putting together a redemption guide...?
 

Hi, as one of my many forms of procrastination, I thought I would suggest that flyertalk members put together a redemption guide for all the individual airlines people are pros at...something they could post on the site and edit as things changed. I thought the guide could talk about the different awards offered by dift airlines, whats the best ways to check availability, the gem/best value awards that exist for that airline, and any other important info someone should know when redeeming awards. I have tons of miles on dift airlines, and i dont know anything about a lot of them...All the sections could talk about how many stopovers and open jaws are allowed, what routings are allowed, etc...

For instance, the AA section could highlight the details of the oneworld awards, it could also talk about the benefits of the all-partner awards (a free stopover in N America AND a free stopover in the destination region AND a free open jaw).

The CO section could highlight the great deal that is the intra-Asia award which allows you to go from Asia to AUSTRALIA (Cairns) for just 25k (also allows you to goto micronesia)...it could tell us if that allows a stopover in guam (im not sure).

The BA secion could highlight that N America to Easter Islands is only 40k BA miles and allows free stopovers on the way in Chile...

The UA section could describe some of its programs intricacies, like the fact that you can go N America to Asia through Europe with a free stopover if you pay about 20000 extra miles...

The NW section could describe getting the routing of US-S Africa through S America with a free stop in Buenos Aires...and could try to clarify how many stops are actually allowed on an award itinerary (though the NW forum seems to not have a sure answer on that one....)

Basically, there is so much info out there, and if i were to plan a big trip, i wouldnt even be sure what program's miles it would be best for me to use. I have tried to figure all this stuff out, but it takes forever to go through all the forums and im sure im missing some info. I like to have all the info before i plan a big trip especially since i plan to do a big multiple award trip in the next year or two...why doesnt flyertalk try to put together a guide on redeeming miles for each airline?

Maybe this has already been done?

R

The CO award is very flexible on stopovers. I once did MNL-GUM-MAJ (stop)-GUM-YAP (stop)-GUM-MNL, though it took a helpful agent to book. The computer is pretty permissive, but human agents tend to resist trying routings that involve backtracking or certain stops, sometimes insisting GUM is the only place you CAN stop. You have to keep calling.

The CO award also doesn't include NW metal; at the height of SARS I booked and flew BKK-NRT-GUM (stop)-CNS (stop) and v.v. and they reacted 3 months later with a separate award category specifically to double the miles for that.

On NW it's best to play with the multi-city award travel online booking & see what you come up with if that's possible (alas, not usually with partners). Have been able to get it to do a stopover AND an open jaw when agents say that's a no-no, and it'll also sometimes take backtracking stopovers that human agents will balk at.

Was also able to get the NW system to give me an Asia award (into MNL, out of SIN) with an "illegal" stop in a Micronesian spot other than GUM or SPN that the agent kept saying wasn't allowed. I like the results I've been getting out of computers lately better than those out of most humans. ;)

Why recreate the wheel? :)

http://www.flyertalk.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

that site doesnt really have all the info or any insiders tips or anything on redemption. its just the general list of awards ususally...

I would love to see discussions of insiders' tips on how to get a ticket for each airline. I will eventually have a page on this subject on my website. Such discussions would help keep it current.

How about a sticky at the top of each airline's discussion page entitled something like "Insider tips on how to get an award ticket for xxx airline"? I cannot possibly read or subscribe to all of the discussions in each airline forum, but I would certainly subscribe to threads dedicated to how best to get a ticket.

Moderators?

I would sure love to see some tips on using my NW miles. I've got 120K+ and it seems like they're pretty useless unless I want to fly MSP-MKE or something like that. :)