How to best us miles

[Chesie]

Would like to fly business class for an overseas longgggg flight. I will be transferring some points over to ff miles from my Amex. Do I have a better chance of redeeming (1) for business and purchase out right the other to get both in business? I would have to purchase miles for both of us to go business and not sure if that is wise? Help Please!

[fbgd]

Promotions aside purchasing miles is only good value if you need to top up to get enough miles for a ticket.

 

By purchasing a ticket outright and using miles for the other you make things a lot easier for yourself when it comes to finding award availability. You then earn miles on that purchased ticket.

[FlyerTalker]

Another option is to purchase upgradeable tickets for both and use the miles for the upgrade to business. You earn on the base ticket, which can make it a good proposition. Not certain of the specifics with US, but worth investigating.

 

If you do buy one ticket and get one full award ticket, be sure that the paid ticket is in the name of the person doing the most flying. That way, the earned miles don't become orphaned in the other person's account.

[greatam]

Would like to fly business class for an overseas longgggg flight. I will be transferring some points over to ff miles from my Amex. Do I have a better chance of redeeming (1) for business and purchase out right the other to get both in business? I would have to purchase miles for both of us to go business and not sure if that is wise? Help Please!

 

BEFORE you transfer your miles, MAKE SURE the airline FF program has availability. Quite a few of the Amex cards allow transfers into many FF programs. So don't transfer UNTIL you have at least a hold on the award tickets.

 

It would REALLY help to know where you are flying, WHEN you are flying, what airlines you have miles in, how many miles, what you are willing to spend CASH (it MAY be cheaper all the way around to purchase the required economy class of ticket and upgrade BOTH tickets or pay the co-pay and use miles for the upgrade).

 

There are a LOT of variables. Please provide more information for help.

[6rugrats]

Would like to fly business class for an overseas longgggg flight. I will be transferring some points over to ff miles from my Amex. Do I have a better chance of redeeming (1) for business and purchase out right the other to get both in business? I would have to purchase miles for both of us to go business and not sure if that is wise? Help Please!

 

It can be quite difficult to find two award business class seats on the same flight; since you haven't provided information about where you want to go, or what airline you will be using, can't give you any specific information. Also, don't know what kind of AMEX you are using. If it's just a regular one, you are limited with the airlines you can use.

 

Usually purchasing enough miles for a business class ticket is not a good use of your money. Look at the airline you want to use, and compare the price of a regular purchased ticket, with the price of one obtained by just purchasing miles. Agree that the purchased ticket should be in the person's name who does the most flying, so they can earn the miles.

 

If you want to go with the purchasing two economy tickets and trying to upgrade with the miles you have, be sure you understand what fare class you must have to upgrade with miles. For some airlines, you can't upgrade every available fare class. This can requires you to purchase a very expensive coach ticket, and if you aren't able to upgrade, you've wasted your money. If you go this route, pay the phone ticketing fee and make sure your ticket can be upgraded with miles immediately.

[Chesie]

Oops! JFK to Abu Dhabi, Feb/March with Delta. They fly JFK to Amsterdam and KLM takes over from Amsterdam to Abu Dhabi.

 

We each have $400 travel vouchers which we just obtained for a move over, good until May 2011. We each have about 5,000 miles on our accounts now as we used FF this month. I have moved points over from my Amex to Delta before once my award ticket was on hold so that should be ok. Points moving over should be about 50,000.

 

Is it better to buy the coach, use our travel vouchers and upgrade to business with points and split the points? I probably need to call Delta to see what the points needed would be to do that. I'm thinking I may only have enough, or even short, points to only do one business.

 

Thanks for everyone's help. This is only my 2nd time using FF so I'm a newbie!

[6rugrats]

Oops! JFK to Abu Dhabi, Feb/March with Delta. They fly JFK to Amsterdam and KLM takes over from Amsterdam to Abu Dhabi.

 

We each have $400 travel vouchers which we just obtained for a move over, good until May 2011. We each have about 5,000 miles on our accounts now as we used FF this month. I have moved points over from my Amex to Delta before once my award ticket was on hold so that should be ok. Points moving over should be about 50,000.

 

Is it better to buy the coach, use our travel vouchers and upgrade to business with points and split the points? I probably need to call Delta to see what the points needed would be to do that. I'm thinking I may only have enough, or even short, points to only do one business.

 

Thanks for everyone's help. This is only my 2nd time using FF so I'm a newbie!

 

Read the terms and conditions on your vouchers carefully. Sometimes they can be used only on domestic fares or have other restrictions. Sometimes vouchers cannot be combined, and can be used only for the person to whom they were issued. I know travel vouchers issued by UA can only be used on a flight that is totally on UA metal (no codeshares); I have no idea if DL is the same.

 

Go to DL's webpage and read up on award travel and what you need to upgrade a paid fare:

http://www.delta.com/skymiles/use_miles/award_upgrade_mileage/index.jsp

 

Read carefully before purchase, as you can only upgrade full fare and some discount fares.

 

Have you done a search to see if any award travel for your dates and routing is available, and what the miles needed would be? I have no experience personally with DL, but fight now, they have a very bad reputation for award availability. I see that it will cost you 80,000 miles for an award ticket for JFK-AMS in business. How are you finding award travel on a combination of DL and KLM?

[FlyerTalker]

Read carefully before purchase, as you can only upgrade full fare and some discount fares.

To the best of my knowledge, you can international upgrade with miles on DL on Y, B or M fares only.

[chipmaster]

If you are purchasing beware beware if you are doing a very high demand flight with lots of business travelers. A buddy of mine who has tons of miles but still finds it difficult to upgrade as the route he flies as so many elite swimming in miles that many just can use them enough and the first thing they do upgrade. Its so bad he sometimes just buys business class outright, YMMV.

 

Would like to fly business class for an overseas longgggg flight. I will be transferring some points over to ff miles from my Amex. Do I have a better chance of redeeming (1) for business and purchase out right the other to get both in business? I would have to purchase miles for both of us to go business and not sure if that is wise? Help Please!

[NHBob]

If you are purchasing beware beware if you are doing a very high demand flight with lots of business travelers. A buddy of mine who has tons of miles but still finds it difficult to upgrade as the route he flies as so many elite swimming in miles that many just can use them enough and the first thing they do upgrade. Its so bad he sometimes just buys business class outright, YMMV.

 

This has also been my experience. Although I have been quite successful over the years in using miles to book flights on UA, AA, and DL or their partners, mainly international, I have yet to find a business class seat, although I had the miles and was willing to spend them.

 

Bob

[greatam]

Oops! JFK to Abu Dhabi, Feb/March with Delta. They fly JFK to Amsterdam and KLM takes over from Amsterdam to Abu Dhabi.

 

We each have $400 travel vouchers which we just obtained for a move over, good until May 2011. We each have about 5,000 miles on our accounts now as we used FF this month. I have moved points over from my Amex to Delta before once my award ticket was on hold so that should be ok. Points moving over should be about 50,000.

 

Is it better to buy the coach, use our travel vouchers and upgrade to business with points and split the points? I probably need to call Delta to see what the points needed would be to do that. I'm thinking I may only have enough, or even short, points to only do one business.

 

Thanks for everyone's help. This is only my 2nd time using FF so I'm a newbie!

 

Does your Amex allow moving points to any of the Middle Eastern Airlines-Etihad, Gulf Air, Qatar, Kuwait, etc. etc. FAR superior experience to anything Delta can offer.

 

You may also want to look into AA or BA if you can transfer the miles to those programs. They fly JFK/LHR (AA or BA, but ONLY BA IF you use BA miles) to Dubai and Kuwait City (BA) regularly. And those flights are worth all the miles!!!

 

You may also want to check prices for some of the MidEastern Airlines. Kuwait Air often has RT JFK to KWI fares in first/business for $2200pp. It is a short (1.5-2 hour) flight from KWI to Abu Dhabi/Dubai. You can also get a Kuwait visa at the airport for $18.00US cash if you want to look around Kuwait for a day or so. There is NO booze on Kuwait Air, so if that matters, forget it.

 

I have been flying to the Middle East with some regularity for business. I have flown AA/BA, Kuwait, Qatar and my personal favorite for the region-Etihad. I am leaving Sunday, June 13 from Chicago to Abu Dhabi-$1783 one way ticket, 27,000 Etihad miles to upgrade to their VERY luxurious business class.

 

One other thing-I know the MidEast cruises are all in the February/April time frame. But if you are going to the Middle East during that time frame, please be prepared for VERY large dust storms. That time frame is the season when they first hit-they continue through about August. The dust is very, very thick and gets into everything. Hasn't been too bad in 2010, but 2009 was absolutely horrible. Here's are pictures of the dust storm that rolled through the Persian Gulf in Feb 2009-these were taken in Saudi but it was just as bad in the rest of the area. I was simply STUCK where I was in the area. Couldn't move-couldn't even drive on the roads. The US military called Black Flag road conditions-EVERYTHING shuts down where you are.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/newsbeat/newsid_7936000/7936912.stm

[Gardyloo]

One other item regarding the coach + upgrade approach: You can generally only upgrade on the carrier for which you're using the miles. In your case, changing from Delta to KLM at AMS your Delta upgrade would terminate there; you'd be in coach on KLM. Since the flight from AMS to AUH is virtually the same length as JFK to AMS, I don't know if that would be the best use of your miles.

[Chesie]

Thanks everyone! You have all been very helpful and supportive to this newbie. There are so many variables that you have given I have my homework cut out for me!

 

We are open as to the month/dates we go. Just visiting family who will be there for 2 years. I heard about the dust storms but thought they were in jan/feb time frame. Obviously, there must be a better month to go in?