Questions and Answers

Hello!
I’m planning a late December 2016 trip from Boston to Nairobi and back from Kilimanjaro to Boston (with a preferred 3 day stopover somewhere in the UAE). I plan to use your award ticket service again but I’d like to spend the next 3-4 months earning the best miles for the trip before the award seats are released. But my head is spinning with all the options! I’ve got 25k Alaskan, 250K AA, 18k SPG, 85k Citi Thank You, and 75k Ultimate Rewards. I was looking into using QMiles for the return but can’t find much about the program rules. I’m hesitant to enter to world of Skymiles given what I’ve read about the program. Any direction would be great! Thanks!

Hello!
I’m planning a late December 2016 trip from Boston to Nairobi and back from Kilimanjaro to Boston (with a preferred 3 day stopover somewhere in the UAE). I plan to use your award ticket service again but I’d like to spend the next 3-4 months earning the best miles for the trip before the award seats are released. But my head is spinning with all the options! I’ve got 25k Alaskan, 250K AA, 18k SPG, 85k Citi Thank You, and 75k Ultimate Rewards. I was looking into using QMiles for the return but can’t find much about the program rules. I’m hesitant to enter to world of Skymiles given what I’ve read about the program. Any direction would be great! Thanks!

Hi Rebecca!

If you want a stopover in the UAE, then using Alaska miles will be the obvious choice for the return. You can transfer them over from SPG, pick up their card, or just buy them during a promo.

I’d definitely try to use your AA miles on the outbound for travel on Qatar or even Etihad.

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 9330, member: 7″]Hi Rebecca!

If you want a stopover in the UAE, then using Alaska miles will be the obvious choice for the return. You can transfer them over from SPG, pick up their card, or just buy them during a promo.

I’d definitely try to use your AA miles on the outbound for travel on Qatar or even Etihad.[/QUOTE]

Hi Tiffany! Thanks for the quick reply! I’ve already got the SPG business and personal cards, as well as the Alaskan Visa. I could get the business version of the Alaskan visa. How many points would I need to fly JRO-DXB (stop)-BOS in business class? That seems to be the one-way I need to earn more miles for. And how many AA miles in business for the outbound BOS-NBO? Thanks so much!

[USER=1096]@Rebecca[/USER]

Welcome.

Alaska’s Emirates charts for travel to/from Africa, Middle East, and India
[URL]https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/award-chart/award-chart-Africa.aspx#emirates[/URL]

Note that the difference between J and F is small.

For a general primer on redeeming AA miles this article by Lucky is recommended.
[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/04/12/how-to-redeem-american-aadvantage-miles/[/URL]
AA partner chart is here:
[URL]http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/redeemMiles/all-partner-chart.jsp[/URL]

You would need 75K for J and 100K for F on the route US (BOS)-NBO, connecting either in Europe or Doha.

[USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER]
How Etihad work US-Africa on AA miles when the rules says must connect in Europe or Doha? US-AUH-DOH-Africa? Have heard it can be done, but what is the success rate?

[USER=268]@No Name[/USER] — Etihad would price as two awards, typically, but it can still be worth it based on availability. Less of a concern for Boston, but if you’re on the West Coast it can be better than all the extra domestic flights.