The Best Awards/Rewards Of All Time?
 

The feature article for the March issue of InsideFlyer is featuring some of the best awards of all time based on miles/points to relative value. For instance, one of them featured is:
Program:
Continental OnePass (circa 1987/88)
Award Description: Million Aire Reward. The Ultimate Reward. Redeem 1,000,000 miles and receive weekly First Class travel worldwide for two. Up to 52 trips anywhere Continental or Eastern fly.
Mileage/Point Requirements: 1,000,000 miles
Maximum Value: $334,568
Value Per 1,000 Miles/Points: $334.57

Others include TWA's 50K award (Equity), Pan Am's Unlimited Monthly Award and the orginal Concorde award. Anyone have any thoughts of awards current and pst that have the absolute highest 'value?' Right now we've got over 35 of them but paring them down - airline, hotel and credit card.

Just for grins, do any of you truly remember this OnePass reward?

That will be an amazing list.

Some of us were still babies when those awards were around.

Here I think 90,000 miles for a business class saver award on United to Australia/New Zealand is an excellent award. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Can't wait to read that list!!!

William

Continental Airlines (circa 1998-2000?) used to offer tremendous discounts on OnePass awards to celebrate the inauguration of new international service. Instead of the usual redemption levels, one could redeem an international coach class ticket for a mere 20,000 OnePass miles. A really nifty aspect of the award was that you could travel roundtrip from anywhere in the US served by Continental/Continental Express to the international destination, not just one of the hubs where the new longhaul service was being introduced.

My brother and I flew to Tokyo, Japan in May 1999 -- he from Greensboro, NC, and I from Waco, TX -- for 20,000 OnePass miles each. I took advantage of another 20,000 mile offer in February 2001, flying from Waco to Dusseldorf, Germany. In late 2000/early 2001, I believe Continental also offered a 20,000 mile award to Brazil to celebrate new service as well. [Edited to add that upon further recollection, I believe that the Brazil award may have been for as little as 17,500 miles as Athena53 relates below]. Pretty good bang for the frequent flier mileage buck.

[This message has been edited by cAAl (edited Feb 11, 2004).]

Air France used to run a special I remember it even as late as 2002 where you could redeem a 2 for 1 Concorde fare for 160,000 points WOW

TW had an award with a great miles/value ratio: if you purchased one international coach ticket (any published fare, if I remember correctly), the ticket would be upgraded to first class and you would receive a second companion first class ticket for free. My then-girlfriend and I had a great vacation in the Greek islands using this award to travel JFK-ATH.

Westin Premier - for 500,000 points (which translated to 100,000 Starpoints at the time of program merger), the award was 2 C class tickets on UA from the US to LHR or CDG PLUS 4 nights in a Westin Demure Hotel in London or Paris. There were no associated taxes or fees or charges of any kind. The airfare for 2 was about $25,000 at the time, and the hotel nights were in the $400 range per night.

UA awards after taking over Pan Am flights to Pacific. Two first class RT tickets to any of UA Pacific destinations for 120k miles with no blackouts or capacity controls.

Correction on the UA award. Two rt first class Europe 120k and two rt Pacific 160k.
Additionally, Premex would receive 125% bonus mileage in addition to the triple mileage promotions.

KLM won the Freddie last year with a good reward. The paid mile for mile what you had banked in another FFP if you flew them in C for a number of times in a given period.
I believe someone managed to make 2 million (!) miles in a very easy way!

In late 2000, CO offered OnePass travel from Newark to Rio for 17,500 OnePass miles round trip. I still remember getting the e-mail and making the wild and crazy decision with my Significant Other (now my husband) to fly down on a Thursday and return over a Monday night. Still one of our better travel stories.

In 1987, I redeemed 100k on Western Airlines for two first class tickets on JAL from LAX-NRT-BKK-DEL and return. This award also included two free one week car rentals and a couple of three night hotel stay vouchers.

[This message has been edited by flytoeat (edited Feb 12, 2004).]

Back in 1987 my first big redeemtion was from Northwest: Two FC tickets to Bangkok/Hong Kong, with that redeemtion we also received a 7 night stay at the Mandrin (Oriental)Hotel in Hong Kong AND a week rental of a luxury (Toyota Crown)car (also including a week's parking at any of a multitude of parking lots thoughout Hong Kong). All this for 120,000 miles. Needless to say this didn't last very long, but I sure enjoyed it while I could.

I second that as one of the best bang for miles awards. Heck to experience the Concorde at 160k for one person was worth it, let alone two for one!.

That's what Randy was referring to in his original post where he mentions "TWA's 50K award." TWA was my airline of choice at that time and I redeemed eight or nine of those awards. Between flying and using the original TWA Visa card, the miles racked up like crazy!

Note: The "companion upgrade" was valid from any coach fare to First Class. Or you could save it and use it yourself on a future flight. Now that's what I call an award! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif



[This message has been edited by Neal (edited Feb 10, 2004).]

On our first trip to Europe in 1996, United offered 2 first class tix for a total of 160,000 miles. Normal first class was 100,000. That was a good deal.

This reminds me of AA's two business class tickets for 160 that ended in '02. First though, that gets a WOW!

This might look weak in comparison, but how about the matching miles that were offered when DL introduced the DL Amex Platinum card. If you were among the first 10,000 people that signed up for this card online, DL matched up to 50,000 miles that you had banked in any other airlines account. That coupled with the 15k (5k are elite) miles that you normally get for obtaining this card and an additional 10k elite miles if you spend $25,000 in the year, and a companion certificate (with restrictions) made this a great deal.

I landed up with 75,000 miles without even counting the one mile you receive for each dollar you spend and also double miles on certain purchases. So in essence that first year with this card I earned in excess of 100,000 DL miles.

Two RT FC tickets US mainland to Hawaii on AA for 75,000 regular miles ("old" or pre 1989 miles). These awards are still applicable.

Two of us went to Hawaii in FC last August for 75,000 old miles and I still have about 300,000 of these non-expiring "old" miles remaining.

There seem to be two distinct categories being discussed in the replies above: best award (redemption) and best promotion (earning).

The KLM and Delta Amex offers above are clearing in the earning category.

Not weak at all: I completed that same promotion. I haven't seen anything similar before or since in terms of a straight credit card offer. I picked up 77,000 DL miles for just over $12,000 in spending. Pretty good return on one $85 annual fee.

My biggest rewards, all from pretty recent years:

- Hilton's bonus craziness: 20 total paid nights (most Hamptons) = 2 ALON awards (2 weeks in Hawaii) plus about 80,000 points left over.

- TWA promotions in Fall 2000: I forget the exact numbers, but it was pretty easy to achieve if you had business in STL like I did: buy 4 or 6 tickets via TWA.com and receive, in addition to your normal miles/bonuses, 2 free F tickets to the Caribbean and 6 months' free access to the Ambassador's Club. We redeemed the tix for Spring Break in the Caribbean, so they obviously weren't THAT capacity-controlled.

- American's current nuttiness might go down in history as a great period of time to earn bonuses upon bonuses upon bonuses. AANYC, AABOS, FLY04, EUR04, AAMC, plus a plethora of route bonuses and probably others I don't even pay attention to.

- Smaller-scale, but a lot of people must have earned miles from it: for a while I was getting a ton of bonus miles every time I flew an LGA-DCA segment. (My US Air flights would sometimes connect in LGA.) Something stupid like 3x in each of two programs. (I want to say US and AA...)

It's on a smaller scale than most of those mentioned, but in terms of value for miles, Delta's pre-1995 Medallion round trip upgrade has to be among the leaders. For 2,500 miles you'd get upgraded on any U.S. round trip itinerary - plus, since the class-of-service bonus was then based on where you sat, double miles! As long as your trip was >2,500 base miles (minimum base mileage per segment was 1,000 then, too) you would end up earning net miles for using the award, in addition to being upgraded.

A current offer that is extremely good value is the UK British Airways, American Express companion voucher. Spend £15K on the card and they give you a voucher that when you buy any ticket with BA miles, you get a second one free. A great deal that's still about. That could mean two first class tickets to South Africa for 150K or two first class tickets to Australia for 300K (both from the UK).

One other, unfortunately not available any more, would be any of the Concorde awards - however you could get to fly it for miles was worth it.

Delta's T160 (Concorde 160k) was nice.

Marriott's original 200k award that gave 2 coach tickets worldwide with 2 stopovers, plus two 6-night free stays, was one of the best. And in those days you could actually find award seats and rooms where and when you wanted to go.

Hilton's 100k ALON was great too.

When you revisit this subject 10 years from now, you will want to include today's Southwest Airlines award that has no capacity controls.

Would have been nice if you could use anything other the AirFrance FF miles for this award. Even after DL & AF formed Skyteam, still couldn't use Delta miles for it (and I definitely would have).

Best redemption for me as trip last Sept on Continental using DL Skymiles. Someone on the DL side screwed up the award code, so we were only charged for a US48 ticket, 25k miles. Plus, they had return availability from Maui (plane as only 1/3 full!), which saved us another $75 p/p on interisland tickets to HNL (where most HI availability goes to/from).

Jeff

Yes - especially when you consider the period of time where 4 paid = 1 free. For those whose travel plans match Southwest routes, that is a pretty nice return on investment.

I have a friend who flew MCI-STL on business and always either hawked the certs on eBay or took last-minute getaways to the West Coast. He had those certs coming out of his ears. MCI-STL tickets go for about $100 R/T. MCI-SFO tickets on any airline go for about $250, and that's in the advance purchase fare buckets. He was in a way getting about a 75% rebate on his paid flights.

3 specific awards come to mind from the old (pre-1989) AA chart.
#1 - 50K miles 1 free first class roundtrip ticket Continental US to Hawaii plus 1 first class roundtrip upgrade for travelling companion. I have used this many times, and it includes P class on the 3-class transcons.
#2 - 30K miles for two first class roundtrip upgrades from any fare on any Continental US flight. Again, this is good for P class on the 3-class transcons.
#3-20K miles roundtrip upgrade from any coach ticket to business class on Continental US to Japan flights.

Edited for spelling

[This message has been edited by AAPlatinum (edited Feb 11, 2004).]

KLM Matching Promo in '02

* fly 12000 miles or 20 segments on KL/NW, Flying Dutchman would match your status and the MILEAGE BALANCE of your incumbent mileage account

* Unrelated to the promotion, but coincidentally right on its heels, KL 'converted' its points to align with NW Worldperks miles, so KL points became miles at a 1:1.8 ratio.

* For $1100 in qualifying airfares...
KLM matched my 2.5 million point incumbent program balance and a few months later, converted the KLM points to 4.6 million KLM miles.

* Effective cost per mile- .00025


Unbelievable, unbeatable, unprecedented!!

Two Roundtrip tickets from Washington - Bermuda, zero miles. After Delta announced that it was taking over the Pan Am frequent flier members, we called Pan Am to redeem two tickets to Bermuda. We flew Pan Am and they never debited the miles - the full amount transferred to the Delta program. I guess that was the ultimate thank you from an airline.

Here's an obscure one...

Back around 96 a restaurant chain 'Chart House' offered two round-the-world tickets for a purchase at each of their restaurants. At the time there were 65 of them and the minimum purchase was a $10 gift certificate. The locations were all in the US with 3 in the Caribbean, 5 in Hawaii, about 12 each in New England/northern Atlantic Coast and Florida, about 24 in California, and a run of 'strays' stretching northwest from New Orleans to Portland.

We did a trip to each region and road trip from NO to Seattle to pick up the strays.

Of course there were expenses for the trips but since all but the Caribbean were places we would go anyway I didn't see that as a problem (and the Caribbean turned out to be a great idea as we wound up on Virgin Gorda after our Chart House visits in USVI and Puerto Rico and loved it).

Total invested at Chart house (there were two of us) was a bit over $1300 for four RTW tickets on the airline group of our choice. We used UA to visit the regions (netting my friend PE (I was already top tier)... so we picked UA/LH/TG for the RTW and at that time it was only $1000 to up to business class so we paid the difference to do that. The trip itself netted nice mileage and some Op ugrades to first!

You also got gifts of dinner for 2 and dinner for 6 (two of each since we earned an award each) which included any wine on the list (Dom Perignon and some pretty nice reds). There were other little gifties like Hawaiian shirts, desert coupons, it seems like they were sending us something every week. All in all about $13,000 worth of goodies for $1300 invested.

To this day if someone mentions a place such as Cohasset (Massachusetts), my first comment is 'there's a Chart House there' http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif!

Concorde flight on BA (US award). It was FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!

This promo won best bonus at the Freddie Awards last year.

Lesley Lindberg, in accepting the award, told her counterparts with competing airline programs "we got alot of your members with this one." http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif (or something to that effect.)

BA - Prior to June 1 2003, they had the best award to India & Asia

125,000 BA Miles for FIRST CLASS US TO ASIA including India.

100,000 BA Miles for BUSINESS CLASS US TO ASIA including India.

Both these were the best ever rewards for India and the maximum bang for the buck.

Hmmm. I'm surprised no one has mentioned either of these:

BA. First Class from the US.

175,000 miles: LAX-JFK (AA-P Class); JFK-LHR (Concorde); LHR-BKK (BA-F Class); BKK-SYD (BA-F Class); SYD-SIN (BA-F Class); SIN-LHR (BA-F Class); LHR-JFK (Concorde); JFK-LAX (AA-P Class). I did this one last year.

150,000 miles: LAX-LHR (BA-F Class); LHR-BKK (BA-F Class); BKK-SYD (BA-F Class); SYD-SIN (BA-F Class); SIN-LHR (BA-F Class); LHR-LAX (BA-F Class). I am in BKK on this one right now!

Sadly, after BA eviscerated their program, that 150,000 mile award is now a 420,000 mile award.

I've always thought the best was in WN early days between Dallas and Houston competing with Braniff when you got a free bottle of bourbon on a less than $30 fare

Actually, I think it was a $26 fare and you received your choice of alcohol.

IIRC Southwest was the largest Chivas Regal distributor in Texas that year.

The same flight could be had for $13 without the alcohol... just a way of extracting marginal revenue for the same seats when an individual was flying on a company dime. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

In 1970 I used to fly from LAX to SFO on the PSA redeye to visit my girlfriend (now wife)for what I believe was $15.50 each way. Since there were no cellphones I never knew if there'd be anyone there to pick me up.

I've got a few to speak about...

CO onepass used to have a reward CS7 traveling on partner COPA from caribbean or central america not connecting in USA (Panama City was fine) flying to South America (Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo and Santiago included, and open jaw was OK and free stopover in Panama)...all for 20,000 miles on coach....recently it was raised to 30,000, which is still a great deal, anyways.

I could fly from San Juan, Puerto Rico rntp and use this CS7 award...

Also, on Delta Skymiles... once I flew for 70,000 miles coach reward... using Delta (domestic) and Korean Air (int'l)... went from San Juan to Tokyo Narita via LAX,(NRT 1st int'l stopover allowed outbound), then on to Mumbai, India (final destination) via Seoul, then stopped in Seoul (SEL was 2nd stopover in'tl allowed en route on the return), and then stopover in San Francisco (one stopover enroute allowed domestically), and then finally back to San Juan on Delta... and I got bumped on my last leg and ended up with a $600 voucher! This was in 2000.

In 1997...for 30,000 Skymiles... went from San Juan, PR to Anchorage, Alaska, then stopover in Los Angeles, and then back to San Juan.

Another time, CO onepass was running a 50% miles off reward off a few cities... one of them was Aguadilla, Puerto Rico... I went from Aguadilla to Los Angeles, with a Newark stopover... for 17,500 miles...

Also, on former TWA... I went from San Francisco, stopped in New York, then flew to Stockholm (open jaw), then flew back from Athens via JFK and stopped in Chicago, and finally back to San Francisco, all for 35,000 miles (this is 1992).

On Aadvantage.... went from SJU to HNL... then flew back from Maui and stopped over in Dallas, and back to San Juan...for 35,000 miles...

Also, went from San Juan to Dallas, stopped there, then went to Santiago, Chile, then back to Dallas, and stopped again, and finally back to San Juan, for 40,000 miles.
(San Juan-Dallas normally is 30,000 miles, so for 10,000 extra miles I went to So America)

The key is to book them in advance.

Now, it is not worthwhile for me... I would rather accummulate double miles on paid tickets!

This doesn't really qualify as an award, but certainly the best deal I ever heard of.

A colleague of mine had a business that required a lot of travel. For a short while, American offered a pass for $100,000 (I'm not certain the exact cost, but I think this was it). This pass entitled the person to fly 1st class, with another person anywhere, for life. AND the flights for both people earned miles. He billed clients for estimated costs, and the pass clearly paid for itself in no time.

He told me that he later met another person who had such a pass, but whose company had folded. He then would charge people to fly them to Europe and back 1st class as his guest.

Apparently American hadn't done the math on this one, because they later offered it for much more money, and then probably dropped it completely.

We once used 85,000 miles on JAL for TWO business class tickets from Chicago to Beijing in 1996.

Also not strictly a reward, but when Pan Am first issued its WorldCard with First USA, they included Mastercard checks (initially three) which were good for a maximum of $10,000 a piece and were miles earning. After using those three, they issued another three. Not only did these earn 1 mile per dollar spent, but IIRC if you paid your balance in full early, they accrued no interest. In essenc this was a free 60,000 miles. About 4 months into the programme these the mileage element of these checks were revoked.

I second what has been written above about the KLM miles match. I made out big time from that one.