0524

I continue to be impressed with the sophistication and knowledge of FT members, and with their eagerness to share. This thread certainly underscores the value of this board.

jwhite4

I would consider moving the 22000 AMEX points into Delta. That gives you 28183. Do what you need to to pad that up to 30k miles (worst case $35/1000m from Delta).
Then request a Hawaii reward using your Delta miles, and also one using your United miles, for travel on Delta (yes, you can do this). Total cost is 60k miles, better than the 70k needed for AA.
I'm not as familiar with hotel FF programs, so I'll leave that to others.

Jeff

BillMorrow

Thanks to everyone for the kind words, but it does look like I made a mistake. As Anthonyanthony alluded to; the NetSaaver award is for coach, not first. There is a one class upgrade award available for 30K pp.

dave123, if you want to stick with coach; talk to the AA folks and see if they can waive the end date for you. Otherwise, try to use the upgrade award during some future fare sale over the couple of months. I'm not a Hawaii fan so don't know how cyclic fares are to there.

As others have noted, the Hilton property at Waikoloa is nice. I stayed there several years ago when it first opened as a Hyatt.

anthonyanthony

dave123,

If you take the advice of a couple others here and take advantage of the Hilton promotion to get yourself 50000 pts and Hilton Gold VIP status, then you can use your points to garner a couple RT tickets to Hawaii and 12 nights at the Hilton Waikoloan (or any Hawaii Hilton).

As tbntr99 mentioned, a Hilton Gold (or Silver) VIP member is eligible for award ALON, which is 6 nights at a Hawaii Hilton for 100000 pts.

You already have 54000 pts in Hilton. You'll get 50000 more from the promo. Transfer 40000 United miles and 5000 Delta miles to Hilton and that will get you another 90000 Hilton points. Transfer 5000 AMEX to get another 6500 Hilton points. Now you have 200500 Hilton points, good for two Hilton ALON awards, giving you 12 nights at the Hilton Waikoloan. And since you are Gold VIP, you have a good chance of upgrading to a nicer room.

The ALON award is listed at http://www.hilton.com/hhonors/rewards/vip.html#chart

Make sure you call Hilton first to see if you can get the award before you transfer any points, because Hilton places capacity controls on their awards!

You still have enough points left for two coach tickets to Hawaii. You need 70000 miles combined in American and US Airways for two tix. Transfer 15555 or 16000 points from AMEX to either American or US Airways to reach 70000. (Others here have said that you can combine miles in AA and US Air to get awards on AA.)

If you need extra points anywhere, remember that you can transfer 20000 of your Marriott points to many airline programs (including AA and US Air) for 5000 quick miles.

And if you have your heart set on First Class tickets to Hawaii (after all, this is your honeymoon), then you can buy two of the cheapest published coach tickets on American Airlines and upgrade them both with 60000 miles from your combined AA and US Air program balances.

Whew, that's alot of phone calls to make!

Edited to add this: Although you probably won't need it, but just in case, you can use those untouched 17000 points in Northwest Airlines for a couple tix on Hawaiian Airlines (5000 each). Just in case you want to visit another island or something.

[This message has been edited by anthonyanthony (edited 12-29-2000).]