Questions and Answers

Hi. I’ve been saving Citi ThankYou points for three years and I am trying to cash them in so I can move over to Chase Sapphire.

I have 346,932 ThankYou points and all I want is (2) round-trip business class tickets from NYC to Singapore and/or Kuala Lumpur. The dates are totally flexible, the only criteria is that we spend two weeks there and be in Malaysia for a wedding on 10/21/2017.

Trying to get pointed in the right direction. I’ve found a couple of award flights but I’m nervous to transfer all my points to an airline program without being certain that the flights are available. Some airlines’ websites don’t let you see the award flights if you don’t already have the miles available which is not helpful.

Eva Air looks promising. Cathay and Singapore availability looks scant. Etihad prices are absurdly high. Qatar, Malaysian, and Thai won’t even let me see a schedule with 0 miles in my account.

Am I missing something? Is October too late to be thinking about booking award travel?

Thanks for your help! c

I was
[QUOTE=”chadstone30, post: 31748, member: 3209″]Hi. I’ve been saving Citi ThankYou points for three years and I am trying to cash them in so I can move over to Chase Sapphire.

I have 346,932 ThankYou points and all I want is (2) round-trip business class tickets from NYC to Singapore and/or Kuala Lumpur. The dates are totally flexible, the only criteria is that we spend two weeks there and be in Malaysia for a wedding on 10/21/2017.

Trying to get pointed in the right direction. I’ve found a couple of award flights but I’m nervous to transfer all my points to an airline program without being certain that the flights are available. Some airlines’ websites don’t let you see the award flights if you don’t already have the miles available which is not helpful.

Eva Air looks promising. Cathay and Singapore availability looks scant. Etihad prices are absurdly high. Qatar, Malaysian, and Thai won’t even let me see a schedule with 0 miles in my account.

Am I missing something? Is October too late to be thinking about booking award travel?

Thanks for your help! c[/QUOTE]
i was in the exact same situation last year. I used Point Pros from One Mile at a Time. They found me a flight with less miles and they took care of everything. Great service.

Hi Chad,

Here is an article Lucky previously wrote about the time it takes for Thank You points to transfer to its various partner programs:

[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2017/03/22/how-long-do-citi-thankyou-points-transfers-take/[/URL]

Based on your points balance, I think your best bet would be transferring to Singapore Airlines. You will need 368,000 points return, although if you are close you are able to purchase more Krisflyer miles at the time of booking.

One benefit of SQ is that the price is the same going from NY to Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, and SQ allows you to book a free stopover on return tickets. This means you could include your flights between Malaysia and Singapore on the one booking if your desired dates are available.

Other bloggers have previously had luck asking SQ over the phone if they will hold an award reservation to allow for points to transfer. See: [URL]http://www.pointhacks.com.au/krisflyer-award-hold-question/[/URL]

So, if you want to avoid all risk, use Singapore’s website to find space around the time you wish to travel, and call SQ and ask them to put it on hold for you and then transfer the miles over.

[QUOTE=”Vito, post: 31755, member: 2956″]I was

i was in the exact same situation last year. I used Point Pros from One Mile at a Time. They found me a flight with less miles and they took care of everything. Great service.[/QUOTE]

Vito. What was the fee you paid pointspros? Did you pay up front or only after they found you a good redemption? Did they do it for you or did they just do the research and you had to do the actual reservation? Thanks! c

Welcome [USER=3209]@chadstone30[/USER] – for more info about PointsPros just visit their website at pointspros.com. There is information there about pricing and I know they have a couple of different options regarding actually booking the ticket.

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 31778, member: 184″]Welcome [USER=3209]@chadstone30[/USER] – for more info about PointsPros just visit their website at pointspros.com. There is information there about pricing and I know they have a couple of different options regarding actually booking the ticket.[/QUOTE]

pointspros got back to me and said they weren’t able to help right at this moment. any other recommendations for similar services? thanks, c

Gary Leff of View From the Wing also has a service as do the folks at The Points Guy, Scott of Mile Value and many, many other bloggers.