kevin1393

Hi all,

Spent last few hours researching miles vs. points, merits of different rewards cards, finding the FF that works for you since none are "the best," etc. But realized there is an art and science to this, and I'd like to consult folks who have thought about this much more than me.

4 Key Considerations:
- find best deal for airline frequent flier program
- find best deal (initial and ongoing) for mileage-accruing credit card
- ensure that all this effort will translate into a free/heavily discounted ticket
- primary spending each month is gas, food, and rent (I collect rent from 5 ppl)

The Situation:
- need to fly from SFO to LON for July 20th graduation ceremony in the UK (specific dates are flexible, just need to be there for the 20th)
- current prices around $1450 unaffordable; searched on Hipmunk, Kayak, etc.
- currently use only a debit/credit card, so am willing to open new credit card
- seeking max rewards, miles, points, whatever, on any airline to make trip

Current Miles/Points:
- have 3500 miles on Mileage Plus (from United)
- have 5500 miles on Sky Miles (from Delta)
- have 1512 rapid reward points on Southwest
- my dad has 94500 points on his credit card, though prefer to do this w/o him

Your Input:
- what combination of FF program and card should I use and why?

Me:
- thanks so much!!

UPDATE:

Hi all,

Just a quick follow-up to share resolution. Found a RT ticket under $900 from NYC to LON. A friend of mine who is a pilot for Virgin America will give me a buddy pass to get to NYC for free. Since my post, found myself the love of my life, and she is coming too. With the awards points from my dad at $1000, I'll have achieved my goal and then some: get to Europe and back for under $1000 - for two tickets! Not free, but not bad either.

Kevin

deant

There are no guarantees in the FF world. Even IF you could come up with the miles in the next 2 plus months there is no guarantee that seat will be available.

You need to do some research on your own before asking people here.

mrpickles

Seats are going to be difficult to find once you earn the miles. Thats because they will not post for a while.

Currently there are no saver economy seats available for the six days prior, just standard rewards at 55,000 miles and $2.50 in taxes; and the return starting on the 24th is available at on the website at 30k and $172.00 in taxes.

This is all provided that you could book it today.

I say come up with the $1,400+ and buy a ticket if you REALLY must be there, or consider this a valuable lesson as to why you need to do research.

Or maybe buy USAir miles and redeem on UA.

lin821

Currently, all your miles are probably good for magazine redemption, not free tix anyway, let it be domestic or international.

You sound like a college student.? Essentially you are asking how to get enough miles to make this trip for free from cc signup bonuses. Keep in mind for 3 things:

1. You credit history & scores matter. How's yours? Good enough to get cc with fatty bonuses?

2. Spending requirements to claim cc signup bonuses, from say $1500 or thousands in maybe 3 months. Can you manage it within that timeframe?

3. Award seats (to Europe) generally are in high demands for the summer. Even if you can manage to get enough miles by say June, it doesn't mean you'll find award availability for your desired travel dates in July.

If I were you, I probably would try my best right now to hunt for the cheapest possible fare, just to be on the safe side. No one wants to miss the graduation ceremony.

Qs:
1. How much spending you can do per month on gas, food & rent?

2. What did you mean by "collect rent from 5 ppl?"
- Did you mean 5 ppl are paying rent to you? (it doesn't seem so or you could afford a $1450 tix)
- If you mean you are paying rent (to someone) on behalf of 5 ppl, you probably could check into this thread.

Good luck!

mileshound

Here are the big misconceptions in my mind for newbies. The OP in running into several of them.

1) If there is a seat for sale it does not mean that seat is available for an award/upgrade
2) Award seat availability can change quickly
3) Some awards require much more planning - Europe in summer, premium cabins, Australia. Three months is not considered advanced planning for these awards (or many others)
4) Airfares can be high at peak times
5) Miles take time to post, especially from signing up for a credit card to the time the bonus miles post
6) Diversity is good when you have a lot of miles, bad when you have few miles

jjmiller69

You have summed it up very well. They only thing I would add is on award flights a good time period would be 6-9 months with points in hand for international. That gives you time for everything you mentioned.

JPG3392

This is going to be very difficult, but perhaps it's not impossible. As others have mentioned, you wish to travel in high season and your dates are only three months away. Just to give an example, I have award tickets for this summer (June/July) IAD-Innsbruck; Salzburg-IAD. These reservations were made last August; the return flight was changed slightly last September when a one-stop flight became available for award travel.

You may find it helpful that both UA and AA offer one-way award travel SFO-LHR for 30k, half the cost in miles for RT. (DL does not offer this.) Because of credit card offers with bonuses around 30k, it will be easier for you (and your dad) to reach 30k quickly on two airlines than to reach 60k on either one. The better credit card offers (which can be searched elsewhere on this site) will waive the fee for one year and offer 30-40k on a specific airline after a certain amount of purchases (details will vary). If you can get a UA crad and an AA card soon (or if you can get one and your dad the other) you should have enough miles for two OW flights between you. (Your dad can use his miles to obtain a ticket for you.)

In checking for award flights you will need to consider partner airlines. UA's partners include LH, LX and OS. AA's partners include BA [very expensive for award travel], AB and IB (but IB award flights cannot be booked online; you'll need to phone).

Hope this helps. I'll check for availability at this time and contact you if I see anything attractive.

lwildernorva

Asking a lot, maybe too much. It's like asking how can you become a millionaire by the summer.

There is a path, maybe. You don't specify how much spending you can put on a card in a month--an important factor as the two most likely cards to help you will require over $3500 in spending in a very short period of time. You might be able to use some of the "manufactured" spending techniques highlighted here, http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manuf...-spending-719/, but at the risk of getting your accounts shut down for too heavy a reliance on them before you get your miles. I am not an expert at using these techniques although they are part of my miles earning strategy. Other members, such as AlohaDaveKennedy, are certainly more versed in these areas than I am and might be able to steer you along a path that will allow the maximum amount of spending to be done in the shortest time.

You also don't give us much in the way of dates other than the graduation on July 20. As others have mentioned, dependable award availability tends to dry up the closer you get to travel dates (a corollary is that on some airlines, extremely last-minute availability may open up--but I'm assuming you need the certainty of getting a seat since there is a specific purpose for this trip) and also is scarcer during the summer months to desirable locations, like London. As a result, flexibility is key--which in this case, means a willingness to fly as late as 7/18 or as early as a week or so early and to return the day after or as late as a week later. You don't mention needing somewhere to stay so I'm going to assume you have someone you can stay with if your trip became as long as 10 days to match award availability. If you don't have somewhere to stay, then you might as well forget about it--hotel prices in London during the summer will make you think the $1450 for the flight is a bargain.

Get an AA card and get a UA card. There's an offer for 50K AA miles if you spend $2500 in four months and a UA offer for 50K if you spend $1000 in 3 months--you'll want that spending done ASAP. Add an authorized user on your UA card for an additional 5K and do enough additional spending on your AA card (as much as $7500 and again ASAP) to reach 60K miles in that program. Then, you've got to wait for the miles to post. General wisdom seems to be to leave the first statement date where the CC company puts it as any change may actually delay the closing date and the receipt of your miles.

If you're lucky, you'll have enough miles in each program by the middle of June to allow you to book flights. If you're luckier, you may find you can get AAnytime awards on AA at 60K one-way on 7/18 with a $5 charge (as of today, there are even 30K awards available on 7/13 and 7/20--but 7/20 is too late, and you probably shouldn't push flying out of SFO any later than 7/18; with 7/13, you'll need a place to stay for a week). You can return on United on 7/22 (and days after that as well), and they only require 55K for a Standard award in economy (but an additional payment of $172.30). As noted, saver awards will take less miles but given how tight to your flight dates your bookings are likely to be, you can't count on saver availability--you've got to earn enough miles to burn for standard/AAnytime awards.

After this, and in a best case scenario, you will have blown everything you've earned in UA and AA for one trip to London to avoid paying $1450, which is not an unreasonable charge for a mid-summer trip from the West Coast to London. In the worst case, you'll have done all that work for nothing as the miles may not post quickly enough or award availability may not be present. But, a path like this (with maybe some tweaks like an Amex SPG card or a Chase Sapphire Preferred) is the only reasonable hope you have to cut your cost with award miles.

By the way, don't bother with Delta or US Airways--neither allow one-way awards at half the cost of a RT so the number of miles you'd need to accumulate in each program would at least double.

I'd keep an eye out on fares, however. Sometimes, there is a small drop about six to eight weeks out from the departure date. Given the route and the season, I still wouldn't expect the cash price to drop below $1000-$1100.

Finally, we used to have a tradition of welcoming newbies to FT that seems to have fallen by the wayside as we've gained more worldly and sophisticated members, but as the local rube, let me welcome you to FlyerTalk kevin1393!

rambo

Kevin

Where does you dad have his 94K points (UR/Amex MR??). Please specify and maybe folks here can give you some ideas.

Hopefully your Dad will loan you these points (transfer to his FF account) and book a ticket for you and you can get the same CC and save up 94K points and return the favor.


Welcome to FT. You are now hooked.

redtop43

+1 to the advice from others. It is probably a little late to book something reliably. Something might show up, even last-minute, but that's not useful if you absolutely positively have to be there.

Possibly your best option is to borrow the points from your father. You know how many he has, so you've obviously discussed it with him. Where his points are matters a lot. As does your financial situation, in terms of being able to get the credit cards and meet the minimum spends to pay him back. You also have to consider that points you earn that are deposited in your account are not trivial to transfer to him. Amex points can be easily transferred to his accounts on Amex partners, but the same is not true for Chase, or airline-branded cards.

Everybody would like to help - that's what we're here for - but there are some requirements for this particular game. They are (a) 3-12 months planning time, depending on the travel plans (and international high season leans toward the high side); (b) a credit profile robust enough to get cards with the juicy bonuses, and (c) an ability to meet the minimum spends. Fortunately, (c) is not that hard with "manufactured spend" tricks.

Ragnarok

The good thing that having the United Mileage Plus Explorer card is that provides Last Seat availability for Standard Award on United.

So by using 55K UA Miles ( 50K can be get from the sign up bonus ), you can get a one way flight from SFO-LON even if it is the last seat on the plane.

kevin1393

Dear all,

Thank you very much for the incredibly helpful, detailed feedback. Really amazed. And thank you for welcoming me warmly.

I'm a total newbie to this forum and to the world of miles/points, but have done well traveling on a shoestring with backpacking, cheap flights, etc. Though I may sound greener than I am with the college graduation (grad program) and the basic questions, I am in my late 20s and run a startup, trying to make world better place by using tech to bring people together.

Three takeaways so far, if I'm correct:
1. Don't expect much, be flexible, unlikely to be available, plan more, etc. (taken!)
2. UA Explorer Card is best single bet if I can get 50k reward miles on sign up.
3. Look into how to pay monthly rent to landlord using CC that accrues miles.

Individual responses, since you were all kind enough to write:
Deant = I did research on own, which led me to assess situation as far as I got it and find this forum.
mrpickles = valuable lesson in booking earlier for set dates, no doubt! but, shoulda/coulda/woulda = oh well. trying to make best now.
lin821 = I rented out a 5 bedroom house, and rent out 4 of the bedrooms. They pay me each month, and I send check to landlord. Had wondered if I could pay for this somehow on a credit card, as this is biggest expense by far. Credit history is great.
mileshound and jjmiller69 = thanks for sum-up. I'm surely guilty of at least half of these.
JPG3392 = this is extremely helpful information which I will use. Seems like UA Explorer Card at 50K miles is best single bet. THX!
lwildernorva = very helpful, thank you for the warm welcome. I read link to thread on mortgage/scholarship miles. I can pay loan with CC that accrues miles, and still figuring out how to pay rent to landlord using CC that accrues miles. Does anyone do this?
rambo = dad has 94K points on CC, not affiliated with airline.
redtop43 = thanks!
Ragnarok = really good to know about the last seat availability, that sealed it for me. thanks.

guv1976

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

If the OP can take the train from LON to PAR, he can also look into redeeming AA miles for CDG-LAX-SFO, with the TATL segment on AA partner Air Tahiti Nui. The lower French airport taxes should pretty much offset the cost of the Eurostar train ticket.

If a mileage redemption is not in the cards for this trip, then the OP should check out Hotwire's opaque fares, and/or consider placing a bid on Priceline for the SFO-LON-SFO roundtrip.

kevin1393

Priceline sounds like interesting option, will do that.

All I can find on UA Explorer Card is 30K miles, not 50K. Anyone have other links?

Kevin

JudyJFLA

Chase Ink Bold and a lot of gift card purchases at Office Supply Stores, then sell the gift cards on cardpool or Plastic Jungle.

JudyJFLA