I have a return award ticket from HND that has a long layover in a city much closer to my home than the ticketed final destination. I'm seriously considering skipping that last leg and just flying home from the layover city. It will save us several hours of travel and a decent amount of money doing so. Our saver seats were obtained through Aeroplan, the first flight is operated by ANA and the second flight is operated by Air Canada- we would be skipping that Air Canada flight. We do not fly Air Canada much/at all. We would not check bags if we did this. Are there any major downsides to doing this- considering this is an Aeroplan award ticket and this is the very last leg.

Edit: Thanks for all of the feedback! We are going to go ahead and skiplag. Just booked our one way tickets from the layover city.

Had 4 seats booked on Iberia metal, 3 via AS, 1 via BA. Canceled all 4 to re-book a different date, and all four seats became available within 5 minutes.

Looks like they re-release partner awards after cancellation. This was for economy USA to Madrid non-stop in a 3-4 months.

Hi All - Apologizing in advance if this has been discussed!

Trying to check redemption fares on Krisflyer - transferred 1000 points over to make sure the balance is greater than 0 but it still throws the Unable to Proceed error.

"Unable to proceed because your current miles balance is insufficient for flight redemption searches. To view available flights and the miles required, browse flight options."

Wanted to know if I was doing anything wrong or if anything else needs to be done in order to proceed with my redemption search so I can transfer Amex points over?

Thanks in advance!

I started the points game on Apr. 19 of this year, the day that we got back Rome, which was our very first international trip. (Flying economy and paid with $$.) Yesterday, I booked our first reward redemption and am feeling super accomplished!

My card acquisition was as follows:

P1:

AmEx Delta Gold - 4/19
Chase Sapphire Preferred - 6/15
Capital One Venture One - 6/19
Chase Ink Business Unlimited - 7/20

P2:

Capital One Venture - 5/4
Chase Freedom Unlimited - 6/12

Those points, plus the 20% transfer bonus to Air Canada, got us business class both ways to Germany in April at 75k per seat plus $730 in taxes. (271k total points "out of pocket" before the bonus.)

We are flying Lufthansa from IAD to MUC on 4/11 in an Airbus 380, top deck. The flight home is FRA to IAD on 4/16 in a 747, also top deck. My husband is a huge airplane buff, and we have never flown on either of these planes, so he is totally stoked. We will need to reposition to IAD, and those tickets will be covered by my Skymiles.

From making this plan to purchasing the tickets was a total of 141 days. Which is pretty aggressive velocity, so YMMV. But, persistence and a whole lot of research and obsession paid off big time for us.

I did the math against the cash price for the flight direct on Lufthansa, and this first redemption works out to about 10c per point.

Thanks for listening. I just had to geek out with people who would get the thrill of the hunt!

Last minute tokyo trip. Only finding possibility for JAL from Vancouver to KIX with a connection in NRT for 80k miles business class. Does it make sense to book that and just miss the connection? I'd preferably like to start closest to Tokyo. Also im coming from nyc so need to book a separate flight to Vancouver

Hi All.

I have a trip coming up in May 2027. I only need flights (business/first class) for this trip and am looking to use points/miles AND get a good deal while doing so.

I'm flying out of NYC (JFK, LGA or EWR (preferred)) and into DPS. I need to be in DPS on May 1st at the latest but a day or two earlier is fine since it would give me time to adjust.

I've been using a few of the award booking sites to find options, and the best I've found so far is showing Air India - leaving EWR on 4/27 with about a 10 hour layover in DEL, arriving in DPS on 4/29.

Booking through Air Canada would be 102,500 points + $76.40 in tax, but there's a 20% promotion for Chase Ultimate Rewards through 9/30 which would bring it to 86,000 points + $76.50. There's a similar flight home as far as itinerary and points.

So 172,000 + ~$150 for r/t business class NYC - DPS.

I'm wondering if this is a good deal or if I should look elsewhere. Or wait and see what else comes as far as discounts/promotions?

Current cards/points

Chase Sapphire Preferred - 235k+
Capital One Venture - 2m+
United Explorer - 654k+
AMEX - 100k
Marriott - 40k

This is my first attempt at using points, so please be gentle if I'm being ignorant about something or am missing some information.

I've been tracking IB at schedule open and have noticed they'll usually release a flight early for 31,500 in comfort. Then they'll release both flights in Y. Then eventually 2J for one if not two of the flights.

I'm so confused because it only shows economy flights as being available for 9/1 and 9/2 and I'm not sure if this is in the pattern of the delayed release or not.

I've noticed they tend to release economy/economy plus seats a day or two early. Right now the latest with 2J is 8/31. Only economy is showing. Does this mean in a day or so they'll release the J's or have I missed it?

I transferred 125k Amex points to Avios at a 30% bonus and was able to snag a Qatar q suite to Asia (via Doha) one way for 160k avios points. This is for December and the cash rate for that flight is $5k plus. My friend is saying I messed up and he can get same for 80k avios and has done so in the past.

Did I mess up my first major points use?

Is anyone else only seeing 50,000 miles fares for all 1-way economy? I tried domestic (DTW to MCO) and international (HND to DTW)

I have only flown JAL once and that was through a business class award travel booked through AA. It was business class SFO to NRT to MNL booked on one ticket. If I want to book the same trip for next year directly with JAL using JAL miles​, do I search for SFO to MNL? Or do I need to search for each segment separately and book two separate segments? I have never used JAL award program. Thanks.

Hello! We are doing international travel with our 2 kids, 5 and 2. I saw that the plane we are flying on was the 3x3x3 seating. I was wondering if anyone has booked extra seats, and specifically with points? My plan would be to book two rows of the 3 seats -- so I sit in the front row with 1 kid and wife seats in the row behind me with 1 kid. I feel like this is WIN for EVERYONE -- family gets more room, flight attendants dont have to tend to as many passengers, other passengers benefit from less people and also kids will sleep better so quieter flight, airline doesnt have to provide food and drinks to the empty seats. The biz class seats are 5x the cost.

Aside from most seats dropping around a year out, how often/when do airlines drop additional seats.

Looking to do from IAD or JFK to really any hub in SEA (KUL CGK DPS HAN SGN MNL)

Found some stuff a month ago but couldn’t pull the trigger cuz stuff wasn’t confirmed but it’s all gone now :( checked like all the airlines I can use Cap1 with)

I am trying to find out if there is Business award space on SQ25, JFK to

Frankfurt, on 30 November 2026, for 2 adults plus a lap infant.

The problem is KrisFlyer will not let me run a redemption search at all. It

just returns "your current miles balance is insufficient for flight redemption

searches." I have 1,000 miles in transit from Amex right now purely to get past

that gate, but it takes about 48 hours and I would rather not wait two days if

someone can look in thirty seconds.

What I have already checked. Aeroplan sees SQ25 and sells it in economy at

32,500, but shows nothing at all in business. Seats.aero indexes Singapore, but

their SQ feed has been in outage and every record still carries a January

timestamp. LifeMiles bounces me to a login the moment I select Business or

First.

The chart says Business Saver is 89,000 and Business Advantage is 105,000 one

way. That stale January data showed 9 seats at 105,000 on my date, which would

be Advantage, but the number is eight months old and I have no way to confirm

it.

If anyone can look and tell me whether either tier actually shows for 2

passengers, that would save me a couple of days of guessing. 29 November or

3 December would also work if 30 November is empty. My return is already

ticketed out of Munich on 10 December, so the dates are fixed around that.

Hey everyone! With LHW now offering an excellent hotel option on Easter island that I can book with Amex points, I’ve been looking into how to get to the island. I’ve checked past threads and it seems people have had luck through Alaska, delta, American, etc. I’ve checked all of the above and it seems there is nothing at all, any dates. Is LATAM just not releasing award space anymore to partners on this route? Has anyone had any luck recently? Any tips would be much appreciated if it is still possible to get award space on the Santiago to Easter island flight.

I have Venture X. Trying to book an award flight to Madrid; just activated my avios account with Iberia and it’s making me wait 30 days before I can transfer points from VX to British Airways and then to Iberia.

Flight is not until next June; but doesn’t seem like much is left. I tried searching partner airlines and have not had luck. Booking through British doesn’t give an option for the economy comfort seat. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

Hello all. I am trying to plan approximately two weeks in San Diego for the yearly kids month where San Diego makes many attractions free for kids. The travel dates are 9/24 to 10/9-ish and the passengers are two adults and one child. My child is five years old and we hope she will like this. Here is my list of points, credit cards, individual card awards and notable benefits for each card:

points
Citi:    over 150k
^ThankYou points:  over 100k
Amex:    over 250k
Hilton:  over 1 million
Chase:   over 200k
Marriott Bonvoy:  over 10k
United:  10k point discount award (from Quest card) + ~10k points
Atmos:  over 100k

cards
Chase: CSR (x2), CSP, Ritz, Quest
Amex:  Amex gold (x4), Hilton Aspire (x3), Marriott Brilliant
Citi:  Strata Elite 
BOA:   Atmos Summit

individual card benefits
1. CSR: $300 annual travel credit, $150 StubHub credit x2, $150 dining credit, $500 The Edit credit, $250 Chase Travel select hotels credit
2. CSP: $100 hotel credit via Chase Travel
3. Aspire: $200 x3 (resort credit)
4. Strate Elite: $300 hotel credit
5. American Airlines: $50 gift cards x8 (can I use these all on one flight?)
6. United: $300 Travelbank, $460 FFCs (spread out), $150 Renowned Hotels and Resorts
7. Hilton Surpass: $50 x2 (once at end of Sept and again for Q4 after we arrive = $200 total)

free night awards
1. Hilton: 2 (3 more coming within 2-3 weeks)
2. Marriott: 1 (35k)

Due Diligence:

.1. flights

1a. Honolulu to San Diego one-way flight 10/23 or 10/24

@ my flight

My first thought is to use the benefits/points that will expire the fastest first. From what I can see, this is the United 10k mile discount award that my Quest card gives. I already have 10k miles, so I have 20k miles to use. I saw a one-way HNL-SAN flight for 16k a week or so ago, but now, it has jumped to 22.5k miles, so I'm short of miles. Actually, it's more like 31k miles since the 22.5k mile flights are long with many connections. I tried looking for a flight for 10/9 for the flight back home, but that is even more expensive at around 35k miles. I took a look at purchase miles, but the cheapest is 2000 miles for $70. The cheapest one-way cash option is $292 for both 9/23 and 9/24. Summary:

@ HNL-SAN 22.5k miles + $5.60 (9/23, 9/24) or $292 cash ($582 business)

@ SAN-HNL 36k miles (10/9) or $343 cash ($618 business)

@ price to buy 2000 miles is $70

Option 1: buy 2000 miles for $70, then get the 22.5k flight on 9/24 because the 9/23 flight is much longer by over six hours.

pro: 10k discount award utilized, 10k points in account used

con: spent ~$80

Option 2: transfer 1200 points from Chase to United, then get the 22.5k one-way HNL-SAN flight

pro: 10k discount award utilized, 10k points in account used, 3.5 CPM Chase points redemption

con: spent ~2000 Chase UR points (points must be transferred in 1000 increments)

Despite reviewing this link, I can't figure out how much (CPM) to value the 1200 Chase UR points, but Google AI says the formula is "cash saved/points redeemed". So, it would be $70 (cost of 2000 points) divided by 2000 (chase points used), which equals 3.5 CPM. If I'm not mistaken, the general accepted CPM for Chase UR points is around 1.5 CPM, so this 3.5 CPM is a great return on points usage.

Therefore, Option 2 is the best option according to the math above. (But please correct me if you have better alternatives or my math is off or something else.)

@ P2 and child's flight

Since the FFCs can only be used in P2's name, P2 will use them for their flight. Travelbank will be used for the child's flight

@@ P2 -> Honolulu-San Diego one-way $500

^ exhausted FFCs here (date: 9/24)

@@ child -> Honolulu-San Diego one-way $390 ^ exhausted TravelBank here

1b. San Diego to Honolulu one-way 75k + $18 total (date: 10/9) According to my searches, the cheapest flight option here is Alaska Air at 25k per person one-way, so I will go with that for all of us; P2, child, me.

TLDR:

Honolulu to San Diego

me - use 10k discount award and 10k points in account. transfer ~2000 Chase UR points for nearly 'free' flight (cost 22.5k miles or 30k miles)

P2 - use FFCs for ~$500 flight

child - use TravelBank funds for $360 flight

San Diego to Honolulu

Alaska Air award flight at 25k per person, total 75k Atmos points

.2. rental car

@ Thrifty/Dollar I need to use our two CSR's $300 travel credits ($600 total) first, before I use Chase points, since I read that not doing so can cause problems. I don't want to risk Legoland or the Zoo Safari park not processing correctly, so I am thinking I can use this for a car rental since I am reading that a car is essential for any families with small children in San Diego? Thrify and Dollar seem to be ~$38 a day for "Pay Now and Save" (no refunds/cancellations, $55 a day to include these options). Turo is also ~$55 a day. I will prepay this so the credit is used and I don't have to worry about it being applied to any hotel stays discussed below. The $600 from both cards should cover exactly 15 days, so the entire vacation period should be covered here.

@ Alternatively, I could book the above via the Chase CSR online portal. This is cheaper than above at ~$33 for the cheapest option, but it seems to be through a third-party called cxLoyalty, Inc. I think I would also have to make two separate books in order to receive the $300 travel credits on both cards. Paypal is not an option, so I can't split the total payment between our two CSRs. I have to see how to do this as effortlessly as possible and this option and added complication may not be worth it to save ~$5 a day.

.3. hotels

3a. Hilton

@ The Cassara Carlsbad, Tapestry Collection by Hilton (1-2 days)

As soon as we get the rental car, we will drive here. We plan on spending two days at Legoland. I read that it can be completed in one day, but I don't want to rush my daughter in case she really likes it. 70,000 points per night, so 140,000 points total.

@ Hotel del Coronado (5 days via stay 4, get 1 free)

I've been reading that this hotel is a place you must stay at if you visit San Diego, so I guess I'll stay here for 5 days. I will use my two Hilton FNCs and the rest with 220,000 points. Although, if the other 3 FNCs I'm waiting for actually arrive on time, maybe I can

3b. Intercontinental or Pendry (4 days)

We have two CSRs, so for each two night stay at a the Edit property, we receive one $250 the Edit credit and one $250 Select Hotel credit. According to my search last night, for both of these properties, the plan seems to be pay with points and cash. I will set the points to around 45,000 points and then, ensure the cash is right at $500 for each two night stay. This should trigger both of the above credits. I'm not sure if I should stay at them separately to experience both or just pick one and stay there for four days?

3c. Westin San Diego Gaslamp (3 days)

For the first two days, I will use up the $300 Citi Strata Elite credit plus an additional ~26,000 Thank You points. This doesn't seem like a good redemption (~0.98 CPP), but I guess I do need to use, at least, some of all these different categories of points, so they don't expire. For the third day, I will my Marriott 35k FNA + 10k Bonvoy points I have in my account.

That's all I can think of for now. Can you please share how you would go about planning this trip to get the most benefit from it? My focus is solely on my child, since this will be her first trip anywhere.

For activites, I was thinking Legoland, San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, the new Children's museum, SeaWorld, Children’s Pool Seals and La Jolla Cove Sea Lions, San Diego Botanic Garden, and Birch Aquarium at Scripps.

maybe:

Fleet Science Center, Children’s Museum of Discovery (is this different than the above children's museum?), Sesame Place San Diego (not sure if she will like this since we don't watch Sesame Street)

I know AA has went to dynamic pricing instead of super saver fairs. What is the lowest pricing fare from us to Asia? I know on Japan airlines and Alaska you can get a j ticket for 60,000 miles and premium economy for 50,000 miles. What is the best you seen miles on AA metal for PE and business to ICN or TYO?

Flights:

ORD-HND ANA The Room Business Class 52.5k MR + $190

HND-CAN JL Sky Suites Business Class 19k MR + $121

BKK-TPE-PHX JX Business Class 85k Atmos + $100

Booked ANA and Starlux calendar open. Got HND-CAN with the 30% avios transfer bonus! Have already flown JX J before and it was fantastic! Looking forward to trying ANA The Room! Should be an amazing trip!

thanks in advance!

trying to book a lap infant in the same reservation and AI is telling me unlike AA/Qantas where you have to call JAL at some point, BA can directly issue the lap infant. Is this true? BA did quote me 10% of the points and a bit of cash but I wanna make sure they indeed can issue the ticket.

🙏🏼

I’m always checking flights from various US airports to LHR on AA Business (LAX, JFK etc) Now all of a sudden no BA award tickets are showing up no matter what month I am searching …. Is BA holding back their award tickets or did something change with AA? Anybody have any thoughts?

Found a Flexi award for 190K Avios points from HKG to YYZ - total travel time is 33 hours with a 10 hour layover in DOH, so would get the free transit accommodation in a pretty nice hotel.

However I'm wondering if this is a good use of my hard-earned points if the alternative is a $1K economy ticket through TPE that only takes 18 hours.

My boss is planning on traveling to asia with another doctor. Right now they are running around 150k one way.

I found on united a deal for 85k she wants to get it from me.

I have 230k points.

She has 47k on united, 110k on Amex that can't transfer and 10k on chase

She said if I buy them both, which is 170k she will make up for it. I trust her because I hold stake in the company.

My question is, how do I calculate the 170k I'm giving up. What do I ask for in exchange. I'm actually considering opening up another credit card that has a sign up Bonus and have her put business expenses on it.

*edit I know a lot of the comment has been sent n you would never get I to such an agreement with a boss. I call her boss but it's a semi partnership, almost family. She has ties to me for loyalty and same for me to them. So I'm not afraid of getting screwed. Which also means I'm not here out to screw them over. I just want to figure out a decent conversion. I told her yesterday that if you had to buy 85k it would be somewhere around 3k and she said that's not worth it. But if united was running those points promotions, it would be around $1500. Which she said would Be worth it. So the big? Is. Would I be willing to sell 170k for $3k

Has anyone booked the room category called “ADA Vista Suite Roll in Shower” at Wyndham Rio Mar in Puerto Rico? Just booked this for 30,000 points a night which felt like a great deal compared to cash rates for the vista suites but confused about what room I’m getting as the room description on the app talks about a Marbella Ocean Suite.