topic Re: Help me plan my trip! in SmorgasBoard

Help me plan my trip!

Wrigley2172 — Sun, 24 Jul 2022 02:06:26 GMT

Evening all

Starting here because not sure what thread this would go in

P2 An i are trying to to plan a trip to the UK in spring of next year. I have done some research looking at TPG trying to redeem points for flights but im very very new to it and looking for suggestions.

I have ~160k mr's with a bulk of that coming from the sub on my platinum card. P2 had ~70k UR's with CSR and wed be flying out of ORD most likely. In an ideal world wed fly business class but thats just a nice to have. Most of the redemptions ive seen are multiple hudrends of thoudands of points so im not sure if im looking incorrectly or thats just what the redemptions are currently.

Thank you all in advance!

Re: Help me plan my trip!

iced — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 16:53:38 GMT

@Wrigley2172 wrote:
Evening all

Starting here because not sure what thread this would go in

P2 An i are trying to to plan a trip to the UK in spring of next year. I have done some research looking at TPG trying to redeem points for flights but im very very new to it and looking for suggestions.

I have ~160k mr's with a bulk of that coming from the sub on my platinum card. P2 had ~70k UR's with CSR and wed be flying out of ORD most likely. In an ideal world wed fly business class but thats just a nice to have. Most of the redemptions ive seen are multiple hudrends of thoudands of points so im not sure if im looking incorrectly or thats just what the redemptions are currently.

Thank you all in advance!

I just booked a US-UK award flight for 3 business seats that came out to 525k points plus taxes, so ... 175k/per seat. If you book way in advance and are very flexible on flights/routes, you can probably push that down to around 130-140/seat, but my usual award redemption is in the 150-175k range/seat.

You may be able to buy economy or premium economy and use miles to upgrade to business, or you can buy one business seat and use award miles for the second.

Re: Help me plan my trip!

Wrigley2172 — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 17:01:45 GMT

@iced wrote:
@Wrigley2172 wrote:
Evening all

Starting here because not sure what thread this would go in

P2 An i are trying to to plan a trip to the UK in spring of next year. I have done some research looking at TPG trying to redeem points for flights but im very very new to it and looking for suggestions.

I have ~160k mr's with a bulk of that coming from the sub on my platinum card. P2 had ~70k UR's with CSR and wed be flying out of ORD most likely. In an ideal world wed fly business class but thats just a nice to have. Most of the redemptions ive seen are multiple hudrends of thoudands of points so im not sure if im looking incorrectly or thats just what the redemptions are currently.

Thank you all in advance!
I just booked a US-UK award flight for 3 business seats that came out to 525k points plus taxes, so ... 175k/per seat. If you book way in advance and are very flexible on flights/routes, you can probably push that down to around 130-140/seat, but my usual award redemption is in the 150-175k range/seat.

You may be able to buy economy or premium economy and use miles to upgrade to business, or you can buy one business seat and use award miles for the second.

Got it, if your usual redemption is around 150k then i dont feel as bad lol. I think TPG and similar sites can set unreasonable expectations with some of the deals they find. Appreciate you sharing your details!

Re: Help me plan my trip!

iced — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 17:45:52 GMT

@Wrigley2172 wrote:
Got it, if your usual redemption is around 150k then i dont feel as bad lol. I think TPG and similar sites can set unreasonable expectations with some of the deals they find. Appreciate you sharing your details!

TPG also has the luxury of cherry-picking airlines and routes which can price out attractively, reeling the casual follower in even easier. For example, BA tends to have lower mileage requirements for business awards, though they're also distance-based so different routes can result in different prices, but they are a MR partner so you could likely get one J seat on points and one on cash.

Re: Help me plan my trip!

K-in-Boston — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 01:18:27 GMT

Virgin Atlantic can be a great option (transfer partner of nearly every major rewards program) and it's certainly possible to get from North America to LHR for under 100k round-trip in business class on either Virgin or Delta via Virgin, particularly if you are on a direct flight. That's a case of where it might make good sense to do a positioning flight to JFK or BOS beforehand, though, and you'll have to watch out for fees and taxes even on award fares that can become staggering to the UK (the UK charges higher fees the closer you get to the pointy end of the plane).

Delta also has frequent flash sales for Delta One to Europe under 100k, and I think Singapore still has a Houston-to-Manchester 5th Freedom route with a fixed award chart, which is likely a pretty luxurious way to get there. If the fees are staggering on award fares, it might be a better option to consider flying into CDG or AMS instead of the UK and catch either a short flight over to your destination in the UK (or just hop the train if London is your final destination).

Air France/KLM is also a transfer partner of essentially everyone, and it may be worth spinning the wheel to see what comes up there. You can get some great bargains in business class or some insanely pricey economy options (often on the same flight!), and other craziness like ORD-JFK costing more miles than the same ORD-JFK flight and onward to HKG. As odd as things can be there since they got rid of the award chart a few years back, it's still definitely worth looking.

Re: Help me plan my trip!

iced — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 01:33:42 GMT

In 2020, I tried to grab a BOS-LHR flight in upper class on Virgin Atlantic with points and the fees alone came to over $2000/seat. Ended up just sucking it up in their premium economy cabin (which is fine for a shorter flight like that) for cash instead since either way I was going to fork out $2000/seat for two seats on a 7 hour flight.

Re: Help me plan my trip!

Wrigley2172 — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 02:16:30 GMT

@K-in-Boston wrote:
Virgin Atlantic can be a great option (transfer partner of nearly every major rewards program) and it's certainly possible to get from North America to LHR for under 100k round-trip in business class on either Virgin or Delta via Virgin, particularly if you are on a direct flight. That's a case of where it might make good sense to do a positioning flight to JFK or BOS beforehand, though, and you'll have to watch out for fees and taxes even on award fares that can become staggering to the UK (the UK charges higher fees the closer you get to the pointy end of the plane).

Delta also has frequent flash sales for Delta One to Europe under 100k, and I think Singapore still has a Houston-to-Manchester 5th Freedom route with a fixed award chart, which is likely a pretty luxurious way to get there. If the fees are staggering on award fares, it might be a better option to consider flying into CDG or AMS instead of the UK and catch either a short flight over to your destination in the UK (or just hop the train if London is your final destination).

Air France/KLM is also a transfer partner of essentially everyone, and it may be worth spinning the wheel to see what comes up there. You can get some great bargains in business class or some insanely pricey economy options (often on the same flight!), and other craziness like ORD-JFK costing more miles than the same ORD-JFK flight and onward to HKG. As odd as things can be there since they got rid of the award chart a few years back, it's still definitely worth looking.

Thanks K, i had hoped youd see this haha. I appreciate the suggestions and certainly thats more options to look at than i was thinking id have. P2 an i are flying into BOS in october to do salem for halloween so ill wave in the general direction and assume youre wherever im facing lol

Re: Help me plan my trip!

Wrigley2172 — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 02:18:12 GMT

@iced wrote:
In 2020, I tried to grab a BOS-LHR flight in upper class on Virgin Atlantic with points and the fees alone came to over $2000/seat. Ended up just sucking it up in their premium economy cabin (which is fine for a shorter flight like that) for cash instead since either way I was going to fork out $2000/seat for two seats on a 7 hour flight.

Im having similar exprience with british air at the moment. The fuel charges on award flights is 2k or above

Re: Help me plan my trip!

K-in-Boston — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 02:42:59 GMT

The trick with Virgin Atlantic is that you need to find availablity on partner metal, preferably Delta. There are fuel surcharges, but also government taxes and fees. Just the UK taxes alone on a business class award can be about $300 more than economy!

Have fun in Salem. Just wave in a southwesternly direction on the other side of the tall buildings!

Re: Help me plan my trip!

iced — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 03:21:39 GMT

Not to be a negative Nellie, but I hope you realize what you're getting into with an October trip to Salem.

My SO dies a little when she has to go there for meetings in October.

Re: Help me plan my trip!

Wrigley2172 — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 04:30:49 GMT

@iced wrote:
Not to be a negative Nellie, but I hope you realize what you're getting into with an October trip to Salem.

My SO dies a little when she has to go there for meetings in October.

Were aware lol, its a calculated choice. We love halloween and theres a venue we wanna see for possible nuptials in the general area so were crossing our fingers itll be as painless as possible.

Re: Help me plan my trip!

disdreamin — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 14:55:03 GMT

@Wrigley2172 wrote:
Thanks K, i had hoped youd see this haha. I appreciate the suggestions and certainly thats more options to look at than i was thinking id have. P2 an i are flying into BOS in october to do salem for halloween so ill wave in the general direction and assume youre wherever im facing lol

You'll have so much fun in Salem, I'm curious which hotel you are staying at? We've done the Hampton Inn and Hawthorne and would like to try somewhere new our next visit.

As far as booking awards travel, my conclusion after a bunch of reading is that I am unlikely to find the tickets I need, no matter how many points I'm able to accrue. All the sites make it look magical and tempting, but the amount of work I'd need to put in looks prohibitive.

Re: Help me plan my trip!

Wrigley2172 — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:21:56 GMT

@disdreamin wrote:
@Wrigley2172 wrote:
Thanks K, i had hoped youd see this haha. I appreciate the suggestions and certainly thats more options to look at than i was thinking id have. P2 an i are flying into BOS in october to do salem for halloween so ill wave in the general direction and assume youre wherever im facing lol
You'll have so much fun in Salem, I'm curious which hotel you are staying at? We've done the Hampton Inn and Hawthorne and would like to try somewhere new our next visit.

As far as booking awards travel, my conclusion after a bunch of reading is that I am unlikely to find the tickets I need, no matter how many points I'm able to accrue. All the sites make it look magical and tempting, but the amount of work I'd need to put in looks prohibitive
@disdreamin wrote:
@Wrigley2172 wrote:
Thanks K, i had hoped youd see this haha. I appreciate the suggestions and certainly thats more options to look at than i was thinking id have. P2 an i are flying into BOS in october to do salem for halloween so ill wave in the

As far as booking awards travel, my conclusion after a bunch of reading is that I am unlikely to find the tickets I need, no matter how many points I'm able to accrue. All the sites make it look magical and tempting, but the amount of work I'd need to put in looks prohibitive.

We actually got a really good deal on an Air BnB so were going that route rather than hotel. But ive got status with my platinum card so its a nice to have when we do choose regular hotel🤷‍♂️