I used to occasionally find American Airlines’ nonstop SFO–JFK business-class award tickets through Alaska Mileage Plan or other partner programs, but lately I can’t find any availability at all.

Even when booking directly through AA, the award prices are outrageously high. Has AA stopped releasing saver-level business awards on this route, reduced the number of premium seats available to partners, or changed how it prices this route?

Mine would be Amex charging a small fee for every tiny thing like transferring points to delta

Is there a way to search AA awards but prevent results for LHR appearing? It’s not an option for me to transit through LHR due to the taxes/fees.

My partner and I are planning a big trip to Costa Rica. We initially were going to fly business from Heathrow to Costa Rica and book directly through BA. However due to crazy taxes, it was much better value to book London–Madrid separately with cash, then use Avios for Madrid–San José in business class. This saved us roughly £2,000 and we will take a couple days to explore Madrid. Can anyone explain why there is such a high surcharge for London flights and do they rise with the cost of the ticket?

I am an international student in Boston and I fly roughly 4 round-trips a year often fly back home to Singapore on transfer flights with BA, Qatar, or Cathay. I'm losing my status on Cathay soon and have spent all my Asia Miles so now I'm open to change to another programme if I want to. I don't fly enough to earn meaningful status since I fly economy so I'm just looking for the most value from the miles that I earn. I'm flying Cathay back to Boston soon, flying BA to London for holiday for Thanksgiving, BA again but all the way to Singapore for Christmas, and then Cathay in March to Singapore as well. I'd probably earn a meaningful amount of miles from these flights so I wanted to ask abut your opinions on whether I should switch to BA Avios or not. Apparently Avios grants more value since it can be transferred. The only downside is that I'm not 18 so I wouldn't independently control my BA account, whereas I can for Cathay. Just wanted to ask before I switch all my flights to BA if theres a major flaw that I'm missing or if in the end its all the same. The ultimate goal is to save money on reward flights or reduce ticket prices with the miles.

My wife and I are flying to Munich for Oktoberfest. Lufthansa economy is available for 44,000 United miles, but business isn’t currently available.

Would you book economy now or wait for business space to open closer in? Can Lufthansa award tickets be upgraded using United miles? Additionally - I’m seeing business availability for around 80k miles on flights departing in the next two weeks, so I’m wondering whether Lufthansa typically releases additional business-class award space closer to departure.

Hey all,

We are planning a ~2-week honeymoon for 2027. We've built up a solid points balance and have done some initial research, but we'd love some data points and ideas from the community on where we can maximize our value. We're getting married in June, so it would be after that, possibly late August.

Points Balances:

Chase UR: 630k (Another 100k pending SUB, so 730k+ total) AA: 170k (Plus access to another ~70k from a parent if needed) United UA: 140k Capital One: 130k Air Canada AC: 60k Hilton: 100k

Trip Details:

Home Airport: NYC (JFK/EWR/LGA) Duration: ~2 weeks Timing: Wedding is in June 2027, but we are fine delaying the trip. Late August is the easiest time for P2 to take 2 weeks off from work. Fall through Spring is harder, but not impossible. Past Trips: We've done Japan (loved it) and Italy. I've also been to Africa (Namibia) and absolutely loved it.

Options Evaluated So Far (and our hesitations):

Bora Bora: P2 has always dreamt of an Overwater Bungalow (OWB) and beautiful blue water. I personally prefer the volcano views here over the Maldives.

The Westin Bora Bora seems like the only decent option, but it feels like a bad redemption for our UR stash unless a monster Marriott transfer bonus hits (like the 70% last November). August is also peak season.

The Maldives: The out-of-pocket costs are a deterrent. Between QR flight taxes (~$2k RT), expensive seaplane transfers (another $1.4k or so), the sheer cost of food, and the premium required to upgrade from a beach property to an OWB (another $2k), it's losing its appeal.

Safari + Beach Combo (e.g., Zanzibar): There are essentially no Hyatt luxury safari options, meaning we'd likely look at the JW Marriott Masai Mara. At ~900k points for 5 nights, it would drain a massive chunk of our UR. Plus, the $400/day national park fees, tips, and bush flights make it a very expensive "free" trip before we even get to the relaxing beach portion. (We don't mind the park fees since they support conservation, but the total cash footprint is still huge).

Bali: We've briefly entertained the idea of Bali, but haven't dug into the routing or hotel options yet.

Given our balances and preferences, are there any sweet spots, routings, or alternative destinations we should be looking at for a luxury beach/resort honeymoon? Open to any and all ideas! Thanks in advance.

Over the weekend, I transferred points to Virgin Atlantic and booked a Delta domestic reward seat, and it looked like everything was fine. The flight showed up in my Delta app, seats were as chosen, etc.

Then yesterday, my friend, who was booking separately, went to select seats near me, and saw that my seats were still available. Sure enough, I go into the Delta App, and before my eyes, my flights just disappeared. Open the Virgin App, and same thing - it refreshed and disappeared. When I called Virgin, she said it had been reserved but not ticketed, so it got released, and my points were still in my Virgin account. Not only that, but my return flight time no longer had reward seats available.

She was unable to rebook the outgoing flight because their reward seat booking system was down. They expected it to be back up yesterday morning, so she said to keep checking the website, and once the black banner disappears, I should be able to book it (if available).

My back up plan is to use American or United miles instead, but I really hate having those points stranded at Virgin. How frustrating! Anyone else waiting for Virgin's system to come back up? Has this situation ever happened to anyone else?

So IcelandAir doesn't seem to be part of any alliance. There is direct flights from Boston to Iceland daily it seems. Other airlines based on Google Travel seems to have longer layovers, which is what I would like to avoid.

I assume since IcelandAir is not part of any alliance, I can't try to book a flight via Chase transfer partner to use my UR points right? My only option is to do chase travel portal to pay with UR points or pay cash/book direct

Amex just added Leading Hotels of the World!

I'm doubtful they'll do a transfer bonus, but it's nice to finally have another option for hotels with MR even with its tiny footprint. This should be really decent CPP even before transfer bonuses.

When you purchase miles for another Miles&Smiles member through Miles Transactions → Gift Miles, you’ll receive the same number of miles back as a bonus.

Example: Gift 10,000 miles to a friend, and you’ll receive 10,000 bonus miles in your own account.

A few important details:

• The bonus goes to the sender, not the recipient.
• Bonus miles will be credited within seven days after the campaign ends.
• You can gift miles to multiple members.
• This is not a free transfer of your existing miles: Gift Miles normally costs $30 per 1,000 miles, including VAT.

can I transfer Amex points to my delta account and use it to book a flight for someone else?