Planning a trip next year (DFW-TPE), which UR/MR transfer partner?

[Anonymous]

I have never planned Asian trip with miles before, and kinda clueless of the best options.

I need absolutely least amount of miles. I don't care about valuation as long as its above 1.5cpp.

Thanks in advance.

[wasCB14]

To be clear, we're talking economy or premium economy...and not business or first?

[Anonymous]

yes ineeed, I won't have more than 100k MR and 100k UR by then, and I have two people on the trip.

[wasCB14]

Randomly picking January 2020, I checked United...plenty of availability for 70k miles + $44 per person round trip. One stop each way at SFO (no one flies the route nonstop).

Of course, you'd need 140k United miles...100k of each won't be enough unless you book the second ticket through a second program (one where you can use MRs). Or you could move MRs to Marriott, and then from Marriott to United. You'd get reasonable value from the URs and poor value from the MRs.

Compared to a ~$1,300 RT ticket per person, that's around 1.8 cpp for the URs alone. Other dates are more like $900. Paying cash or redeeming URs directly at 1.5 cpp may be better.

You can transfer MRs to ANA and they only want 60k but I don't know the booking process.

JAL (Marriott transfers only, so there's some loss there, but you can move both MRs and URs) has even cheaper awards (at least in terms of miles, don't know about surcharges) but I don't know the process there either.

I think at least one of those (JAL or ANA) supposedly makes it very difficult to book an award for a companion. If it was me, I'd probably stick with the familiarity of United...and maybe just pay cash if I couldn't get enough URs. United charges an arm and a leg for "top up" miles.

[Anonymous]

Cool, thanks!

I can put some spending on my chase family of cards and book on United then. The trip is for next-next x-mas, so I have at least one year to rack up spending and subs to get there (I have 80k business card offer from chase from time to time, I have yet to pull the trigger). I probably can get to 150k if I try hard enough.

Thanks again.

PS, I checked again, ANA asks for 60k miles per pax (availability may be tricky), I may have trouble getting 120k MR points without applying for an platinum card. That may be an option that I will consider too.

EDIT 2: Anyone has any tips about dealing with transfer to and book on ANA? I opened an account with them and linked to my Amex. The booking page doesn't say if there will be surcharge and how much extra it will cost on top of the 60k miles. Anyone experienced with them?

[mongstradamus]

United or ANA is your best bet with UR and MR. You probably can try AC as well its slight more at 75k PP RT. I personally have never gone the AC route for booking star alliance but it could be an option. 

When I checked earlier in the year United’s BR availability was pretty bad but that was flying from JFK, so may need to come up with a plan b or c . Alternatively while not as good as of value, but may be easier since you can pool points is AF or BA they are both 80k PP RT, but you can use both UR and MR just an alternative as a possible plan c . 

[Anonymous]

I had real trouble finding any availability on BA, otherwise it would be definitely a good solution.

Any kinks or cautions I should know about ANA?

[mongstradamus]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I had real trouble finding any availability on BA, otherwise it would be definitely a good solution.

Any kinks or cautions I should know about ANA?

---

I don’t know how hard it is to get from Dallas to Houston , but flying directly from Houston may make it easier to find availability? Am talking solely about flying ANA or BR to TPE. 

[Anonymous]

---

@mongstradamus wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I had real trouble finding any availability on BA, otherwise it would be definitely a good solution.

Any kinks or cautions I should know about ANA?

---

I don’t know how hard it is to get from Dallas to Houston , but flying directly from Houston may make it easier to find availability? Am talking solely about flying ANA or BR to TPE. 

---

its not hard at all, can get to HOU for 50 bucks probably, its 5k miles less than DFW-TPE on ANA (60k vs 55k), not sure if it worth the trouble to get to Houston.

[mongstradamus]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@mongstradamus wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I had real trouble finding any availability on BA, otherwise it would be definitely a good solution.

Any kinks or cautions I should know about ANA?

---

I don’t know how hard it is to get from Dallas to Houston , but flying directly from Houston may make it easier to find availability? Am talking solely about flying ANA or BR to TPE. 

---

its not hard at all, can get to HOU for 50 bucks probably, its 5k miles less than DFW-TPE on ANA (60k vs 55k), not sure if it worth the trouble to get to Houston.

---

It probably isn’t just was just trying to find alternative options for you, Have you tried looked at separate legs with BA , DFW-NRT/HND and HND/NRT-TPE? Maybe you can find availability better that way ? 

By the way when I found ANA availability via VS , I found middle of the week was a lot better on availability then other days, so for me tues, wed, thurs was showing availability, while other days were not. Even at 300+ days out I couldn’t find any availability for ANA in J, it was pretty disheartening. I ended up getting quite lucky being able to find RT to HND from JFK in F for 240k for two people pretty good value.