viperbrown

Compelling from a numbers perspective, but we got back from BOM/MLE a month ago so think we'd lean towards checking out a new place.

Thanks so much for looking though, appreciate the help immensely!

briefcandle

Departure Airport: IST (But can position to Europe for a good deal)
Miles Needed: As many as possible (Aiming to make * Gold, starting almost from scratch)
Required Spend or Budget: $2000 or so
Available Travel Dates: No restrictions next few months
Required Metal or Codeshares okay: Codeshares OK

I'm guessing Aegean or Turkish would be my best bets, but open to all possibilities.. (Travelling on US passport, if that makes a difference.)

Thank you!

drvannostren

Dep: YVR or less preferably SEA
Miles Needed: 7,700
Budget: < $800 CAD
Available travel: +-4 Mar 27 +-2 Apr 5 (I'd rather make this a fun trip vs a mileage run)
Required Metal: Anything that credits to Asiana. United K credits at 50% so that's what I've been looking at for the most part.

Quick backstory...I originally had a SIN run booked, with no intentions of going to Singapore. But the flights on UA direct started sounding more and more unbearable, except maybe LAX-SIN which seems to block lots of seats for weight/balance. When I got a chance at a freebie cancellation, I took it. So now I need to replace those miles to make sure I don't have any gap in star gold.

I'm looking at going to Rangoon, Bangkok, Phuket, Phnom Penh, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Brunei. Any of them appeal to me, I wanna try and fit in 2. Tops on my list are PNH and CGK. There used to be so many of those cheap CGK runs, but I haven't seen any in a while, in all my research (which I've spent way too long on lol) CGK has consistently come up as one of the most expensive. I also kinda wanna fly CGK-KUL or reverse, just to try KLM once on a funky route.

I've found acceptable routings/prices, but I keep thinking I can do better. MNL comes up with some better costs, but I don't really wanna GO there and the LCC costs to/from there aren't as good as the other areas. One of the problems with many of the UA routings is on their site they include flights on Jetstar, kinda surprises me, but I guess there's a partnership there I didn't know about. Those routings don't really come up on Google/ITA. But I don't really have any interest (unless it REALLY makes cost sense) to sit in SIN for like 9 hours after an LCC flight then get on a horrible 16+ hour ride SIN-SFO. Many routings offer like $15-20 more flying to NRT then SFO-YVR...I'm much more open to that.

I'm just asking here to see if anyone can come up with anything I may not have found. I've been scouring ITA/Google/UA.com for weeks now and can't find something that REALLY sticks out to me, but at the prices I've found I feel like I'm missing something. Thought maybe you guys could help.

wh6cto

It's also worth looking at UA, since L-fare credits at 75%. For example:

UA:$858 IST-HNL TK=13827miles L-fare
Thu 12 Apr IST-FRA-SFO-HNL
(22h in HNL)
Fri 14 Apr HNL-IAH-MUC-IST
https://goo.gl/flights/orXj
UA:12747mi(16996mi@75%)+TK:1080(2160@50%), estimated per GCMAP.

And I believe you can only buy miles (up to 5k @ 8cpm) starting you second year, so if you're starting from scratch that option is out.

briefcandle

Oh, I hadn't considered that possibility. The HNL run looks very interesting, thanks so much!

ewazak

One behalf of my 18 year child: Is there ANY way to get United PQDs without actually spending the money on United flights? I know about the $25k spend on the credit card and that won't work for the kid, no way he could spend that kind of money. He'll have enough PQM but will likely be about 1,000 PQD short to get silver (same story as last year). Do i actually have to buy a $1,000 ticket on United to get 1,000 PQD? Best airports are EUG, PDX or ORD. Thank you kindly in advance for any advice.

HeidiInTheAlps

Departure Airport: AMS, BRU, DUS, FRA
Miles Needed: As many as possible (don't expect to fly as much in 2018 and want to maintain 1K status) Hoping to rack up somewhere aroun 20-30K
Required Spend or Budget: $1500 or thereabouts
Available Travel Dates: January 2018
Required Metal or Codeshares okay: UA, LH, COPA or ANA - I have 4 GPU's and 5 RPU"s to burn, thought I might as well to a mileage run in January, in anticipation of 2018 shortfall and use on hand, almost ready to expire GPU's to make it all that more comfortable. So, looking for cheap W or Q class

Kmxu

Unfortunately, the answer is yes unless your child resides in another country (for example, Canada). PQD only includes the price of the tickets (including international surcharge) and cost of economy plus seat, not the taxes and other fees.

wh6cto

No idea about availability of R, but here's an idea:

UA:$1044 AMS-EZE 18604PQM (w/500mi min) H/V-fare
Sat 27 Jan AMS-IAD-EWR-EZE
(10h10m in EZE, daytime)
Mon 29 Jan EZE-EWR-AMS
(11h50m at EWR, daytime)
https://goo.gl/flights/pFpfa
All UA metal, GPUable fare. No visa required w/ US passport (up to 90 days)

And it sounds like you requalified for 1K, so you should be able to extend two GPUs to Apr expiration, for another mileage run.

Good luck!

Kmxu

I know that the W fare for EWR-HKG is about $1136 and there are R spaces available for some weekdays (Jan. 15, 18, 22, 23, 24,25 for EWR-HKG; and Jan. 16, 22, 23, 29, 30 for HKG-EWR). A second ticket for AMS-EWR round trip costs about $500 (in K class, not upgradable with GPUs). Unfortunately, a single ticket will not work.
Good luck,

drvannostren

Man....sometimes I hate living in Canada. From YVR it's almost impossible to get to EZE for sub $1000 (or sub $1300 CAD) unless you get a really good fare or have to ignore the alliance you're flying. There's some great fares out of Europe these days.

HeidiInTheAlps

The HKG is interesting. If I reposition to CPH, I can get a V fare for about 600 return.... now just trying to find a return where I loop back via AMS AND good seat availability.... was looking at 27 Jan return, but not many seats available on the EWR-AMS leg.... which is the leg I'd need it most. Could go out in K, daytime flight.... but not back.

Being home before noon on 27 January is a huge plus for me, otherwise I'd probably do the EZE itin

HeidiInTheAlps

So, on the return, no R space, but showing 15 seats available, as a 1K, what do we reckon my chances are of upgrade?

MSP_Monopoly

Kmxu

I assume that you would take HKG-EWR on Jan. 26, which is Friday. I would say that the chance is not too bad, but Thursday will be much better (P9 vs. P4) although seat maps have the same number of seats available. Good luck deciding.