Hello all --

This is a fantastic forum, and I've learned so much from y'all over the last year or so about the miles game. So thank you all. Now I'm ready to attempt to put everything I've learned to work.

I'm getting married this summer and am starting to plan our honeymoon. We'd like to go somewhere in the Caribbean, preferably somewhere starting with "St.," though we're open to pretty much anything secluded and on the beach.

What I don't know is how, or if it's even possible, to combine points from various programs to get to wherever we decide to go.

Currently, here's where I stand approximately:

UA = 65,000
AA = 47,000
CO = 25,000
US = 35,000
SPG = 15,000
AmEx MR = 80,000

With the above information, does anybody have any suggestions on how to use these points to go somewhere in the Caribbean? I'm not necessarily looking for exact routes; rather, I'm just looking for big-picture suggestions.

Ideally, I'd like to fly up front, and I'm willing to buy coach tickets and upgrade with points if that's more feasible.

Thanks in advance!

You forgot to mention which airport(s) you fly out of.

Oops -- thank you. We'll be flying out of CLT. But we could also do IAD if that would make things easier/better.

When are you looking to travel? Any dates in mind?

Ideally, we'd be leaving around July 17 or 18 and be gone for a week or two. Nothing specific as of yet. At this time, I'm still just trying to get my head around what, if anything, is even possible before I dive too deeply into the details.

First, welcome to FT and congrats on the upcoming marriage.

The good news: you should be able to find lots of availability from CLT to the Caribbean in July. I just checked a few sample dates and see lots of availability to places like SXM, STT, and SJU.

The bad news: mid-July will be HOT down there, which is why there's tons of award availability.

To get two first class tickets down there, you're looking at using most of your UA miles and then you need to increase your US balance to 60k. If you don't have the USAir credit card, that would be an easy 25k.

Or, if you don't mind making a connection in MIA, you could get two of the AA credit cards that give you 75k miles each. With the 150k from that, you'd be able to get 2 award tickets, although you might have to fly coach since the CLT-MIA flights are all coach (I think) and it might not be worth it to pay double the miles just to sit up front for the short MIA - Caribbean flight. Or, both of you can get two AA cards and then you can literally get almost anywhere in the world in business or first class.

Another thing to think about if you end up on US from CLT to the Caribbean is what type of plane you're on. For example, US has a few flights a day from CLT to SJU, but some of those are operated with an A320 and some with a 757. The 757 will have a much better seat than the A320. The difference between the F seat on an A320 and the F seat on a 757 is greater than the difference between a coach seat on either and an F seat on an A320 (IMO).

Edited to add:
Caribbean flights in the summer are fairly easy to get elite upgrades on. Since flight costs seem rather reasonable (~$400-$500/ticket), it might be worth it to just buy the tickets on USAir, then sign up for the trial preferred with USAir (so that your honeymoon falls inside the 90 days you'll have status), and hope for an upgrade. You'd be out ~$1000-$1200 and might not get upgraded, but this is an option that will let you save 120k miles.

He could convert his amex points to continental. Redeem that for one F award and his UA miles for the other F award.

I would make sure you want to go to the caribbean. Hot, muggy, rainy and chance of hurricanes. Really not the ideal season to go.

I suggest Hawaii.

We had a destination wedding in July and had to eliminate everywhere in the caribbean due to bad weather. We were just not willing to chance it.

We ended up doing it in Cabo which is dry. It is hot during the day though. Cabo worked best for our needs, but I would think Hawaii is the best western hemisphere honeymoon in July.

Totally agree. You are just asking for trouble and misery in the Caribbean in July. If you don't want the long trek to Hawaii, consider Bermuda, which is far enough north for better summer weather.

Good idea. BDA is a quick flight from CLT and WAS. And check out the F&F rates at the Fairmonts there (I think the info is in the hotel deals thread) to save some money in a rather expensive destination.

If you want beach but BDA doesn't appeal, take a look at southern Europe. From your front door in CLT, you can be at a beach in Italy in about the same amount of time as it takes to get to Hawaii. Hawaii takes ~75k miles for a first class award ticket and Europe takes ~100k, but Europe flights might be easier to get (getting an award to Hawaii will likely require a routing like CLT-ORD-SFO-HNL on UA or CLT-DFW-LAX-HNL on AA) whereas you have many options to get to Europe if you can use CLT or IAD.

Bonaire, Aruba or Curacao average a high of about 89 degrees in July; cooler than Charlotte. Bonaire is difficult to get to and not very pretty, nor with big hotel options. But the diving is fantastic.

I'm not as familiar with Aruba or Curacao, but they are more touristy destinations.

Actually, the Caribbean is not awful compared to the US South. In fact, it is often much more comfortable because of the sea breezes. (I'd compare it to going to Myrtle Beach in July.)

CO has flights to Bonaire from EWR and IAH, neither as good as leaving from CLT. Though, you could transfer AMEX to CO and then I think use your UA miles.

OTOH, Bermuda is a great suggestion. I frankly would stay away from European beach destinations. But, that's just me.

Thank you all for the great thoughts and suggestions!! This is exactly the type thing I was looking for. I'll start looking more into Hawaii as a possibility.

One question regarding the CO and UA miles: I still have to use them separately, correct? In other words, I still would have to have enough UA miles for one ticket independent from having enough CO miles for the other ticket because they don't "spill over" yet?

Correct.

Also, if you use miles from two different programs for the two tickets, put one ticket on hold, then call and book/ticket the other ticket, then call back and ticket the first. This way you avoid getting the first ticket only to find that the second seat disappeared in the few minutes it will take to call the second airline.

You are getting lots of good advice from others about the trip. HOWEVER, I always watch the choice of pronouns when people are talking. The part from you I copied only used "I". You did switch over to "we" for the rest of your post. Hopefully the other party in this marriage is also in on the planning?

Romelle

Haha -- very good eye! But indeed you read it correctly. I am planning; we are traveling. I will be doing the research and making all the arrangements. Obviously I'm running all of this stuff by her as the plans evolve, but at the end of the day, I'll be doing the actual booking for both of us.

Hope it all works out great!

...and just a suggestion for the future... Pick one airline in an alliance and credit all flights with that alliance to the one program!!

Presumably CO/UA miles will be merged... but having a separate US account as well seems pointless to me...