Which airline to transfer?
 

About to pull a trigger on a travel package (7 nights, cat 5). But having doubts as to which airline to transfer to. I would normally, by default, use United but their recent devaluation is making me have second thoughts.

I have some miles with USAir also but their merger with AA (I have no experience outside of *Alliance) is confusing me.
I don't know if I can book oneworld tix online, if the process is convoluted etc.

I normally use airline miles for tix between US and Asia. Preferably in business.

Looks like in business , United is now 80k one way and AA is 55k.

So I am sorta thinking about using my Dividend miles account but I would love to hear some more educated opinions.

The other thing, I read that AA and USAir used to offer bonuses as promos. With my luck, they will announce one as soon as I make the booking :)

Thanks!

Friend does have Marriott account but it has a balance.
Im afraid that Marriott will only allow a transfer of the points needed to complete the booking and not the full amount of the travel package.
Although the risk of having the southwest points hit the wrong account would be really bad.

Have the friend make a cancellable points reservation that would use up all the points in the account, then do the transfer thing. After the points have hit the account, cancel the other reservation.

United you get a 10% Bonus if that matters.
For me, I find the flight I want first, then decide which to transfer.

With the United partnership, I doubt any promos from Marriott other than that.

Lately the promotions from other airlines have specifically excluded travel package miles, so I would not hold my breath.

That will work. Just book as many nights/hotels as you need to get your balance close to zero. Or have the wife/spouse who does not have an account open one and transfer the points.

Billy

That's easy enough.

So book enough point reservations to zero out account then have points transferred in full amount.

I was hoping to hear a few people say that they had done this before without any issues but this will work.

Travel package for Vacation club?
 

Hi all,

I didn't want to create a new thread for a travel package question. I am wondering if it would be possible to redeem a travel package (let's say, a cat 8 package) and use the 7 night hotel cert for a vacation club?

The club is cat 8 too and it looks like it has availability for my dates (at 35k per night, with all the 7 nights open). Has anyone done this?

You should be able to. Keep in mind that the published category for a MVCI is for the lock off (guest room) side only. Not the villa. You have to pay $$ or additional points to get that. If the MVCI only has villas-such as Phuket-you have to pay the base category rate plus the premium to upgrade to the 2br villa.

Thanks, Mr. Vker. It seems that the upgrade to stay in a two bedroom is only 70k points for the whole week which sounds pretty good in my book.

However, I just learnt it's better from my family to go early next year instead of early December and it doesn't seem that availability has been loaded into the system -all Hawaii properties show nothing available after December 15 or so...

Early December usually has quite a bit of availability @ Hawaii properties whereas early next year, Jan. Feb, and March is extremely busy and may not be possible for travel package use.

Thanks, jtp... I am utterly unfamiliar with Hawaii (I've never been) and I didn't realize it would be so difficult to find availability. However, I don't know if it is lack of availability or the fact that it just hasn't been loaded into the calendar because EVERYTHING after mid-December is unavailable (in all the vacation clubs).

With the few points owners get, I guess it makes sense to stay in their own properties instead of trading, but still, I expected at least something open.

I'm looking to use a travel package to get companion pass qualifying SW RR pts...I have 140k MR and 100k UR, so I'll soon be able to reach the 250k cat 1-5 + 100k RR. My issue is that I have a 5 night vacation to use it on rather than 7...do they offer this somehow (over the phone, turning a 5 night res into a TP, etc)?

I've seen the 5 night packages mentioned, but only for vacation club owners, which I am not. Thanks!

AFAIK only 7-Night cert is possible for Non VC owners. You can use your 7 night cert for 5 nights and let go 2 nights. That is all I can think of.

Has anyone ever been able to apply the cat 1-4 ecert toward a travel package (essentially adding an additional 20k to your points)?

I know you're looking for someone who has, and I have not. And, I am as close to 100.00% sure you cannot do this.

Billy