Questions and Answers

Hey Lucky,

I am a huge fan of your work – keep fighting the good fight!

I live in New Zealand, and I am also studying. The implications of my location and situation are that a) There are almost no *good* credit card offers here (you get a measly $200 Air NZ Airpoints if you sign up for one of the credit cards);
b) As a student I can afford to travel, but am not eligible for some of the big-ticket credit cards (if they did exist in New Zealand).

You post regularly about various places to buy points with bonuses (UA, AA, Avianca, AS etc.) but which is best? You often end your articles by saying “I wouldn’t purchase these speculatively…”, but surely there must be some frequent flyer bonuses that you [I]would [/I]purchase speculatively, if you knew you would use them in the next year?

I don’t mind too much about which alliance the award travel would be in, and most of my travel is around the Pacific and in Asia. I am keen to hear your perspective.

Thank you!

Hayden

Well, if you know you’ll use them in the next year, they’re not really speculative!

If you can position to Sydney, then Alaska miles are great. Otherwise United miles will give you the most flexibility, most likely. Avianca can be good as well, they just have tougher routing rules.