Please help me figure out award travel

[jkoj]

I am SO confused. My husband and I are taking a river cruise in Sept. starting in Budapest and ending in Amsterdam. From reading these boards and others like it, I got the idea that we can use credit card rewards points to pay for the airfare. I opened some cards, got some rewards points and now I am totally lost as far as where to transfer the points to get where I need to go. We live near New Orleans but I have enough Southwest points to get me to another airport if necessary.

So, the points I have are:

Am Express 52,000 for me and 52,000 for my husband

United 30,000

Chase ultimate rewards 50,000

I was hoping the Am Express points would get us to Budapest and the United & Chase points would get us home from Amsterdam. Every time I try to figure this out, I get more confused.

Any help I can get from you who have done this before would be awesome!

Thanks for your help, Jane

[ISLABONITA]

I can offer some help but the experts on flyertalk dot com would be another source.

 

I have not used Amex Express but if you google how to use them surely on flyertalk there would be a post/thread.

 

I think you can transfer them to Delta or BA for Avios.. check here too http://travelsort.com/blog/50-percent-amex-transfer-bonus-to-british-airways-avios-best-deals

 

The Chase Ultimate Rewards portal can get you a discounted fare .

 

you can also transfer the Chase points to United ( as I did ) and then you can book from the United airline. If you don't have any points in the United website just deposit enough to see an award.. even 50 would do.

 

I would first see which flights would suit you and go from there.. your using your SW may not be necessary but that will be your call.

Edited January 26, 2015 by ISLABONITA

[Gardyloo]

I'll try to help, but a couple of disclaimers...

 

First, using miles/points for peak travel periods can be difficult, and it's definitely going to involve a fair amount of legwork on your part.

 

Second, the problem with using miles/points in conjunction with cruises is that your dates are relatively inflexible - the boat sails when it sails, while being flexible with your travel dates is crucial for successful mileage redemption flights, so you can see the problem. If you want to fly in the day before (or worse, the day OF) your sailing, and fly home the day you disembark, you limit your options with award flights hugely, so if that's the case, you probably should also be looking at paid ticket options as a "fail safe."

 

So okay, on with it.

 

Your credit cards (Amex and Chase) have airline partners to which you can transfer your points. Those Amex or Chase points then become points/miles within those airlines' frequent flyer programs, and you can use them as you would any other points/miles that were already there.

 

That means you can use those points for any of those airlines' partners too. For example, if you transfer some Amex miles to Delta (one of Amex's transfer partners) then you can use your Delta Skymiles on any of Delta's partners, such as Air France, KLM, Alitalia, etc.

 

Or if you transfer your Chase points to United, you can use them on any of United's partners too, such as Lufthansa, Swiss, SAS etc.

 

When you do that, then you have to abide by the redemption rules and rates that apply to that airline's particular frequent flyer program. In the case of United, for example, you might need more miles to use a partner airline than you would on United itself, but there might be more availability using partners. Or if you transfer either your Amex or Chase Points to, say, British Airways (available to both programs) then you will have to abide with BA's rules, including possibly their imposition of very high fuel surcharges on reward seats.

 

And of course the number of miles needed for a given itinerary will be different between different airline programs. For example, using United (resulting from adding transferred Chase miles to your existing account, for example) a one-way saver ticket to Europe costs 30,000 miles. If you switch them to British Airways Avios, on the other hand, Amsterdam - New Orleans via London and Chicago (American Airlines for the last leg) would cost 31,000 Avios. New Orleans to Budapest using BA would cost 35,000 Avios one-way, because Avios are charged on the basis of the distance flown and also on a per-segment basis.

 

Not trying to confuse you with this, only pointing out that once you transfer points from Chase or Amex to an airline, you have to live by that airline's rules and requirements. Thus it's very important to know ahead of time that your flights are available before making the transfer, because you can't transfer back, AND to be familiar with the rules of the airline you're moving the points to.

 

Here are the main partners for your credit cards (there are others but not especially relevant to European travel.)

 

Amex - Air Canada, British Airways, Alitalia, Delta (note you only get 75% value for Alitalia and Delta, i.e. 1000 Amex points gets you 750 Delta miles.)

 

Chase - British Airways, United, Virgin Atlantic, Southwest.

 

----

 

So what I'd do in your case is look for availability to Budapest using United and its partners, then when you find something, switch 30,000 of your Chase points to UAL and redeem the total (now 60K points) for two one-way tickets to Budapest.

 

Then look on BA for return flights and when you see something, switch a total of 65,000 Amex points to BA and redeem them for two passengers from Amsterdam to New Orleans via Chicago, Miami, Dallas, Atlanta, Philadelphia, or any other "gateway" city where BA flies and from which you can get a nonstop flight to New Orleans on American or US Airways.

 

You will need to join and have working account numbers with any airline you plan to switch points into before doing so, so the ex-Amex or ex-Chase points will have somewhere to go.

 

Like I said, this will involve a fair amount of legwork on your part, but don't lose sight that we're talking about flights worth $1000+ each here, so it ain't nothin'. Good luck!

Edited January 26, 2015 by Gardyloo

[6rugrats]

You don't need to deposit any miles to UA to search award availability! Simply do a dummy booking and see what pops up for your dates.

[nolatravelgirl]

The biggest challenge is to find two award tickets (especially in premium cabins) on the same flights. If you are flexible you may want to look for two separate award tickets. I am mostly a Star Alliance flyer and hence know those flights best. You should start with looking for the overseas portion of the flight and then you can cobble together the remainder of the flight. Here are all the combinations for flights. The once you put together an itinerary that gets you there and back you can slowly start to improve your awards as more seats open up closer to the departure as long as your origin and destination remain the same. I might have missed a few but this was the list I worked off of last year for my cruise departing Istanbul.

 

 

Depart Arrive

ATL FRA

BOS FRA

BOS MUC

CLT MUC

DEN FRA

DFW FRA

DTW FRA

EWR FRA

EWR MUC

EWR BCN

EWR TXL

EWR CDG

EWR CPH

EWR LHR

EWR MAD

EWR MXP

EWR GVA

EWR AMS

IAD IST

IAD FRA

IAD MUC

IAD BRU

IAD CDG

IAD CPH

IAD FCO

IAD GVA

IAD LHR

IAD ZRH

IAD AMS

IAH IST

IAH FRA

IAH AMS

IAH LHR

IAH MUC

JFK CPH

JFK FRA

JFK IST

JFK VIE

LAX IST

LAX FRA

LAX ZRH

LAX MUC

LAX LHR

MCO FRA

MIA FRA

ORD IST

ORD FRA

ORD ZRH

ORD ARN

ORD BRU

ORD CDG

ORD CPH

ORD DUS

ORD LHR

ORD MUC

ORD VIE

PHL FRA

SFO FRA

SFO MUC

SFO LHR

SFO CDG

YOW FRA

YUL FRA

YUL MUC

YYZ BCN

YYZ CPH

YYZ FC0

YYZ FRA

YYZ VIE

[6rugrats]

Since OP wants to go to Budapest, perhaps they could add BUD to your arrival airport list.

[nolatravelgirl]

Since OP wants to go to Budapest, perhaps they could add BUD to your arrival airport list.

 

Well I am not aware of any nonstop flights from the North America to Budapest on Star Alliance, but if you have one then feel free to add it. If you read my strategy, it was to find a flight across the pond then you can easily cobble together intra-Euro flights once across. The most challenging part of any award itinerary is getting over the water.

[boulders]

The nice thing about American Express Membership Rewards is that you can use just some of them to offset the cash price of the ticket. Generally it's about a 1:100 ratio, so 52000 points would get you a $520 discount on a ticket. This allows you to book all your travel on one ticket.

 

The 30000 United miles won't really do much for a transatlantic ticket.

[6rugrats]

The nice thing about American Express Membership Rewards is that you can use just some of them to offset the cash price of the ticket. Generally it's about a 1:100 ratio, so 52000 points would get you a $520 discount on a ticket. This allows you to book all your travel on one ticket.

 

The 30000 United miles won't really do much for a transatlantic ticket.

 

I would disagree. 30,000 UA miles will get you a one way award economy ticket from the US to Europe. A better value to me, would be using the 52,000 mikes for another one way (but not economy on BA).

[TruckerDave]

Well I am not aware of any nonstop flights from the North America to Budapest on Star Alliance, but if you have one then feel free to add it. If you read my strategy, it was to find a flight across the pond then you can easily cobble together intra-Euro flights once across. The most challenging part of any award itinerary is getting over the water.

 

If one wants to stay on Star Alliance they would have to connect via Germany, Sweden or Switzerland form the US. Depending on where "near New Orleans" the OP lives they might be better off driving to Houston and hopping a LH or UA flight to FRA and connecting from there.

[FlyerTalker]

If one wants to stay on Star Alliance they would have to connect via Germany, Sweden or Switzerland form the US. Depending on where "near New Orleans" the OP lives they might be better off driving to Houston and hopping a LH or UA flight to FRA and connecting from there.

There's also Turkish through IST.

[nolatravelgirl]

If one wants to stay on Star Alliance they would have to connect via Germany, Sweden or Switzerland form the US. Depending on where "near New Orleans" the OP lives they might be better off driving to Houston and hopping a LH or UA flight to FRA and connecting from there.

Did you even bother to read my list? Seriously what is so hard to comprehend about this. Find a flight across the water and then look for additional flights. Sure it would be awesome for the OP to catch the non-stop IAH-FRA flight on LH and then catch a nice FRA-BUD flight, but if one really wants to use FF miles they may need to look at other non-gateway flights and then try to improve things as the time gets closer. If the OP gets an IAD-LHR or EWR-CDG flight then it would easy to tack on a LHR-FRA-BUD or CDG-ZRH-BUD (lots of possible combos) to get to the cruise.

 

When using award miles one must think outside the box. Sure if you ONLY want the most direct route on your ideal days then good luck, you will liekly never find those types of tickets this far out, much less 2 on the same flight.

[FlyerTalker]

If the OP wants to really "work" the system, and do the work to find the flights, they might be interested in Award Nexus, which is a pretty good tool for helping to find those offbeat routings. Just do a search and see if it might work for you.

 

One note of warning....it is NOT a simple point & click tool.

 

The other option is an award booking service. There are several good ones out there.

[6rugrats]

nolatravelgirl - there is no need to hobble together an award ticket if you don't have to. There is lots of availability without doing so for OP for next September and her routing. No, I didn't read your list, I am aware of various ways to get a TATL award ticket and understand it well.

 

OP - you don't give your exact travel dates, but I see a lot of availability using Mileage Plus miles and searching on UA's webpage, for MSY-BUD next September @30,000 miles one way. D

 

I also see most of next September wide open for Saver award tickets using MP miles for AMS-MSY with pretty good routing for some dates. Go to UA's page and look.

 

You'd have to check the airlines to which you can transfer your AMEX points and see their availability.

[TruckerDave]

Did you even bother to read my list? Seriously what is so hard to comprehend about this. Find a flight across the water and then look for additional flights. Sure it would be awesome for the OP to catch the non-stop IAH-FRA flight on LH and then catch a nice FRA-BUD flight, but if one really wants to use FF miles they may need to look at other non-gateway flights and then try to improve things as the time gets closer. If the OP gets an IAD-LHR or EWR-CDG flight then it would easy to tack on a LHR-FRA-BUD or CDG-ZRH-BUD (lots of possible combos) to get to the cruise.

 

When using award miles one must think outside the box. Sure if you ONLY want the most direct route on your ideal days then good luck, you will liekly never find those types of tickets this far out, much less 2 on the same flight.

 

No need to get snippy. And NO I didn't read every single airport combo in your long list. There is also no need to do separate bookings, with the TATL as one reservation and then another one or two to either get from MSY to the gateway city and from whatever Euro hub to BUD.

 

I just picked two random dates in Sept for a MSY-BUD/AMS-MSY award trip on UA (and partners) and it priced out at 135k miles RT. (over in first and back in econ). ((MSY-IAH-IST-BUD//AMS-ORD-MSY))

[nolatravelgirl]

No need to get snippy. And NO I didn't read every single airport combo in your long list. There is also no need to do separate bookings, with the TATL as one reservation and then another one or two to either get from MSY to the gateway city and from whatever Euro hub to BUD.

 

I just picked two random dates in Sept for a MSY-BUD/AMS-MSY award trip on UA (and partners) and it priced out at 135k miles RT. (over in first and back in econ). ((MSY-IAH-IST-BUD//AMS-ORD-MSY))

Doesn't look like you searched for two tickets. Second of all the IAH-IST is operated by TK which would book into business class not first class. However if the OP were to use the "find the overseas portion first" they would have found out that there is good availability nearly everyday in business on TK from IAH-IST then they could work on other options from there. I personally was not impressed with TK, but if connecting in IST is an option they are okay with then great as a lot of people are not keen on connecting in a Muslim country that is currently a hot bed of terrorist activity then sure.

 

 

See the following two screen shots.

 

two travelers

TK Business

[TruckerDave]

Doesn't look like you searched for two tickets. Second of all the IAH-IST is operated by TK which would book into business class not first class. However if the OP were to use the "find the overseas portion first" they would have found out that there is good availability nearly everyday in business on TK from IAH-IST then they could work on other options from there. I personally was not impressed with TK, but if connecting in IST is an option they are okay with then great as a lot of people are not keen on connecting in a Muslim country that is currently a hot bed of terrorist activity then sure.

 

Leaving the whole Muslim country comment aside :roll eyes: I still don't understand your point. I just did another search (using 2 travels this time) and found MSY-ORD-MUC-BUD//AMS-IAH-MSY in Sept for TWO travelers. (going over was UA to MUC in biz/first then LH in biz to BUD, UA in econ all the way back) for only 430k miles. No need to break it up and search for the TATL part first.

Edited January 29, 2015 by TruckerDave

[6rugrats]

Muslim countries and terrorist activity? I wouldn't hesitate to connect at IST.

 

I agree that it appears OP will not have to cobble together flights, but she doesn't have 430,000 miles either.

 

OP, if you come back and post exact travel dates, and also the airlines to which you can transfer your AMEX miles and Chase miles (UA?), you can get more specific help.

 

With award tickets, sometimes you have to take what you can get.

[greatam]

but if connecting in IST is an option they are okay with then great as a lot of people are not keen on connecting in a Muslim country that is currently a hot bed of terrorist activity then sure.

 

 

OT and not helpful to the OP

 

BUT this statement is waaaaaay off base. I've spent too much time working in the Middle East in the last 8 years to listen to nonsense like this. And taken waaay too many flights on a myriad of airlines and routings and will say you are FAR off base.

 

While transiting through Baghdad, Tripoli, Tehran, Sana'a, Peshawar, Kabul, etc etc is probably not the sanest idea in the world, those countries also have CRAPPY airlines so why would you bother? But Istanbul, Kuwait City (they LOVE Americans in Kuwait-we saved their country), Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Amman, etc. etc as transit points???? Some of the best airlines in the world are based in those cities (Kuwait City-not quite up to Emirates/Etihad/Qatar standards but getting better). And some of the fastest, best connections with absolutely luxurious airports to Asia/Australia/Africa/Europe from the USA. The amount of flights to Europe from the Middle East is astounding. Those Middle Eastern ladies LOVE to go shopping in Europe. And the prices-sometimes so cheap you couldn't afford to pass.

 

Emirates was having a sale from the USA about 8 months ago-$698 RT coach from JFK to Dubai. It was cheaper for us to send three employees via Dubai and BACK to Germany for a food show on a separate ticket than it was to purchase JFK to FRA or MUC. And as inducement, they got a lot of miles, got to spend two days in Dubai which they had never seen before and I popped for dinner at Al Mahara at the Burj. Even adding in the pretty pricey dinner, we came out just about even moneywise and have 3 employees who are still gushing over their Middle East experience.

 

Your "hotbed" of terrorism is about 1500 miles off base.

Edited January 29, 2015 by greatam

[Gardyloo]

The OP is probably hiding under a desk at the moment.

[nolatravelgirl]

This trip can be yours for the low low price of 430,000! Where did the OP say they had that many miles?

 

I personally have no problems with IST. As you can see in my signature line I took a cruise this summer that was roundtrip out of IST and was quite pleased with my experience in the city and the airport. However many people will not go to Istanbul and think of it as a big scary place where terrorists were bred. When I posted about my cruise on Facebook to friends and family many people contacted me and wanted to make sure I was "informed" of the situation. Lots of folks would not be comfortable in IST.

 

I did take TK for two segments and found their service and seats to be pretty mediocre, especially if you are going to fly and pay a premium for F tickets using UA miles.

[jkoj]

WOW, thanks so much to everyone for all of the help! We are cruising on an AMA cruise leaving Budapest on Sept 16 and arriving Amsterdam Sept 30. We plan to spend 5 days in Budapest and 5 days in Amsterdam before and after. This gives us some wiggle room as we could stay more or less on either end as long as total trip doesn't get extended much. All of the responses have helped so much with my searches. It looks like I could possibly add the chase points to United for the return trip and transfer the Am Express points to BA to get there.

[6rugrats]

Good! Just be very careful with BA. Award tickets on BA metal can have so much in fees added, that you may have well purchased a ticket with cash. Look for availability on AA, it will be less expensive.