Hi All!

First time posting and getting into point/mile redemptions. I have accrued a few and don't want my balances to stay idle much longer, so I am looking to plan a trip of a lifetime! Thinking about possibly the Maldives, Seychelles, or bouncing around Europe, but not set on anything yet. Looking for any recommendations on the best tools to use to book with points, or past experiences. An airline with a great first or business class service, like Qatar or Singapore would be preferred. Apologies in advance for my ignorance, thanks all!

Here is what I have to work with:

Credit Card
CHASE: 355,832
AMEX: 295,062
CAP1: 248,218

Airlines
AA: 575,628
UA: 31,452

Hotel
MB: 122,719
HLT: 116,848
HYATT: 28,251

Welcome to FT.

Unfortunately, I think it's going to be difficult to help too much. You seem to have plenty of points and miles (which certainly helps), but we don't even know where you're located, and you've listed three destinations in three totally different parts of the world. Are you flexible on dates? Length? Do you need one seat? Two? Four? What past experiences are you referring to? There's a whole Trip Reports forum you can read for those.

There are award booking services that help people use their points to book dream trips, which might be preferable if you want to hand the work off to somebody else. You can also use a tool like point.me to search for availability on a particular date and route through all programs to see which one is cheapest, or seats.aero to search through the end of schedule (as a pro user) for a particular route's availability.

One place to start: what's your priority? Is it a particular destination? A particular airline and class of service? Do you have a set of dates you're locked into? Narrowing down the scope of what you're planning would help you plan the trip and help others assist you.

Welcome to FT

- What research have you done yourself on airline ffp's that could get the trip you want?
- What airline ffp’s are common transfer partners of your credit cards? (It does vary by the country of credit card issue)
- You seem to be a frequent spender and as well as a frequent flyer
- FF miles are not equal to earn or burn. They are not 1 to 1.
- Many to most ffp's now do not allow stopovers on awards. So you will/may need 2 or more awards.
- Some ffp's allow one way awards. So you could uses 2 or more different ffp's
- Premium awards to/from EU <--> USA in peak seasonsr can be hard to get.
- Does passport/visa effect choice or route?

Have you flown long haul international first/business class flights?
Airlines/aircraft/routes with long haul international first class are decreasing.
Example:- Qatar Airways sees no future with long-haul First Class

For the Maldives and Seychelles look the wikipedia airport entry. Lists airlines/routes, but not always up to date.
For bouncing around Europe best is by train for shorter/medium trips and flights for longer routes. Central EU, where most people visit, is small.
Omeworld (AA and others) can get you to most (all?) destinations

.Credit card transfer links

• Credit, Debit and Prepaid Card Programs forum
  
• Amex MR Transfer Membership Rewards points to which airline or hotel program? From Jan 2022
  
• Amex MR Transfer Membership Rewards points to which airline or hotel program? Closed
  
• Chase UR Ultimate Rewards - Airline and Hotel Transfer Partners, Rules, Timeline, etc (2017)
  
• Chase UR Ultimate Rewards - Which airline/hotel should I transfer points to?
  
• Citi TYP Citi ThankYou Points (TYPs): airline transfer partners

Why burn all the points in a single trip? Also every time I read about a trip someone is calling a �trip of a lifetime� it�s either before the trip and they�re over planning or it�s after the trip and one small thing went wrong which ruined everything. Going in with the assumption that you can go back makes things so much better.

Personally I�d be stretching those miles into a few trips, bounce around Europe a couple times, do some section of Asia, etc. Also I think the Maldives looks awesome but you can get 95% of the experience in the Caribbean for a lot less.

My advice - get a one-way business award to where you want to go first, book a few nights hotel, and book everything else as you go and based on availability. With flexibility comes great availability. FWIW - Maldives and Seychelles are pretty boring unless combined with other destinations.

Great advice. I guess I used the "trip of a lifetime" a little bit loosely in more of the terms of being a lavish trip. Business class flight, upscale hotels/resorts, etc. With constant changes in point evaluations, I wanted to splurge a bit and use a chunk up before they were de-valued. I will definitely look into the Caribbean!

erik123
I think the booking as you go sounds exciting, but it might kill my OCD, lol. I'm such a planner and will even make a sort of itinerary for the trip. Have you had good success rate with last minute award travel?

Some folks have alluded to it, but the key question is what do you want to do? You have a very healthy amount of points so have a lot of options but what is the goal? Do you want to go to a resort and sit on the beach or lounge in your over water cabana all day? Do you want to visit historical sites and museums? Temples / cathedrals? Natural wonders? Local experiences? Do you just want to experience the best in flight product regardless of where it takes you?

I agree with SethMCOflyer and suggest targeting something that interests you vs just focusing on the best value. Yeah, points devalue so you may end up only getting 2 trips instead of 3, but from my experience those 2 trips doing what you enjoy are incomparably better than 3 trips min-maxing.

Last minute availability can be extremely good. If you want a lavish trip SE Asia typically offers best bang for buck. If Europe look for secondary cities (e.g. Valencia vs Barcelona) for better deals on luxury hotels.

OP, I don’t know your travel history but if you want an area to just go and feel like you’re really out there while getting great value, I totally agree with erik123, you can’t beat SE Asia. You can often find last minute award travel for within the region but even if you can’t what does it really matter spending $50 for a cash economy fare on a short flight? Hotels are the same way, you might find good point deals but even if not you can get really good value for not a ton of money.

Find award flights into HKG, SIN, or BKK and use that as a home base. Explore Angkor Wat, travel Vietnam, visit Chang Mai, etc. There’s some really cool destinations that even if you don’t properly plan to use all your points it won’t matter, cash prices are still very reasonable.

Just for me I try to value the points vs paying cash. I can fly to Europe in economy for about $800 and it’s not that bad. But flying economy to Asia is absolutely miserable, it’s really only somewhere I’m going if I find a really good business class deal which is rare or I’m using points.