redtop43

Let me chime in with a few pieces of quick advice:

1) Don't bother with international first class, go with business, it is much easier to find tickets and the difference in service is small. Overseas business class is still big sleeper seats, highly upgraded food, personal audio-video, power ports, etc.
2) The big points are from credit card signups; you have to match your credit cards to the airline or alliance you want to accumulate points on and the amount you can spend to meet the minimum spend requirements.
3) There are three main airline alliances: Star Alliance, Oneworld, and Skyteam, think of them as three separate stores to shop at.
4) Some airlines have significant fuel surcharges, some do not, be aware of that.
5) Don't think about "upgrades." You can get biz or first class tickets on award tickets for extra miles, and many people do. As far as getting upgrades on paid tickets, this generally goes only to people who actually fly a lot. You usually cannot upgrade a paid ticket with miles at a reasonable total cost, unless you are flying 50K miles a year or more.

diburning

So, are you saying that it is better or most cost effective to book an F award ticket than it is to buy a Y ticket and use miles + co-pay to upgrade?

MSYnola

Yes, this is the conventional wisdom, and it's true across pretty much all airlines and alliances

themadzins

Wow...a HUGE thank you for all that information!!! I really appreciate the time you all took to help!

I will do my due diligence and continue reading all these threads. I like to have the solid foundation so I can build this trip and lots more (hopefully!).

Thanks again and I am positive I will be asking a lot more questions!!!

Hope you all have a great evening!!!

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

As noted by another poster, the best deal from NYC to Ireland -- assuming that you can find award seats -- is redeeming BA Avios for travel on Aer Lingus. Coach costs 20K Avios each way; Business Class costs 40K each way. Taxes and fees should run about $125/person for a roundtrip in either class of service.

There are a lot of ways of getting BA Avios. You can convert Starwood points to Avios; you can earn Avios directly with the Chase/BA Visa card, but the annual fee is not waived; you can earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points on a Chase Sapphire Preferred card (first-year annual fee waived), and then convert those points to Avios on a 1:1 basis; you can earn Amex Membership Rewards points on certain Amex cards, and convert the MR points to Avios on a 1:1 basis (although there are occasionally transfer bonuses of as much as 50% on such transfers); and, of course, you can earn Avios by actually flying on BA or its partner carriers, including AA and AS.

If you and your spouse are both credit worthy, I would suggest that both of you apply for the Chase Sapphire preferred card. The current sign-up bonus is 40,000 U.R. points after $3,000 in spend, although some FT posts that the spend requirement for the bonus is only $2,000 if you apply for the card at a Chase branch.

Aer Lingus offers JFK-DUB nonstops year-round; JFK-SNN service is seasonal, and might not be offered when you wish to travel. And, of course, there is always the possibility that you will accrue lots of points and miles, but then find that there is no award-seat availability on your desired dates of travel. But that, unfortunately, is the nature of the frequent-flyer game.

Good luck!

caGALINDO

Robert Paulson

gotinfluence

Decoding Air Travel: A Guide to Saving on Airfare and Flying in Luxury
by Nick Kralev gives you basic and advanced approaches to this game. He also does live training, http://decodingairtravel.com/classes/seminars/.

My investment in coaching from Nick was a very good decision.

I travel for business, so well-worth the money.

themadzins

Thanks so much for pointing me to this resource! It is fantastic and exactly what I needed to get on a clear path to mileage earning. I quickly read through the tutorial and am now going back to do all of it step by step. I really cannot thank you enough for this!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Kathleen

BrianFellows

Not to take over the thread, but I'm also new to playing this credit card game and think I messed up. I need some help trying to fix the issue...

Sunday night I was trying to signup for the Starwood Preferred Guest Amex to get the 10,000 for first purchase, 15,000 points after spending $xxxx deal. I clicked through an offer and the website kept kicking me back and saying there was a problem. I opened it up in a different browser and clicked through the offer and it worked properly.

Looking at my screenshot later though, it looks like the offer I claimed doesn't include the 15,000 perk. It looks like somehow there was a point on Sunday night where they weren't offering the additional 15K, and then on Monday it was back. So I may have managed to sign up for an inferior offer...

I need to call Customer Service to see if I can get it tacked on. So my question is, do I call AMEX or Starwood, and in either case, do people ever have success getting benefits tacked on for cards they signed up JUST before something was offered? I'd rather cancel the damn card and sign up again to get the 15K if I can't talk them into putting it on, but I'm sure that would void the offer as I'm wouldn't be a "new" member.

Thanks for any help ahead of time.

MDtR-Chicago

You would call AMEX but rarely will AMEX change your offer.

Regardless of what you do, you're no longer a new cardholder. You can cancel, but the card will likely still appear on your credit report and you'll likely be locked out of new member bonuses on the SPG card for 12 months.

Maybe you do have the full promotion on your card and the screen shot simply doesn't mention it.

wrxmom

Since you both missed the Chicago Seminars, you might still be able to get into the Frequent Traveler University on November 30 - Dec 2.

You'll get a good indoctrination into miles/points, learn new things, and network.