micvite

I am a total NOOB when it comes to booking award tickets and maximizing my points as well as minimizing my cost when traveling. Not sure if this is the right place to post, but can someone or someones please try and help me out a bit? I'm also a bit lost on navigating the forums here as I have just joined. What I'm mainly looking for is award flights booked with points transferred from AMEX MR and Chase UR in business or first class for international flights. Typically will be leaving from PHL, JFK, EWR, or the Washington DC airports looking to travel to Eurpoe and Asia. for example, looking to book first class to japan in the not too near furutre and I have no idea where to start. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Mwenenzi

micvite Welome to FT
(This thread will get moved)
From your profile not you have DL(skymiles), BA(avios) & LH ff miles/avios
Look the FT subforums for those airline
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...tive-club-446/
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delt...-skymiles-665/
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luft...iles-more-495/

You are being far too optimistic is hoping for first class awards. Need to rest your expectations. Even business class awards are hard to get.

• What research have you done yourself on airline ffp's that could get the trip you want?
• What ffp's are you a member of now? How many ff miles/points?
• What airline ffp’s are common transfer partners of your credit cards? (It does vary by the country of credit card issue)
• You seem to be a frequent spender and not a frequent flyer (from the Amex & Chase commentt)
• FF miles are not equal to earn or burn. They are not 1 to 1.
• Many to most ffp's now do not allow stopovers on awards. So you will/may need 2 or more awards.
• Some ffp's allow one way awards. So you could uses 2 or more different ffp's
• Does passport/visa effect choice or route? In these CV19 times travel is hard and just not possible to many places

Credit card transfer links

• Credit, Debit and Prepaid Card Programs forum
  
• Amex MR Transfer Membership Rewards points to which airline or hotel program?
  
• Chase UR Ultimate Rewards - Airline and Hotel Transfer Partners, Rules, Timeline, etc (2017)
  
• Chase UR Ultimate Rewards - Which airline/hotel should I transfer points to?
  
• Citi TYP Citi ThankYou Points (TYPs): airline transfer partners
  
  A very general guide for award cost. But you need to read and understand the detailed rules for each ffp. Some ffps have high cash co-payment. All have real taxes.
  --->https://www.awardhacker.com/
  

micvite

Thanks for the info! From Chase and Amex I can basically transfer to most FFPS, and most are 1:1 some are 1:1.25 or higher depending. You would be correct in saying I'm a frequent spender than a frequent flyer (I used to fly a lot back in the day, but at the time we never even enrolled in FFPS.) I have done a bit of research, however I'm not even sure what first or business class cabins even look line anymore or if it's worth spending the extra miles/dollars to get first over business on some flights. That's something that's going to require extensive research on my part. But for example I can fly jfk to HND on JAL and I have found first class awards for my time frame (around Christmas, looking to spend Christmas in japan for a start), or similarly I can do LAX to NRT on ANA and figure out how to get my ... to LAX myself which isn't a big deal. I also can do ORD or DFW -NRT on AA Business class for around 120k round trip as well.

guess what I'm saying is I have quite a few options, it's just a matter of trying to figure out what the best value is for the points and what the best cabin would be for that specific route.

Last I remember, assuming miles didn't expire, I should have somewhere around 30k skymiles, 20k executive club miles and maybe around 20k lufthansa miles. But, for all I know they're all gone since none of the log ins even recognize my membership number of old.

typically Route won't matter as if I'm not leaving the airport I'm pretty sure 99% of the countries will give me a transfer visa on the spot if needed (US citizen) and I've never had any issues travelling anywhere. My wife on the other hand (Chinese passport US green card) may have some issues, but I'm pretty sure most countries are fine as long as you remain in the international area of the airport. (but that's something I'm going to research once we have a route picked out and see if there are any issues before booking)

Another thing I'm trying to look into is the possibility of upgrades with miles/points, say I buy a full price economy ticket and want to upgrade to a higher cabin with FF miles (again not sure if this is still something that happens anymore, it's been a good 10-15 years since we were frequent flyers)
Also, How do I find out which airlines FF miles can book which airlines award flights? Like for example how KF can book on ANA, alaskan can book on JAL or how virgin can book ANA. If you have some sort of cheat sheet for this as well as which cabins I can expect on which routes (I know ANA is upgrading some of their first class cabins) I think I'll be good to go for award flights at least. Booking cash? That's a whole another ball game that I couldn't figure out how to get out of a room with a map and a flashlight even if you paid me!

And just a side note, unless COVID restrictions loosen up quite a bit I probably won't be traveling, this is just to get prepared for the future and learn what I need to know now rather than last minute.

These are just my amex transfer partners for airlines everything is 1:1 except for what I mentioned. Through Marriott I could effectively transfer to alaska airlines for 2.1:1 as well though probably not the best value there. From what research I was doing I can do first class around 120k points round trip per person (me and my wife). (through ANA, alaska(on JAL), through Kris Flyer also on ANA)

AER LINGUS

AEROMEXICO 1:1.6

AEROPLAN

AIR FRANCE KLM

ALITALIA

ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS

ASIA MILES

AVIANCA LIFEMILES

BRITISH AIRWAYS

DELTA AIR LINES

EMIRATES

ETIHAD AIRWAYS

HAWAIIAN AIRLINES

IBERIA PLUS

JETBLUE® 1.25:1

QANTAS LOYALTY

SINGAPORE AIRLINES

VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS

Mwenenzi

----> Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire (may not be up to date)
DL Skymiles do not expire
BA Avois expire if no eligible activity in 3 years
LH miles have a 3 year hard expiry. Use them or lose them

Each ffp will have a list of ff partners that you can (theoretically) get awards
example https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...reward-flights
The web site https://www.wheretocredit.com/ shows earnings on partners. Typically, but not always, you can burn(awards) on the same partners