I may only be 23, though I've been playing this mileage "game" for over eight years now, and have redeemed millions of miles for my travels. I figured it would be fun to reflect on my best award redemptions to date, as it's sometimes interesting (and sad) to reflect on how things have changed over…
Continue reading: My 10 best mileage award redemptions ever
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
When Oneworld was launched in 1999 they had a promotion to earn 100,000 miles for flying 5 member airlines. I ended up with 400,000+ miles including 100,000+ on BA.
So, I did what any normal person would do with 100K BA points and that's fly Concorde. I was picking up a BMW in Munich so I flew via ATL to LHR and then onto MUC in first/business class. The ATL-LHR flight was actually one of my best ever as I was one or two in first and had an awesome experience.
On the return I dropped the BMW in Madrid after a week of driving through Germany, France and Spain and flew MAD-LHR-JFK. I had to overnight at the Hilton Heathrow T4 as the Concorde flight left too early for connections but that's ok 🙂 The flight was incredible, obviously.
If you're wondering how I got the 400K miles I flew STL-ORD-LHR-MAD-PMI-MAD-MUC-HEL-TMP-HEL-MUC-MAD-LHR-ORD-STL-ORD-YYZ-LGA-YYZ-ORD-STL for $1,750....
@willy - My wife and I did that 1999 oneworld 100,000 bonus miles promotion.
RNO-LAS-LAX-YVR-LAX on AA and Canadair.
LHR-MAN BA, MAN-AMS, CX AMS-BCN IB
all return flights eligible for 400,000 bonus miles, but ended up getting 200,000 BA and 100,000 AA since Canadair merged with Air Canada and I foolishly passed on 100,000 Canadair miles that would have become 100,000 Air Canada miles.
Most of your redemption are useless today. And it is difficult to find award place for some routes. I use one award redemption many times for my friends, parents and family. Can you imagine 80000 united miles for three round trip business class trips between Japan-Singapore or China-Singapore?
There are some secret award redemption around the world. Most of these are bugs in the award system of airline. If you let everyone know, airline will fix it immediately. Is there anyway you create a member-only email list or chat group? Only contributor can be the participants and we can exchange the best award redemption and fuel dump. Is that possible?
@Willy... The Concorde... Amazing and I'm very envious!
A recent great use of points for me... Last minute May 24 booked SJC-BUR on SW for 40K and Andaz W Hollywood for 30K AND bought a ticket to see Fleetwood Mac at the Hollywood Bowl!! The redemption was no biggie compared to your list but the sheer fact I had the points and miles for a spontaneous trip is what I value. Sure I could have used fewer SW points if I had planned ahead, but planning this 2 day trip on Friday morning and departing Friday night for next to nothing in cost was a delight to me. It's the reason why we have the points and miles... So we have options!!
Also to Ben... Glad to see this post because it's a very good exercise for you to focus on the joy of what you love to do to balance the flight that shall not be named. This is what it's about for you and your devoted readers. The joy of scoring an incredible redemption on a great aircraft to a new place.
How about a post of the 10 best redemptions that we can get presently? Make this another exercise in what you're looking forward to yourself and for your readers.
Sorry I don't post often but love what you do and wish you all the best. Also thought it was great that you recently flew Luftansa on one of your favorite routes. A Mercedes pick-up, German pretzel rolls and orange Fanta are good for the soul. Someday I will have you book this for me!
Currently on a trip: SFO-HKG/BKK-FRA-LHR/LHR-LAX-DEN in UA, TG F, not spectacular, but nice. And I have booked DEN-IAH-LHR-MUC-BKK-HKG in UA, TG F for 70K (continuing to HKG-SIN-SYD in SQ Suites).
I stumbled on FT right as you were doing the 6 Tpacs and signed up right then and there and have been happy to be along for the ride. Thanks for all the great advice over the years!
Willy - were you also able to redeem miles for the BMW?
(I also picked up a BMW in Munich...alas, the joys of German engineering didn't work out too well for me, so I traded it in along with 500,000 Mileage Plus miles for a Lexus... 🙂
I remember reading that FT thread for #10 -- I wasn't a member back then, but I was jealous of someone my age doing that. 😀
It's so nice to see tons of promotions to redeem miles in States. It's a bit rare to find those promotions here in Asia.
With all respect I'm shocked to know I've been taking credit card advice from a 23 year old.
@ christina -- There are actually plenty of "secret" groups out there already. To be honest I'm excluded from most of them as a blogger, given that the "inside groups" don't like sharing things with bloggers. But I've been thinking about a way to do what you're talking about, and am almost "there."
@ Mary Beth -- Hah, thanks for reading! Will work on a post about 10 best award redemptions out there right now soon as well. Thanks!
@ Jessica -- Which Etihad trip? The first one was indeed a great use of 140K ANA miles but think I've had better values. 90K using American miles for a one-way in first class isn't much of a bargain, in my opinion.
@ Steven DS -- Hah, in fairness have been applying for credit cards for five years now and have an excellent credit score, so think I'm just about as qualified as anyone in that regard.
Have you booked (or are you planning to) the New York-Singapore route with SIA on the A340-500 before it finishes later this year?
Great ones in there. I wasn't on FT as early as #10 took place, that's pretty memorable.
I just hope people aren't compelled to start posting live tricks in their best redemption examples. 😉
Cashed in my expiring AAdavantage "Miles with No Expiration" (yes, quite the contradiction) this past fall for two Business Class tickets: SEA-DFW-NRT-BKK-NRT-ORD-SEA for 75K each (150K total and $158 in fees).
Saw in-laws in BKK, friends in NRT, and since I had 152K in remaining miles, this worked out nearly perfectly.
@ Shane -- Sure have, using Lifemiles. Can't wait to try it before it goes away.
@Lucky. Good for you!!! I've been very lucky with many F class deals as well. Like Cristina, I would love to be part of your group to share.
Love your blog!
How about the 10 best mileage runs? I have a feeling all ten would be the same and involve a certain socal airport.
The good ole days.
Here's mine from the history books: TW award for 100K miles that gave you a free r/t first class ticket (in 3-class) anywhere they flew, PLUS, a first class upgrade (from ANY coach fare to 3-class F) for either a future round-trip or companion anywhere they flew. Simply. Awesome.
Singapore London SQ Suites just as you did for 91,000 Kris mikes. Then from London to Chicago the next day on BA F. Two weeks later Cathay F back to Jakarta ORD HKG CGK.
The Hong Kong Jakarta route is rarely a 3 class plane. Cathay is known to swap out at the last minute anyway. However they did not and I had F all to myself:)
@ vitempest -- I fly about 200,000 revenue miles per year, so that earns me 500,000+ redeemable miles per year all bonuses considered.
Then I apply for a bunch of credit cards through which I earn probably another 500,000 miles per year. Lastly I purchase miles when it's a good value, like through US Airways or Lifemiles.
Long long ago, before there was OneWorld or Star Alliance, SQ/MH/CX jointly operated a frequent flier program. At the inception of that program, there was a bug in the software. Essentially, you can earn miles on redemption flights. That was fun ...
Yeah. I would also love to see a list of your top 10 recommended redemptions right now.
I am 23 also and have a lot of work to catch up with you, Lucky. I think we might have the highest credit scores of any 23 year old in the US. How many open cards do you currently have? I have 14 primary cards currently open and I know that you probably have more than that.
@SteveDS:
The real issue with taking CC advice from someone on the internet is about whether they have your best interests at heart.... and that issue exists regardless of whether the author is 23, 62 or anywhere in between.
AF Concorde. 160k delta points round trip in 2003. Excellent availability - usually four seats per flight.
Last week we booked for next March a one way United first (ugh!) from Newark to Frankfurt, then Thai Airways first class (A-380) from Frankfurt to Bangkok with a three day stopover there. Then Singapore business to Singapore. 175,000 United miles plus $121 for two. Perhaps nowhere near the greatest, but not bad in today's environment.
Lucky,
If you do make an "insiders only" group, what will be the criteria for membership?
Redemptions like your #10 sound incredible.
Very memorable:
LH A380 PEK-FRA in F - only one other pax on that flight in F.
But most importantly: a lot of my friends in Y and C. Why is that noteworthy?
They laughed at my interest about miles for a looong time.
So, that flight? Priceless!
Apart that:
LX in F from PVG to ZRH (first F trip ever)
SQ in F from ICN to SIN and SIN to HKG (with private room invitation in SIN) - as I scored these award tickets during their system change to Amadeus I felt like someone who finally really worked the system...
Ah! And: Alone in F on an older 747 of OZ between FRA and ICN - I was truely treated like a king!
If you come up with a "secret list" please include me.
Nice post. I enjoy seeing some of the possible rewards. My best have been boring compared to your list but I have been able to travel STL to Rome in business with my wife for a med. cruise on MSC. too bad I couldn't earn the cruise with airline miles.
My best was 40k RT in First class using USDM when Russia was classified as N Asia on the award chart. Flew DME-FRA-ICN-HKG-ZRH-DME (LH J, OZ F, OZ J, LX F, LX J)
I'm really interested in taking advantage of US Air's low mileage business awards to North Asia, problem is that most of my miles are with UA. Is there any way to transfer point from UA to US? I also have UR points, would those help?
@ AT -- Unfortunately there's no way to transfer miles efficiently to US Airways from any of those programs. Plenty of great redemptions using United miles as well, so don't be too sad!
Here are few of mine:
27.5k miles on CO (before the website integrated with UA) I flew IST-LHR-DXB-VIE-MUC-TLV-IST-AMM (TK 332, VS 346, OS 763, OS F70, LH 343, TK 321) All in J with IST-AMM throw away so basically a RT ticket when the computer thought it was one way IST-AMM. Stop over (<24 hrs) in LHR, DXB, TLV.
Another one would be 70k UA miles SEA-EWR-YUL-MUC-FRA-NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK-SIN-CGK with LH 343/388 F, OZ 744 F, TG 388/346 F, SQ 772 F with private room FRA FCT, TG BKk TCL and etc.
70k UA Miles HKG-BKK-NRT-FRA-IAH-LAX TG 744/388 F, NH 77W F, LH 388 F
45k AA Miles on AKL-MEL-SIN-HKG-BKK QF 388 F, CX 744 F
72.5k AA Miles PER-SYD-LAX-JFK-YVR QF 388 F, AA 762 F, CX 77W F.
Currently on a trip from HNL-Seoul-Qingdao, Nanjing-Beijing-LAX,STL-Washington DC-HNL. All for 75K United Miles. Slow season traveling is quiet a bargain.
@AT, it's not very efficient, but you can transfer UR points to Amtrak then to US Airways via Points.com.
.
1,000 UR = 1,000 Amtrak = 539 US Airways.
You can also buy US Airway miles with their current promo for 1.88 cpm ( http://travelwithgrant.com/2013/05/23/us-airways-deal/)
Another Gem was the SQ glitch that allowed SQ F to be booked using USDM to N Asia for 120k. JFK-IAH(UA J) IAH-DME-SIN SQ(F) SIN-HKG SQ(J) HKG-SIN-EWR SQ(j). SIN-EWR being the longest flight in the world & all business class seats.
in 2012, using 120,00 Delta miles, I flew Air France A380 from LAX to Paris, Paris to Cairo, stayed 9 days in Cairo, then from Cairo to Paris to Munich, stayed for 13 days, then Munich to ATL on Delta. All business class.
The reservation agent (after I gave him flight segments to price out said "You are very smart. I've never seen this before, you've got a round the world ticket for 120,000 points." 🙂