hbrocks

We got a Chase Sapphire card with about 70k miles ($800ish) to use for our honeymoon to Maui.
I transferred the points to United but United's booking system reports our trip would require 122k reward miles. (sigh)_
Can't we simply cover the difference with cash? The united booking page doesn't indicate this to me anywhere.....
Also....having just joined the United mileage program specifically for this trip - are there any ways to get more miles credited for our Maui trip?
What are my options? Thanks

mahasamatman

If you book directly from the Chase portal, you can treat your points like cash, but once you transfer to United, you lose that option.

With Mileage Plus, there is no "cash+points" option, though you can emulate it if you buy one round-trip ticket with miles and one with cash (you would not be on the same PNR), or buy two one-way tickets with miles and two with cash (you would be on the sane PNR). Another option is to buy the miles from United, though it's rarely cheaper to do it that way.

hbrocks

update -
I just "stumbled" onto "Buy Miles" link....
But ....OMG these United Miles are expensive!
Are there any other options?

Whoops and OK - (already transferred all the points to United)...the purchasing One with rewards and one with cash makes sense! (I need to look up all the acronyms being used here ...PNR?)
Thanks

simmang

PNR means "passenger name record," but you might know it as "record locator" or "reservation number." It's a six-digit alphanumeric number.

So if you book one ticket with miles and one with cash, you'll have separate reservation numbers for each. This shouldn't be an issue if everything goes as planned, but among other things, if there are delays/cancellations, the airline won't necessarily know that the people on different reservation numbers are traveling together in order to rebook you together.

gene2632

If you book one cash and one reward you can call United and ask them to link the PRNs. At least they used to do that for me.

findark

This doesn't actually do anything though. (Technically, it annotates the PNR so that a human looking at it might notice the "link" -- a computer will ignore it.)

jhayes_1780

FYI: "link"ing does virtually nothing other then a manual note in the reservation.

phkc070408

Who's name is the Sapphire card in? Who's MP account is it?

Each individual is entitled to a Sapphire Signup Bonus if:
1. You are not a current Sapphire Card member.
2. You have not received a Sapphire Signup Bonus within the past 24 months.

My wife and I each sign up for cards in our names and we dump all of the miles into the same account. Adding my wife as an authorized user on my card does not make her a card member, and vise versa.

Also, Chase permits you to transfer your points to either your own or your spouses MP account, so you could combine miles that way.

__________________________________________________ _____________________________________________

Correction: As I typed that last sentence, I remembered that it's a honeymoon trip. You need to be already married to combine points, so unless it's a delayed honeymoon, that wouldn't work.

WineCountryUA

Yes, UA offers a second option that is typically close to 2 cents per mile but a little more complex to navigate

Consolidated Award / Premier Accelerator questions

United Airlines Award/Premier Accelerator Rates [2019]

HawaiiO

Sometimes the United miles go on sale i think.
40% or so.

COSPILOT

I think you are kind of stuck since you decided to transfer the points to UA, as I don't think you can refund that. You haven't mentioned the honeymoon dates (unless I missed it), so let's focus on helping with that. I'm not sure how short you are in miles now that you transferred to UA?

Not to off rail things, but you are getting married, that is primary, the honeymoon is icing on the cake. Congrats in advance!

Wx4caster

Can you provide details for dates/airports you are looking for? It is possible that you could get one free ticket and purchase the second for far less than the cost to buy miles - or possibly even get 1.5 tickets, so that you only need to purchase a one-way. No way to tell without details.

username

I suspect with dynamic award pricing, the next step is probably Cash + Miles since many people won't have enough of their hard earned miles to make a trip they have been working toward.

It is part of the trilogy - hook them on miles, devalue the miles and get them to pay more cash.

hbrocks

Awesome...(Thank you)
Wed Oct 2nd - Oct 9th...We already have airbnb booked for these dates in Maui..
Southen Calif...LAX, SNA and Long Beach LBG are close to us.

Best I'm seeing is ...LAX Direct to Maui for $438 basic economy United (thru Kayak)
(couple more post and I can attach pics)

COSPILOT

I recommend Google flights, not Kayak. Google simply searches, but you still book direct with the airline via the link they give you. Anyhow, if you aren't tied to flying United, it looks like Alaska is much cheaper.
https://www.google.com/flights?hl=en...D;e:1;sd:1;t:f