Help a Dreamer Dream
 

Even though I've been accumulating points for a few years now, I'm still very much a rookie. I was thinking about using one of the award booking services, but the problem is that they all want to know where I'd like to go. What if I don't know (and don't care) where I go?

Since devaluations are becoming more frequent, I just want to spend my points on something that is good value. I dont care if I blow them all on a fancy first class (Singapore to Germany maybe?) or on a multi leg journey in economy (avios short hops?). The only stipulation is that I have to be able to book my family of 4, so award space needs to be relatively easy to get for all 4 people. Ideally trip would be in summer, or during Christmas break next year.

So can you help me dream? What would be some great uses of the following balances for a family based out of Washington DC?


Amex - 323,000
Chase - 210,000
Citi Thank You - 39,000
United - 67,000


Thank you,

So you are a frequent spender and not a frequent flyer?
Other than UA, are you a member of any other ffp?
Getting 4 awards on the same flight can hard to very hard.
In business class harder again (by a magnitude)

You need to settle on some destinations that are of interest to your family.
Europe? Caribbean? Alaska? Asia?

Correct,that I'm mostly a spender. I've been flying about four times a year, mostly on southwest. My companion pass expires this month.

I have several of the major programs, but most are depleted -Avios, delta, southwest, American, quantas, lan, Hawaiian, jet blue, etc.

As far as narrowing to a certain place, we would be excited to go anywhere. We would love to go to any or all of the places you listed. Alaska, Europe, South America, you name it. We've only been to a handful of countries (Costa Rica, Belize, Jamaica, France) and we are not opposed to returning there either. I just feel like they weren't the best use of miles, and I'm looking to hear what would be a possible trip that would be a good use. With the transferability of the Amex, chase, and citi, I feel like there has to be a great use in there.

There was a post last week that united's business class awards are wide open to Europe for summer 2016. Should I transfer to a united partner and capitalize on the availability? Should I attempt to obtain a few more miles and transfer everything to kris flyer for an around the world ticket?

Just dreaming out loud

It's really hard for us to do your work for you when you say things like 'I'd like to go anywhere that's a great use of my miles'. I think you should narrow down your options a bit and do a little more legwork on your own before coming here. We're good at finessing travel and award redemptions, not so good in vacation planning.

Everyone's value is different. DH and I took our adult daughters to Europe this past spring. All 4 of us flew on the same flights economy in the beginning of May therefore getting the cheaper points option with AA. 40,000 points round trip per person is a good value in my book. We also stayed in locations where we could get value for hotels.

Depending on the type of vacation you are looking for (sightseeing, laying on the beach) would help you determine where to go. You might want to start with looking at the type of hotel/accomodations you'd like. Hotel hustle could help with this. Once you've determined where your hotels will get the most bang for the buck then figure out airlines.

Nothing wrong with dreaming! But it might help folks to know how old your kids are, as that could well influence advice you might get.

10 (boy), 8 (girl)

Thank you. I actually wasn't looking for anyone to do the work for me, though I appreciate the kindness of those willing to do so.

How about this - given the transfer partners I have access to, is it feasible to get my family of 4 to Germany around the 2016 Christmas holidays, Thailand around Christmas, or Africa (safari region) around Easter 2017?
I understand that flights for these times are not yet open, but if I need to transfer or do research this would give me some lead time.

Thanks

So vague, it is hard to help. Are you more beach people? More city people? Do you like history? You are basically asking us to throw a dart at the globe and then generate the plan to maximize your plans to get there. FTers don't like doing that. LondonElite said it best, we "finessing travel and award redemptions."

Why did you mention Germany? And by Singapore, I image you mean the airline and not the destination? As mentioned up thread, if you want to fly all four of you above economy class, your only option will probably be separating into groups of two, possibly separated by a day. Is that possible? If all four of you need to travel together, then focus on economy travel.

If you are "excited to go anywhere," save some of the points and stay relatively local. Take the Acela to New York or Boston. You can travel by train further up into Maine. Or the Finger Lakes in upstate New York. "Blowing" your points on "something of good value" is typically not a good strategy.

The answer is yes to all of these - economy travel for all. Germany will be the cheapest (mileage-wise), and the other two will use most of your miles and you may have to get creative (using Star Alliance to get to Africa, you may have to redeem your Chase UR for two on United and then your AMEX MR for two on ANA for instance)

The next step? Research which of these three is the winner. Forget about the points/miles and finding good value. If you are really going to spend ~300,000+ miles/points, the destination should be somewhere you and the family what to go. Research what you and the family want to do at each of these places and see which one comes out ahead.

At that point, you can then research possible destination airports and what airlines fly in and out. That will then narrow down the amount of work that needs to be completed to "optimize" your award redemptions.

Thank you smflagg.

Maybe I should have written my first post differently. Please allow me to pose a question to you in a different manner - If I told you that you could have all of my points/miles balances but the only stipulation was that you had to book a trip for four, where would you go? How would you use them?

I mentioned Germany (via Singapore airlines ) in the first post as an example of a high dollar use, as I've heard that many have an aspiration of flying in the first class suite on that route.

I also enjoyed your recommendation of staying local or taking the train, both of which I have considered as well. Unfortunately with the loss of Amtrak as a transfer partner and their pending devaluation, I may have missed the boat. Which is a reason why I'm looking at using my points. The longer I wait, the more boats I miss. I can keep holding the points but over time they'll be less and less.

Thanks for your thoughts on the itineraries. I by no means meant to ask anyone to "generate the plan" for me. Throw the dart at the map, maybe. I'd like to think of it more as generate ideas for possibilities that I didn't know existed.

Having many ffp's with low balances is never a good idea, as you never get enough miles to use before thay expire [DL miles do not expire]
You have a lot of overlap in ffps. Miles from flying Qantas, LAN, BA avois & Hawaiian could have all gone to AA https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/e...lines/main.jsp

USA based airline ffp's tend to be more generous (status benefits/earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry) compared to non USA based airline ffp’s. (even after the recently announced changes to some USA ffp’s)

The airline you fly most or an airline of the country you live is the best ffp for many people.
The airline you fly and the airline ffp you credit those flights to does not need to be the same.
Freq flyer miles are not equal to earn or burn.

We can answer that for us, but it doesn't mean it'll apply to you. For me, taking a family of 4 to visit family in the states could even be a good use of miles.

With AA's current charts, booking a low-season coach award to Europe is a pretty good deal. And that would have better chances of finding 4 seats on same flights, though not a ton better.

No matter how you slice it, trying to book 4 people on any award Intl is going to be difficult.

If you want bang for the buck/miles, look at CX First, EY First, or Singapore Suites. But, don't think you're going to find any of those releasing awards for 4 on any single flight at same time.

You know, your kids sounds old enough that you might be able to book you and your spouse in business (or even first!) and the two of them in coach. I imagine that ideally you'd like all four of you to be together, but you're more likely to find seats for wherever you go if you divide it up that way. Plus I'd imagine the kids wouldn't appreciate business class that much anyway (and assume that the two adults would get a kick out of it). Plus you save some miles that way.

If you go that route, be prepared for one of the adults to go back to visit the kids occasionally rather than vice versa, as flight attendants (and often fellow passengers) tend to frown on people flying coach coming up to visit the business class cabin.

As for where to go...how about the UK or Ireland? Lots of ways of to use miles to get to those countries, travel-friendly in terms of the common language, all sorts of urban/rural/cultural/scenic places to explore, nice long days during the summer. Might even be nice for an Xmas visit if you don't mind the short, cold, dreary days.

Another option, a bit less on people's radar screens, is Portugal. I haven't been there for many years, but have done some research in prep for a trip my wife and I will take next year. Supposed to be very nice people. Lots of do, including beaches, and generally good weather and food. Also, a relatively inexpensive country.

Wherever you go, perhaps better to do it early in the summer if the school schedule permits, to deal with smaller crowds of fellow tourists.

If you do decide to really splurge for the adults, the two best airlines for which you can use miles to Europe in first class are SQ and LH. (SQ in business class is also superb; LH not so much.) I know that you can use both Amex and Chase points to transfer to SQ. Not sure about LH. (Beware of BA, which tacks on substantial extra charges to its award flights.)

Hope it all works out!

I've found Star Alliance has good economy availability to Europe even in peak summer season. So you've got plenty of Chase points and United miles to do that through United (4x60k economy). It might be a couple months late to find 4 seats for next summer though. But it's easy if you start in about Oct. for the following year.