Reward Trip to Bali - Advice Needed
 

Hi,

I'm new to the forum, and recently got into the travel rewards world (it's becoming a hobby of sorts). I am planning a trip to Bali later this summer and could use some advice on how to best utilize points to get there.

I have a Starwood Amex with approximately 70,000 points, and my partner has approximately 230,000 Marriott rewards points. We are hoping to fly from Norfolk, VA to Bangkok for a 2 night stay, and then taking a cheaper Air Asia flight to Bali. Planning on a two week trip in late May or June.

My question is how to best utilize these points? We were looking at doing the Marriott hotel and flight package, and then converting the SPG points to AAdvantage miles. Unfortunately the only route there through American is all first class (and Cathay Pacific, as I understand, is difficult for redemption), and would cost 400,000 points! Are there any other redemption options I should look at? We are aware that some cash will have to be used on a hotel, or flight, but looking for the most efficient options.

I have a Chase Sapphire and Citi Prestige card on the way, but I will not have enough time to complete the offer spend in time to utilize those points. Any advice anyone can offer would be appreciated.

When you searched for AA award availability did you use only AA.com or did you use another site to search and/or call AA for availability on partners?

I called AA, and then search Cathay's site.

Ok that is the proper way as AA.com shows limited awards. If they don't exist there isn't anything that can be done really. You could look at other destinations to go to before Bali. Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore just to name a few.

I don't know the intricacies of the Marriott rewards system so Ill let others make suggestions on that.

I don't want to burst your bubble but First Class isn't doable with what you have at the moment and without buying miles you are likely to be short of RT J unless you can put the necessary spend on Chase or Cit.

These are potential scenarios:

1) Redeem Cat 6 + 50k which costs 230k MR. This would give you 7 nights at The Stones (Category 6 Bali) plus 50k that should probably go to AA. Then convert 60k SPG --> 75k AA (taking advantage of the 20k-->25k conversion rate with SPG) which would give you 110k AA. If booked before March 22nd that is enough for 1 RT or 2 OW J tickets on OW (JL, CX, AA, MH) where you could route say ORF - CLT - DFW - NRT - HKG - DPS

2) Redeem for Cat 1-5 Marriott + 70k points (cost 220k MR) which would give you 7 nights at either Courtyard Bali Property (since both are category 5s). This option would give you 70k AA + the 75k converted from SPG (as mentioned above) giving you 145. Under this scenario you'd need to somehow come up with the additional 75k AA required for 2x RT business class to Asia 2 (perhaps getting an additional 5k SPG so you can transfer 25k more).

Given the condensed timeframe I just don't think it's realistic unless you are willing to buy miles which is another can of worms in making sure the valuations make sense (vs. just buying a cash ticket).

Not trying to be mean I just don't see any other clear pathway to 2x RT in J (and certainly not F) unless there is another source of miles that can accumulate. In addition with AA the price will jump to 70k in J for a OW ticket to Asia 2 (which Bali is part of) if it is not booked before March 22nd so that's another thing making this more time sensitive.

My personal advice, check out this thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/premi...s-one-way.html and use that to return home if the dates work. Then go with option 1 which provides a pathway to 110k AA and would allow you to get J for the outbound.

In order to find specific flights you will need to sign up for a BA Avios account and search there for intra-Asia flights (AA doesn't fly to Bali so you'll have to switch to CX, JL, or MH at some point). Book before March 22nd with the best routing you can find (maybe it's ORF - CLT - SFO - HND - HKG - DPS which is probably a decent one since SFO - HND on JL J tends to be decently easy to find in advance).

That will give you J in both direction plus 7 nights at The Stones in Bali for an outlay for $518/pp plus flights from Bali to Bangkok and from Boston to Norfolk.

I'll let others assist you with the airline tickets, but I would strongly urge you not to use your miles/points for hotel stays in Bali. The current strong value of the dollar makes hotel awards a bad value in Bali. Also, the chain hotels (where you can use your points) are all concentrated in the southern part of the island, where traffic, crowds and annoyances are also concentrated. Since about US$70 will get you extraordinary hotel accommodations outside the megaresorts, look for 4.5 star or better tripadvisor hotels and save your points. I would start in Ubud (which has become mega touristy but is still the cultural heart of the country) and then consider the beach resort areas of Pemuteran or Amed. Don't let the quest to use award points ruin your Bali vacation (unless all you want to do is lie on a beach at a megaresort). Your points are far more valuable to use elsewhere in the world (like Tahiti, Europe, etc.).

Another Bali traveler, using Advantage and card points
 

Hello everyone,
I'm looking for help booking our honeymoon tickets from LAX to Indonesia for June 2016. I can't figure out wether to just book business class tickets or if we should book economy and then try to upgrade them later. I don't have any AA miles left, though we have credit card points, and I also want to take advantage of my AAdvantage Platinum status. I believe this also gets me Oneworld Sapphire privileges (which could be used on Cathay, American, Japan, Malaysia airlines).
I'm hoping I could score some sort of business class upgrade scenario, or at least premium economy, depending on the airline and depending how we book.

We have:
-~145,000 Amex premiere gold points
-~145,000 Amex Blue Sky miles
-~100,000 Citi Premiere points
-One of us is Advantage Platinum/Oneworld Sapphire member

I know these points aren't enough for the ~$2,700 one-way business fares I'm seeing, but we could book at least two tickets with our points and pay the remainder in cash. We're open to creative layovers (i.e. Skiplagged.com) And I realize we may only be able to get business class one way and have to fly economy on the way home.

-Should we buy economy seats and try for an upgrade, and if so, what's the best way to do that?
-Is there any value in trying for a status match with one of the other Oneworld airlines while we're at it?
-Will we run into problems trying for upgrades if we've purchased the tickets with points from our different cards?
Lots of questions, I know. Thanks for any answers you can provide!

First of all, congratulations!

Perhaps we are just using different terminology, but I'm not sure I know what you mean by those three categories of points. I'm assuming that what you call Amex premier and Citi premier are Amex Membership Reward points and Citi Thank You points. (I'm unfamiliar wit the term Amex Blue Sky miles.) If that's the case, you can transfer both categories into Singapore Air's Krisflyer program, where you will have enough miles for the two of you to at least fly SQ one-way in F (assuming award availability). The ideal routing would be DPS-SIN-NRT-LAX (or vice versa) in F if the seats are available, as you'd be in the A380 SQ suites for SIN-NRT-LAX, which is one of the greatest commercial flying experiences anyone can have. Two adjacent seats enclosed to form a kind of double bed when converted for lying down.

(And even if you can't bag F seats, SQ long-haul J seats are great as well.)

If you do investigate that option, lots of good info available at the SQ forum and at the Amex and Citi forums. Hope this helps!

Thank you and thank you!! Already very helpful. And you were right about those two point programs I was referring to. I will absolutely explore this transfer idea and the route you recommend. That A380 sounds amazing. The Amex Blue Sky points are for the Amex Blue Sky card (7,500 points are worth $100 statement credit, which is nice because the points->dollars rate is good, but not great because I don't think the points are transferrable anywhere. Going to ditch that card soon.)

And I'm still a little clueless on the "buy economy seats than upgrade later" options out there. Am I to understand that the upgrade is usually done with miles? Thanks again. Any other transfer/route recommendations are greatly appreciated.

From LAX to Bali "buy economy seats than upgrade later" is a way too optimistic and impractical. For a start no USA based airline fly to Bali. Your AA miles (status) may help get an upgrade on an AA operated flight. But many others will be trying for the same upgrades.

Generally you need ff miles (and sometimes cash) and/or an upgrade instrument from the airline you are flying with to upgrade, if available. Airline ff status can help a lot to get higher up the upgrade list. Now days you often need an expensive base economy fares as a starting point.

Cross airline upgrades are not common. AA/BA/IB have a restricted upgrade system. Some Star Alliance airlines have a cross airline upgrade system. But the t&c’s make these useless for most people.

Upgrades on non USA airlines operate very differently to upgrades on USA airlines. As for upgrades with airlines based out of the USA always expect to fly in the class you buy. It is only USA based airlines that give out upgrades like confetti for free (by status or no cost upgrade instruments) or with miles-cash co pay. There is an expectation by many USA frequent flyers they deserve a (free) upgrade.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html

Sorry technical issues - see post below.

Just a note - SQ does not have F from SIN-DPS - J only. To book this fare you would have to call KF. You can book J all the way through though. Something to consider also is the stop over with SIA for $100.

It is better value with KF to use the points for the tickets in full rather than upgrade between classes.

Ah, good points. I'd even add that for most or all airlines (and not just SQ's KrisFlyer program) one is better off simply using the points for international tickets rather than buying a ticket and then trying to upgrade.

Also, FromTheEast, in calling SQ to book a combined F/J award trip on SQ, be aware that the 15 percent online booking discount still applies since one can't book the combined F/J over the phone.

Great additional info. Thank you both Thunderroad and FlossieFlyer.
Right now, I think it's likely we'll transfer all our Amex and ThankYou points to Krisflyer and then go for J fares on Singapore Air LAX->DPS. For their standard fare, it looks to be about 204,000 miles + $860 for 2 adults. I'm hesitant to try their waitlist, in case they never release the seats and we're stuck waiting an indeterminate amount of time before we pull the trigger on some other fare.

For the return journey we'll be flying out of SIN. Won't have enough miles to fly J for both of us, so I'm thinking we just purchase J fares in cash and score some good credit card points from it. Though that's looking to be about $5000 for both of us.

Has anyone tried EVA's premium economy, and is it worth the extra $$? Would probably double our return fare from $1300 economy to $2500 for premium for two tickets.
Thanks!

Just FYI, F/Suites Saver LAX - SIN - DPS is only 183k I believe which is not only cheaper than J standard but significantly better.

If you don't care about Suites specifically look at IAH - DME - SIN - DPS. IAH - DME - SIN has seemingly wide open availability and you should be able to get J saver F saver for much cheaper than the J standard you quoted above. The J will be just as good as LAX - NRT - SIN though F will be normal F, not Suites.

In terms of returning - if you are willing to pay for a flight to CMB, you can get $900 J tickets on QR ex-CMB for CMB - JFK. You can also get $2k pp OW tickets ex-BKK back to LAX (BKK - ICN - LAX). Finally, check KUL, there are $1.8k OW tickets pp KUL - NRT - LAX on JL J which is fantastic.

For any of those you could use a cheap intra-Asia flight or Avios for positioning. For KUL, I believe there are buses and trains that go from Singapore to KUL.