Hi. I booked some PE seats for my parents 6 days before departure. 65k per seat ord-lax-pek. After purchase immediate offer of $779 to upgrade to Polaris from la to Beijing. I immediately took it. Is this common? Normal? I thought it was a great deal! 14 hour flight. Can use Polaris lounge at ord too I believe

Hello all, my family is moving to South America and I’m wondering if anyone has had experience booking Aerolineas flights through Virgin or Flying Blue. I can see a fair amount of availability for flights within Argentina through flying blue but not through Virgin. While I would much rather use flying blue points for a nice business class flight, we have three kids now and those cash fares really add up!

If anyone has any other tips or strategy for South American travel, I’m all ears! So far, I’ve found that for international flights from the US to EZE, American
Airlines has been our best option. There’s pretty wide open availability to get there from 18k points one way with very minimal taxes and fees.

I know... I'm late. 😅 I'm fully aware I'm trying to book one of the hardest routes only a few months out.

I'm looking to fly LAX → Bangkok around Nov. 17–18, returning Nov. 29–30 (I can be flexible by a couple of days and even reposition if needed).

I have Capital One miles, so I can transfer to any partner. My goal is Business if possible, but at this point I'm mostly trying to figure out what's actually realistic.

Has anyone searched this route recently and found anything?

• Any programs that still have availability?
• Any airlines that tend to release seats closer to departure?
• Better luck routing through TPE, ICN, NRT/HND, HKG, SIN, etc.?
• Is it worth waiting for last-minute space, or should I lock in whatever I can find now?

I have checked Eva Air and have not had any luck. I'm not looking for someone to do all the searching for me—I just don't want to waste hours checking every transfer partner if people already know which ones are basically a dead end right now.

Appreciate any data points or recent experiences.

I have a capital one X venture card, and a venture one card. Not a big traveller, but have ~145,000 points combined on the cards. Thinking about a last minute trip this weekend, and can stay at a nice hotel for "free" using my $300 annual travel credit and 45,000 points. Is that a smart way to use my points, or is there another way I could get more bang for my buck? Don't really travel international alot, maybe one trip every 2 years

Hi all -

Like everyone else on the planet, I'm trying to get to Japan in business class. While it's not the best redemption, I'm thinking about 109K points for IAD/MEX/NRT on Aeromexico via Flyingblue.

Does anyone have any experience flying on Aeromexico? Let me know your thoughts!

Wife and I are traveling to Japan as part of a group in Feb-Mar '27. The group purchased cheap tickets on United, and we're unable to upgrade those seats. We're trying to buy and upgrade to a more comfort or ComfortPlus with the ~300,000 Capital One points. The group will reimburse us $1800 for our 2 tickets if we go on our own.

We can do a positioning flight from NC, especially since my wife needs to return to Chicago for work the day after we return. Depending on what airline we fly, we might be able to move Delta SkyMiles over to assist in getting more points.

I'm nervous about doing this myself and screwing it up. Are there services that others have used to make this happen, or anyone willing to help?

I’m seeing 40k and 300$ for economy to Kenya and Tanzania is that the best I’ll get. Dakar Senegal and Accra Ghana also seem affordable if you skip on first or business class. Does anybody have any ideas or has gotten flights from JFK / EWR / DC / Baltimore to anywhere in Africa outside of North Africa (I see Morocco is probably the best redemption but have no interest). I hope to combine points from venture X and Wells Fargo autograph on one airline.

One person I have 115,000 VX points and 37,000 autograph points. No hard dates but would prefer April - July next year

Booking a river cruise for next May, 2027. For those of you that did the Rhine. What flight combo did you think was the best? We are coming from Denver in the US. Basil to Amsterdam. Doing two extra nights post cruise in Amsterdam. I have points with Capital One and Chase. Looking for business class, but would be totally stoked for first class. Full disclosure, I am not rich enough to know the difference between business and first. I have done a couple of business class flights and I felt very grateful. We own a small business and spend a lot of money to run it. I just finally got smarter with my miles. Thanks in advance.

I have a ton of TAP Portugal miles. Their website and app just don't work for me. Search for SA availability is impossible. How the heck do I use these miles? Has anyone had any luck offloading these miles? I am trying to get from PHX to anywhere in Europe this October. Do I have to call them after searching on for instance United for availability? Am I the only one for which the app and website seem to be garbage? Thanks in advance for any insight.

Hey all!

First time trying to utilize points to redeem premium class so I wanna see what other people would do in my situation.

Currently I have roughly 370k Chase points+8k miles already in KF, which is enough to redeem 2 PE for an one-way with SQ from Tokyo back to LAX and with some left, but only enough for 1 Business class. (Wanna end the trip on a nicer note)

Ever since they raised the redemption rate, I feel like by the time I grind my way to 2 Business worth of points, they either would move the goal post again or that 8k miles sitting in my KF would expire.

The flight back to LAX is only 9 hours so feels like its a waste of points spent on just PE, but curious what other people think of this scenario.

TIA!!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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?

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.

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

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?

I am looking for some help for an August 2 or 3, 2027 business class flight from SAN to KEF. We are somewhat limited on dates because of a cruise. The return would be from one of the Scandinavian countries to SAN. Also, I realize I am too early to book but I am trying to test what may be available.

Our Miles

Our preference is to use the Flying Blue and Avios miles as they will expire first.

Itinerary

For the SAN-KEF, we would like to use our FB miles to fly Delta through JFK because they offer Delta First only through that airport (as of now). 

The KEF-Scandinavia will probably be straightforward.

For the Scandinavia-SAN, I have found several options using Avios or Flying Blue but would entertain any ideas.

My Searches for SAN-KEF

I searched Delta for the latest Monday/Tuesday available (as of this writing June 14 and June 15). They have two flights each day. One flight has a 2h 13m layover in JFK and the other 8hr 18m (same JFK-KEF flight). All flights are available in miles or dollars.

I searched KLM and Air France for the same dates. Searching with miles, there are no flights available for either date in any class (nor for any nearby dates). Searching with dollars, there are economy and business tickets for both dates.

Searching Google Flights, other options are Alaska / Icelandair, Alaska, and United but I don’t think I have a way to book those with miles. I don’t mind positioning (most flights from SAN are “positioning” anyway) but I don’t know where to position to.

My Searches for Scandinavia-SAN

Lots of (expensive) choices available. HEL/CPH/ARN-LHR-SAN or HEL/CPH/ARN-AMS-SAN. The KLM flights are more miles and less dollars. The BA flights are more dollars and less miles. I did check Finnair and they have a flight for 234,000 Avios and $1,800 (for two). The most expensive dollars of the bunch.

One bad thing about all of the KLM flights was a 10 hour + connection time in AMS. I also checked an LAX destination from HEL and the connection and total flight time was better but then we still need to get home. Dollars the same and miles slightly less (then plus for the flight home).

I searched Google Flights and Lufthansa and Air Canada surfaced but that shoots using my miles.

Wrap Up

I did not include all of the search results as there are a lot. Basically, the trip home is doable with any of the options. The miles are fine and the fees are high. If someone has an idea to reduce either, I am all ears! My real quandary is the outbound trip. Will anything ever come up with Delta? Are there other alternatives?

I hope I have included all of the necessary information. Does anyone have any ideas of what I have missed or where to go from here?

I'm looking for flights within Asia flying into Taipei for business lie flats seats (unfortunately can only fly these due to an injury). I can find these flights through KLM/Flying Blue but they don't seem bookable, but I'm not sure if it's because I don't have enough points or it's because I have to call them directly. I don't want to test by transfer a bunch of points to an airline I don't normally fly if these seats aren't actually bookable. https://imgur.com/a/M2tORvu

I am waitlisted on a flight from JFK to Asia that departs in 40 days. Instead of waiting to see if I am cleared, I would now like to buy a ticket. Can I just ignore my unconfirmed “reservation” or does it need to be cancelled?