Better yet, the Companion Pass is valid when
you book an award ticket using Southwest Rapid Rewards points, in addition to tickets purchased with cash!
Fares weren't that cheap so I decided to
book an award ticket using United miles (transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards).
Last night I received a call from a friend who was in a jam — and wanted my help with
booking an award ticket using his US Airways miles.
The FlexPerks Visa is a great card to have as a backup for those who often
book award tickets using traditional airline miles.
You can also
book award tickets using Etihad Guest miles, here is how you can find the availability.
Not exact matches
Can you earn three times as many points by
booking a flight, purchasing your
ticket through a website that offers its own rewards program (like Expedia) and
using a credit card that
awards points to people who
book through Expedia?
With Aer Lingus AerClub, you can
use 26,000 Avios to
book a round - trip economy class
award ticket.
Because Mileage Bank miles are a bit harder to earn, it could be easier for you to
use American AAdvantage miles to
book off - peak economy class
award tickets for 45,000 miles round - trip on flights operated by American Airlines.
Since American AAdvantage
uses a region - based
award chart, the miles required to
book an
award ticket are the same regardless of your city of origin in the United States.
Once you have earned the Travel Together
Ticket, you have up to 2 years to
use it for a round - trip
award booking originating in the United States.
Generally, the only time it makes sense to
book a British Airways first class
award is by
using the British Airways Travel Together
Ticket so you can get 2 first class seats for the miles of on.
For example, an American Airlines frequent flyer can
use AAdvantage miles to
book a flight on British Airways, and the cost of that
ticket will be based on the American Airlines mileage
award chart.
We've already talked about
booking flights on United Airlines with Singapore KrisFlyer miles, but you can actually
use KrisFlyer miles to
book award tickets on Alaska Airlines as well.
Unlike
using Korean Air SkyPass to
book award tickets on Delta to London, you won't get hit with high fuel surcharges.
If you're hoping to
book a business class
award to Hawaii, we suggest
using 45,000 Korean Air SkyPass miles (if you can
book a round - trip
ticket) to fly with Delta.
However, if you have enough miles in your account for an
award ticket, you can
use your miles to
book an employee's travel for them.
Using points to obtain frequent flier miles that you can redeem for
award airline
tickets can yield a much higher point value than
booking flights directly with Membership Rewards points.
Because you can't
use miles from other SkyTeam airlines (like Delta) to
book Flying Blue Promo
Awards, you'll have to
book award tickets with Flying Blue miles.
Perhaps the best way to
book a first class
award ticket to Tokyo is by
using Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles to fly with All Nippon Airways (ANA).
Unlike
booking Korean Air first class, you aren't required to
use Korean SkyPass miles to
book business class
award tickets.
I personally
booked my
ticket using a oneworld explorer
award on American Airlines, but that's no longer available.
Let's take a look at the different airline loyalty programs you can
use to
book your next business class
award ticket.
On Saturday night, a thought struck me: we were scheduled to head home the next day on AirTran, by way of
award tickets booked through Southwest,
using points transferred from Ultimate Rewards.
Using the example above, where we found that the British Airways
award ended up costing about the same as the United partner
award when we value Ultimate Rewards points at 2.2 cents each, now when we
book a companion
ticket for an additional $ 931 we're saving not 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points, but 140,000.
However, if you have enough miles in your account for an
award ticket, you can
use your miles to
book an employee's travel for them.
Last week, I
used my Chase Sapphire Preferred to
book an
award ticket; my Chase Freedom to pay a parking meter; my Citi Forward for the pizza I ordered; my Chase Ink Bold to fill up the gas tank; my American Express Platinum Card to access a lounge; and my Hilton American Express card for some vanilla - flavored medicine at CVS.
When
booking economy class flights, you should always compare the cost of an
award ticket if you transfer Ultimate Rewards points to the cost of
using points to
book through the Chase travel portal.
Next time you are looking to
book an
award ticket and you can't find availability,
use this technique and you may end up finding a flight you like.
The process would remain the same, both in our recommendation of how to
book the
award tickets and how she could
use Arrival to defray the taxes / fees and a large portion of their hotel stay.
The confusion began when the new
tickets were
booked in «Y» class instead of the original «T.» T is the common code
used on
award tickets and Y usually indicates paid coach fare.
You probably can't
book a business or first class
award ticket, since those are significantly more expensive in cash terms than when
using miles.
American AAdvantage miles can not be transferred directly to partners for
use, so you'll likely have to find the flights you are interested in
booking and call American Airlines to
book your
award ticket.
We love Arrival for these kinds of trips because they can be
used to help pay taxes and fees on
award tickets and rewards you for finding cheap cash
bookings at hotels.
To get back, I employed a strategy I
use increasingly often: I
booked my partner on an
award ticket and myself on a paid
ticket using a Delta voluntary denied boarding voucher.
You'd never be want to pay for those seats
using Flexperks or Arrival points as you'd have to spend ungodly amounts to cover the cash cost of the
tickets) To me, the flexibility to
book seats I want, when I want, vastly outweighs maximizing the value I could theoretically obtain IF I could find availability
using «optimal»
award programs.
American Airlines is the only Oneworld airline that operates non-stop flights between the United States and Paris, so you can
use their website to both search for
award space and
book your
award ticket.
AerClub
uses the Avios.com website for all
award ticket bookings.
I actually prefer the multi-city view if I'm only
using ANA to find
award space and not actually planning to
book a
ticket.
This happens slowly, but it's still best to
use your miles when you have an
award ticket you would like to
book and earn more miles in the future.
* Change fee remains applicable to those traveling with the member if they are NOT
booked on an
award ticket using member's miles
With Aer Lingus AerClub, you can
use 26,000 Avios to
book a round - trip economy class
award ticket.
Perhaps the best way to
book a first class
award ticket to Tokyo is by
using Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles to fly with All Nippon Airways (ANA).
We've already talked about
booking flights on United Airlines with Singapore KrisFlyer miles, but you can actually
use KrisFlyer miles to
book award tickets on Alaska Airlines as well.
Flying Blue miles can be
used to
book award tickets with Air France, KLM, Joon, Hop!
On many of these trips, I combined the home exchange with
using frequent flyer miles, getting an exotic 1 - 4 week vacation for no more cost than the small airline fee for
booking an
award ticket.
As far as
booking an
award ticket on a partner flight goes, let's clear something up: If you want to
use Flying Blue Miles to fly to Hawaii on Delta Airlines, you would transfer your UR points to the Flying Blue program, NOT Delta's, and then call Air France or
use their website to
book the partner flight on Delta.
Quick tip: if you are planning on
using miles to upgrade, search for business class
award space prior to
booking your premium economy
ticket.
You have a choice when
booking award tickets to Costa Rica
using United Mileage Plus miles.
One way to take full advantage of the companion fare is to
book a
ticket for yourself and a spouse and
use the miles for another family member's
award ticket.
This is also an
award ticket booked using AAdvantage miles.