Need advice on best use; have miles in different programs
 

Hello Experts:

I am sort of new to mile game, began collecting miles last year (from sign-up bonuses) after reading the threads here. Now, time has to come to pay the annual fee, so I am thinking of cancelling the cards. Want to hear what experts here have to say.

We are a family of 3, home airport is SMF. Child is in high school, so dont have enough time for travel, may be 1-2 small 5-7 days vacation in a year. Now, here is what I have for miles and hotel points so far. These are under my wife's name:

1. 110,000 SWA miles, Companion pass good till 12/31/14.
2. AA: 84,860 miles (last activity April 2013).
3. US Airways: 53,030 miles
4. AMEX Membership Rewards: 53,015 (still on AMEX site, haven't transferred yet).
5. Chase Ultimate Rewards: 74,110 miles (still in Chase account).
6. United miles: 19,550 miles (expire 7/31/14).
7. United miles: 19,550 miles (expire 7/31/14) --> under child's account.
8. Wife and I also have BB, so doing 10K total every month (combined on both).

I have 218,000 United miles (and counting, since I have Chase united card). These will expire 7/31/15.

I also have 2 Marriott reward night certificates (cat 1-5), and 1 night (cat 1-4), and about 62,000 IHG points.

For now, I have made reservations to go to San Juan, PR in early June for 5 days. We will be flying SWA, and stay 2 nights in Marriott and 3 nights in HIE using reward nights and points. All these reservations can be cancelled without penalty.

So, here I am seeking advice on how to best use the miles and hotel points that we have so far. It will be great if we can go to Europe/Australia/Hawaii with these points and hotel points. Or, should I sell these points?

I would love to keep my wife's and child's United miles from expiring if possible, may be transfer Ultimate rewards or some from my United account.

What is the best way to take advantage of Chase UR and AMEX MR points.

Sorry for so many questions, but I am total noob in this game. I have read some, but I am just not able to figure out anything..signs of aging may be :)

You can reset the UA clock pretty easily by buying something cheap through their shopping portal or doing a couple market research surveys that let you redeem for UA miles.

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

For Coach travel to Hawaii, BA Avios (which can be obtained by converting Amex MR points -- sometimes with a transfer bonus -- or by converting Chase UR points) offer the best value. Avios can be redeemed online for travel on AA, and by phone for travel on AS. For First Class travel to Hawaii, use AA or UA miles.

For travel to Europe or Australia, AA or UA miles will offer good value. Just note that when redeeming AA miles to Europe, you must avoid long-haul flights on BA metal, or you'll be hit with hefty surcharges that will dilute the value of your redemption.

Thanks for the replies, beachmouse and guv1976.

Where do I find about those market surveys that will help extend UA miles life? Or, may be I can transfer some miles (is there a minimum, otherwise I can just transfer 1 mile) from my account to wife & child's account....

Do AA miles expire too? If yes, is there a way to extend their life? Can I merge AA & US airways miles now that the two airlines have merged.

Since annual fee is due on AMEX Platinum (next month), I will probably cancel that card soon. Is it a good idea to transfer MR to a partner airline or just sell them?

Does anyone have a ballpark figure for the miles needed to travel to Hawaii from West Coast (SMF, SFO, SJC), even economy class is good.

I am saving my 218,000 United miles for a first class or business trip to India (for the 3 of us)..that is one dream I have after reading several trip reports and seeing amazing photos :)

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

On a nonstop flight from anywhere in California to anywhere in Hawaii, BA charges 12,500 Avios one way in Coach. If you have to fly from SMF to LAX on AA to connect there, BA would charge 17,000 miles. These rates apply year-round, but you can only redeem for the lowest-tier award seats on AA or AS.

By contrast, AA charges 17,500 miles (off-peak season) or 22,500 miles (peak season) for a one-way, low-tier redemption on AA, AS, and/or HA. Connecting flights, if needed, are included at no extra charge when redeeming AA miles.

Both AA and UA miles expire 18 months after last activity (earning or redeeming). There are lots of options for earning or redeeming miles in both programs: just check each airline's web page to see how to earn or redeem miles.

The best of the survey for United Miles batch right now is Opinion Miles Club. Big thread on it here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...ng-survey.html

It can get annoying to get bounced from a number of surveys in a row with them, but they normally credit to your account instantly (and at worst within 48 hours) unlike MyPoints, Opinion Outpost, or e-Rewards, where you generally have to build up a fair number of points before you can transfer them into a miles program. You can also pick up about 500 UA miles a year from e-miles.com by clicking through a couple of spam e-mails a month.

AA miles do expire. Log in the AA freq flyer web site: will show the expiry date.

The US airways miles will convert to AA miles some time in the future. Date is unknown. As is if what will count as an eligable activity in the AA account (US flight, conversion date or ??) Make sure your name & address is exactly the same in both AA & US accounts

Go to each freq flyer web site. Easy to determine how many miles needed for a trip. Some programes allow one way trips and other only returns. Co-payment fee if required is harder to determine

Selling miles/points is against the t&c's of loyality programs

You can sign all 3 of yourselves up for the UA and AA dining plans and attach various credit cards to the different accounts. One mile earned, spent or transferred will give you a fresh 18 months. Including UR transfers. Much more here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...merged-54.html, basically all of which applies to AA too.

AA's stopover rules could be useful to you if you can put Hawaii and Austrailia into one trip as you can stop over at HNL (and add 5K mile island hops if necessary) as long as you like in either direction to/from Australia/NZ.

Just curious if your child is old enough/trusted to leave home for a trip? 3-4 day weekends are a great way to maximize that companion. I think a great Idea would be to take a hard look at where u want to go. United cAn get u to the places you want to go. You 're lucky to have aviios as An option for Hawaii. Excuse the typoes not used to typing.g on the fire

Thanks for the replies everyone, and sorry for the delay in replying. I was out of town for long weekend.

aeneas3: Child is old enough to be trusted to be left alone, but we dont want to do that. Want to do vacation as a family. No worries about the typos.

KennyBSAT: Thanks for the link about how to keep miles from expiring and also on dining points. We do not eat out often, but just for getting extra life into miles, it wont hurt to eat out sometime :)

Mwenenzi: Will do. I think the only points that I am worried about are, AMEX MR's. I definitely plan to cancel that card. No need to pay such high AF (actually I dont even know how much it is, plan was always to cancel the card). I am thinking of keeping Chase Ink..not sure yet, need to decide what I want to do with those URs.

beachmouse: Thanks for opinion club link and about e-miles. I will definitely sign up for emiles and will try to do that opinion club too. Looks like it takes lot of time to get some miles, but it is worthwhile than having expired miles :))

guv1976: Will do (check each airline's web page to see how to earn or redeem miles).

I might have to go to India (next week) for family issue, not sure yet. Now, time to decide, if I use my United miles or pay cash (I mean using credit card :) ). It will take about 110,000 miles (RT) for economy travel. If it was business or first class, then I would use miles in a heartbeat. Any tricks? I followed that arrow guys blog guide for India ticket, but no luck. Did multiple destination search, and it would cost more than 110,000 miles with a simple search on United site.