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Mileage Plan International Redemption Sweet Spots ?

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Mileage Plan International Redemption Sweet Spots ?

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Old Oct 21, 2017, 9:41 am
  #1  
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Mileage Plan International Redemption Sweet Spots ?
I loved Mileage Plan for their 20K coach to South America redemption sweet spot. That was at least 10K less than AA and UA, and who knows how much less than Delta. With the AA and Delta partnerships gone, are there any new international sweet spots? Looks like for Europe there are only BA and Icelandair left and South America will be unreachable on points. That leaves JL to Tokyo - anything else?
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Old Oct 21, 2017, 9:49 am
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Originally Posted by drminn
I loved Mileage Plan for their 20K coach to South America redemption sweet spot. That was at least 10K less than AA and UA, and who knows how much less than Delta. With the AA and Delta partnerships gone, are there any new international sweet spots? Looks like for Europe there are only BA and Icelandair left and South America will be unreachable on points. That leaves JL to Tokyo - anything else?
JL to TYO isn't as sweet as JL to TYO with a stopover and then continuing on to, say, TPE or SIN for no extra miles. Also, AA is still going to be a redemption partner, so those 20k one-way Y awards to South America won't disappear.
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Old Oct 21, 2017, 11:41 am
  #3  
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Originally Posted by drminn
With the AA and Delta partnerships gone
Uh, you can still book AA for South America on award after 12/31/2017. The elite recognition and acquiring mileage for domestic flights got nuked, but not award redemption and getting miles internationally.


https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...er-overview:AA

You'll still be able to redeem miles on American flights globally.
Originally Posted by drminn
South America will be unreachable on points
Not so much. Not only is AA still an AS partner, LATAM is still an AS partner.

I think we'd all be quite surprised that LATAM doesn't fly to South America...


Originally Posted by drminn
That leaves JL to Tokyo - anything else?
CX to and from Africa/India/Australia/Asia with HKG stopover.
CX J to Europe from HKG for 42.5k miles.
Ability to use the AS free stopover on a one way international award to stop in the international gateway/SEA/PDX/ANC and tack on a "free one way" to Hawaii/Mexico/USA (since the mileage for HKG-LAX-SEA is exactly the same as the mileage for HKG-LAX-SEA-KOA).


Originally Posted by jinglish
JL to TYO isn't as sweet as JL to TYO with a stopover and then continuing on to, say, TPE or SIN for no extra miles.
Or try DEL to SIN in J with a TYO stopover... for no extra miles (25k). That's an amazing value.
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Last edited by eponymous_coward; Oct 21, 2017 at 12:00 pm
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Old Oct 21, 2017, 8:03 pm
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Originally Posted by eponymous_coward

Or try DEL to SIN in J with a TYO stopover... for no extra miles (25k). That's an amazing value.
The non-stop 5h40 direct SQ401 DEL-SIN costs $631 in J vs. 25 kmls + $40 on JL. With AS miles valued as 2c/mile it is $540 for 2 red eyes vs. $631 for a direct day-time flight.
Last edited by Terence.Hill; Oct 21, 2017 at 8:11 pm
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Old Oct 21, 2017, 8:10 pm
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Originally Posted by Terence.Hill
For DEL-SIN I would pick the non-stop 5h direct SQ401 for $201 instead of two red-eyes for 25 kmls + $40 :-)
*cough*

Originally Posted by eponymous_coward
DEL to SIN in J with a TYO stopover
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Old Oct 21, 2017, 8:56 pm
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CX J JNB-HKG 42,500 Miles
CX J HGK-BOS 50,000 Miles
CX J JNB-HKG//HKG-BOS 62,500 miles

I booked two JNB-HKG-BOS J awards with a three-day stopover in Hong Kong last night for mid February. Whether you choose to look at it as JNB-HKG with a 20,000 mile add-on for HKG-BOS J or JNB-HKG J for a 12,500 miles repositioning flight for HKG-BOS, I think this is a sweet sweet-spot.
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Old Oct 21, 2017, 9:15 pm
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I have booked YYZ-HKG-JNB J on CX gor 62.5k and PEK-HND-BKK J on JL for 25k, both are good value IMO.
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Old Oct 22, 2017, 5:25 am
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Originally Posted by Terence.Hill
The non-stop 5h40 direct SQ401 DEL-SIN costs $631 in J vs. 25 kmls + $40 on JL. With AS miles valued as 2c/mile it is $540 for 2 red eyes vs. $631 for a direct day-time flight.
... without a stopover in TYO that you can take for weeks if you like. You’ve missed the point; you’re getting TWO long-haul business class flights and time in Tokyo for 25k. If you’re trying to your a lot of Asia a free stopover like that is useful.
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Old Oct 23, 2017, 9:42 am
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The AA Eco off-peak to Europe awards remain a very good deal, especially when traveling during holiday periods.
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Old Oct 23, 2017, 10:44 am
  #10  
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Other J or F sweet spots?
Interesting discussion, OP. As someone who's shifting a lot of travel from AA to AS, I appreciate learning about what's being posted here.

Any other sweet spots for J or F travel?
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Old Oct 23, 2017, 12:03 pm
  #11  
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Originally Posted by Thunderroad
Interesting discussion, OP. As someone who's shifting a lot of travel from AA to AS, I appreciate learning about what's being posted here.

Any other sweet spots for J or F travel?
Just the fact you can stop-over is much better than AA. Though you lose the ability mix and match partners. Its AS + 1 partner in a single direction of travel so no AS/CX/JL unless you want a separate award
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Old Oct 23, 2017, 8:12 pm
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If you want J travel to asia, I've been happy with redemptions and hard/soft product on Hainan the past year. I flew them with my wife to Shanghai as well as another trip to Bangkok. I'm booked to fly RT SEA-BKK-SEA again in december as well. They might not have the 'best' hard product out there, but the soft product (food, service, etc) is good, and I had one of the best transfer experiences EVER in PEK connecting to BKK. For the 2 J passengers that were transiting, they opened up a special VIP customs/immigration/security section just for us and shuttled us through in a very efficient and white glove manner.

Flights to/from south east asia are 50k each way, albeit not always at the best routing times. For example my upcoming return from BKK in december is a 130am (!!) flight, but I land in Seattle at 1030 am 'same day', so at least thats OK
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Old Oct 24, 2017, 3:14 pm
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LAX-PPT on AF for 60K in J is pretty sweet, same with CX J or F redemption C2-C1 via HKG
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Old Oct 24, 2017, 3:27 pm
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Seattle - Dubai (stopover) - Asia on emirates business is still good value for ~100k points I believe.

I need the dubai stopover since a lot of family lives in the middle east area.
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Old Oct 24, 2017, 3:32 pm
  #15  
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Originally Posted by Deltahater
LAX-PPT on AF for 60K in J is pretty sweet, same with CX J or F redemption C2-C1 via HKG
You actually find space on the PPT? I can barely get revenue bookings to work on AF site, except for what looks like full Y

Originally Posted by nomiiiii
Seattle - Dubai (stopover) - Asia on emirates business is still good value for ~100k points I believe.

I need the dubai stopover since a lot of family lives in the middle east area.
If one did YVR/SFO/LAX-HKG-DXB, one way EK J is just short of RT CX J price.
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