So I will start to book my trip next year because Delta allows one ways. I was wondering though what the best way to go about planning a trip using 55k AA miles, 50K Alaska Air miles, and 80K Delta for 2 people. I'm hoping to get more AA and Alaksa miles by the end of the year to get First instead of Business class. We are looking at going to Bali. Is it easy to plan something like that on your own, or will it be better to go to a person you pay? I've never planned a complicated trip before.

We really need to know which airport you will be departing, whether you are planning to visit any other places during your trip, and how many travelers you will have.

Other info that may not matter as much, but which could be useful, would be the time of year you hope to travel, and the approximate planned duration of your trip.

Good luck!

I am flying out of Atlanta. I will have 2 people, and I would love to stop somewhere if possible overnight, like Hong Kong if I use Cathay Pacific. Time of he year is likely in May. I would really like to also stop somewhere unique on the return flight. I saw you can transit through Australia, but is it possible to get a few extra nights still using 80k miles? I'm open to suggestions on other places that I should visit to maximize the miles.

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

AA awards no longer permit free stopovers anywhere. However, you can get up to 24 hours to connect on an international itinerary, so depending on flight schedules, you might be able to overnight in HKG en route to or from DPS on such an award.

Do you have to connect to the earliest flight, or can you have one if they offer one later I'm the day?

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

Unless things have changed (and a lot of things did change earlier this month), you can take any (available) flight within 24 hours of arriving at the connecting point; it does not have to be the first scheduled flight.

Looks like you have just enough AA miles for 1 person to go in Business class and need 12500 more to go in First. For the AS miles, you have enough for Business but need 20k more for First. So, at least for one direction, you can probably be OK. The thing I'd worry about is the other direction and the risk of counting on Delta. Right now, in theory, you'd have enough for 1 person Round trip on Delta in coach but I'd be worried about true availability. Depending on the time of year you're looking at and how popular Bali is at that time, you could be forced in to Standard or Peak awards and find yourself limited to Economy class for the miles you have.

For Cathay, I'd say its pretty easy to do on your own at first. But if you can't find availability then it may be worth your time to pay someone.

For Delta, I'm not sure how well the award booking services can work or when their 1-way booking will be an option. Just have to hope that by the time they open up awards for your dates next year that they have the 1-ways in place, otherwise the saver availability could be all gone before you have the option to book a 1-way.

My advice - if there is any way for you to get another 100k AA to use on Cathay then I'd go for that. Not sure if the new Citi World Exec MC is an option for you based on its spending requirements, but that 100k bonus would be perfect.

Your scheduled departing flight cannot even be 5 minutes past the 24 hour mark from your scheduled arrival. Within 24 hours you'll be fine. I'd plan on needing substantially more miles for F

I do have 180k miles in Delta, but my friend was going to use his miles (80k) since I was getting the business or first class for the outgoing part. Unfortunately I just got the 50k card so I can't get and AA cards for a while. Is there any cards I can get that I can get two people one way any class (prefer business) from Bali? If at last resort I can use my miles and he can "Give" me his. Can the people you pay usually find miles for the lowest rewards? Really know very little about them.

I have 11k spg miles so I have part of it covered. Just need to do MS over the course of the year to get the rest.

Your Platinum card does not preclude you from getting http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...e-posting.html 100K more miles at a time, as many times as you like, as long as Citi allows churning of the Executive card. Several of us are on our 4th Executive card this year, and many others aren't far behind.

I was a little confused. How long do I need to wait before applying for the 100k if i have the 50k. I applied in mid March. I had applied for the basic card a few weeks after the first one, but got denied saying I had already applied for one. Do I not put any info for my awards program and create a new one?