topic Re: Maximizing travel rewards in Credit Cards

Maximizing travel rewards

IWOL — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 20:58:18 GMT

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.

Re: Maximizing travel rewards

red259 — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 21:08:10 GMT

@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.

Re: Maximizing travel rewards

IWOL — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 21:16:06 GMT

@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.

Interesting, thanks. It might be worth my while to use an "expert". You cant always find award availablility just looking at an airlines online site.

I have looked at some of the services that can assist in finding award ticket availability online but the proces is pretty confusing.

The hardest part for example is....I can say transfer miles directly to SA Airways from Diners and they are also a Star Alliance member so I can use other Star Alliance member programs to book SA Airways tickets. Finding the partner that has the best redemption rate for the same flight is key.

Re: Maximizing travel rewards

red259 — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 21:14:04 GMT

@IWOL 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.
Interesting, thanks. It might be worth my while to use an "expert". YOu cant always find award availablility just looking at an airlines onlien site.
I have looked at some of the services that can assist in fining award ticket availability online but the proces is pretty confusing.

The hardest part for exmple is....I can say trasnfer miles directly to SA Airways from Diners and they are also a Star Alliance member so I can use other Star Alliance member programs to book SA Airways tickets. Fining the partner that has the best redemption rate for the same flight is key.

If your talking about looking at ticket pricing to compare etc I wouldn't do that. I would look to where you want to go and then look up reviews of the different airlines to see who offers the best product. Sometimes the most exspensive ticket is not the best product. The one exception to this is when you are trying to decide using points or paying cash. In that case you would want to compare prices to see if its worth the redemption.

Re: Maximizing travel rewards

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 21:18:18 GMT

I've seen some positive reviews but of course hard to tell. But good ones know how to really use the tools to find award options that are not easy for the new user ("You have X miles on airline Y, which is part of alliance Z, and it turns out that the best value for your destination is to book through airline W's site to fly on airline V")

Re: Maximizing travel rewards

IWOL — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 21:23:50 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I've seen some positive reviews but of course hard to tell. But good ones know how to really use the tools to find award options that are not easy for the new user ("You have X miles on airline Y, which is part of alliance Z, and it turns out that the best value for your destination is to book through airline W's site to fly on airline V")

Lol...thats exactly what Im talking about, nicely put. X miles on airline Y from partner Z on alliance W.

Isint there an APP for that?

Re: Maximizing travel rewards

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 21:28:11 GMT

@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.

Wow.. That is a lot of points. Congrats.

Re: Maximizing travel rewards

IWOL — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 21:33:42 GMT

@Anonymous 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.

Wow.. That is a lot of points. Congrats.

Thanks. A very large portion of them are from sign up bonuses.

Got 137K UR from CSP, INK and Freedom sign up

60K SPG from Biz and Personal

MR: 35K from PRG and ED

55K from United Explorer

50K from US Air

About half from sign up bonus, 200K from spend and the rest from using online shopping malls for every purchase possible.

Re: Maximizing travel rewards

mongstradamus — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 21:50:16 GMT

@IWOL wrote:
@Anonymous 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.

Wow.. That is a lot of points. Congrats.
Thanks. A very large portion of them are from sign up bonuses.

Got 137K UR from CSP, INK and Freedom sign up
60K SPG from Biz and Personal
MR: 35K from PRG and ED
55K from United Explorer
50K from US Air

About half from sign up bonus, 200K from spend and the rest from using online shopping malls for every purchase possible.

How come no AA Miles!!!??? On an more serious note there is an site that i like to use google milez biz or something to that effect. You enter in the destination and it will tell you which airline program you can use. You can click on link which has what FFP transfer to those miles. Its not the best way , but it can point you in the right direction.

Re: Maximizing travel rewards

dilettante — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 22:19:48 GMT

@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

Re: Maximizing travel rewards

red259 — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 22:52:57 GMT

@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.

Re: Maximizing travel rewards

Kellan — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 00:29:44 GMT

I have never used one of these services, but the point guy blog recomends a service like the one you are talking about.

Re: Maximizing travel rewards

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 01:21:31 GMT

Lax to JFK
Jfk to jnb via south African air.

You can use your us airways and delta miles to book a business class flight.

Use your MR point to fill missing delta points or
SPG to fill missing US airways miles.

Re: Maximizing travel rewards

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 01:28:28 GMT

I would use my delta miles to book a flight from lax to JFK.

JFK to jnb, use us airway miless. 70,000 economy / 110,000 business class round trip. Use spg to transfer needed miles.

Re: Maximizing travel rewards

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 01:51:51 GMT

@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!

Re: Maximizing travel rewards

hot4u — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 02:44:36 GMT

@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 ...

Re: Maximizing travel rewards

dilettante — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 02:43:36 GMT

@Anonymous 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