Barclay (Princess Credit Card)

[frugaltravel]

51 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

I am pretty sure that a Southwest flight with companion pass would have beat most other trips to Honolulu on points.  I could be wrong.

Southwest doesn't fly to Anchorage so yes, in this case you were incorrect.  Plus, I often fly alone so the WN companion pass is not relevant to me.

 

Quote

I don't book last minute flights.  I tend to book the shortest flights that fill up the fastest to get the bulkhead seats right at 330 days.

 

This is an interesting conversation for me.

 

My question is?  How do you book through the partner airlines to get to American and United.  I see their partners.  However when I book through their websites I have difficulties.  For example suppose I book through Air Canada to get to United.  United may not have a SuperSaver flight and I am stuck on a long flight up to Canada to get down to Argentina.  To get to American Airlines flights I found the same, I could go through Qantas but Qantas was not a good value in points unless flying to Australia.  With the partner airlines you have to find the supersaver flights which do not seem to be available around the holidays.

 

Again, it all depends.  But I often find partners charge fewer miles for many flights than the US airlines charge.  I am not sure what you mean by "supersaver flights."  That term is usually reserved for tickets paid for with cash, not miles.  I go to ANA or Air Canada to book United flights sometimes.  I go to British Air or JAL to book American Airlines flights sometimes.  I only do this for the lowest award/mileage tickets.  Also, the partners only have access to the cheapest award levels.  Usually one sees MORE availability through a partner not less.  So I am not sure how you are looking.

 

Quote

 

My experience on British Airways is that they tend to have high taxes coming into and out of Heathrow.  Yet I am flying on an AA/British Airways flight out of Heathrow in first class for less points than economy.

 

BA has higher taxes when booking BA flights, but AA flights booked through BA don't.

 

Edited January 18, 2020 by frugaltravel

[NMTraveller]

23 minutes ago, frugaltravel said:

Southwest doesn't fly to Anchorage so yes, in this case you were incorrect.  Plus, I often fly alone so the WN companion pass is not relevant to me.

 

 

Again, it all depends.  But I often find partners charge fewer miles for many flights than the US airlines charge.  I am not sure what you mean by "supersaver flights."  That term is usually reserved for tickets paid for with cash, not miles.  I go to ANA or Air Canada to book United flights sometimes.  I go to British Air or JAL to book American Airlines flights sometimes.

 

 

BA has higher taxes, but AA flights booked through BA don't.

 

My issue is that I could not find United flights through Air Canada around the Christmas holidays going down to Argentina.  I could only find Air Canada flights.  My limited research showed that the partner airlines had access only to United's supersaver flights/fares.  I could be wrong.  I am new to booking United flights through partners.  I did see the flights on the United website.  Do I need to call Air Canada on the phone to get the United flights?  The flights that it did show were flights up to Canada and then down to Argentina using Air Canada.  Could it be that Air Canada does not post the American Airlines flights at 330 days?

 

I also went to British Air to book a flight down to Argentina.  It did not show the AA flights.  It wanted me to fly to Heathrow and then to Argentina.  I must be missing something here.

 

It is nice to know that you can book AA through British Air without the high taxes.  I will go that route next time when going to Europe.

 

I am new to booking through the partners and understand that I don't know the ins and outs yet.

Edited January 18, 2020 by NMTraveller

[trvlwrld]

I just redeemed my points for a $450 statement credit with Princess Visa-had absolutely no problems. We’ve had our card for several years and so far it has worked seamlessly.  Different cards work for different people for a variety of reasons.  

[CRUISEWITHH]

21 hours ago, JoAnneNYI said:

Gee, glad I did my credit 2 weeks ago! Had no problems doing it online. There were lots of problems when they switched  to a new software 2 years ago or so.  I have two phone numbers saved that may be useful if still in service.  866-928-3106 and 866-872-6248

Thank you for posting those phone numbers.  I don't  know if these are specialists or what but they recognized that the system was not working properly and made a manual adjustment (at least they told me they did).  I told the service rep that I had called twice during the week and was very upset that this system error had not been corrected in all that time. 

 

I will jot down these numbers for future use.

 

I also appreciate everyone who has posted their various suggestions for other credit cards but we are no longer traveling by plane.  We can still take cruises that start or end in Los Angeles and so that limits us to Princess cruise line.