Ben Oppenheimer

I've been low-status United frequent flyer (silver currently) for a few years here based out of DEN.

Let me complain in another post about United's declining benefits (e.g. avoiding A320 slim line seats w/out in seat power at all cost ), but my question here is that I have nearly 400,000 miles on United and I'm thinking after this year of getting silver that I'm done with them, because for $3000 PQD and declining benefits, it's a ridiculous proposition to stay with one airline when I can fly SWA most places I go.

So, I'm asking for ideas for what you think to use my lifetime's accumulation on United from DEN so that I have an experience of a lifetime, and when should I do it by? I'm afraid that in a couple years, Mileage Plus will become a revenue-based redemption scheme, and how soon is that going to happen? I'm looking to do a special trip for either just me or me and my wife, probably to Asia somewhere (Vietnam, Japan are at top of list)- getting business or first class on an Asian carrier is the ultimate goal.

What would you do, and by when (earliest late 2016, but probably 2017 or 2018)? All recommendations welcome.

Yoshi212

I'm not even married yet but I'm thinking leaving the wife behind for a luxury (assuming you're burning those miles) might not go over well...or she might enjoy the alone time. Here on FT there is a United Airlines forum for which you can get a lot of information on sweet spots in the program, how to redeem for certain airlines that do limited/timed releases of F class rewards or possibly a RTW trip.

As for the A320 subject I am with you. I avoid then on anything over 2 hours or at all if possible. I'm not a SW fan but if it works for you go for it and be sure to look into the associated Chase Credit Card and companion pass program as I hear good things about those.

The awards chart is rather interactive https://www.united.com/web/en-US/app...ardTravel.aspx but as with all things depends on availability. With UA to Asia the big winners are Asiana (OZ) via ICN, All Nippon (NH)via HND/NRT out of ORD, JFK, IAH, LAX, SJC & SFO (most routes have F but I think IAH & SJC are J only) & and Singapore airlines (SQ) via JFK/FRA, LAX/ICN or LAX/NRT & SFO/HKG. I have not flow it but some have had good things to say about CA (Air China)'s F class.

pgur

Although Singapore Air (SQ) is the best option, you won't get seats. Also F class in other Star Alliance airlines is ridiculously more expensive than Business. I would suggest you to take two business class tickets to Asia. You can take somewhere far like Vietnam and you can get a free stopover in Japan (Narita) That was for 160,000 miles each or thereabouts, you get two nice places to visit. You will still have some miles left over and you could use them to take a side trip within Asia to yet another destination. The hotels are still going to be on you as United miles are not a nice way to get free hotel rooms.

pgur

If you get 2 seats up to Japan in United F, that may cost you only 180,000 round trip and could be worth using your balance miles as well. F on United to Tokyo and Business to Vietnam on some Star carrier.
You could also fly UA to Singapore and then experience SQ hospitality to regional destinations like Vietnam or Bali or Bangkok. SQ seats in Business are easily available on short regional routes.

Ben Oppenheimer

These are great suggestions. And yes, two tickets are far better than one .

sdsearch

Since I don't share your fear and don't understand it, I wouldn't do anything. I'm hanging on to my UA miles until I need to go somewhere only *A can get me (I have way more miles at AA, and some miles at DL and AS too). I'm in no hurry at all to use them up, because I know that there are places in the world that only Star Alliance flies (for example, northern Norway), and so if use up all my UA miles now, how will I fly to those places on miles later?

Not a single legacy longhaul international carrier in the world has gone revenue-based on redemption. Even Delta has just gone to an unpublished chart, rather than to revenue-based redemption.

The reason: It's a different audience that redeems miles than buys tickets for the large part, and so airlines with multiple cabins want to sometimes promote buying while hindering redemption, and other times promote redemption while hindering buying. For example, during times of low business demand (such as Christmas holidays) it is often way easier to find business class redemptions than coach redemptions, because not many business people fly then, but they don't want to lower the cash fares on business then fearing it'll set expectations lower for business pricing at other times. So they make business awards available while keeping cash fares high. They couldn't possibly do that if they had revenue-based redemption.

An airline like Southwest doesn't have issues like that, because it has just one cabin (even when flying internationally). So that's why revenue-based redemption works for Southwest. That doesn't mean its extensible to carriers that fly two-aisle (maybe even two-deck) jets around the world with two or three or four cabins.

Now, that doesn't mean that a legacy airline can't restructure its awards some other way that you may not like. But I don't see the great likelihood of the US-based legacies going to revenue-based redemption any time soon, and I don't see why UA would do it first anyway.

krazykanuck

Given your mileage balance, I'd probably look for business class redemptions on ANA (NH). I know they fly from IAH, so you may have to backtrack a bit, but probably worth it.

I would double check your thinking about moving to Southwest. If you travel a lot with the SO, then yes the companion pass can be worth it, but I'd rather fly UA over WN everyday of the week.

seanp7

If you want to burn them, definitely LH F if you haven't flown it. Greece / Turkey, or perhaps a nice UK & Ireland trip. Create a 4 hour layover in Frankfurt and use the FCT. Just be prepared to wait until T-14, T-3, etc and/or connect through other US cities with better availability.

Kacee

The ultimate UA award itinerary is a routing to Asia via Europe in LH F, with a stopover in Europe. E.g., US-FRA // FRA-HKG // BKK-FRA-US. You get both the LH and TG F lounges with that itinerary. You can do a J version of this that's also pretty nice, flying OS or TK for the TATL.

Or if you want to do Japan, something like US-NRT // NRT-BKK // DPS-SIN-NRT-US. You really can't go wrong flying any of NH/TG/ SQ/OZ/BR in J (though some are better than others on specific routes . . . pick your destinations then come back for more specific advice on carriers and routings).

I would definitely choose a carrier other than UA if you're looking for a special experience.

FlyWorld

I'm in the same boat as you. I started the year with even more miles than you and for the last two years, I've been burning my miles as quickly as reasonably possible so that I can continue to reduce my ties with this terrible and declining airline.

My advise, however, is the following:

1. Don't waste your miles on F, with any airline.

2. Don't define "experience of a lifetime" as having anything to do with the airline. All airlines suck and all air travel sucks, it's only a question of how much more it sucks with UA than other airlines. Anyone who thinks getting on an aircraft is an experience of a lifetime is silly.

3. Define "experience of a lifetime" as doing something wonderful in a foreign country where you can connect with the people, the land, and the culture. Instead of focusing on the plane, spend time in a foreign place, and learn about it, and yourself. Use the miles to facilitate that goal. I promise it'll give you far deeper and longer lasting benefits than spending a few hours in an F cabin.

4. Use your miles to maximize the degree to which you can see and experience new places, people, foods, cultures, architectures, natural features, and so forth. Whatever it is that makes you happy.

5. Don't take a trip to burn miles. Travel as much as makes you happy. No more and no less.

Therefore, your goal in my opinion should not be "how can I blow my miles as quickly as possible on an over-rated airline seat" but "how can I see as many wonderful places and have as many wonderful experiences as possible with my miles."

That's what I've been doing the last two years and I'm happy to report that I've managed to avoid UA metal quite a bit while doing so, which does make the travel experience that much better.

As for which cabin to travel in, my goal as stated before has been to maximize experiences, not maximize how fast I can waste the miles I worked so hard to earn.

Therefore, I've set a rule for myself that I will fly in Y on any trip of 10 hours or less, and I will fly in J on any trip of 20 hours or more and between 10-20 hours, I'll debate the decision with myself and look at pricing and look at options to make the journey less painful. And, I will only fly in saver inventory but I will spend more to fly on a non-UA metal aircraft as long as it's in saver inventory.

As stated upthread, the best values seem to be to Asia, so I'd concur with the advise to focus on Asia and focus on non-UA metal to/from Asia.

On a recent trip, I flew in J on a TG A380 from BKK to NRT and that was a pleasure, and a great value. However, be warned that the FAA has downgraded Thailand's aviation safety rating, so I can't wholeheartedly recommend TG because I'm not feeling good about the downgrade.

In the end, you get what you pay for. The airlines that have easy availability of saver J or F seats tend to be the crappiest airlines that can't sell those seats. I'm not seeing saver J on any of the top tier airlines at all.

So I've ended up flying a lot on saver J with crappy airlines (TG, UA) and saver Y on good airlines (mostly LH).

Overall, I won't break my rule to fly only saver, and this is making my miles last, and giving me a lot of travel.

If it's really important for you to experience J, then just search like crazy for saver J on a decent airline or use it on UA if you want to get it over with quickly, but don't waste your miles on F or non-saver J.

goodeats21

Interesting post overall, but the above clause is very suspect.

Thailand's government agency overseeing Airport operations and certifications has been under review for some time, but I do not recall Thai Airways being under specific review for non-compliance with safety regs.
Can you provide a source for this info?

To be back on topic, I agree that some J redemptions to Asia on any of their great carriers would be the best use for OP as both Japan and Vietnam were top of their list. Be sure to consider plane configurations so you don't end up on slant seats instead of lie-flats.

FlyWorld

Correct, the downgrade was for all Thai carriers as a result of concerns that the FAA has with safety of the Thai system in general. Coincidentally, at around the same time, TG cancelled all flights to/from the US.

If someone else feels comfortable booking with TG, then let them book with TG. I draw discomfort from the facts described below and it does influence my prioritization of carrier choices.

https://www.faa.gov/news/press_relea...m?newsId=19814

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/02/av...on-safety-faa/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/de...fety-concerns/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ne...n-ban-for-now/

http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulli...5/12/thai-bind

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...rlines-unsafe/

goodeats21

The issue is not with Thai Airways, as all of your links indicate.

In fact, Thai Airways was recently re-certified by the FAA for major repairs on multiple airplane types for USA operated and based carreris: http://www.eglobaltravelmedia.com.au...-capabilities/,

And the only TG <-> USA route (to LAX) they operated was cancelled as economically not viable...not anything related to safety.

Anyway, this is all a bit off topic here, but wanted to clarify that for many FTers, booking and flying with Thai Airways is not an issue at all.

Cheers.

JBord

By far, the best advice in the thread. Airlines are a means to an end, which is hopefully in this case a wonderful vacation experience somewhere new and interesting to the OP. The different airlines and amenities in their different cabins all just serve to make the experience of getting there more bearable.

If I wanted to have a personal lie-flat seat and watch movies with average food (yes even the best F food is not the quality of a good restaurant), I could do that at home.

Focus on the routes that allow you the most time at your destination, and then consider the different airline amenities in J/F. And as others have said, including a free stopover is a nice bonus if you can make it work. Essentially this becomes 2 vacations for the price of one.

pnsnkr

While there are very strong practically-driven arguments in this thread regarding air travel and definition of once-in-a-lifetime experience, this is FT afterall and the topic is about burning miles for award travel, so here goes my minority report:

Since the OP is DEN-based, LH flies it's arguably best F config out of DEN on the 747-400 and award space is generally good about 7-10 days out from travel date. Keep an eye out for award space to open up and consider upgrading to LH F at least one way to Asia.

It IS worth the miles for me. I'm also a lowly silver and thoroughly enjoyed my one LH F experience last year one way to Asia.