I think people spend too much time focused on the past, at least when using selective memory. It’s like when people talk about “the good old days of flying,” when service was good, people dressed up to fly, etc.
What they selectively forget is that flying is a fraction of the price it used to be, and that in many ways getting on a plane isn’t that different than getting on a bus. The way I see it, it’s a net positive that flying has become so accessible. Similarly, while some elements of flying are less luxurious than in the past, that’s not the case across the board — there weren’t showers on planes 30 years ago.
The same concept is probably true when redeeming miles. My goal with this post isn’t to say that “the good old days” of award redemptions are behind us (there are still many amazing award sweet spots), but rather to look at some of the award redemption possibilities from past years that I miss.
I’ll share these roughly in chronological order of when they were pulled, and I’m curious how many OMAAT readers remember these deals. For those who have been around miles & points for a long time, I hope you’ll share any deals that come to mind as well. Here we go…
In this post:
Aeroplan first class awards from the US to Asia for 120,000 miles
Air Canada’s Aeroplan frequent flyer program used to offer the best premium cabin redemption rates of any program out there, in my opinion. For 120,000 miles you could fly roundtrip from the US to Asia with no fuel surcharges. Best of all, you could have two stopovers in addition to your destination, and you could route via Europe.
San Francisco to Munich to Zurich to Bangkok to Hong Kong to Seoul to Frankfurt to Seattle for 120,000 miles in first class with no carrier imposed surcharges? Yes please.
In 2011 Aeroplan devalued its award chart, and shortly thereafter Aeroplan also added carrier imposed surcharges on most partners. The Aeroplan program has been completely reinvented since then, and still has some great award redemption opportunities.
Lufthansa opening 4-8 first class award seats in advance
Lufthansa used to be one of the most generous airlines in the world when it came to releasing first class award space, even in advance. That’s because Lufthansa used to have Boeing 747-400s with 16 first class seats, so it was perfectly normal to see four to eight first class award seats in advance. It was actually one of the easiest first class products to book with miles.
Then in 2011 Lufthansa shrank the size of its first class cabin, and the 747-400 went from having 16 first class seats to having eight first class seats. That caused a huge reduction in the amount of first class award space, and then shortly after that Lufthansa implemented a policy where the airline would only release first class awards to partner frequent flyer programs at most 15 days before departure.
Earning British Midland Diamond Club miles for award flights
British Midland (bmi) is my favorite airline that I almost never flew. The airline had one of the best frequent flyer programs in history, though unfortunately British Midland was eventually taken over by British Airways.
Not only did bmi make it super easy to qualify for Star Alliance Gold status, but the airline was known to credit miles for award flights. As if that’s not cool enough, Diamond Club had among the most lucrative mileage earning rates of any program — under some circumstances, Lufthansa first class tickets would earn 600%+ miles. You could basically earn back as many miles as you redeemed.
Unfortunately the British Midland Diamond Club program was discontinued in 2012. I can’t imagine why. 😉
Oneworld Explorer awards with wild rules
American AAdvantage used to offer oneworld Explorer awards, which were distance based rather than zone based, and allowed unlimited stopovers. American ended up discontinuing them in 2014 (with no notice), though at that point they weren’t even as useful as they were originally.
Back in the day — a couple of years before they were discontinued — the Explorer award cost was based on where you chose to have stopovers, rather than the cumulative distance you flew. Traveling continuously from Tampa to Chicago to Hong Kong to Sydney to Los Angeles to Miami without any stopovers? Well you’re just going from Tampa to Miami — you’ll be charged based on your ~200 mile flight from Tampa to Miami. Yes, that’s actually how this was enforced.
Obviously that was too good to last.
Being able to book SWISS first class with partner airline miles
SWISS used to be one of the airlines that made first class so readily available to anyone redeeming miles. I remember that back in the day when SWISS’ A330s had eight first class seats, I’d often see flights with six to eight first class award seats. Being able to redeem US Airways miles for those flights was a heck of a deal.
Unfortunately as of 2014, SWISS went from one extreme to the other. SWISS went from making first class awards wide open for members of partner programs, to restricting them exclusively to Miles & More Senator members and above, meaning that first class awards are off limits for most of us.
There have been some limited opportunities to redeem partner miles for SWISS first class since then, but that was generally when there were glitches.
Star Alliance first class from the US to Asia via Europe for 70,000 United miles
In 2014, United MileagePlus devalued its award chart. While this wasn’t quite as good of a value as some of the above redemptions, using 70,000 miles for something like Los Angeles to Frankfurt to Bangkok in first class was tough to beat.
US Airways business class awards from the US to North Asia for 90,000 miles
I sure do miss US Airways Dividend Miles, and specifically, the ability to redeem just 90,000 miles for roundtrip business class from the United States to North Asia. The best part was that you could route through Europe. The even better part was that Dividend Miles agents were geographically challenged, so you could get away with even more than that. Is Madrid in Spain or Argentina? Frankfurt is really in Kentucky, right? 😉
I have so many amazing memories of Dividend Miles redemptions, like New York to Warsaw to Zurich to Beijing to Addis Ababa to Frankfurt to Washington. I don’t think there’s an award I’ve ever booked more of than this one. Given that US Airways used to sell miles for 1.1 cents each, you could basically book these for $1,000 each. Not a bad deal.
This award redemption was discontinued in 2014.
Domestic US awards via Europe on Lufthansa
Back in the day, LifeMiles’ website would let you book domestic first class awards within the United States on Lufthansa. But wait a second, Lufthansa doesn’t operate flights within the US. That’s correct, so you could do something like Los Angeles to Frankfurt to San Francisco for 25,000 miles in first class, the same price you’d pay for flying United first class from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
There are still many great uses of Avianca LifeMiles, but nothing like this.
25,000 British Airways Avios for transatlantic business class on Aer Lingus
Sometimes distance based award charts work in our favor, and other times they don’t. With British Airways’ old award chart, the program charged just 12,500 miles for economy or 25,000 miles for business class on flights of up to 3,000 miles one-way. As luck would have it, Boston to Dublin covered a distance of ~2,990 miles.
Flying across the Atlantic for the price of a domestic ticket was a steal. Unfortunately British Airways devalued its award chart in 2015, and at this point that award will cost you 13,000-20,000 Avios in economy or 50,000-60,000 Avios in business class.
Cathay Pacific first class for 67,500 American miles (with two seats in advance)
Up until 2016, American charged just 67,500 miles for first class between the United States and Asia in Cathay Pacific first class.
But what I’m really looking back longingly on is when Cathay Pacific used to make two first class award seats available in advance. Now that was awesome. Unfortunately for the past several years Cathy Pacific generally only releases one first class award seat in advance, making it more challenging to book this as a couple. For that matter, availability is even quite limited for a single traveler.
Bottom line
There’s no denying that over the years airline award redemption rates have been devalued, and many sweet spots have been discontinued. At the same time, miles are easier to earn than ever before, and there are still some amazing sweet spot opportunities out there.
Nonetheless I thought it would be fun to look back at some of the best award values over the years. There are many more I can think of, but the above are some of my favorites, and sure bring back some fond memories.
Anyone have exprience with any of the above, or have any other great deals from back in the day to share?
Nobody is going to mention booking domestic flights to Guam with a connection somewhere far away?
Thanks to the knowledge I gained reading OMAT, I traveled to Asia for the first time in 2015 using one of these redemptions: Cathay Pacific First Class for 67.5k AA points. Since then I've taken my mom to Italy, brother to Bali, and girlfriend to Africa. All thanks to OMAT. Cheers!
Back in 2009, I travelled SFO-DXB-BOM r/t in EK F for 115K UA miles + $55 taxes/fees. At that time Emirates was partners with UA and used to have 50% off mileage deals occasionally. Since the SFO-DXB flight had just started a month or so ago they were offering that 50% discount on this route. The regular price used to be 230K miles. At the time I even got the chauffer drive on both ends...
Back in 2009, I travelled SFO-DXB-BOM r/t in EK F for 115K UA miles + $55 taxes/fees. At that time Emirates was partners with UA and used to have 50% off mileage deals occasionally. Since the SFO-DXB flight had just started a month or so ago they were offering that 50% discount on this route. The regular price used to be 230K miles. At the time I even got the chauffer drive on both ends of the flight.
And then I, along with my wife and kids this time, travelled the same r/t, again in EK F in 2017 using 125K SPG points (transferred to Japan airlines) and around the same tax/fees. No chauffer drive this time though unfortunately.
It's sad to know that it won't be possible to get those incredible values any more.
Back in the day, redeemed 100K Delta Frequent Flier miles (before SkiyMiles) for RT ATL-NRT in first. Husband and I were the only 2 in the cabin. Unlimited sushi, soup from a tureen, petit fours. Now that was service.
Until 2016 (or thereabouts): 16000 Etihad points for JFK-BRU J class, Brussels Airlines.
When I first started collecting miles in the 90s, United had a RTW award where you could make 6 stops, continuing in the same direction east or west, in F for 200K points. By the time I had enough, it was gone. I did use the free hotel and rental cars that used to come with the United awards. I would book mine and my wife’s reservations separately so we could double up.
Who here thinks that the old LH F on the 747-400 was better than the current F on their 747-8.
I do!
I came across an old post from 2012 by Lucky when looking up the First Class of the LH 747-400. Quite interesting how much has changed in 12 years, including Ben’s personality (from night owl to an early riser):
https://onemileatatime.com/singapore-for-the-weekend-lufthansa-first-class-new-york-jfk-to-frankfurt/
bmi Diamond Club miles & cash redemptions. Thank to this generous program, I had the chance to experience LH F, LX F, TG F, as well as numerous business class products.
I am very disappointed that you didn't mention KIX-SFO-ICN-SFO-KIX in UA F for 40,000 miles...
Those were the days. I spent 90 minutes today trying to find a reasonable AA redemption from the US east coast to the Middle East on QR or EY in the fall. Impossible. (Lots of BA availability for a not unreasonable number of miles, but over a $1,000 fee.)
More so than the points cost is the availability back then. While fun things require more points now, it's also easier to earn in many cases. But the relative availability has probably decreased 10 fold: fewer awards overall, and way more people on the market. 7 years ago, I almost never had to go outside one program for all my TPAC J/F redemptions, and I always found availability within a day or 2 of my...
More so than the points cost is the availability back then. While fun things require more points now, it's also easier to earn in many cases. But the relative availability has probably decreased 10 fold: fewer awards overall, and way more people on the market. 7 years ago, I almost never had to go outside one program for all my TPAC J/F redemptions, and I always found availability within a day or 2 of my choice (save for Xmas). Today, well if you've looked recently, you know.
So WAY back in the day (mid 90’s, I think), I would redeem 25,000 United MileagePlus miles, for a domestic ticket, which was printed on ticket card stock and mailed to me. At the front of the little ticket booklet I received were two “coupons”; one for a buy-one-get-one-free night at Hyatt hotels and another for a free rental car day with Hertz. So, I would tear those coupons out and save them, then send...
So WAY back in the day (mid 90’s, I think), I would redeem 25,000 United MileagePlus miles, for a domestic ticket, which was printed on ticket card stock and mailed to me. At the front of the little ticket booklet I received were two “coupons”; one for a buy-one-get-one-free night at Hyatt hotels and another for a free rental car day with Hertz. So, I would tear those coupons out and save them, then send the booklet back to cancel the award ticket and redeposit the miles into my account. I repeated this exercise a few times, and soon I was off to Hawaii. I think it was 35,000 miles for a Hawaii ticket at the time, and with my collected coupons, I had a half price stay at the Hyatt Kauai and many days of free rental car. Did this exercise several times and nobody seemed bothered. Those were the days…
Abuse of a generous system is why we end up with mediocre rewards
Ditto the 180k Skymiles round trip JFK - CDG on AFR Concorde, including onward connection to continental Europe. Easy availability.
Also, 140k Skymiles round trip first class US to Singapore on SQ. Loved that one!
AND, 1998, American 100,00 TWO RT tickets on Qantas to Australia, New Zealand, & Hawaii for 30 days. AND, our trip to South Africa with 10 day stopover in London, 70,000 (140K RT) Alaska miles business class: 1st class PDX to LAX; then Biz to LHR - Capetown (four flights in upper deck 747). Great memories!
British Airways MFU.
12500 miles each way to upgrade from paid for long haul premium econ ticket to club world...
Good by itself...but you also still earnt the miles + tier points for the underlying paid for premium econ ticket. If you were a BA gold, that meant you were earning more than, or just shy of what the upgrade was costing you. It also retained the underlying PE fare rules too, so...
British Airways MFU.
12500 miles each way to upgrade from paid for long haul premium econ ticket to club world...
Good by itself...but you also still earnt the miles + tier points for the underlying paid for premium econ ticket. If you were a BA gold, that meant you were earning more than, or just shy of what the upgrade was costing you. It also retained the underlying PE fare rules too, so was either semi or fully flexible.
This was also back when sale rtns could routinely be bought for under $500 (and the exchange rate was nearer $2/£1).
Long gone, but I heavily rinsed that when it was around.
Roundtrip first class IAD-BOM with stopovers in LHR and CAI for 50k TWA miles. Now that is back in the day.
In 2018 my two kids and I got three seats in Cathay first class to hkg from Ord then had a three day stopover in big before flying biz class to Sydney. I think it was 70k Alaska miles.
Not really a publicized award redemption... but does anyone remember Lufthansa's (Miles & More) auction of mileage tickets? As I recall, they were very limited (just a few specific city pairs on specific dates); there were no reserve thresholds, and each ticket auction would run for just an hour or so, maybe even less. I scored two (2!) economy tickets FRA-DFW-FRA for travel in April 2001 for under 25,000 miles. Even though it was 'just'...
Not really a publicized award redemption... but does anyone remember Lufthansa's (Miles & More) auction of mileage tickets? As I recall, they were very limited (just a few specific city pairs on specific dates); there were no reserve thresholds, and each ticket auction would run for just an hour or so, maybe even less. I scored two (2!) economy tickets FRA-DFW-FRA for travel in April 2001 for under 25,000 miles. Even though it was 'just' economy, I still think a round-trip ticket from Europe to the US for ~12k miles a person was just phenomenal. I wish some carrier brought back such auctions--what a fun way to engage members of a FF program.
In early 2010s Status was more valuable than in recent years (looks like it's coming back as a "thing") so this was a thrill at the time: AA Y YYZ-JFK-ORD-NRT-BKK-NRT-ORD-JFK-YYZ during AA's early restructuring. Anyone remember Double.Elite.Qualifying.Miles? That one trip cost me CAD$1071 and earned me 47,000 Elite qualifying miles (nearly half of Executive Platinum requirements).
Other nostalgia:
- ExpertFlyer alerts, before Dynamic Pricing in AAdvantage, Aeroplan
- BR (EVA) abundant last-minute J...
In early 2010s Status was more valuable than in recent years (looks like it's coming back as a "thing") so this was a thrill at the time: AA Y YYZ-JFK-ORD-NRT-BKK-NRT-ORD-JFK-YYZ during AA's early restructuring. Anyone remember Double.Elite.Qualifying.Miles? That one trip cost me CAD$1071 and earned me 47,000 Elite qualifying miles (nearly half of Executive Platinum requirements).
Other nostalgia:
- ExpertFlyer alerts, before Dynamic Pricing in AAdvantage, Aeroplan
- BR (EVA) abundant last-minute J availability for 2,3 pax to/from YYZ for 75,000 AC points
- CX (Cathay) abundant last-minute J availability to/from YYZ for 55,000 AAdvantage points
- Admirals Club access (if flying AA same day) as Amex Platinum Benefit
But Ben is right: earning is so much easier and more programs are worthwhile. The party isn't over.
I remember in 2021 flying to Peru in Polaris business class for 35k each way with multiple open seats.
Dated example: 20,000 AAdvantage miles to upgrade a BA F ticket to Concorde.
While Air France never opened its First to Delta, they did with Concorde.
May 2002, you could get a roundtrip Concorde flight, originating in either JFK or CDG, for 180,000 SkyMiles.
1ways priced out at 160,000... so it really made no sense to not go for it both ways, and you'd almost always been guaranteed a seat, because their load factors were rarely above 60% for the majority of that year, and there was constant inventory.
Ah the old days. I must have booked 200 seats on Swiss First for me and some friends and familly over the years. I knew they would close that loop hole at some point. It just made zero sense to me that you could get First class with points.
180K round trip first class, FOR TWO, from Boston to Sydney, with SYD->CNS and CNS->ADL included. Front of an AA 747, back in the late 90s.
RIP Dividend Miles. I was so routinely charged US-EU points for US-Asia awards that routed through EU that I almost wondered if that was their genuine policy. Direct to Asia, back through EU, r/t based on US-EU points. It was awesome.
The best was a United Airlines Mieage Plus partner redemption on British Midland at the same time a United Airlines transatlantic award was book in the early 1990's. The British Medland award was supposed to cost 10,000 miles but, in the confusion, no miles were deducted. However, this compensated for a few flights that mileage credit was not given.
Obviously missing is the Air France Frequence Plus duo deals, for 180,000 miles you could get a return trip on Concorde for 2 people.
Has anyone mentioned Emirates F suite using Alaska miles? That was my first redemption... for just 100k miles, from SEA-SFO-DXB-HKT, on A380s and free stop over at DXB, two onboard showers and free Mercedes S class limo drop off and pickup at DXB and HKT. Good old days... there were 2 seats available every day.
Yes, what a great redemption Emirates First suite, LAX to DXB with a five night stay then on to Zurich both on an A380 for 100K AS miles and $100 each. Excellent food & beverage choices, as it was our anniversary they asked us what type of dessert cake we liked then proceeded to make it for our "after dinner" delight! The shower experience was incredible and the best service we had experienced at that...
Yes, what a great redemption Emirates First suite, LAX to DXB with a five night stay then on to Zurich both on an A380 for 100K AS miles and $100 each. Excellent food & beverage choices, as it was our anniversary they asked us what type of dessert cake we liked then proceeded to make it for our "after dinner" delight! The shower experience was incredible and the best service we had experienced at that time, May 2016. I would have loved to fly the Concorde with miles but sadly did not.
I've got an Alaska 100K mile Emirates F redemption for you. Way back in January 2016 Emirates still flew the 380 from DFW to DXB. After reading Lucky's tales of showering on a plane and opening many new credit cards and manufacturing spend I wanted to try out this miles/points game. My wife and I spent 100K Alaska miles each to fly from SAN-PDX (23hr plane change and visit friends) PDX-DFW (stay at Grand Hyatt...
I've got an Alaska 100K mile Emirates F redemption for you. Way back in January 2016 Emirates still flew the 380 from DFW to DXB. After reading Lucky's tales of showering on a plane and opening many new credit cards and manufacturing spend I wanted to try out this miles/points game. My wife and I spent 100K Alaska miles each to fly from SAN-PDX (23hr plane change and visit friends) PDX-DFW (stay at Grand Hyatt with expiring award night (it was cat 4 back then) DFW-DXB (4 night award night stop over at Park Hyatt Dubai (also cat 4 back then) DXB to CMB (to start our real trip of South Asia)
Yeah I used the 90,000 miles award on US Airways in January 2014. Flew from YYZ-LHR-ICN-NRT. Then from NRT-LHR-VIE with stopover in VIE, finally back to YYZ. Also the stopover in LHR was 12 hours and enough to see a few sights in the city, so really got 2 stopovers...
There will always be a special place in my heart for 67500 AA miles for CX F USA-Hong Kong being my first major redemption... and my family wondering what the hell I did to book that ticket.
Otherwise, I will have to also add in KE Skypass redemptions when you used to be able to transfer in Chase UR points. 80000 KE miles for a one-way redemption on KE in F for Japan-USA with a...
There will always be a special place in my heart for 67500 AA miles for CX F USA-Hong Kong being my first major redemption... and my family wondering what the hell I did to book that ticket.
Otherwise, I will have to also add in KE Skypass redemptions when you used to be able to transfer in Chase UR points. 80000 KE miles for a one-way redemption on KE in F for Japan-USA with a stopover in ICN was a great deal. I'm also surprised that cheap redemptions for EK with Alaska Mileage Plan haven't been mentioned yet...
60k United miles in 2017 for ANA/Thai First Class (Narita to Singapore on ANA, Singapore to Bangkok to Sydney on Thai) was my first redemption ever and to this day I have not (and likely will never) top it LOL
like half of these basically translate to "frequent flyer programs were dumb as rocks and couldn't figure out how to prevent ridiculous arbitrage opportunities"
programs today are much smarter
Actually, it was a swing after the programs initially had the awards pegged at 50,000 miles for a domestic round trip. It then got down to 20,000 miles and, one year, there was triple miles. It might have been 1989.
US dividend miles… ah yes, I booked YYZ-FRA-PVG-SYD-AKL… good stuff. No geo check whatsoever.
Keep the “good old days” stories coming!
I like seeing and reading about air travel from over 10 years ago, it’s always interesting to see how it’s changed, for better and worse.
Perhaps you could republish some “vintage” trip reports from around when the blog started, if you still have the original photo files lying around anywhere?
I noticed that I can’t access any trip reports on the Insights > Trip Reports page...
Keep the “good old days” stories coming!
I like seeing and reading about air travel from over 10 years ago, it’s always interesting to see how it’s changed, for better and worse.
Perhaps you could republish some “vintage” trip reports from around when the blog started, if you still have the original photo files lying around anywhere?
I noticed that I can’t access any trip reports on the Insights > Trip Reports page older than “Chasing the Sun” from November 2012 as the “Load More” button at the bottom doesn’t seem to do anything anymore.
Are there any older ones that still exist?
@Ben - Maybe you could publish a post with links to your favorite old trip reports. That would definetly be an interesting read.
Didn't United have pretty fantastic pricing between Aus/NZ and Southeast Asia? I think it was 30K in J and 40K in F. AKL-BKK in J for 30K was a steal.
Yep! Ended in November 2017
It’s still 40k on aa for j and 50k for f to Asia from Australia.
And 57.5k united points on biz. I did tpe to nrt on Eva with a 20hr stopover and hnd to syd on Ana in biz last year for 57.5k miles.
While the tickets were 200K each (plus $48 in taxes/fees), my favorite award was...
Continental OnePass redemption for round-trip on Air France Concorde
I took Mom & Dad with me on that one.
My favorite redemption was 30K United miles for SQ business class between SIN and SYD on the A380. That was back when they restricted partner award space on the A380, but generally allowed it on other aircraft. Originally was booked on a 777, but that flight got cancelled and was automatically rebooked on the A380!
Ba Concorde Awards with QF miles was one of my favorite.
on US Airways...how did they get Frankfurt, KY pricing with a 'FRA' airport code? Did they not have FRA hard-coded as a European airport? Or were they using a printed chart with a handheld calculator to manually price awards?
The best award of all time ... Continental Airlines (since merged into United) used to upgrade *any* coach fare into First for 5,000 miles. There didn't seem to be any capacity awards, either.
I can top your US Airways 90,000 miles award to North Asia deal!
I was able to use Dividend Miles to book a pair of business class tickets from CLT to KUL via EWR and SIN on Singapore Airlines in February 2005 for 90,000 miles and $46.80 each. We got to fly the then longest commercial flight in the world (EWR-SIN) round trip. It was an outstanding trip.
When we checked in at the...
I can top your US Airways 90,000 miles award to North Asia deal!
I was able to use Dividend Miles to book a pair of business class tickets from CLT to KUL via EWR and SIN on Singapore Airlines in February 2005 for 90,000 miles and $46.80 each. We got to fly the then longest commercial flight in the world (EWR-SIN) round trip. It was an outstanding trip.
When we checked in at the US Airways counter in CLT, the agent looked at our itinerary and said "Oh, you're flying a real airline."
Well done! That was great value indeed. Couldn't help but laugh at the "real airline" comment. Such a truism in 2005 and today.
Nice. I only got in on the CX redemptions through AA but did that quite a bit when I was an AAdvantage captive for work reasons. How I became acquainted with caviar and champagne after being primarily a beer and potato chips kind of guy.
Envious of all those other generous sweet spots/program rules but back then I only had 10 vacation days a year, so doubt I would have been able to take up...
Nice. I only got in on the CX redemptions through AA but did that quite a bit when I was an AAdvantage captive for work reasons. How I became acquainted with caviar and champagne after being primarily a beer and potato chips kind of guy.
Envious of all those other generous sweet spots/program rules but back then I only had 10 vacation days a year, so doubt I would have been able to take up any of those creative routings.
Idea for another post: how about a recap of some of the most incredible mistake fares we've seen?
31st of December 2018: CX releases Vietnam-US J and F fares for ca. $700 and $900 (iirc). Even as someone based in Europe, if I had known that this fare was around that day, I would've pulled the trigger on F no doubt.
Yep, I took advantage of that one! Snagged HAN-HKG-BOS and BOS-HKG-SGN in F for $1200. Traveled in late fall of 2019.
I was lucky to work for a company and CEO who, when I explained what a mistake fare was, and the situation, gave me a month off. But I still don't think they really understood what the heck I was doing or why.
Used a stash of UA and AS miles to position to...
Yep, I took advantage of that one! Snagged HAN-HKG-BOS and BOS-HKG-SGN in F for $1200. Traveled in late fall of 2019.
I was lucky to work for a company and CEO who, when I explained what a mistake fare was, and the situation, gave me a month off. But I still don't think they really understood what the heck I was doing or why.
Used a stash of UA and AS miles to position to Vietnam via Japan on NH and JL in F. I even used Amtrak points to position to Boston from my home in NYC. It was the most travel I'd ever done in one month, completely exhausting, completely amazing and totally worth it. Got home in December 2019 with plans to do another month-long journey to Australia in spring of 2020.
Little did I know I wouldn't be doing any more travel for quite some time!
I too did the CX F mistake fare, but only in one direction (Asia to US). Even then, it was a great deal. The best part though, was rediscovering Vietnam, which has since become my favorite country to visit.
Two Pan Am first class round-trip tickets from SFO to CDG . . . 100k points total. Sitting next to Bette Davis on the outbound leg. Now, those were the days.
Through early 2014 you could book Lufthansa First for 60K UA miles one way almost anywhere. I flew it in 2012 Chicago-Frankfurt-Nagoya and that was a fantastic experience with a lot of great layover time at the First Class Lounge (and I did do the lounge, not the terminal, as I wanted airplane views) in Frankfurt. I also did it Paris-Frankfurt-Dulles. A wonderful award. Good memories
Many of these awards relied on calling truly stupid call centre staff and convincing them to do whatever you wanted
Took in job in Hong Kong in 2014 and I took advantage of the CX F award using AA miles, good luggage allowance (had 80lbs in 3 bags/suitcases).
Memories!