AnnaMcD

Hi all:
I have the following miles/points. 150K Aeroplan, 600K Chase UR, 140K Starwood and 200K AA. I want to book two RT business class tickets from NYC to Tokyo in late October, returning mid November. Would love any and all advice on the smartest, most efficient and least wasteful way to use miles for this.
NYC > Tokyo nonstop is possible but very pricey - doesn't seem worth it.

Here are a few questions I have:
Does it make more sense to book the entire trip with miles or should I pay cash to get to a closer hub like ORD or DFW or SFO or LAX and then use my miles for the trans Pacific leg?
Should I try to buy an economy seat and use miles for an upgrade?
Is there any specific place on Flyer Talk I should be asking these questions?

The Aeroplan miles expire soon so I'd like to use them if I can. Thanks for any and all help.

guv1976

"NYC > Tokyo nonstop is possible but very pricey - doesn't seem worth it."

How did you determine that the nonstop was "pricey"? Are you aware that aa.com is incapable of displaying award-seat availability on AAdvantage partner JL?

What availability have you found for two Business Class round-trips on any carrier during your desired time frame?

guv1976

Also, see this thread for ways to extend the expiration date of Aeroplan miles:

How to prevent Aeroplan miles from expiring if not live in Canada?

AnnaMcD

Hi guv1976 and thanks for responding.

Determined that the nonstop was pricey by learning it would cost 580,000 UR points for two business class seats on AA 8495.
I am aware that aa.com won't show up JL, thanks. (for that I should use BA.com, right?)
Have found availability on Asiana on the outbound (can use my aeroplan miles for that) and found availability on AA as well but then stopped because I realized I was missing an overall strategy for booking the tickets. Dates are very flexible so that's good.

Thanks so much for link to extending my Aeroplan miles! That will take some of the pressure off though I know time is of the essence in booking this big birthday (60th!) trip!


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guv1976

It sounds like you got a price for using UR miles as cash to purchase Business Class tickets, rather than converting UR points to miles in BA, KE, UA, etc., and then redeeming miles for award flights -- assuming that you can find Business Class award flights for when you want to travel.

The first step is to determine who has low-tier ("Saver," "SAAver," etc.) Business Class award seats for when you want to travel. Let us know what you have found, and we can then give you some guidance as to the cheapest redemption options for those flights. (Sometimes, the very same award seat on the very same flight can cost vastly different amounts of miles, depending on which FFP you redeem from.)

Be aware that Aeroplan charges hefty cash surcharges for redemptions on some partners, but nothing on other partners. Google "Aeroplan surcharges" to find out which partners are surcharge-free before booking anything with Aeroplan miles.

AnnaMcD

Thank you so much! Yes you are right about that price. I have never used the UR portal before so I didn't know that I should convert the points to miles. They make it sound like you get much more bang for your point buck by booking through them.

Will get on to your first step right now and report back. Thank you so much!

Turns out my aeroplan miles now don't expire until 2/19 - didn't realize that if you book a trip and then cancel the trip and return the miles to aeroplan (which I did) that counts as a transaction - this is good as I had to pay for the privilege of transferring them back! Thanks again.

guv1976

Great! And as you've discovered, many -- but not all -- FFPs offer one-way awards for half the price of a roundtrip. So you could conceivably use miles from one program for the outbound -- say, AA miles on JL -- and miles from a different program -- say UR points converted to UA miles for travel on ANA -- for your trip.

AnnaMcD

Thanks again. Will report back as soon as I get all my step one research done!

whyturnright

If you're just looking for the most convenient way possible. You can fly UA from EWR-TYO on the brand new gorgeous 777 with the nice Polaris they advertise on TV. Hard to impossible to find the saver rate through, so it would be 350k round trip UA miles per person. You could transfer the 600 UR points to UA. And then get the last 100k by transferring some Starwood--Marriott---UA. That would get you to a total of 700k you need. NOT the most efficient use of miles, but will get you where you want to go and how you want to go (in the best product). Something to consider...

guv1976

If the OP can get an AA codeshare operated by JL for 580,000 UR points (and earn miles on those flights), I'm not sure that I would recommend paying 700,000 UA miles to fly on United.

And if the OP can find low-tier award seats on some combination of carriers, two round-trips in Business should be available for under 300,000 miles.

SanDiego1K

I used AwardNexus (paid award search tool) to look for outbound flights using UA/Air Canada miles or AA miles on JL. You said you wanted to travel in late October. I set my search beginning Oct 22 plus 8 days. I found award seats available 3 days, Oct 22,26, and 30.

I don't want to overwhelm you with results, so will show you just a sampling of those available on October 26/30. Since I didn't find anything on JL, you should be able to duplicate this award search on united.com or Air Canada's award site.

AnnaMcD

Thank you all so much whyturnright and SanDiego1K! Really appreciate all the help. Am now going to spend the next few hours perusing all my options before they all disappear!

AnnaMcD

Nonstops appear to be out since I would like to be reasonably efficient in the use of our hard-earned miles. And I am also fine with having the first leg be in Economy if it makes the overall trip make more sense in terms of total hours, departure and arrival times. So I'd love thoughts on any of these options.

These are all 80K business saver awards on United for the long haul piece of the trip.

AC 5 Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
NH 111 Boeing 777-300ER
OZ 221 Airbus A380-800

On the AA site I found 60K business class awards on these planes.
AA 175 & AA 61 Boeing 777-200 (twin-jet) (B772)

I'm beginning to freak out out about grabbing one of these while I can. Eeeeek! Thank you so much everyone!

SanDiego1K

Appreciate how hard you're working at this. Not many do.

If I were you, I'd look and see what you find using your Air Canada miles. I've just looked at their award chart. If I read it correctly, it is 75K one way in business class. If so, you could get tickets for the two of you one way and stop worrying about when those miles expire. Aeroplan should show the same availability as United.

After writing that, I looked at awards on both United and Aeroplan. On Friday, Oct 26, a route that priced for 150K for 2 people plus $516.60 Cdn on Aeroplan. United is 160K for 2 people plus $30. I'm going to backtrack on my advice. If you don't have plans for your Aeroplan miles, it could be worth $500 to consume what might otherwise be orphaned miles. Otherwise, UA or AA come out the winners.

AnnaMcD

SanDiego1K, you are so great! I have taken your advice and pulled the trigger on the UA/AC flight and I was only charged $5.60 per booking! I have never used the Chase transfer to partner option before - can't believe how easy it was. Thanks again for taking the time to do that search for me - that was unbelievably helpful - as was the reminder that Aeroplan would cost $500 for the tickets. Since I now have until 2019 to use the Aeroplan miles I am sure I'll find a good use for them sometime.

Off to figure out our return. I feel so much more confident now! Thanks again.