Newbie needs help using miles
 

I fly with my wife to Europe once or twice a year, a couple of FL to IL or WI domestic flights, and occasionally to Asia. I have a ton of Amex points, Delta miles, United miles. I have never been able to figure out the best way to use them. We want to fly Business.

I booked a Ft Myers to Warsaw Poland on Delta for travel at the end of April and had to pay a $2500 each for upgradable refundable Coach and Delta wants 50k miles each for the upgrade.

It seems that there should be a better way. I just can't find it.

Should I be looking for NYC to FRA and filling in the other legs separately?

I would love a little lesson!

Welcome to FT. I hope your stay is educational. :)

What do you mean by a "better way"? Are you set on Business Class? Do you have the miles to book C or do you need to go the u/g route? Many FTers like to book upgradeable fares & then use miles to u/g to C or F. I don't have a "cheaper" answer for you. But, we have a lot of experts here that may be able to help.

Hi! Welcome to Flyertalk!

Your situation with Delta is not the best option - that's a lot of cash and miles. If you have them, spending miles for direct business class tickets is likely a better deal. It's 210K United miles for the two business class tickets, which is less than $5000. It might even be better to spend Delta miles, though I have no idea how many it would take thanks to their "flexible" system.

Since United is part of Star Alliance, you should look at www.staralliance.com to see the carriers, and flight paths, that go from Fort Myers to Warsaw. Then you'll have some ideas.
If you have more time, there are directions on how to use the ANA tool on Flyertalk; search for "ANA Masterclass". Using those tools, just glancing for you, there's some availability on LOT from JFK to WAW on April 25, and using USAir from PHL through FRA.

Since you don't get charged until you make the booking, my first option would be to call United and Delta and ask them to search. Once you have options, you can make a decision.

There's your problem in a nutshell. DL miles are almost useless, when compared to other programs, for international awards or upgrades. Have you tried using your UA miles?

Now, now. I wouldn't say there almost useless. What I would say is that to use them in a way that makes CPM sense, you have to be very vigilant and very flexible. For instance, I have scored a Business Class tickets from Atlanta to South Africa this summer on the 777L none stop. I have also seen (although not used personally) plenty of LAX-Sydney-LAX Business Class tickets for 120,000. I have redeemed tons of transcon First Class roundtrips for 45K.

Lets not open that can of worms though :p

You've gotten great advice already. Something else that might help you with your planning is the value of miles. For me it is 1.5 cents/mile based on my travel patterns (coach & lots of intl travel). For you it is probably different, but either way that allows you to compare whether it is worth to use miles or cash in various situations.

I travel the routes you mention but almost always in coach so my advice may not be very useful. As a general rule I found Skyteam better for Transatlantic travel and Star Alliance for Transpacific travel. If it wasn't for LH blocking, Star Alliance would be the best across the board. You could rely on the inefficient DL award search engine and search for different pieces or call. With Star Alliance, you could use the recommended ANA search engine but ignore LH. I also got some helpful ideas from Continental's award search engine. Good luck.

We used miles to upgrade Int'l coach for years, mostly on UA and DL. Over time, the cost of upgradable coach fares went up (a lot), the miles to upgrade went up, getting the upgrade became increasingly hard and, most importantly, C class service went downhill to a point where it's now a bigger seat and luck of the draw. No more for me.

If you want C class and you have no status (and do not plan to act to get status), you'll have to put up miles at the going rate. Minimize the miles you use by choosing the best routes in terms of least miles to get where you want to go. Book way ahead, especially for high season travel, and for anything to do with Delta. Book only at the lowest mile level and work around the limited availability.

Star Alliance would be great because Lott is part of it. I have a little under 100k United miles and 300k+ Amex points.

I was once told that ANA lets you get Amex pts into the StarAlliance system, but calls to UA, Lott,and ANA go nowhere.

I am frustrated and just do not know enough about the 'system.'

Can I move Amex pts? Would it pay to buy another 100k UA miles?

Lott has direct flights from ORD and JFK and both are easy to reach from Ft Myers.

Can you help me out??
Thanks!!!

Here is the list of airlines into whose mileage schemes you can move AMEX points:

http://www.membershiprewards.com/cat...lAirlines&No=0

Yes, ANA is one of the participants. However, be cautious about moving points there as there is a three year expiration. In other words, as of the date you move points in, you have three years to redeem them. It's much more typical for programs to keep extending the life of miles as you have activity in the program. If you have specific plans for your awards, particularly if you want ANA awards, then this program would be fine.

You can also move points into the Air Canada program. I do not participate in that program, but some knowledgeable members, such as gleff, are great fans of the ease of redemption from it.

UA does not participate in AMEX Membership Rewards.

When you are searching for award availability on Star Alliance carriers, the ANA availability tool is essential. I know you are new to redemptions, so this will seem a bit overwhelming at first. Here is an excellent tutorial on how to use it:

bmi FAQ No.4: Redemptions - Finding Award seats : the ANA online tool masterclass

Given those amounts of points, your best bet is going to be moving points from Amex to a Star Alliance carrier. You can move from Amex to Continental or Aeroplan (Air Canada). Looking at your desired location, it's going to be cheaper to go through Aeroplan.
Also, you don't need to learn ANA, since your redemption is not super complicated.

1) Open an Aeroplan account (www.aeroplan.com).
2) Use the Aeroplan website to search. Break it apart into RSW to EWR, then EWR to WAW. If you can leave midweek, I found Business class availability from RSW to EWR, then from EWR to WAW. (For instance, leaving April 21 and returning May 4.) On an international flight, you're allowed to stay overnight in New York. That might help find evening flights.
3) Call the Aeroplan centre with some options that you found. You'll need to call unless you can get the website to do RSW to WAW in one selection, which I wasn't able to do. Make sure they find the whole thing.
4) Transfer 160,000 points from Amex to Aeroplan - there's online instructions at the aeroplan site.
5) Book it online, or through the call centre.

You can do the entire thing online through Continental - they have a good rewards website - but their cost is 105K miles each. I don't think a couple of phone calls are worth 50,000 points (210K vs. 160K).

Welcome to Flyertalk!

Here's why Air Canada's Aeroplan -- an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner -- is my favorite frequent flyer program for redemptions.

First, let me note that Aeroplan charges 100k miles for Ft Myers to Warsaw in business class.

Second, yes, you've got the right idea to search for transatlantic flights first. You don't need to search New York - Frankfurt alone, though. (Although LOT is an Aeroplan partner and does fly JFK-WAW.)

Here's how it works.

First, find the itinerary you want.

It's already been posted above, a suggestion about how to find the seats using the All Nippon Airways website (this will search all of Star Alliance except Swiss, Air China, and Shanghai Airlines).

Do sign up in advance for an Air Canada Aeroplan account, and link it to your American Express Membership Rewards account. Do not transfer any points yet.

Call Aeroplan with the itinerary you've found, give them the departure and arrival cities, class of service, number of passengers, and dates. They may find something you like even better than what you've found! But if they don't, feel free to offer your suggested itinerary.

You don't have the points in the account yet, but once they set up the reservation you can go online to MembershipRewards.com and make the transfer while you're on the phone with Aeroplan. Amex points post to Aeroplan instantly.

Then you ticket the reservation.

I also like Continental Onepass, you can put awards ON HOLD for 24 hours prior to making the points transfer. The routing rules are good but not quite as generous (see my link above for why I love Air Canada Aeroplan's routing rules) as Aeroplan. And many awards cost a little bit more. But you don't have to do the whole instant thing, Continental will put awards on hold without any points in the account.

You have more opportunities out of MIA than RSW, for MIA there's Lufthansa to Frankfurt and Munich and Swiss to Zurich. For Star Alliance awards out of RSW you'll need to fly to Charlotte, Newark, Washington Dulles, Chicago, Philadelphia in order to find premium class international awards.

And then from your European gateway on to Warsaw, your destination.

Do not transfer Amex points to Delta. Even if you're tempted by bonuses they might offer.

Another decent option, though there are real drawbacks, is transferring to British Airways. Availability from the US to London is good. They offer one way awards. Points post instantly from Amex. Drawbacks include the high cost of taxes and fees, and the more expensive award chart.