Questions and Answers

Hi all! Long time, first time.

I was wondering if someone could lend some advice on an award booking given my particular miles situation. I’m trying to book roundtrip business award tickets from New York to Tokyo this upcoming October, and am struggling to figure out my best option. I have ~20k United miles, ~75k Amex MR points, ~100k Chase UR points, and ~30k Singapore miles. I was thinking I might book ANA one way using United miles (after having transferred enough Chase points over), and then buying Alaska miles to redeem a Cathay business award on the way back.

Thoughts on the best option? I’m fine with purchasing miles, but think I’d prefer to use what I already have.

Now, the award on hard mode: I’m traveling with two buddies of mine who don’t collect miles at all. Any options for them? I was thinking they could buy Alaska miles and we could wait last minute to book (since availability on Cathay seems to open way up last minute), but not sure if it’s worth the risk. If it doesn’t go well, they’re probably never going to start collecting miles…

Have you considered Korean Air? You have enough points with Chase UR for one way business (62500) or one way First (80000) to Japan.

If your friends can open up the Chase Sapphire Preferred, add an authorized user, and then open the Freedom/Freedom Unlimited and add an authorized user, they should also have enough for a one way Korean award. Their awards are pretty much consistently available and you may find an internationally configured aircraft for the short ICN-TYO leg. They can also meet some of that spend by buying AS miles for the return on CX.

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 17819, member: 29″]Have you considered Korean Air? You have enough points with Chase UR for one way business (62500) or one way First (80000) to Japan.

If your friends can open up the Chase Sapphire Preferred, add an authorized user, and then open the Freedom/Freedom Unlimited and add an authorized user, they should also have enough for a one way Korean award. Their awards are pretty much consistently available and you may find an internationally configured aircraft for the short ICN-TYO leg. They can also meet some of that spend by buying AS miles for the return on CX.[/QUOTE]

Great advice! Thanks a lot. I’ll check out Korean Air. Have you booked awards through them before? Is the website functional, or do you reckon phone agents are the best option?

I havent booked an award before but I’ve tested it and it works fine. You can only book if you have enough points. If you call them, they can place the award on hold for you and KE’s policies are pretty generous. So in your case, use the website to check availability, then call to place the award on hold. Just make sure each one of your friends has their own SkyPass account and they hold the award with their own account and information.

Just note that each of your friends must book awards from their OWN Korean accounts – you cant book awards for them using your own SkyPass miles. One workaround for this is adding them as authorized users to your Chase Sapphire account and transferring points to their KE SkyPass accounts, if you wanted to.

Good advice, and sounds like this might be helpful! [URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/02/14/how-to-redeem-korean-air-skypass-miles/[/URL]