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Miles / Points travel consulting
Posted on 8/30/23 at 6:08 am
Posted on 8/30/23 at 6:08 am
Trying to figure out the best way to maximize usage of points / miles for a family trip to Japan next summer. Have AMEX & Chase points and pretty significant United and Delta miles built up.
Are there consultants that you can pay a small fee to help generate maximum redemption value?
Are there consultants that you can pay a small fee to help generate maximum redemption value?
5
Posted on 8/30/23 at 6:52 am to DandyPimp
Paying someone to redeem free rewards seems counterproductive.
Posted on 8/30/23 at 7:52 am to DandyPimp
Yes, but you can start with googling "x miles to hotels" and/or your specific destination. Look up Chase-> Hyatt and point.me website for airlines to see if you can avoid paying someone.
Posted on 8/30/23 at 8:22 am to DandyPimp
Your best consultant is probably the folks on this board. Tell us your total miles per card, when you are looking to go, how many people, what class of service do you want to fly on, etc…
Bet you’ll get some good advice. For the cost of nothing.
Bet you’ll get some good advice. For the cost of nothing.
Posted on 8/30/23 at 9:15 am to DandyPimp
I'm happy to help if you have any questions, but if you want a professional, Brett and the team at Cranky Concierge are great.
Cranky Concierge
Cranky Concierge
Posted on 8/30/23 at 10:08 am to BlackenedOut
Good advice -
Family of 4 to Tokyo - travel dates = June 29 - July 12th. 2x in Business and 2 x in premium economy.
Points / Miles allocation
United = 465,000 miles
Delta 200,000 miles
Amex = 560,000 pts
Chase = 339,000 pts
Best i can find on United is 400k miles round trip for business. Delta is over 600,000k for Delta One Suites. Amex points will only transfer to Delta and Chase points will only transfer to United.
I know there are often some benefits from using points transfers to international carriers programs. Also, is their potentially more value to saving some points for hotels.
Family of 4 to Tokyo - travel dates = June 29 - July 12th. 2x in Business and 2 x in premium economy.
Points / Miles allocation
United = 465,000 miles
Delta 200,000 miles
Amex = 560,000 pts
Chase = 339,000 pts
Best i can find on United is 400k miles round trip for business. Delta is over 600,000k for Delta One Suites. Amex points will only transfer to Delta and Chase points will only transfer to United.
I know there are often some benefits from using points transfers to international carriers programs. Also, is their potentially more value to saving some points for hotels.
Posted on 8/30/23 at 10:12 am to DandyPimp
quote:
Amex points will only transfer to Delta
What type of Amex because Amex has a lot more transfer partners than just Delta. Where are you flying out of and to?
This post was edited on 8/30/23 at 10:13 am
Posted on 8/30/23 at 10:30 am to DandyPimp
What Amex and Chase card? I’ve transferred amex miles and a chase UR to all sorts of airlines. Certainly flying blue, emirates, BA, off the top of my head.
This post was edited on 8/30/23 at 10:32 am
Posted on 8/30/23 at 10:39 am to BlackenedOut
Sorry - yes i realize that there are other airline partners i can transfer to, however i currently only have Delta and United accounts.
Actually, my not well phrased initial query was directly related to this. Is there a painless way to explore opportunities for lower mile redemptions with other airlines, especially international carriers.
Actually, my not well phrased initial query was directly related to this. Is there a painless way to explore opportunities for lower mile redemptions with other airlines, especially international carriers.
Posted on 8/30/23 at 10:44 am to BlackenedOut
Regarding your flights read the link below for your best options. Transferring Amex points likely your best option. This is not super straight forward but the results are unmatched
LINK
Regarding hotels, I'd focus on Hyatt properties, which Chase has as a transfer partner.
LINK
Regarding hotels, I'd focus on Hyatt properties, which Chase has as a transfer partner.
Posted on 8/30/23 at 10:54 am to DandyPimp
I have some bad news.
As someone who booked Japan for April 2024, you should have already been looking for seats a month ago when the schedule opened up. It's gonna be a tough road now if you want business class.
You will likely also have to widen your search to possibly look going via Taiwan/Hong Kong/S. Korea.
ANA just doesn't release seats anymore. Used to be easy to book them to Japan.
JAL is the night 330 days out you can get them. Then you're pretty much SOL until a week before departure when they release business seats again. With how difficult this may be for you now, you actually may want to use a service to get it done. When I was looking 330 days out, some days SFO would have 6-8 business seats available. 60k each one way using AA. Alaska got access too late so their miles are worthless for this type of booking currently.
Lastly, you're booking during when it's hot and typhoon season. Good for pricing and it won't be crowded, but FYI on why that is.
As someone who booked Japan for April 2024, you should have already been looking for seats a month ago when the schedule opened up. It's gonna be a tough road now if you want business class.
You will likely also have to widen your search to possibly look going via Taiwan/Hong Kong/S. Korea.
ANA just doesn't release seats anymore. Used to be easy to book them to Japan.
JAL is the night 330 days out you can get them. Then you're pretty much SOL until a week before departure when they release business seats again. With how difficult this may be for you now, you actually may want to use a service to get it done. When I was looking 330 days out, some days SFO would have 6-8 business seats available. 60k each one way using AA. Alaska got access too late so their miles are worthless for this type of booking currently.
Lastly, you're booking during when it's hot and typhoon season. Good for pricing and it won't be crowded, but FYI on why that is.
This post was edited on 8/30/23 at 11:02 am
Posted on 8/30/23 at 11:15 am to DandyPimp
quote:
Sorry - yes i realize that there are other airline partners i can transfer to, however i currently only have Delta and United accounts.
It's easy to open accounts with other airlines and book with miles. AmEx and Chase both transfer to Air Canada Aeroplan and Alaska MileagePlus which are good for Asia redemptions.
SkyPesos are worthless and United miles are only good when booking on partner metal.
There are also paid services that show award availability and will send you an alert when something opens up. Look at ExpertFlyer.
Posted on 8/30/23 at 12:32 pm to DandyPimp
quote:
however i currently only have Delta and United accounts.
It takes two minutes to set up an account.
Posted on 8/30/23 at 1:42 pm to VABuckeye
Signed up for a couple of programs (Air Canada, Alaska and Singapore) and TR's point above about basically no availability of award flights seems to be proving out. No alliance flights showing on United either.
Likely will just split up with 2 on delta and 2 on united.
Likely will just split up with 2 on delta and 2 on united.
Posted on 8/30/23 at 2:15 pm to DandyPimp
you could also try searching via Air France-KLM (Flying Blue). I just returned from a trip to Japan and Korea, and since Japan was still closed to tourism when I booked our flights a year or so ago (ANA, JAL et al had basically no award availability), I ended up booking Air France from IAD-CDG-NRT. Mind you, it's definitely the scenic route, but the 777s AF is using from Paris to Tokyo are brand new with doors on your 'suite'. Food is great, too.
But as Teddy said, you're probably not going to find anything traveling east to Japan for summer 2024 this late
But as Teddy said, you're probably not going to find anything traveling east to Japan for summer 2024 this late
This post was edited on 8/30/23 at 2:16 pm
Posted on 8/30/23 at 2:24 pm to Uhtred
We flew Air France business class into CDG from IAD a few weeks ago and it was nice. The pods weren't quite as nice as some others (decidedly lack of storage) but the food made up for it. Our meal was excellent for airplane food.
Posted on 8/30/23 at 2:44 pm to VABuckeye
Glad to hear you had a good experience with them. We flew AF JFK-CDG last month and the food was terrible.
Review: Air France B777-300 Business Class
Review: Air France B777-300 Business Class
Posted on 8/30/23 at 2:45 pm to VABuckeye
Agreed. The planes on its Dulles route aren’t really competitive. I really enjoyed the new seats on the 777s they’re using on routes to Tokyo, and I believe the new seats are in use on the JFK route as well
Posted on 8/30/23 at 2:53 pm to Uhtred
quote:
I believe the new seats are in use on the JFK route as well
Only used on some routes. We were on one of the flights with the old business class seats. Flight numbers with new cabins are set so if you know what to book you shouldn't have any surprise changes
Posted on 8/30/23 at 3:06 pm to H2O Tiger
just read your review. sucks about your food experience. we definitely had a different food experience from IAD to CDG, even though we we had the old business class seats. We had poached lobster appetizer and the entrees we had were great, too.
I also just booked our family of four (via AF) for next summer. I get a 'sabbatical' from work for a little over a month, and we're going to see family in Ireland, friends in London and then spend a few weeks in Spain. I saw some deals on AF (plus they give a child discount, even with points). I book IAD-CDG-DUB and the return from Malaga: AGP-CDG-IAD for 105,875 points per person (r/t)... so a total of 423,500 points (plus about $600/person in fees) for business class.
I hesitate taking my kids in business class with us, because I don't want them to be spoiled brats, but it was actually fewer points than many of the economy awards redemptions I saw. I also hate to have a layover, but again... hard to pass up a good deal.
I also just booked our family of four (via AF) for next summer. I get a 'sabbatical' from work for a little over a month, and we're going to see family in Ireland, friends in London and then spend a few weeks in Spain. I saw some deals on AF (plus they give a child discount, even with points). I book IAD-CDG-DUB and the return from Malaga: AGP-CDG-IAD for 105,875 points per person (r/t)... so a total of 423,500 points (plus about $600/person in fees) for business class.
I hesitate taking my kids in business class with us, because I don't want them to be spoiled brats, but it was actually fewer points than many of the economy awards redemptions I saw. I also hate to have a layover, but again... hard to pass up a good deal.
This post was edited on 8/30/23 at 3:07 pm
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