the secret on getting business class for 50 to 60% off with miles

[Hawaiidan]

If your like me, and have "birthday disease" ( you have it too the symptoms will soon be making them selves known) you dont want to do 10 to 12 hour trans Atlantic or Pacific flights, all over night in coach, unless your a masochist

 

I decided after a lot of experience that Business class was not a luxury it was a necessity so that you did not arrive feeling like you had been tortured in a gulag for several years. Economy plus a joke to get 3 inches of leg room more and 5" of recline....Really...

Business class gives you fill lie flat 6' 6" beds huge fluffy pillows and a duvet plus a 6 to 8 course excellent quality meal served course by course on china and like almost 3 feet of leg room.. Fine wines and liquors unlimited. Its night and day different than domestic anuthing You have no idea how much !!!!

 

Problem... its hard to get mileage based free seats when you book in advance like 330 days out all the way to 5 days before your flight. and they want like 335,000 miles rt !!!! Whats the solution?

 

Well this past march ,I discovered a hidden truth....that is 4 days prior to any departure I have seen, the airlines figure that they are not going to sell any last min $6000+ seats... So they release everything for like 140000 miles rt !!! 60% less.

I used Milage+ UAL star alliance and 4 days out booked a Lufthansa A380, top deck, business class sleeper seat to Lyon france for a 3 day restaurant run ( Paul Bocuse, PIC, Trigosos)

I have since searched the UAL award callenders and found that if you have the patients and moxie , you will always get 4 days or less out these discounts. And the only down side is that if you can not, you can still get a seat for 335,000.... It has worked for me for several years.

 

Now how to get miles, get a UAL credit card for yourself and partner, charge everything from gum to Taxes on it, the miles never expire, You become a member of their Milage Plus program. Now you can earn miles for each $1 you spend. But wait...if you buy miles on their web site you can for 2.1 cents a mile AND when your use your free miles your able to buy back like 5000 to 15000 likes for only 2.5 cents !!! beats the heck out of one mile per $1 !!!

 

So your now armed and dangerous..... you can start flying Business for $2900 rt rather than $6000 to 9000 ! Go get em.......Dan

[travelberlin]

Thanks for this information. I am not able to wait until 4 days before the trip to book a flight. Too many things depend of that fly. But, what I usually do is, I buy premium economy and then upgrade it mit miles to business class. Once I was upgraded automatically from premium to business without paying with additional miles.

By the way I am also a fan of Paul Bocuse. I have heard that he just passed away.

Ivi

[Paulchili]

Dan,

What you describe is correct - most airlines very often release award seats within 1-2 weeks prior to flight if enough premium seats go unsold.

That said, this really only works for a very short trip to France for dinners or London for theater and dinners. Let's also remember that you need to have 2 awards - one to Paris and another one to fly back - making it a bit more difficult.

Very few if any people on these boards can or will use miles in such a way as we here plan for cruises. I couldn't possibly not book a flight for my cruise hoping to get a business award 4 days prior to my cruise. What if there was no award available (they are not guaranteed plus I am limited as to dates). Do I pay top $$$ for last minute business class seats or cancel the cruise?

What I do is get an award at T-335/T-330 for whatever I can find. It may not be the best routing but I have an award. Then when a better routing opens close to flight I change my award - with One World there is no change fee; with Star I pay the smallish fee as I am not elite.

That's the way I do it. :)

[Hawaiidan]

ah yes I remember when I was top of the heap with UAL...I bought the cheapest ticket and the gate always put me in first.. even my wife....those were the days but since the continental merge good by up grades...For 10 years ai never sat in coach.... long gone

Yes Paul died 2 days ago at 91 I ate at Bocuse in March he was there 90 ! sadly the food is old school un changed heavy and un inspored now.... If your in Lyon drive down to Valance and PIC dinner with wine will set you back about $480.00 pp got a 8 course of the most creative and stunning food ever... look it up and get over

[silkman]

Dan,

 

Could you elaborate a little on the part of your thread dealing with buying miles on UAL's website.If I am understanding you correctly, you can purchase miles one mile for 2.1cents(which I am aware of) which does not seem to be cost effective, unless you are close to an award and need a few miles.What am I missing?

 

If your like me, and have "birthday disease" ( you have it too the symptoms will soon be making them selves known) you dont want to do 10 to 12 hour trans Atlantic or Pacific flights, all over night in coach, unless your a masochist

 

I decided after a lot of experience that Business class was not a luxury it was a necessity so that you did not arrive feeling like you had been tortured in a gulag for several years. Economy plus a joke to get 3 inches of leg room more and 5" of recline....Really...

Business class gives you fill lie flat 6' 6" beds huge fluffy pillows and a duvet plus a 6 to 8 course excellent quality meal served course by course on china and like almost 3 feet of leg room.. Fine wines and liquors unlimited. Its night and day different than domestic anuthing You have no idea how much !!!!

 

Problem... its hard to get mileage based free seats when you book in advance like 330 days out all the way to 5 days before your flight. and they want like 335,000 miles rt !!!! Whats the solution?

 

Well this past march ,I discovered a hidden truth....that is 4 days prior to any departure I have seen, the airlines figure that they are not going to sell any last min $6000+ seats... So they release everything for like 140000 miles rt !!! 60% less.

I used Milage+ UAL star alliance and 4 days out booked a Lufthansa A380, top deck, business class sleeper seat to Lyon france for a 3 day restaurant run ( Paul Bocuse, PIC, Trigosos)

I have since searched the UAL award callenders and found that if you have the patients and moxie , you will always get 4 days or less out these discounts. And the only down side is that if you can not, you can still get a seat for 335,000.... It has worked for me for several years.

 

Now how to get miles, get a UAL credit card for yourself and partner, charge everything from gum to Taxes on it, the miles never expire, You become a member of their Milage Plus program. Now you can earn miles for each $1 you spend. But wait...if you buy miles on their web site you can for 2.1 cents a mile AND when your use your free miles your able to buy back like 5000 to 15000 likes for only 2.5 cents !!! beats the heck out of one mile per $1 !!!

 

So your now armed and dangerous..... you can start flying Business for $2900 rt rather than $6000 to 9000 ! Go get em.......Dan

[buggins0402]

Thanks, I might need this tip in the next week. We had a trip planned to GDL and PVR. Used FF miles and have low mile F booked on the return on DL (not easy to find).

 

However, DH has had a health issue putting the GDL portion out of the question and perhaps the entire trip. GDL was booked economy on AA FF’s. I know I’ll be changing something in the next few days....and we are sitting on almost 200k Sapphire/United points ( but trying to save those for a 2019 Trip).

 

All I know, if we get the medical go ahead, I’ll be frantically searching FF flights this Friday for the following week to PVR.

[rallydave]

 

Problem... its hard to get mileage based free seats when you book in advance like 330 days out all the way to 5 days before your flight. and they want like 335,000 miles rt !!!! Whats the solution?

 

Now how to get miles, get a UAL credit card for yourself and partner, charge everything from gum to Taxes on it, the miles never expire, You become a member of their Milage Plus program. Now you can earn miles for each $1 you spend. But wait...if you buy miles on their web site you can for 2.1 cents a mile AND when your use your free miles your able to buy back like 5000 to 15000 likes for only 2.5 cents !!! beats the heck out of one mile per $1 !!!

 

So your now armed and dangerous..... you can start flying Business for $2900 rt rather than $6000 to 9000 ! Go get em.......Dan

 

Welcome back Dan and glad you now have improved health. Many of your thoughts are excellent but, we will continue to differe in a very few cases like using the UA card for all your travel. Strongly disagree with using the UA card for everything, agree with keeping the UA card as it does open more low mileage seats however especially for people buying expensive cruises, nothing I know of beats the Chase Reserve Card. Triple points on ALL travel including tours and the like, $300 annual travel credit the same day as the charge hits and for those expensive and inexpensive meals, triple points on ALL restaurants. Plus the points transfer for free to many airlines, more than being stuck with only UA. Recently b150K anytime and transferred Chase points, 65K pp (lower than UAL) for a flight to Basel Switzerland with the first flight on Singapore metal. Easy peasy better than any US Carrier and fewer points.

 

Yes, the Chase Reserve is $450 per year but, deduct the $300 travelers will surely get and the triple points and transferability and you will be far ahead of the UAL card.

[Hawaiidan]

Dan,

 

Could you elaborate a little on the part of your thread dealing with buying miles on UAL's website.If I am understanding you correctly, you can purchase miles one mile for 2.1cents(which I am aware of) which does not seem to be cost effective, unless you are close to an award and need a few miles.What am I missing?

 

Well some may differ but I think it is very cost effective. Flying Business say to Zurich is going to set you back around $6000 to$ 9000 if you bought miles at 2.1 cents and used 140,000 that is an out of pocket $2940.---- 50% less than a revenue ticket. You can buy at 2.5 cents a mile mileage back when you use a free trip with miles too !! I am going to BOS from LAX,rt cost me 120K miles for a 6000 ticket got service on PS flights lie flat.. I can buy back 20,000 miles for $500 and I am still saving off the $6000 ticket 120k miles at 2.1= $1748 I spent for a $6000 ticket....

 

I know there are better cards I am inn a rut, and admit it.... sitting on 700,000 UAl miles and 350,000 Marriott to... Plus UAL gives me a 2 for 1 domestic ticket in coach every year, and a 2000 mile bonus.... Rally Dave has a good point as does paul... so you need to consider all options... Mine, Daves and Pauls.....any of which are better than doing nothing.... which too many folks do As to using it on long trips, which I have done I get a 1 way outbound and then 5 days before return go to the UAL site to get a return....It has worked for me every time. You also need to consider I am gainfully unemployed and dont need to be anywhere, anytime for anything... so I have nothing else to do in my shallow and empty life !!!!

[AZjohn]

Great thread and hope others can learn from it before it gets moved (don't think it has anything to do with O).

 

Dan brings up two different methods regarding attaining miles either by purchasing them or credit cards. CC's is a personal choice and pro's and con's with them all. Purchasing miles is always a great value when airlines place them on sale (personally would never spend more than $0.02/mile). Even at $0.02/mile you can get a saver RT business class ticket for half of retail price.

 

Paul brings up my method I learned many years ago. Find tickets close around date and destination at 330+ days out. Going from US west coast to a Med cruise, I'll take any long haul flight anywhere to Europe and then work on a short connection flight if needed. Again, close to departure date many seats open up and just pay a small (or none) service charge for a better date/flight.

 

I have an exact situation like this in May where I want to get to Paris several days before cruise out of Monte Carlo. UA has a non-stop to CDG I know will open up by end of April. But, UA changed the aircraft to a 777 which have started the conversion process (much better business class seats). Problem is, they can switch aircraft at the last second and may get one of the old configurations which are terrible (for UA). I'm not impressed with flying LH business class (First class is a whole different story :))

 

Cheers,

John

[Hawaiidan]

Great thread and hope others can learn from it before it gets moved (don't think it has anything to do with O).

 

Dan brings up two different methods regarding attaining miles either by purchasing them or credit cards. CC's is a personal choice and pro's and con's with them all. Purchasing miles is always a great value when airlines place them on sale (personally would never spend more than $0.02/mile). Even at $0.02/mile you can get a saver RT business class ticket for half of retail price.

 

Paul brings up my method I learned many years ago. Find tickets close around date and destination at 330+ days out. Going from US west coast to a Med cruise, I'll take any long haul flight anywhere to Europe and then work on a short connection flight if needed. Again, close to departure date many seats open up and just pay a small (or none) service charge for a better date/flight.

 

I have an exact situation like this in May where I want to get to Paris several days before cruise out of Monte Carlo. UA has a non-stop to CDG I know will open up by end of April. But, UA changed the aircraft to a 777 which have started the conversion process (much better business class seats). Problem is, they can switch aircraft at the last second and may get one of the old configurations which are terrible (for UA). I'm not impressed with flying LH business class (First class is a whole different story :))

 

Cheers,

John

Thats my point getting a saver ticket for half retail in essence a$ 6000 ticket for $1800 is to me a good deal My next cruise is out of Monaco same as you but I fly to LYON via ZUR or FRA But I am pleased with LH, Swiss and UAL Polaris... I hate first on LH and love Business... enjoy