Hi everyone - gotten many tips here. Never posted.

I am looking to take a honeymoon to Athens with my soon to be wife in June. (1st week). My original plan was to just pay for coach and ride it out.

At this point, we have (combined) roughly 100,000 points in our chase sapphire acount. I also have roughly 9,000 in my US airways dividend, and will be going to hawaii on them in Feb, netting me roughly 9,000 more and her 9,000. So Combined we should have 27,000 on US air and 100,000+ Sapphire. Given the partnerships sapphire has, I am hoping to get round trip first class tickets for us to Athens from DTW.

Anyone have any ideas what the best way is to do this? Obviously we won't have nearly enough points to do it for free, but I was thinking we should have enough to buy coach and upgrade.

I would like to know what I am getting though, ie.. not find out two weeks before. Is it possible to buy coach and upgrade now using the points we have?

If not, any ideas on the most cost effective way to do this??

You might want to change the title. Seeing someone ask about a honeymoon upgrade triggered all sorts of snarky comments in my mind. You see, we have many one hit posters who show up and ask about getting free upgrades because it is their honeymoon/anniversary/they dress well/they think they are cute/etc.

Then I read your thread and found out your question is quite legit.

Good luck on your up coming nuptials and hopefull someone familiar with Sapphire points will be along shortly and help you out.

Oh, and welcome to FT!

First, don't worry so much about business class vs. first class. First class can be hard to get, but business class is just fine. You will get great food (by airline standards), wine and champagne, big sleeper seats, noise-cancelling headphones, really, you will be fine. You might even like it better since the first class seats can be so private that you can't even really communicate easily.

Now for the bad news. Upgrading coach fares is very difficult. You can usually only upgrade fares that are well above the cheapest. Buying an upgradeable fare can often be more expensive than discounted business class.

Now for more bad news. Your USAir and Chase points are not really combinable. You can transfer your Chase points to United, but not to USAir. If you had enough for a ticket on USAir, you possibly could book one ticket on the same Star Alliance routing with US points and one with Sapphire points converted to UA. (Also note that you said you would have "27,000 US points." Not really. You will have 18,000 and she will have 9,000. You can't combine them.)

So you're going on your honeymoon in the back of the bus? Wait, not necessarily. Dr. Redtop has a prescription.

Get each of you a United Mileage Plus Explorer card, which if you do it right, will get you 55,000 United points each. (Be sure to do it the right way, there are tips in the thread on that card.) Now you can transfer 45K Chase points to each of your United accounts and - voila - you have 100K points for a business class ticket!

More good news. Based on my limited experience, United is the easiest airline to search for award availability.

Hopefully you don't have some reason not to get the United cards. Note that you get the points with just one purchase; you don't have to meet a minimum spending requirement.

So surprise - yes, you probably can do this for free! Well, there will be a few hundred dollars in taxes and fees.

Another suggestion - perhaps - get each of you a USAirways mastercard. 40K for signing up and 10K each year when you pay the $89 annual fee. In about 5 years you'll have enough for a second honeymoon.

I see your point! Not sure how to edit the title now though... and No I'm not trying to get anything "free" obviously I know I don't have enough for that... Just trying to make the most out of the points I have.

I called USAirways and they said...

30,000 points + $300 per person, per direction to upgrade, no guarantee anything is available.
(Total, if I am doing this right is 60,000 miles plus $1200 over the cost of coach)

100,000 points + roughly $300 per person round trip (low category) for first class ticket each.

I think this is a typo??

are one of the USair's supposed to be chase?

So chase only goes to United? not UsAir?

Congrats! Well, since you�ve US DM account, I believe US is having their 100% bonus going on at the moment. If you decide to fly in J, you could purchase 50,000 miles a get 50,000 for around $1881 approximately. Here is a link that talks all about this:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/12842614-post1.html

Well, that 30K points per person per direction, which is 120K points total. Plus $1200. This is no bargain at all. If we conservatively value the points at 1 cent each, that's $2400 already. Plus the cost of the coach tickets.

I have to think they were wrong about 100K for first class, unless they thought you meant Athens, Georgia. USAir is 125K for first. But as I said, business is fine.

So I will bite on business, I have been looking around on the internet and it seems like pretty much the same thing... as you said too, first does appear almost too private. Great advice.

Now where to go from here.. as you said my chase points apparently wont go through to US, so I guess it's pretty much United with them.

I don't really want to open another credit card...

any ideas on what business upgrades are from united since I have like 100,000 points to use?

I agree.. the upgrade is a terrible deal.

Looks like united is in the $500 range, but within the miles I would have available...

You might also look at what's called "premium coach." These are larger seats than coach but not as large as business class. You typically get coach service as to food, etc. You might get to check a second bag for free. The seats are comparable in size to domestic (USA) first class. You won't get lots of free wine and booze, faux gourmet meals, or sleeper seats, but you won't arrive feeling like you just got out of a sardine can.

I'm not trying at all to be discouraging. I just got back from my delayed honeymoon in Europe, flying business class. Fortunately I had enough points saved. Most people would say that the best single use of points is for international business class tickets.

Let me throw out a funky idea - it being your wedding and all - I'm not sure why you don't want to open more credit cards, but you could ask relatives to do so, then transfer you their points. Chase points are transferrable (but require $3000 spend to get the signup bonus). Or they could open a United card. If each of you had one parent to open a United card, that's 50K points each which is good for a one-way biz award, then you use your 100K points for the other two one-way awards needed. Again, most people around here will tell you that the best strategy by far for getting free travel is to maximize your signup bonuses on credit cards. This is not a typical year for me, but my wife and I will earn something like 800,000 bonus points this year for signup bonuses and the like. And BTW, the United card comes with a $100 statement credit for first use, so the people who might do this as a "present" to you are also getting $100 cash in their own pocket.

Yeah, I am just seemingly sticking to United because my chase points work with them and it seems illogical not to use them.

Im looking at united chart... it looks like it would cost:

Roughly $1500 for economy
20,000 points per person, per way plus roughly $500 per person per way
So, 20,000 points and $2500 for round trip business.

Looks like a "full award" business would be 250,000 per person round trip.

So we have roughly 100,000 points now, even if we opened a credit card each at 50,000 (united is 40,000 now) thats only 200,000 miles. Still not enough for two tickets.

The thing I don't like about the upgrade is that there is no telling if there will be any available. Could buy a coach ticket hoping I can upgrade and have nothing available which would be a kick in the nuts!

I don't see where a one way biz is only 50,000 im seeing 150,000

First, yes, typo, Chase points can be transferred to United.

Second, we're talking about "saver" awards. Again, the consensus on FT would be that full-price awards are not a very good use of points.

On June 2, there is a Lufthansa flight (bookable with United miles) leaving DTW at 7:10PM and arriving FRA at 9:20AM, then a Lufthansa flight leaving FRA at 1:50 and arriving ATH at 5:35, for 50K miles and $36.10 in fees. I didn't look at return trips, but there are 50K tickets available also on June 3, 4, and 5.

Also, I'm not sure of all the rules, but often the cash-and-miles upgrades apply only on the operating carrier. So if you buy a ticket on a Lufthansa flight that is codeshared with United, there's a very good chance you cannot upgrade.

Also you miscalculated I think, you noted 20K points + $500 each way, that's a total of 80K points you will need.

As for the United bonus, there are different bonuses depending on how you do it. The general signup bonus is (I think) 25K, plus 5K more for adding an authorized user, plus 10K for doing something else that is not easy like making a big balance transfer or spending $25K in the first year. So it's really more like 30K. However, there are links available for 50K+5K. To get this, you generally have to (a) have at least one mile in your United account (so open a United account and transfer some Chase points into it) and (b) be logged into your United account. Read the detailed thread on this card for more information.

I understand that you have to work with what you have. But if you value Chase points at 1.5 cents each (that's in the range) then a paid ticket plus upgrade would be $1500 for the ticket, $600 worth of points, $1000 in cash, or $3100. A points-only ticket would be $1500 in points plus about $150 in fees, or half the price. It's really worth it to jump through some hoops to scrape together the extra points or miles.

A low level award is 50k. They may open up more as time gets closer, but then again...may not. The same with upgrades - if you don't clear upon booking (look at Expert Flyer to see if it's available), then you're playing roulette. I had a ticket that I finally cancelled (refundable fare) a week before because the upgrade didn't clear and they won't tell you if you're #1 or 45 on the list.

It's probably worth subscribing to Expert Flyer and setting an alert for the flights that you want, so if/when the flights become available you can book them.

I agree, you should both sign up for the Explorer card 55k offers, and then get a business class ticket to Athens with miles. Also note that with UA roundtrip awards, you're allowed a stopover and an open-jaw, so you can hit another city/country for a few days if you want. Definitely worth taking advantage of these added stops.

I just booked my honeymoon flights for next July-August to Athens. Flying into Athens, going to spend some time at two different islands (flights to islands not booked yet. Will be around $400. Might get a Citi Thank You Premier to cover that.) Then out of Athens we fly to Paris, then out of Geneva 6 days later to fly back home. We'll take the train from Paris to Geneva, spending three night in each city.

Also, for searching availability, I highly recommend KVS Tool. You can get a 2 month subscription that includes all the airlines you'll need to look at for $15. After you've got all the miles in your account, you should definitely look into that.