Book through United or Chase UR?
Aug 21, 2019, 7:26 am
#16
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: MSP
Programs: DL PM, UA Gold, WN, Global Entry; +others wherever miles/points are found
Posts: 14,410
Aug 21, 2019, 6:40 pm
#19
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 77
I’m not sure if my reply went through a few hours ago .
1. What is WN when referring to flying to Hawaii ?
2. Is the higher conversion rate with a Chase Sapphire worth delaying booking airfare with our current points from the Chase Ink Bus cards ?
3. Anybody ever use Aeroplan or Krisflyer ? I saw them mentioned on TA . If this is something I should consider , let me know how they work .
Thanks for all the comments !
1. What is WN when referring to flying to Hawaii ?
2. Is the higher conversion rate with a Chase Sapphire worth delaying booking airfare with our current points from the Chase Ink Bus cards ?
3. Anybody ever use Aeroplan or Krisflyer ? I saw them mentioned on TA . If this is something I should consider , let me know how they work .
Thanks for all the comments !
Aug 21, 2019, 7:56 pm
#20
Join Date: Oct 2009
Programs: UA 1K, Hilton ♦ , Hyatt Carbonado, Wyndham ♦, Marriott PE, "Stinking Bum" elsewhere.
Posts: 4,998
I’m not sure if my reply went through a few hours ago .
1. What is WN when referring to flying to Hawaii ?
2. Is the higher conversion rate with a Chase Sapphire worth delaying booking airfare with our current points from the Chase Ink Bus cards ?
3. Anybody ever use Aeroplan or Krisflyer ? I saw them mentioned on TA . If this is something I should consider , let me know how they work .
Thanks for all the comments !
1. What is WN when referring to flying to Hawaii ?
2. Is the higher conversion rate with a Chase Sapphire worth delaying booking airfare with our current points from the Chase Ink Bus cards ?
3. Anybody ever use Aeroplan or Krisflyer ? I saw them mentioned on TA . If this is something I should consider , let me know how they work .
Thanks for all the comments !
Aug 22, 2019, 6:18 am
#21
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 77
I read something about Singapore Air as Krisflyer and also heard something about Aeroplan. How do these work ?
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Aug 22, 2019 at 4:37 pm Reason: merging consecutive posts by same member
Aug 22, 2019, 7:34 am
#22
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: MSP
Programs: DL PM, UA Gold, WN, Global Entry; +others wherever miles/points are found
Posts: 14,410
Like any other frequent flyer program - you make an account, confirm the award availability through that program, transfer miles, and book. Different *A programs will charge different numbers of (their) miles for the same United flight.
Aug 22, 2019, 7:47 am
#23
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: UA Gold 1MM, AA EXP, HH Diamond, MR Gold, Avis PC, Hertz PC
Posts: 1,252
You can transfer Chase points between cards, so you can redeem all of your Chase points at 1.5 as soon as you have the Sapphire Reserve in hand.
Aug 22, 2019, 7:52 am
#24
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: DEN
Programs: UA 1P-1MM, Marriott LT Titanium
Posts: 3,930
I would add one wrinkle on this discussion. Using the UR points, you can use any amount of points towards the airfare. That means you could use all 210,000 to offset the fare, and then pay any additional in cash. As noted above, if you transfer to an airline program, you need to have enough miles to cover the entire cost of the ticket. This means that you have 52500/person that you can use for award flights, so if the award comes up as 53000/person, you won't be able to book it. In the new UA scheme of dynamic awards, this might be enough, or it might not be enough. You can certainly search for award seats, but there is a chance that you won't find them for the amount of points that you have. With Chase, you are simply searching for the lowest price fare and then you offset with whatever points you want to use. The WN (Southwest) program uses a similar point calculation where the points needed is related to the fare price.
Searching using other airline programs is certainly a good strategy to use.
Living in DEN, I will agree that the UA pricing seems to be very high when you look far ahead in the schedule, but it will usually drop to a more reasonable level. Google Flights is a good way to track the flight prices and if they hit a level that you are comfortable paying, you can pull the trigger, so to speak. For the UA awards, you'll need to manually search for them (I do this daily when I'm looking for award flights).
Searching using other airline programs is certainly a good strategy to use.
Living in DEN, I will agree that the UA pricing seems to be very high when you look far ahead in the schedule, but it will usually drop to a more reasonable level. Google Flights is a good way to track the flight prices and if they hit a level that you are comfortable paying, you can pull the trigger, so to speak. For the UA awards, you'll need to manually search for them (I do this daily when I'm looking for award flights).
Aug 22, 2019, 12:25 pm
#25
Join Date: Oct 2009
Programs: UA 1K, Hilton ♦ , Hyatt Carbonado, Wyndham ♦, Marriott PE, "Stinking Bum" elsewhere.
Posts: 4,998
There will be no downside in delaying a month or so.
Aug 25, 2019, 5:48 pm
#26
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 77
Intrigued by Non-Stop but shall I wait ?
Our family of 4 will make first trip to Hawaii late July 2020, flying from DEN to LIH. We have 258,000 Chase points . I’m intrigued by what appears to be the only nonstop flight offered . Current chase points required would be 241,564 at a total price of $3020.68 which comes out to $755/person before paying extra to choose seats so we are all close together and bag fees . Logging on with my United Mileage plus account that has zero miles , total points is 344,000 for exact same nonstop roundtrip total using the hypothetical earlier July dates I used just to get an idea .
I read some suggestions on a different thread to wait until after Jan 1. What are odds these nonstop seats will be taken by then ? If probably still likely to have availability , think it could be even cheaper in January ? I know it’s a guess but we have little experience flying and new to this points game .
Im not opposed at changing planes on west coast if total cost is worth the savings and added 2-3 hours of total travel time . I just don’t want a long layover , meaning 3 hours or more .
What would you do ? Pull the trigger and get the nonstops now or wait to see if price goes down ?
I read some suggestions on a different thread to wait until after Jan 1. What are odds these nonstop seats will be taken by then ? If probably still likely to have availability , think it could be even cheaper in January ? I know it’s a guess but we have little experience flying and new to this points game .
Im not opposed at changing planes on west coast if total cost is worth the savings and added 2-3 hours of total travel time . I just don’t want a long layover , meaning 3 hours or more .
What would you do ? Pull the trigger and get the nonstops now or wait to see if price goes down ?
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Aug 25, 2019 at 5:57 pm Reason: Moved to OP's prior thread
Aug 25, 2019, 6:03 pm
#27
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: HNL
Programs: UA GS4MM, MR LT Plat, Hilton Gold
Posts: 6,447
Our family of 4 will make first trip to Hawaii late July 2020, flying from DEN to LIH. We have 258,000 Chase points .
I read some suggestions on a different thread to wait until after Jan 1. What are odds these nonstop seats will be taken by then ? If probably still likely to have availability , think it could be even cheaper in January ? I know it’s a guess but we have little experience flying and new to this points game .
What would you do ? Pull the trigger and get the nonstops now or wait to see if price goes down ?
I read some suggestions on a different thread to wait until after Jan 1. What are odds these nonstop seats will be taken by then ? If probably still likely to have availability , think it could be even cheaper in January ? I know it’s a guess but we have little experience flying and new to this points game .
What would you do ? Pull the trigger and get the nonstops now or wait to see if price goes down ?
Aug 25, 2019, 6:15 pm
#28
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 77
If it were me, I wouldn't even think about purchasing the tickets until 2 months before the trip - at the earliest - and that is if I wanted to be incredibly safe. While July is busy, it isn't New Year's Eve busy. As an example - the DEN-LIH nonstop tomorrow as I write this has a lot of empty seats.
Aug 26, 2019, 6:04 am
#30
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 60
it’s not just these types. But all types - flights don’t typically “sell out” until the final few weeks leading up to the trip. And don’t be fooled by seat maps - some seats are blocked to give the illusion that the plane is more full than it actually is.