psychtobe

The clock appears to be ticking... and many of us are questioning what we are doing with hundreds of thousands of WP miles in our accounts.

In my case, it's always been a race to make the next elite level, so I rarely have the opportunity to use up miles. But the incentive to make elite for the coming year is perhaps less while we wait to see what shakes out of the merger talk. The other airline alliances may morph dramatically, as well. In this environment, perhaps all of us should be looking to deplete our accounts.

I'm hoping this thread can be used to generate specific ideas for miles-burning. Not wanting to waste miles - I'm looking for good ways to actually use them, preferably at non-extortion (non-PerkPass) rates.

For example:

-CONUS-Hawaii upgrades to F for 17,500 miles each way - good from any fare class if you are elite, and especially a good deal if you are flying the A330, or from the midwest or east coast (you get more time in the big seat).

DTW for the Ann Arbor Art Fair - still a good amount of PerkSaver awards available from SEA/PDX for the surrounding weekdays, and cash tickets are $430-$650.

-RTW (140k in coach, 220k in biz, 280k in First) - must cross Atlantic and Pacific, can book 11 1/12 months out, no backtracking East to West or vice versa allowed, maximum of 3 stopovers on any one continent and max 6 stopovers total, must depart from and return to the same original city. All this per Elite line CSR as of 2/19/08.

-intraAfrica redemptions on KQ

-HNL-Asia for 60k WBC. Find a cheap cash rate to HNL, since those flights tend to be less expensive, or at least cheaper than the 60k miles you are saving by not booking CONUS-Asia for 120k miles in WBC.

any thoughts on international travel for Spring 2009? Standard awards in Biz class, etc?

Any other hot vacation ideas where cash tickets are normally pricey but PerkSaver awards are still available?

Jaimito Cartero

Well, I've burned 300k in the last week, but I'm sure that I'll refund most of them. I would have burned more, but for horrible redemptions to/from SIN/BKK.

Hopefully there won't be a quick integration, and I'll have a couple of years to book 5x RTW-J

spgaston

The best value for mileage redemption is a RTW award in business class, hands down.

The DL RTW desk is probably the best in SkyTeam, but maybe NW can help you out too.

psychtobe

interesting... I recall there's a huge thread on this topic in the SkyTeam forum. Are you referring to a "NW RTW award" or is there a separate "ST RTW award?" also, where would I find the mileage requirements for this?

spgaston

Every SkyTeam partner offers a version of the SkyTeam RTW award. I'm not sure if the rules or mileage requirements vary by program.

On DL, redemption levels are 140k for coach, 220k for business, and 280? for First (which will not get you into F class on AF or KE, only CO so it's hardly worth it).

slippahs

120k on two J Perksavers to NRT. Good deal, considering I couldn't find a B fare for less than $2000 for summer travel. Looking to burn another 100k but don't know where and when...

sbagdon

I've been looking at this very thing for the last few days. Most of my selections are hub-centric (and direct-centric), and I'm finding availability even without going through FNT:

DTW-CUN - 60K for F (CZM required a stop in MSP)
DTW-NRT - 120K for J
DTW-LGW - 100K for J (plus AMS, FRA, CDG, DUS, etc)

All of these routes appear to have PerkSaver, if you're willing to be a bit flexible. I found DTW-BKK for 120K without really trying. I just don't have the travel-time, or iron-butt, to make it 20 hours one-way!

Guess the general rule is... go as far as you can, with as few connections as possible, in the best class-of-service you can.

Steve B.

thezipper

One idea ... I'm flying a friend to HNL from TPE for a wedding in June for 60K in WBC. I'm sure you could combine a stopover in KIX with something like that to TPE, getting to see Taiwan and Japan for the same price Combine that with a Japan Rail pass and you can get to Tokyo for a song, if that's where you really want to go.

hw711

I burned 300K+ in the past year. Only have 22K left so I guess I have nothing to worry about. LOL.

DanTravels

I'll probably be able to burn most of what I have easily this summer, bringing family over to Hawaii from the UK again.

hw711

It's annoying you can only get to TPE from KIX now. And you can only get to KIX from DTW or HNL. There are a lot more flights from US to NRT. Maybe you can open jaw it to increase your chance of finding a PerkSaver.

psychtobe

I've edited my first post with some details about a RTW award. It's a great idea.

Sadly, with my daughter being 2 years old next February, a RTW is only affordable for the 3 of us in Y - we don't have 720,000 miles for biz. RTW in Y is a somewhat scary prospect. Maybe she'll want to visit the grandparents for a while.

MikeMpls

We already had 438K miles spent for 2008 when this hit the fan: Trips to Ozfest, Salzburg & Prague, plus a weekend in San Antonio. I spent another 150K miles upgrading 1.5 of the European trips to WBC; will upgrade the other 0.5 when I get the miles.

This is the first time in years that neither of our accounts has enough miles for even a domestic PerkSaver tickets. I guess my wife could use PerkChoice; I can't.

spgaston

Out of curiosity are you flying to PRG on DL or KL/NW/AF?

MikeMpls

NW & KL.

Salzburg was booked originally in Y on DL but is now also on NW & KL, outbound MUC, return VIE.