million of miles and but no idea how to use them
 

I have over 1 million miles with UA and half as much with AMEX and Starwood but no idea on how to book a trip using them- how does one go about matching a itinerary to award points? Sorry for such a simpleton question.

Pick several places you'd like to go. Call UA and see what is available. Also check with Amex/Starwood partners such as Delta or with Starwood I believe you still have AA and US.

Be flexible on time for best shot. When I did South Africa I called with a 40 day window and said find me a two week trip. ended up with 18 days near start of my time slot. Did the same for Australia.

Fly business or first class for best value.

With Amex you have many airlines (but NOT UA nor AA) to which you can transfer miles. Those include Delta, Continental, ANA (so there's a Star Alliance option), and I think Air Canada (also a *A option.) Of course, you cannot combine the Amex miles transferred into ANA with United miles, but you can get a ticket ON United FROM ANA after you transfer INTO ANA. In fact, if trying to get a Business (C) or First (F) award on other Star Alliance airlines, ANA is much more likely to have it available than does United.

You also have a totally different way of using the Amex points, which is to use them as money when buying a flight or a flight+hotel package on americanexpress.com/travel. There, you're not redeeming an award ticket, you are instead buying a regular cash ticket, but part of your cash is Amex Membership Rewards points which can be paid at checkout at 1 cent/point value. Not a good deal, but a way to use them on airlines that don't partner with Amex for transferring points in.

With Starwood, you can of course redeem then by phone or on spg.com for Starwood hotel stays. You also can transfer them to many Frequent Flyer programs. Most of them transfer at 1:1. Two of them have a horrible transfer rate, at 2 SPG points needed for 1 mile (Continental and United, not coincidentally both having their own credit cards issued by Chase, which made the airlines make their SPG-Airline transfer unattractive so that the Amex SPG card wouldn't be a better deal than the Chase United or the Chase Continental cards.) Starwood also has a "nights + Flights" deal which doesn't actually book the flight but includes a 50,000 mile transfer into a frequent flyer program (or I guess only 25K when into UA or CO.) If you transfer 20,000 SPG points, they throw in 5000 free at time of transfer, so for example 80,000 SPG points can become 100,000 Delta or Northwest or American or US Airways miles (but only becomes 50,000 UA or CO miles.)

You're probably best off using the SPG points for your hotels and the UA miles for your flights. That is, if you actually still have the UA miles. If you're so unfamiliar with how to use them, is it possible you haven't been using your UA account for a while? UA expires ALL your miles after 18 months of inactivity. Earning or redeeming even 1 mile at least every 18 months keeps them all alive. It used to be 3 years but they changed that retroactively in 2007. I hope you still have 1MM UA miles but you might have zero.

I believe that Singapore (SQ) is also an option for AMEX MR points. The consensus in these parts is to try and fly the premium product through Asian carriers rather than UA.

Flexibility is going to be key in booking award travel, especially if trying to snag more than one seat at a time. Best of luck and happy travels.

It sounds as though you have done a lot of earning and not much redeeming. You might find it useful to buy a book such as the one Randy Petersen (our benevolent host) has written that talks about both earning and redemption.

Or you can donate your miles to me :D

I will PM you my UA account number so you can deposit 35K into my account. It is better to give them away than to let them expire.

wow...that is all i have to say about the last two posts :td::td:

Suspect there are emoticons (winks ;), sarcasm :rolleyes:, etc.) missing from some of the last few posts.

Please remember solicitation of trades, barters or the like, are not condoned in open FT boards. Eligible posters can visit Coupon Connection for more information.

Obiously you fly alot for work, or plesure therefore earn alot of miles. Next time you go on a trip, just book through your points- Or if its work paid, mabye purchase an upgrade?

Well, I'm not saying it's done in FT or anything:D, but you could find your own circles of friends or family members that could need to fly somewhere using your miles...@:-)

Later, should you need something from them, I am certain this would be something you could all work out. No need to tell the airline about your little inside gig--it's commonly done but you just don't blare it out there (ie, getting a ticket for your mother... it's obvious she'd probably bake you that nice apple pie for it, but is that bartering or just being family?) Again, I have NO idea if this stuff happens but it certainly should not be a crime to just THINK of it and post the thought in here, now should it?

I mean, in one's own life, there ARE ways to get to know people in need who could help you out--say, if you happen to like to fly AA and have no miles on them, but a person who likes to fly UA wishes they knew you...

***
Should you keep it all closer to home, however, I think if I had that many miles laying around, I personally would take a bunch of trips to places I might go if I could just do it with little care in life. I'd also say to do this now before you have 2 newborn babies and no time, or you lose a job or get sick for some long period, or before gas prices go so high we enter a new and tighter era and maybe some global war or climate problem where India is no longer on the map or some volcanic event sinks Maui...

Maybe donate them or something. I dunno.

Why, what if you were to pick up a hot girl at that local night club and use the fact you could fly her anywhere ASAP as THE pick up line to get her attention! :D

GOing firther, you could even start some sort of customer advocacy business whereas, when people have missing or delayed mile issues with the airline you have so many miles with, you can help them out by providing award tickets for them.

This would be useful in that they would now not have to wait months on end dealing with evil customer service of third parties and partners to finally obtain whatever missing miles they need to get to an award level in their own accounts. (yes, like many here, I have had this problem countless times)

Then, when these people finally DO get their miles and have enough for their own award tickets they were trying to book with those often significantly delayed miles, they can return the favor to you by booking something for your needs with their awards, but they also add something to it for your benefit. ie, you become a sort of mileage junkie loan shark :D

Maybe you could even find a way to get the airlines to LET you be their rep in this area, thereby alleviating them of having to deal with pissed of customers. Such a thing would take some interesting negotiation, but surely, a customer helping another customer would be better for them than having several customers become upset and arguing over some missing miles that take too long to post. It would all come down to your presentation.

Just don't let them go to waste and please do be creative no matter what you choose.

:)MM

What if I tell you which tickets to book and where to mail them? :)

Wow how is this possible - millions of miles and no idea how to use them! It seems like I have spent half my adult life trying to find ways to scrounge for miles and use them to get the most out of my award routings since I accrue less than 1% of my miles by flying and absolutely none through work related activities (dining travel etc.)... and I can only manage to accrue around 200K per year... but here we have someone who doesn't use their miles. I guess people have different priorities!

We're in the same boat except that I would LOVE to get 200K per year! All I can say is good for you.

Tell Us About Your Successes
 

Whatever you end up doing, please do try to remember to post here how it all worked out. So many times people seek advice and assistance but never let us know the end results. In addition to telling a success story, something you did may spawn an idea for someone else in a similar situation (like my gf with her 700K DL miles that she can never seem to book for something reasonable and exotic).