HoKo

So I thought it would be fun and educational to hear about some of the better trips that people have booked using miles. I'm thinking the best way to do this is:

1. First, post the best use of miles that you have redeemed for that is still currently available for booking (this could be very useful for people like myself trying to see just what is possible and how I can max out my miles)

2. Second, post the best use of miles that you have ever redeemed for (even if it is no longer available)

3. I was debating about including hotel points but I think the thread might get a little bit out of hand so I decided to focus it just on airline redemptions and if people enjoy this thread then I'll make another one for hotel redemptions

So, while I have been on FT Since July '10 I've only taken 2 trips booked using miles and neither of them were anything special as far as maximizing value but here goes:

1. The better of my 2 trips was probably the first award flight I've ever booked. I booked IAD - PRG - BUD - IAD open jaw flying LH metal in Y for 55K UA miles (earned primarily from the UA 50K CC promo) + $100 in taxes and fees.
2. I have never made any award bookings that are no longer available so I guess this is a N/A for me.

Haha I remember being quite proud of myself for that open jaw booking since only a week previous I had been one of those people that 'just didn't get it' and thought FF miles were useless.

How about all of you?

johndeere19

Best trip I have ever booked (only premium award so far, really) was a LH First Class JFK-FRA that ended up being the one that was swapped for the A380. Can't wait!

diaspora04

Using 600k AA miles for flights on AY, BA and AA: 5 J seats together JFK-HEL-VNO-HEL-LHR-JFK with stop overs in Vilnius and London.

izzik

#2: being able to book LGA-ORD one-way on AA with only 2 hrs advance notice, due to a complete Delta meltdown/crisis @ JFK which resulted in me missing my DL flight to Chicago.

nshelledy

I have only booked 1 flight using miles (40k), which was a trip to Italy last May with my best friend. I'm peeved I wasn't aware of the free stopover, as I definitely would've added on a trip to Hawaii for last December, but oh well.

The miles I have now are for a trip to Buenos Aires sometime in the next year. I'm working on getting enough to also get my son's ticket.

Astrophsx

100k Skymiles last June for:

MCI-LHR
AMS-DUB
DUB-MCI

All in first/business, open-jaw, and stopover. By far the best I've ever gotten with skymiles.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

In 2010, I used 150,000 AA miles on a distance-based oneworld Business Class award (which permitted First Class travel on two-class domestic AA flights), which allowed me to visit Hawaii on one trip; Europe on another trip; and the Caribbean on a third trip; with multiple stopovers. (In order to get three separate trips out of the same award, I had to fly in and out of a couple of different airports besides those in NYC, so as not to violate the award's routing and stopover rules. But Bolt Bus and Megabus made that pretty cheap. )

IIRC, in the 80's or 90's, some FFP awards included free hotel nights and free car-rental days along with the free flights, for no additional mileage.

trillo88

Last summer did one-way MIA-NYC-NRT with a stopover in New York for only 25,000 AA miles.

One that I have yet to take advantage of but will be in the near future is a RT to South America (excluding Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay) from the US (JFK, MIA, or LAX) for only 20,000 SPG points.

Also being based out of MIA presents quite a few good reward possibilities such as the following.
RT to Bahamas for 6000 SPG points.
RT to GCM for 8000 SPG points.
RT to MBJ, CUN, or KIN for 9000 SPG points.

abcx

How did you manage 20k to Japan on AA? Award chart says 25k off-peak.

What airline is the RT trip to S. America for 20k SPG on?

HoKo

Nice! So are you transferring to ANA for their distance based award chart then?

trillo88

Oops my bad, it actually was 25,000.

And the airline for the trip to South America is LAN.

Firewind

Strictly within the question as framed, using United miles to book one-way travel on british midland itineraries. But looking at the whole picture, flying through the UK is daunting, deleterious, as in "deal killer" when t&f are considered. Freebies become just somewhat discounted. It wasn't always this way, but it grows worse and worse, so "free" travel on bmi costs more and more. I avoid Heathrow like the plague for this reason.

Otherwise, flying bmi on UA miles..... (^)

Jaimito Cartero

My best recent award was AMS-HKG-CGK on CX First using AA miles. I was the only customer in first, and had two FAs at my service. Great food, excellent F seats, and great service.

Best all time use of mileage was a NW RTW award in 2006. 220K. About $300 in taxes. Spread over 11 months, 6 continents, and all in Biz or FC. Those were the days.

Flew KE, AZ, AF, OK and CO. I wrote about it in Expert Flyer, March 2008.

Milano Suprano

My best award redemption was this last Christmas/ new years when the wife and I did sfo-hkg in CX F, HKG- MEL on QF F, MEL-BNE-HKG in QF J, HKG-SFO in CX F. I think I used 225K BA miles and 227.5k AA miles...

uva185

My best was a First Class faux RTW trip in 2009. For 150k US miles per person I booked the following.

DCA-ORD (UA)
ORD-LAX (UA)
LAX-NRT (SQ)
NRT-SIN (SQ)
(stop)
SIN-IST (TK)
(day - free tour by TK)
IST-JNB (TK)
(dest)
JNB-FRA (LH)
FRA-ORD (LH)
ORD-DCA (UA)

At my stopover city I paid for flights and visited BKK, HKT, and KUL. At my destination city I paid for flights and visited CPT, VFA, and LVI. I also went on a Safari in Botswana.

It was an epic trip! I blogged about it here: http://gpalcher.wordpress.com