Where are all the incredible award values that I am reading about?
May 11, 2019, 7:33 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: US
Programs: United
Posts: 52
Where are all the incredible award values that I am reading about?
Keep reading about all kinds of incredible award deals but I never find them.
Recently planned an award travel form the west coast to EU and the lowest I've found in business one way was 80k miles/points.
Where do you look when you search for the better value award business travel?
What tools do you use?
Recently planned an award travel form the west coast to EU and the lowest I've found in business one way was 80k miles/points.
Where do you look when you search for the better value award business travel?
What tools do you use?
May 12, 2019, 8:28 am
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,933
How for out are you looking? To some destinations, awards may become available 10 or 11 months out and disappear a few months after that. And in other situations, they may only appear a few days out.
So you can't look for "saver" awards at random times out and expect them to be available.
So you can't look for "saver" awards at random times out and expect them to be available.
May 12, 2019, 9:14 am
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: US
Programs: United
Posts: 52
How for out are you looking? To some destinations, awards may become available 10 or 11 months out and disappear a few months after that. And in other situations, they may only appear a few days out.
So you can't look for "saver" awards at random times out and expect them to be available.
So you can't look for "saver" awards at random times out and expect them to be available.
May 12, 2019, 9:34 am
#6
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2013
Programs: DL PM, MR Titanium/LTP, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 10,130
United the value is pretty much what's bookable.
For AMEX there is significant value in Virgin Atlantic, ANA, to a lesser extent Aeroplan.
Lots of blogs out there that walk through the AMEX sweet spots.
I just used VS to book roundtrip F tickets for my wife and I on ANA for ORD - NRT // HND - ORD for 120k/person roundtrip (even less because AMEX is offering a transfer bonus to VS at the moment).
Hard to beat that value if you want to go to Japan
For AMEX there is significant value in Virgin Atlantic, ANA, to a lesser extent Aeroplan.
Lots of blogs out there that walk through the AMEX sweet spots.
I just used VS to book roundtrip F tickets for my wife and I on ANA for ORD - NRT // HND - ORD for 120k/person roundtrip (even less because AMEX is offering a transfer bonus to VS at the moment).
Hard to beat that value if you want to go to Japan
May 12, 2019, 9:55 am
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: US
Programs: United
Posts: 52
United the value is pretty much what's bookable.
For AMEX there is significant value in Virgin Atlantic, ANA, to a lesser extent Aeroplan.
Lots of blogs out there that walk through the AMEX sweet spots.
I just used VS to book roundtrip F tickets for my wife and I on ANA for ORD - NRT // HND - ORD for 120k/person roundtrip (even less because AMEX is offering a transfer bonus to VS at the moment).
Hard to beat that value if you want to go to Japan
For AMEX there is significant value in Virgin Atlantic, ANA, to a lesser extent Aeroplan.
Lots of blogs out there that walk through the AMEX sweet spots.
I just used VS to book roundtrip F tickets for my wife and I on ANA for ORD - NRT // HND - ORD for 120k/person roundtrip (even less because AMEX is offering a transfer bonus to VS at the moment).
Hard to beat that value if you want to go to Japan
Last edited by uela; May 12, 2019 at 10:23 am
May 13, 2019, 6:23 am
#8
Join Date: May 2009
Location: South Park, CO
Programs: Tegridy Elite
Posts: 5,678
A good starting point to build a background "picture" of the better FFP options is AwardHacker where you can see the mileage amounts required for different FFPs on a given route, and also notes on which transferable points (e.g., Membership Rewards, Ultimate Reqards, etc) can be transferred into the FFP.
Next I'd spend some time with https://awardnexus.com/user/login?url=%2F to see what's available - you can utilize it for free with your FT login. Though not perfect - nothing is - it's a great tool.
As you've seen, not all FFP websites are user-friendly. Some are also unreliable, returning phantom availability that can't actually be booked and/or not showing availability that ought to be there (as confirmed through another source). And with a number of FFPs, not all partner redemptions can be searched on their website. In which case you have to end up calling in order to redeem for an award seat. And even then, some FFPs tend to have better phone agents than others, in general. In cases where the desired FFP doesn't show the desired partner online, usually it's best to have searched for partner availability through another source to get an idea of what ought to be available before calling (e.g., AA.com won't show CX awards, so you can search BA or QF for award seats released by CX to partners and have those results ready when you call AA to redeem).
For FFPs that you might want to use, but are not familiar with, I'd recommend spending a bit of time on that program's forum here and reading threads on award searches and redemptions, to see what roadblocks and nuances you'll encounter in redemptions with that FFP.
Good luck!
Next I'd spend some time with https://awardnexus.com/user/login?url=%2F to see what's available - you can utilize it for free with your FT login. Though not perfect - nothing is - it's a great tool.
As you've seen, not all FFP websites are user-friendly. Some are also unreliable, returning phantom availability that can't actually be booked and/or not showing availability that ought to be there (as confirmed through another source). And with a number of FFPs, not all partner redemptions can be searched on their website. In which case you have to end up calling in order to redeem for an award seat. And even then, some FFPs tend to have better phone agents than others, in general. In cases where the desired FFP doesn't show the desired partner online, usually it's best to have searched for partner availability through another source to get an idea of what ought to be available before calling (e.g., AA.com won't show CX awards, so you can search BA or QF for award seats released by CX to partners and have those results ready when you call AA to redeem).
For FFPs that you might want to use, but are not familiar with, I'd recommend spending a bit of time on that program's forum here and reading threads on award searches and redemptions, to see what roadblocks and nuances you'll encounter in redemptions with that FFP.
Good luck!
May 13, 2019, 1:39 pm
#9
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: DL PM; IHG PlatAmb; Hilton Dia; Marriott Plat; Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 7,318
Unfortunately, you are learning the hard way that the "fantastic awards" you are often reading about are in sponsored blog content, where the authors have an incentive to get you to sign up for a credit card - making >$100 per card sign-up - while downplaying how hard it can be to actually use the miles they are teasing you with.
May 13, 2019, 11:53 pm
#10
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2013
Programs: DL PM, MR Titanium/LTP, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 10,130
If it was easy and straightforward the sweet spots would be dead (and many of the old honey holes have dried up for that exact reason) -- you have to put some work into and read the blogs and various FT threads that go into detail on some of these better values.
For this deal in particular: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/virg...points-41.html