citi AA 50k cards, get the 50k biz (60? 90?) days later (60 I think but don't remember offhand). Then get 3 AA tickets at 40k each if you go between September and May.

AA allows one ways so you can fly into London, chunnel to Paris and come home from there.

Mile-a-holic

Good idea, although AA is Oct 15th to May 15th.

Also check to see if you or SO are targeted for the PRG Amex with 75k MR after 1k in spend (see Amex forum). You can transfer to ANA for Star Alliance (United) but I don't have experience with that so do a little research. I would check Delta partners out of SFO as they can have good availability and in the past there have been frequent transfer bonuses. It is also easy to add Delta miles with a Delta Amex, and if necessary they have good pops to buy miles cheaply.

TimesTwo

Thanks, I can never remember the start time of AA's Europe off-peak.

setho212

I am looking to take a short trip over to London next February. I will be flying out of BWI on 2/14 and returning into any airport in the DC region (preferably BWI) on 2/18. Unfortunately, due to work, my travel dates are not flexible. I am also looking for the cheapest flight possible so I will be flying economy.

I have the following amounts of points:

3k AA
20k SPG
5k Sapphire
20k United
22k BA
45k Hawaiian

After doing a bit of research, I think the best way to go is by flying United. The flights on United will cost about 60,000 miles but are only subject to $180 in fees whereas flights on American (BA metal) cost 40,000 miles but are subject to over $600 in fees. For my particular dates USAir will cost 90k points. Am I right about United being the best option?

Also, what is the best way to quickly get 40k United miles. Should I apply for the MileagePlus Explorer card? I was thinking about going for the Ink Bold card, but I have had trouble getting a business credit card in the past (citi AA card) and I don't think I'd be able to hit the 10k spend in 3 months.

Adirondacker

I too am planning a trip to London later this year, my understanding some of the fees can be avoided by a EU stopover?

JPG3392

I believe that you can avoid the high fees using AA miles if you fly on AA itself or on a partner like Iberian. During the winter, you need only 40k miles on AA for an award. You would have to fly from BWI to another city (probably BOS, JFK, ORD) to reach your transatlantic flight, but it might be worth it if you can pick up the necessary miles through an AA credit card offer. (Some credit card offers give a $100 rebate toward AA ticket purchases.)

After posting the above paragraph, I checked on AA to see what award travel would be available on AA itself on the dates you indicated. I found BWI--JFK--LHR on Feb 14 leaving at 2:45 PM and arriving at 7:40 AM the next day (AA 3964/AA 138). For the return on Feb 18, LHR--RDU--DCA leaving at 11:40 AM and arriving at 10:10 PM (AA 173/AA 4536). These flights are 40k round-trip + $180.60 in fees. This is only an example. There are numerous other possibilities in both directions at 40k on AA, but I did not check on the fees involved. If you would like me to check other possibilities, please let me know and I will be pleased to do so. It appears that some sections of the AA website can only be reached by those with enough miles to book award travel.

guv1976

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

If you are willing to connect somewhere (and if there is availability), you don't necessarily have to fly on BA metal when redeeming AAdvantage miles.

And, of course, you can redeem AA miles in one direction, and UA miles in the other.

redtop43

I am not much of an expert on which airline to fly, but you can get a nice chunk of United miles if you do it the right way.

The general offer for the United Explorer card is 25K signup, 5K for adding an additional user, and up to 10K for balance transfers, but the transfers have a 3% fee, so it's quite an expensive way to get points. However, if you have a MP account with a positive balance, if you log into your MP account, you should see a link for a more generous offer. (I'm assuming you haven't gotten the associated bonus on this card yet; I think it's one-time-per-person.) If you don't see the offer, you can search some of the threads on FT or some of the blogs that will explain how to do it. I did it recently, but I think I had to try twice before getting the right link.

Cowkitty

Howdy folks! I've been combing through so many forums, blogs, etc and learning so much about reward traveling. Thank you all so much for your great posts! I've never redeemed a flight award, so I'm still trying to absorb all I can.

My (crazy) goal is to fly two people on Virgin Atlantic from LAX to London in Feb/March of next year for my honeymoon. At worst, I simply want to use points to upgrade an economy seat to First Class. At best, I'd love to redeem the whole thing (or have some leftover for hotels) but I know that's a high goal.

This is where I need help.

My main question is what is the best program(s) to earn points/miles to use on Virgin Atlantic? I'm more than happy to try to earn miles through different programs and somehow roll them back towards one goal. I've been reading about the possibilities of booking flights via Hawaiian Airlines miles and ANA, but I'm not sure what path to take. I believe I can also transfer Virgin America miles to Virgin Atlantic now too.

Current possibilities for me to earn general points:
-I have a BoA Alaska Airlines debit card that I am actively using for wedding costs
-I plan to make 1-2 LAX-MCO flights on Virgin America by the end of the year
-My mom is willing to transfer her 4k of Virgin America miles to me
-I'll be staying a night or two at a Marriott in the near future
-I might have access to a relative's Marriott & Hilton reward points
-I'm grabbing little loose miles here and there through e-rewards and Topguest
-My credit is only average, but I'd like to try to apply for some travel cards within the month. Possibly BoA's Virgin card, or Hawaiian. (I've been cleaning up my credit all year with positive results.)

Thank you so much for your help in choosing the right path.

Centurion

Congrats
I would have skipped Virgin and gone British and for the Chase BA card when they had the 100,000 mile offer or the recent 50,000 + 50,000 mile and hope to put 30k of spend before the wedding for the two for one offer.

I would keep your eyes peeled for some type of great offer but you look like your spread to thin right now for anything good.

Cowkitty

Thanks for the advice!

Yeah, unfortunately I don't have any solid start in any particular plan. I picked Virgin mainly because I'd have access to some Virgin America miles and because there's no guarantee I'd qualify for a Chase card. Thanks!

airplanepeanuts

Honestly I would abort any discussion about Virgin for now.

You need to focus on getting Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR) points. Sign yourself up and your mom, and even your future wife. This will net you around 120K UR points. These can transfer to United Airlines 1:1.

You will then transfer 100K To your United Airlines (UA) account. I just checked and there is a ton of availabily in Feb. It will cost you 100K of the UA points and total $20 cash to get two round trips in Business. Dont worry about First for now this is good enough.

Then, you will still have 20K leftover in your chase and you can transfer that to Priority club and redeem for a hotel or just spend some money and stay at the W in london.

I think this is your best bet. In order to meet the minimum spend on these cards you can use things like Amazon Payments or Buy something at Nordstrom online then return for credit and sell the gift card on e-bay. There's also other random ways which you can read about on ThePointsGuy.com or MillionMileSecrets.com

GOODLUCK