Advice needed for FF rookie trying to go to the Philippines in January
 

Hi everyone,
If anyone has any suggestions/advice, I'd sincerely appreciate it.

My girlfriend and I are planning a last minute trip to the Philippines around the holidays due to an ailing relative of hers. I've never really dove into mileage rewards because I recently graduated college and fewer options were available as a student. Anyhow, I've managed to scrape together enough points to pay for her ticket, but I'm wondering if there's anything that I can do, whether it is in the form of mileage credit cards or what have you. I'd really like to join her on this trip, but unfortunately the ~$1500 cost from upstate New York/Newark is pretty prohibitive.

Does anyone have any suggestions? This trip would be in late December/early January. Thank you so much in advance!

If you wish to fly together you will need to tell us the details of the number and type of points you have accumulated, the airline and routing you intended to fly etc.

Of course - I was going to include that, but frankly (and I know it's a 22-30 hour trip generally) so long as we both make it there we're fine with traveling apart.

As it stands, she'll most likely be flying United to Manila and American back. I have ~42K American miles, 36K United, and some insignificant ~5K miles spread throughout various airlines. She has ~22K American, ~17K United.

Thank you for your reply!

I'm open to any and all suggestions. Neither of us has a rewards credit card at this time, although we just graduated and our credit scores are ~700-740.

Have you found availability on the trip yet? Just because you have enough miles, doesn't make a seat appear.

If you have found availability for two people, but you only have enough miles for one, it's a matter of how readily you can be approved for credit cards. Your scores are low but it's not impossible, especially if you have some positive credit history and a job.

You could easily get enough mileage in two cards:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...nt-credit.html
(which is only 55k at this point)

and

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...ey-appear.html
(but you might as well get two AA cards at the same time)

Have you researched these options in depth?

Thanks for the suggestion! My (one) voyage into frequent flyer tactics in the past was with a Citi AA card - it worked well, I received the bonus and kept the card for a while, but then it didn't end particularly well as I battled them to waive the annual fee as I was a loyal customer.

Yes, as of today, there's availability on both airlines fortunately.
Would you recommend waiting on the United one to see if a better bonus comes out or try it out? Our credit scores are where they are because of our short credit history unfortunately, but now we're making good money (~$100K household income) so hopefully we can get approved.

Thoughts?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by waltonma (Post 19192270)

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I'd really like to join her on this trip, but unfortunately the ~$1500 cost from upstate New York/Newark is pretty prohibitive.

Does anyone have any suggestions? This trip would be in late December/early January. Thank you so much in advance!

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by waltonma (Post 19192993)

Of course - I was going to include that, but frankly (and I know it's a 22-30 hour trip generally) so long as we both make it there we're fine with traveling apart.

As it stands, she'll most likely be flying United to Manila and American back. I have ~42K American miles, 36K United, and some insignificant ~5K miles spread throughout various airlines. She has ~22K American, ~17K United.

-- SNIP --

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by waltonma (Post 19194121)

-- SNIP --

Yes, as of today, there's availability on both airlines fortunately.

-- SNIP --

Thoughts?

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The way that I read it you are willing to let your gf travel and you stay home if necessary. Is that correct?

For the period that you mention I would not recommend that you wait to purchase one ticket since you have the miles available. You can proceed with acquiring the miles to purchase another ticket at a later date. Once you acquire the needed miles you can attempt to get tickets on the same flights you booked for your gf or you can book other flights. What you don't want to do is wait and have miles but no ticket availability.

bold is mine

You're making ~100k, but claimed the $1500 fare is prohibitive. I guess if we make much less than that, there is no chance for us then.

f the guy says it's prohibitive, then it's prohibitive to him. I don't see how it's anyone's business how much one makes. Depending on where in NY you live and what your living situation is (rent/mortgage) it might not be that much anyway.

OP, MDtR gave you very solid advice. Do not wait and book the flight that's available now. Then apply for the card and hope the availability is there by the time of booking. Also, I quite honestly didn't get it when you said "battle the Citi". Battled how? Took them to court or screamed at the CSR? What does it even mean? For future references, never "battle". If you can't get the fee waived by being nice, the other way won't work either.: Just cancel and move on.

MIT_SBM: Thank you for the advice, and I think you're right. I think we should go ahead and book her ticket now to ensure availability. Then I can work to see if I can accumulate the miles in this time frame. I appreciate the suggestion.

Peter I'm not trying to imply that under normal circumstances affording $1,500 on $100K gross would be prohibitive. We just recently graduated (May) and have putting our all into paying down student loans, while helping to support our families and get on our feet. It's not as if we've been making this for years. We're extremely frugal. The only reason I even mentioned the household income is because although we have lower credit scores due to our age, I was hoping the income would help offset for these credit card applications.

By the way, I've read that most credit cards don't take into consideration Household Income anymore just individual gross income. Mine is ~$70K and my girlfriend's is $30K. Ironically she has a higher score because she's had her card longer and we've been paying off her student loans first. Who should be doing the applying?

mnscout Long story short - I was a loyal, frequent card user for 2-3 years. I had my annual fee waived every year and was assured by CSR that it wold be the case going forward. Last September I lost my wallet and ordered a replacement card. I never received the replacement card but it was a busy time in my life and frankly, it took me a while before I realized it as I had received all of my other replacement debit cards, etc. At the time the card was lost, there wasn't a balance on it either. A few months later (lesson learned, but I thought no balance, why would it matter?) it dawned on me that I never received the card. I checked my account and had a ~$350 bill. In October they charged me the annual fee and it had compounded with late fees, surcharges, and the annual fee. When I contested telling them that the annual fee was the only activity on it, I hadn't received the card, etc. they wouldn't waver. Part of it was my fault for not being on top of it, but it just left a bad taste in my mouth. Ultimately they agreed to remove the $350 in charges but closed the account.

Just take note, the procedure for booking a one-way flight from Manila using AA miles is too complicated. It maybe best to use AA miles going to Philippines then United miles coming back. It has something to do with Philippine travel taxes that the government wants to charge to every ticket going out of the Philippines. If you do a one-way test booking on aa.com, you will see that going to MNL is ok but coming from MNL, you have to call AA, no way around it.

Advice noted, thank you! Any other suggestions on how to earn miles given my situation/time frame? I just applied for United Explorer but without instant approval.

Does anyone know how to check the status of a United Explorer card application via telephone?

For Chase:
888-245-0625 connects directly to a personal card credit analyst (reconsideration)
800-453-9719 connects directly to a business card credit analyst (reconsideration)
888 – 609 – 7805 connects to the application status department

Thank you for the help, I really appreciate it! I called and ultimately spoke to an analyst who recommended my approval!

hmmm... Philippines in January? just call the customer service department of most ANY company these days and you are already there right now!

:D:D:D MM