@mongstradamus wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Shadowfactor wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Now where should I go to unnecessarily spend my money?
Forget this BA promo with their ungodly fuel surcharges.
Go get yourself a Citi/Amex card and use some MR/TYP for flights on RAM for 44K each way in J.
They just added some new routes to the US.
The inflight product isn’t the best but it’s a lie flat for peanuts.
Well, I am looking at a citi card next, although I still need to figure out where to go next for vaca. I would love to do a TPE trip, but I have yet to find a good deal (BA avios has severe availability problems), I guess DFW is not really an ideal base for international travels. lol
I am open to suggestions! Target date is the x-max break.
You probably know this already but Houston I think is better starting point if you want to fly to TPE direct.
This may be a unpopular opinion but I am thinking i would rather have AA miles than UR if i am trying to find a flight to far east. Having access to JAL and CX is much better than almost any option UR has due to availability.
Completely agree with you. Would rather have AA miles over UR for almost any trip to Asia.
But you can can do better then AA/UR with MR using ANA for 90-110K RT in J.
IMO, UR is almost worthless for flights now. United was their last good partner and they weren’t even that great of a deal. 180K to Asia is a fair bit compared to the other options.
Even to Europe they are way overpriced when you consider that RAM flies to Europe now for 44K each way in J
@Shadowfactor wrote:
@mongstradamus wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Shadowfactor wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Now where should I go to unnecessarily spend my money?
Forget this BA promo with their ungodly fuel surcharges.
Go get yourself a Citi/Amex card and use some MR/TYP for flights on RAM for 44K each way in J.
They just added some new routes to the US.
The inflight product isn’t the best but it’s a lie flat for peanuts.
Well, I am looking at a citi card next, although I still need to figure out where to go next for vaca. I would love to do a TPE trip, but I have yet to find a good deal (BA avios has severe availability problems), I guess DFW is not really an ideal base for international travels. lol
I am open to suggestions! Target date is the x-max break.
You probably know this already but Houston I think is better starting point if you want to fly to TPE direct.
This may be a unpopular opinion but I am thinking i would rather have AA miles than UR if i am trying to find a flight to far east. Having access to JAL and CX is much better than almost any option UR has due to availability.
Completely agree with you. Would rather have AA miles over UR for almost any trip to Asia.
But you can can do better then AA/UR with MR using ANA for 90-110K RT in J.
IMO, UR is almost worthless for flights now. United was their last good partner and they weren’t even that great of a deal. 180K to Asia is a fair bit compared to the other options.
Even to Europe they are way overpriced when you consider that RAM flies to Europe now for 44K each way in J
I agree to certain external with MR , but AA is easier to acquire i feel from SUB. If you are talking about pure accumulation with no SUB then MR is the way to go . I have been contemplating if i want to go with just Gold+BBP combo for almost all spend. Just use chase for the 5x categories with freedom and ink cash for Hyatt accumulation.
I used UR for Asia trips when it was 160k RT in J with almost no fuel surcharges thats where it had the most value. It is pretty difficult to even find that availability when they increased it to 180k . OZ and BR availability disappeared.
I need to rethink what I am going to do. I am not 100% comfortable putting all my eggs in the one basket with MR only. The thing with UR and hyatt is hyatt properties are also pretty limited compared to Marriott and Hilton , so i don’t know what to do about hotel stays.
I really enjoy staying in Hyatt hotels, but as you mentioned they are seriously limited in their footprint.
Although UR transferred to Hyatt can produce some incredible value.
I’m not a SWA flyer either, so I have a hard time seeing the value in UR.
Everyone’s redemption patterns are different so you may be better served with UR then I am.
Although UR transferred to Hyatt can produce some incredible value.
I’m not a SWA flyer either, so I have a hard time seeing the value in UR.
Everyone’s redemption patterns are different so you may be better served with UR then I am.
@Shadowfactor wrote:
I really enjoy staying in Hyatt hotels, but as you mentioned they are seriously limited in their footprint.
Although UR transferred to Hyatt can produce some incredible value.
I’m not a SWA flyer either, so I have a hard time seeing the value in UR.
Everyone’s redemption patterns are different so you may be better served with UR then I am.
I am starting to see limited use with UR these days if I didn't snag two RT F flights to Tokyo on ANA with VS miles I really am not sure how i would use them other than Hyatt stays. The plan is to finish off my remaining UR if the PH kyoto opens on time later this year. My non category spend right now is with Amex aspire just to reach Min spend for sub. I will have to rethink what to do with my non category spending. Later this year when some of my AF for chase cards come up I can decide if i really want to give UR the boot or not. The major issue i have right now chase and amex have a lot of airline transfer partners that are shared the only ones i can think of that arent are Southwest and United I could be wrong , so really what differentiates UR from MR.
They share some partners such as VS, BA, Singapore, B6, KLM/AF and I think there’s one more. But all in all they have a lot of different partners (mainly on the Amex side) Amex has many more options over Chase for international airfare.
VS will be undergoing major changes this summer as Sir Richard Branson has commented that he’s going to bring all the Virgin brands under the same rewards program. I don’t think there’s anyway they can do that without making me a revenue based program. This likely will kill all the sweet spots like ANA F and Delta One for the low.
MR has some serious sweet spots though.
Etihad on AA for the low
Etihad on RAM in J for 44K each way to Europe/Africa
ANA to SE Asia for 90-110K
Cathay Companion Fares.
theres some other ones too if you are interested I can send your way.
I’ve attached a chart so you can see all the various programs and partners.
@Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I'm not sure what to do with my URs now. I had planned on using them to either fly to Seoul while in tokyo, or redeem for a flight to Europe. But they no longer partner with Korean Air. Which leaves Air France-KLM or Virgin, but I'm not certain about that trip anymore. And I am not yet a member of those. Guess I could always redeem the points for my stay in Tokyo at a Marriott for a night ore two.
You could try and find availability with OZ with either UAL or SQ i guess. I have noticed oz and br availability basically disappear. I don’t know why exactly . Only a few years ago there were tons of availability on those airlines via UAL, but now they seem to be gone. You don’t want to redeem hyatt for tokyo stays i think much better value? I am actually looking at staying at GH tokyo my last night in japan before i return to US.
@Shadowfactor wrote:They share some partners such as VS, BA, Singapore and I think there’s one more. But all in all they have a lot of different partners (mainly on the Amex side) Amex has many more options over Chase for international airfare.
VS will be undergoing major changes this summer as Sir Richard Branson has commented that he’s going to bring all the Virgin brands under the same rewards program. I don’t think there’s anyway they can do that without making me a revenue based program. This likely will kill all the sweet spots like ANA F and Delta One for the low.
MR has some serious sweet spots though.
Etihad on AA for the low
Etihad on RAM in J for 44K each way to Europe/Africa
ANA to SE Asia for 90-110K
Cathay Companion Fares.
theres some other ones too if you are interested I can send your way.
I’ve attached a chart so you can see all the various programs and partners.
I was pretty sure the VS ANA for 120k RT in F wasn’t going to last that long. I am actually surprised it lasted as long as it did.
As far as MR partner go I am hoping they won’t nerf that ANA redemption. I am thinking about doing that down the road. I have been debating between MR-ana or AA-CX/JL for my next trip , who knows if those options will still be available in a few years.
Back to original topic of how to use UR they do have some nice non af biz UR earning cards so they have that going for them I guess. I don’t think they are subject to the same 4 year sapphire rule. They are also easier to liquidate i feel at least they are 1:1 with cash as a worst case scenario. I probably won’t go out of my way to try and accumulate anymore though. I think for my personal uses accumulation of AA and MR is where its going to be.