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

[simplynoir]

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@mongstradamus wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@mongstradamus wrote:

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@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?

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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. 

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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.

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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. 

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ANA J is pretty much the unicorn of finding availability in my experiences the last few years trying to find seats. Those get snapped up in a hurry and the rest are held in reserve by the airline since they sell pretty easily compared to F class.

[Shadowfactor]

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@simplynoir wrote:

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@mongstradamus wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@mongstradamus wrote:

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@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. 

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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.

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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. 

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ANA J is pretty much the unicorn of finding availability in my experiences the last few years trying to find seats. Those get snapped up in a hurry and the rest are held in reserve by the airline since they sell pretty easily compared to F class.

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ANA J is actually very good availability, it just doesn’t last long. ANA releases atleast one J seat for almost every flight 5 + days a week when the calender opens with usually 2-3 J available on slower routes.

Given ANA’s superior service and it’s demand award seats do get snapped up when the calender opens many times, but if you can book 330-355 days out the availability is great and pretty easy to find.

[Shadowfactor]

ANA doesn’t depart from DFW, so if you book through ANA then you will be looking at a *A award which is higher in cost. 

Look at IAH,IAD,ORD for the best award space and lower cost awards. 

ANA is family only, you have to register your travel companion and it’s roundtrips only.

The booking process is very straight forward, the website is great, shows accurate space, allows open jaws with origin and return at different airports given same zone. 

Free date/time changes but routing must stay the same or 3000 mile cancellation fee. 

I have ave a pretty good knowledge of ANA’s award process. Just booked my honeymoon.

ANA F JFK-HND

ANA J HND-KUL

ANA J SIN - HND

ANA F HND- ORD

 390,000 + $665.

I could have booked through VS, but given that I am not flexible on dates at all I grabbed the space up soon as it became available. VS calender doesn’t open up until 25 days later and no free date changes. 

Trick: Soon as outbound becomes available, book it with return the next day that’s legal return. Then when the return calender opens up, call and do a free date change to finish award. This secures your space on outbound 

Another good MR program that’s not talked about is LifeMiles. It definitely has its quirks and flaws but it is a great program but booking certain things. If you end up going with lifemiles, read up about the screenshot trick on FT. 

[MAZDA3]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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.

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Transfer the MR to Delta and use 37.5k one way per ticket economy DFW-LAX-TPE using Delta/China Airlines.

Then

Transfer the UR to United and use 35k one way per ticket economy TPE-SFO-DFW using EVA/United.

You’re going to Taiwan, so why not try out the airlines of Taiwan? Both EVA and China Airlines have highly rated soft products. Plenty of youtube videos reviewing each carrier.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the ANA booking tips, and suggestions on DAL.

Lot of great info to learn, thanks all.

[Anonymous]

This is getting more complex by the minutes.

Just checked some booking options without transfer for 12/24 to 1/2.:

At the chase travel portal, cheapest is 1417 round trip.

Then checked wells fargo portal, cheapest is 1171 for the same trip date but different airlines (Chase portal didn't find this)

Then check kayak and its 1010 on JAL.

I will have to check this again after new year when booking becomes available.

[iced]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

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.

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DFW-TPE flights go as low as under $700 R/T, so that valuation might be a little on the high side.

OP, given how cheap these flights can be in Y, you can also save yourself a lot of stress and book one ticket with points and one with cash. That will open up some availability since you only need one saver points ticket instead of 2, and if there's saver availability the likelihood is high that flight will also have deep discount economy buckets for sale still.

[MAZDA3]

OP - you’re getting too tied up on the valuation of your points vs. getting where you need to during an incredibly difficult time of year using points (Christmas).

Forget ANA, it’s going to be a double connection from DFW. Your easiest way to redeem points is going to be using Delta and United programs.

I get wanting to get max value out of points, but you’re flying economy here, not business, so the valuation isn’t going to be big to begin with.

Do some searches on the Delta app and United app as far out as you can right now to give you an idea what they offer. Booking for XMas next year you need to have nailed down what you want ASAP and pounce on it the minute the booking window opens.

[Anonymous]

understood. This is on top of my routine trip of 8k a year, I can move points around and be flexible on which trip to redeem for overall best values. I do have large pool of skypesos that I can tap into.

[Shadowfactor]

Trying to coordinate a points booking and revenue booking is not ideal unless your using a portal for both tickets.

Just because award space is open, doesn’t mean that flight is cheap cash wise. This doesn’t apply to airlines that utilize dynamic pricing but for most overseas airlines you will find a huge disparity between award space and the actual cost if trying to pay cash for a second ticket.

I was considering doing that for my honeymoon as I would need the flight to hit AA EXP next year but I found that there’s no correlation between space and cash price.

Seriously consider lifemiles for economy ticket. They can be quite reasonable for certain tickets.