@dilettante wrote:
@red259 wrote:
@IWOL wrote:Are there companies or people out there that can help you to use miles/points you have to get where you wanna go for the best possible value.
I have amassed a large amount of travel points and I want to book some trips but using the mileage can get very confusing and difficult with all the cross partner transfrering, connecting cisty options etc.
I want to try and get 2 first class roundrtip tickets to South Africa(Johannesburg or Cape town) from LA but having trouble finding award availability and or which points to use.
I have the following travel points:
United: 75K
UR: 320K
MR: 82K
SPG: 115K
Diners: 41K
US Air: 61K
There are so many ways to transfer these points around but I cant figure out how to do it for the highest value/lowest number of points.
There are some bloggers who offer a service like that. You pay them money and they find the redemptions etc. No idea how much it costs, since I don't want to spend the money to have someone else do it, but now that I am trying to find a redemption myself its a time consuming process. What you do is you decide where you want to go first. Then you look at who flies there. Then you look at the redemptions etc. Do not spend all your time just trying to get max value and end up taking a trip that you do not find ideal.
+1. It is an extremely time consuming and frustrating experience trying to get max value out of points. After a few attempts, I just changed my outlook on points and now look at them as fun extras. For this coming year, I have redeemed over 1 million points/miles for 1 RT First Class transpacific trip, 4 RT First Class to Hawaii, 4 RT First Class transcon., 2 RT Business Class transatlantic, and 2 RT Business Class transpacific. And I still have 200k in Alaska miles to spend and over 250k in other programs.
Most of the reward tickets were saver awards but I'm sure if I wanted I could've done it with a lot less points using all those tricks that bloggers all write about, but I wanted to go when I wanted and wanted all direct flights on airlines I wanted to fly. And though I had considered paying for the experts myself to schedule all those trips, I realized hiring someone took all the fun out of amassing all the points through sign up bonuses and everyday spend and would add to the actual money you have to spend on fuel surcharges, taxes, etc.
But this is my approach, I just got tired of spending too much time "maximizing", especially since all my cc's keep those points coming every month.
Good luck and if you do end up using one those experts, let us know your experience, in case next go round, I don't feel like doing any work at all myself
This reminds me. Another thing to look at is if there are fuel surcharges etc. That could make a massive difference in terms of value.
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I have never used one of these services, but the point guy blog recomends a service like the one you are talking about.
@dilettante wrote:+1. It is an extremely time consuming and frustrating experience trying to get max value out of points. After a few attempts, I just changed my outlook on points and now look at them as fun extras. For this coming year, I have redeemed over 1 million points/miles for 1 RT First Class transpacific trip, 4 RT First Class to Hawaii, 4 RT First Class transcon., 2 RT Business Class transatlantic, and 2 RT Business Class transpacific. And I still have 200k in Alaska miles to spend and over 250k in other programs.
Most of the reward tickets were saver awards but I'm sure if I wanted I could've done it with a lot less points using all those tricks that bloggers all write about, but I wanted to go when I wanted and wanted all direct flights on airlines I wanted to fly. And though I had considered paying for the experts myself to schedule all those trips, I realized hiring someone took all the fun out of amassing all the points through sign up bonuses and everyday spend and would add to the actual money you have to spend on fuel surcharges, taxes, etc.
But this is my approach, I just got tired of spending too much time "maximizing", especially since all my cc's keep those points coming every month.
Good luck and if you do end up using one those experts, let us know your experience, in case next go round, I don't feel like doing any work at all myself
Right, and also depends if you are the sort of person who is happy with "good enough", i.e. you are happy flying in an international premium cabin on points, which you would have never wanted to do with cash, and if you "overpaid" by 20%, that's fine.
Of course, you end up sitting next to a guy who tells you through some very detailed MS techniques and complex portal usage, he was able to get the same flight for 30K points less, and he paid nothing for the points and in fact made $1000. But enjoy your flight!
@IWOL wrote:Are there companies or people out there that can help you to use miles/points you have to get where you wanna go for the best possible value.
I have amassed a large amount of travel points and I want to book some trips but using the mileage can get very confusing and difficult with all the cross partner transfrering, connecting cisty options etc.
I want to try and get 2 first class roundrtip tickets to South Africa(Johannesburg or Cape town) from LA but having trouble finding award availability and or which points to use.
I have the following travel points:
United: 75K
UR: 320K
MR: 82K
SPG: 115K
Diners: 41K
US Air: 61K
There are so many ways to transfer these points around but I cant figure out how to do it for the highest value/lowest number of points.
Your sitting on a gold mine..
And would be fun to maximize for Airline flights..
Example AA American Airlines Your SPG transer ratio--- 20,000 SPG points gets your 25,000 AA Miles Giving you 125,000 AA miles with 15,000 SPG points left
If you can wait a bit your US Air soon will bE AA mILES
Would give you 186,000 AA miles..
United 75,000 miles plus Ultimate rewards 320,000 Gets you 395,000 United Miles...
On AnD oN STOP ME..
dIner conver to Delta... K enough ...
@longtimelurker wrote:
@dilettante wrote:+1. It is an extremely time consuming and frustrating experience trying to get max value out of points. After a few attempts, I just changed my outlook on points and now look at them as fun extras. For this coming year, I have redeemed over 1 million points/miles for 1 RT First Class transpacific trip, 4 RT First Class to Hawaii, 4 RT First Class transcon., 2 RT Business Class transatlantic, and 2 RT Business Class transpacific. And I still have 200k in Alaska miles to spend and over 250k in other programs.
Most of the reward tickets were saver awards but I'm sure if I wanted I could've done it with a lot less points using all those tricks that bloggers all write about, but I wanted to go when I wanted and wanted all direct flights on airlines I wanted to fly. And though I had considered paying for the experts myself to schedule all those trips, I realized hiring someone took all the fun out of amassing all the points through sign up bonuses and everyday spend and would add to the actual money you have to spend on fuel surcharges, taxes, etc.
But this is my approach, I just got tired of spending too much time "maximizing", especially since all my cc's keep those points coming every month.
Good luck and if you do end up using one those experts, let us know your experience, in case next go round, I don't feel like doing any work at all myself
Right, and also depends if you are the sort of person who is happy with "good enough", i.e. you are happy flying in an international premium cabin on points, which you would have never wanted to do with cash, and if you "overpaid" by 20%, that's fine.
Of course, you end up sitting next to a guy who tells you through some very detailed MS techniques and complex portal usage, he was able to get the same flight for 30K points less, and he paid nothing for the points and in fact made $1000. But enjoy your flight!
Of course that guy may be jealous because I grabbed the "best seat" (from my research on FT,Seatguru, and Expertflyer) before he did because I was willing to pay premium points to book early. And he may regret ever mentioning his techniques because I will ask him lots and lots of questions while I sip my upteenth cup of coffee and yet type his answers oh-so-slowly on my iPhone