For what purpose? Are you looking for cards to use while you're traveling? Or just trying to earn miles for a trip you have yet to plan? If the former, the Destinations forum. If the latter, the Information Desk, although you are best off doing some research on your own based on what miles you already have. It's hard to speculate what award availability will be after you meet the minimum spend requirements and have points credited to you.

Just trying to earn miles by getting more cards for a couple of (domestic and international) trips coming up with my family.

Hi. If I am asking about maximizing best mileage program to use for certain route, like TYO to HKG, and not specific about certain airline mileage, where should I post?

For example, if I have X-miles in amex, citi thankyou, AA, united, delta, etc, how can I get the best deal to fly first class from TYO to HKG.

Most people post those in the Information Desk section, but you should do some research yourself, by looking at the publicly available award charts for AA, United, Delta, etc. There are no secrets in that area.

TYO to HKG is only 4.5 hours and most airlines which fly the route don't have first class. As far as I can see (on Google Flights) Cathay Pacific is the only airline which has first class on this route.

As, above what research have you done yourself?
Are you familiar with good international first/business class, as opposed to what is sold as USA domestic first class on many flight? Many USA people seem to think USA domestic first class is as good as it gets.

Credit card transfer links
Credit, Debit and Prepaid Card Programs forum
Amex http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...l-program.html
Chase http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase...tc-2017-a.html
Citi http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/citi-...-partners.html

Frequent Flyer Award assistance tools
Use at your own risk. (These are not recommendations)
These links give a guide of ff miles needed. These may not be up to date.
Availability is from the airline ffp web sites/phone.
Award flights are never guaranteed. You need to be flexible with date and route.
Depending on the airline and/or ffp awards can start to become available 355/330 days out.
Awards can be released any time from the 355/330 days to closer to departure.
Frequent flyer miles/points are not equal to or burn. They are not 1 to 1
If a multi segment award check the rules/cost carefully. With some ffp’s it can be 2 or more awards or cost more ff miles/points than a direct flight.
If the award is on partner airline it may cost more miles/points than an award on the ffp airline.
Some awards/airlines/routes can have cash surcharges, in addition to real taxes.
Real taxes/regulatory fees are the same for all airlines on the same route/class.
Some carrier imposed surcharges can trigger additional real taxes when the flight changes from non-revenue to revenue.
-AwardAce: Compare Award Redemptions Across Airlines In Seconds --> http://www.awardace.com/ Has surcharge indication
-Economical Excursionist's Tools to compare Frequent Flyer Mile Redemptions --> http://www.flyermiler.com/
-http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ast-miles.html --> http://www.awardhacker.com/

Long-time member here and I am stumped. Can't find any information or master list of Award Booking Services...you know, the person you pay to book your flights with award points. About a year ago I asked the question--can't remember where on the forum--and received only a few replies. Despite writing to 5? 6? Booking Services, only 2 were kind enough to reply, and neither was taking on new business at the moment.

I have over x400k LifeMiles that MUST be used to make a booking within the next two weeks.

Where do I start to find an Award Booking Service?

This master thread seems to be active:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trav...e-reviews.html

Thank you, Tom911!

Why?
 

Why is it so difficult to simply find competency at the front desk these days?

Can't recall any threads on that topic. You might want to start one in the forum of whatever hotel program you're referring to.

Hi, "new be" here...and I'm not sure if this question has been previously asked...is it possible to transfer miles to my soon to be life
partner. Thank you

It's going to depend on what airline is in play. American, for instance, allows it, but charges a $20 processing fee plus $12.50 per 1,000 miles transferred, so it will cost you. Much easier to just book an award ticket from your account in the name of your partner.

Given that @KarimM85 has cross posted in the QR sub forum, it's likely going to be QMiles with QRPC.

OT: Flyertalk doesn't like cross posting.

And KarimM85 profile shows country as QA

Hi Everyone,

New to this, so hoping someone can point me in the correct direction. Is there a recommended app / search tool / etc. that displays last minute travel deals/packages. Say you have a specific weekend free and are willing to travel any number of places for the right price.

I'm specifically looking at Presidents Day weekend. Leaving Friday night or Saturday morning and returning on Monday. I'm here in the Bay Area with access to both SFO & SJC. Wide open to destinations. Would prefer a premium class cabin & 4+ star hotel.

. There is a forum for Online Travel Agencies https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/online-travel-booking-bidding-agencies-204/
There is nowhere on Flyertalk for your request that others find you a deal for your specific desired vacation, though.

Lastminute.com has a section for weekend breaks, but it's for departures from European cities. Right now they have departures for February 9 and list a good dozen destinations. I can't recall running across any U.S. sites that offer the same type of last minute packages where you can pick from a list of prepackaged destinations with air and hotel. You pretty much have to plot the trip out on your own.

Take a look at www.aavacations.com. You'll need to list a destination city, but they do provide package deals with air and hotel.

Changes to flight
 

Does FT offer help/recommendation on making changes to flights and consequences (for changes) made to flights? I've read through this site and the airline site...still need help.

if you have questions about a specific airline policy, post in the forum for that airline. Note that for most airlines/airfares changes incur a fee of $100-200 plus a difference in fare. If you choose not to fly a segment on a ticket, all other legs of the ticket will be canceled

Newbie advice please
 

Hi, first post here and a newcomer to 'cashing in' under the BA Exec/Avios reward program. Where is the best place (thread) to seek advice on how to get the most out of current points balance in conjunction with a companion voucher? TIA

If you have questions about how to use your BA Executive Club points, I'd suggest starting with the BA Executive Club forum. You can start with https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...8-edition.html
You can also search for "companion voucher."

a bit lost, sorry. Information about IATA fare calculation
 

Hi,
I have just registered and am trying to find my way around (like a lot of the people before me I guess).

I am trying to find the IATA YY fare from IAH to MEL (maybe via AUK, as there isn't a direct flight). I can't see a way to get that without registering on a site like expertflyer.com, which you have to pay for (I have used up my 5 free days already).

Could someone please direct me to a place where I can find out for free, or tell me what the fare should be?

What is a IATA YY fare? Full economy? Ask a real live travel agent?

IAH-AUK-MEL is a bit of a diversion. ;) Via Auckland (AKL), New Zealand less so.

SYD has more flights from USA than MEL

Airlines that fly USA/Canada to/from Australia (not from all airports to all airports)

• American Airlines AA (LAX - SYD) [OneWorld Alliance] (AS partner)
• Air Canada AC (YYR – SYD BNE. YYR-MEL from 1 Dec 2017 to 1 Feb 2018) [Star Alliance]
• Air New Zealand NZ (LAX SFO IAH YVR via AKL) [Star Alliance]
• Air Tahiti Nui TN (LAX via Tahiti. Last segments on codeshares) (AA & DL partner)
• Delta DL (LAX – SYD) (VA & AS partner) [Skyteam Alliance]
• Fiji Airways FJ (LAX SFO HNL – BNE SYD MEL ADL via Fiji) (QF, AA & AS partner)
• Hawaiian HA (HNL – BNE SYD) (AA & VA partner)
• Jetstar JQ JQ (HNL – SYD BNE)
• Qantas QF (LAX SFO JFK DFW HNL YVR*– BNE SYD MEL) [OneWorld Alliance] (AS partner) (MEL SFO from 1st Sept 2018) {* seasonal}
• United UA (LAX SFO IAH*– SYD MEL, IAH-SYD ) [Star Alliance] (*IAH-SYD from 18 Jan 2018)
• Virgin Australia VA (LAX – BNE SYD MEL) (codeshares with AC*) (Delta & AC** partner) [*= some routes in 2017, ** ffp late 2017(may not have happened)]

And others via Asia & Middle East

I did think that was the reason. You should be able to get a business class ticket for that money.
Do you have access to your corporate travel agent?

That would be my hope, but I don't know if the allowance they are giving me is the full fare ticket. Unfortunately, the corporate travel agent is the one supplying the price for the allowance, so I wanted to look elsewhere.

Phone United and ask for full Y pricing IAH-SYD.

Hi, me again.
I was able to go onto expertflyer and obtain the IATA fares from MEL - IAH return, as well as the IAH - MEL return. However, I cannot seem to do this for a specific date, as I need them from 1/1/2018 as well as 1/1/2017. Is it possible to obtain what these fares were in the past?

But with a different screen name?

Is there a blog/link where I can find recent stopover rules for the different airlines?

Each fare has its own rules, not each airline. If you look at the fare rules on something like ITA Matrix, there will be a description.

Mileage Run mentor (or group)
 

Not quite sure if there is a name for it

What I was actually looking for was a group or maybe someone who wouldn't mind having someone to do a Mileage Run with a newbie like myself or perhaps connect with a group of people who do this as a group. Traveling on Mileage Runs and gaining mileage points for executive status etc. Can someone direct me to the correct Forum.

I can fly out either from San Jose or San Francisco (I live in Monterey, but its a small airport).

I would eventually like to do something similar to this: htt.ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1pk2FJBhcg&t=19s

Very Respectufully,

Rick T

The only decent mileage runs these days from the Bay Area are on Alaska Airlines, which still accrues miles based on distance when on Alaska metal, and, to a limited sense, some of their partners (Qantas accrues 100% miles plus any elite bonus). You could fly to the east coast or Hawaii 15 times, accrue 75,000 elite qualifying miles, and be a top tier flyer there. Alaska does have some east coast service from San Jose including daytime nonstops SJC-EWR and SJC-JFK, but only the daytime JFK flight would allow a same-day return. SFO offers a lot more options and nonstop destinations, and OAK offers some Hawaii flights in addition to west coast flights. Occasionally you might be able to make a connection in SEA, LAX or SAN work for extra miles, before continuing onto the east coast. Just depends what the fare allows and when you depart.

If you intend to stay a United flyer, an entry level flyer there would accrue 5 elite qualifying miles per dollar spent, so a $300 east coast ticket would bring in about 1,250 miles (compared to 5,000 at Alaska). With Alaska top tier elite status you could bring in over 11,000 redeemable miles. You don't see a lot of AA or UA mileage runners these days unless it's end of year and they're short some miles to requalify. AA had a bunch of $100 range round trips to the east coast this week (PIT, BDL come to mind) but they'd only bring in 250 miles (5 miles per dollar spent pre-tax which would be around a $50 base fare).

I've done AA mileage runs over the years with a few folks from Northern CA but now I pretty much do at least a one night hotel stay or a weekend. You might post on the Mileage Run Discussion forum once you decide what airline you'll be flying with, and you might find some interest there among other Bay Area flyers.
https://www.flyertalk.com//forum/mil...iscussion-627/

Thank You Tom911! That was very informative. After reading around a bit, I hear that Mileage Runs like the link I posted are pretty much dead these days. Its good to hear that very few airlines still do it!

Is there somewhere that does a comparison for long haul travel between the premium economy on budget airlines like Norwegian and the regular economy on legacy airlines? They look similarly priced for some routes I'm looking at

There are a number of posts on Norwegian's product at https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other-european-airlines-469/

Where do you find good points deals? I see forums for good prices on tickets, and where you can post for specific airlines. But what about those of us with all kinds of points just looking for good deals?

You can look in the individual forums for various mileage programs. Unfortunately, there is no forum here that spoonfeeds that info. Many blogs do, though.