Questions and Answers

Hello, all. Just getting into the hobby now, and seeing what options there are for travel to the Philippines next summer from Florida. I have not seen much (if any) commentary from Lucky etc re: this option. Any/all help would be appreciated. Thank you!

[USER=909]@Echodoc1[/USER] welcome! It would be useful to know what mileage options you have available to best help you.

And what airport you are planing/hoping to fly into might also help.

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 8261, member: 79″][USER=909]@Echodoc1[/USER] welcome! It would be useful to know what mileage options you have available to best help you.[/QUOTE]
currently 100k Amex, 100 K Delta, 65 K UR; aiming for MNL. Can leave from TPA or MCO

[USER=909]@Echodoc1[/USER]

What class of service are you looking for?

Are you willing to use cash or miles to position inside the US for more flight options? Or do you have to leave on a long haul from TPA or MCO?

The perfect flight would of course be MCO-DXB-MNL on Emirates, but you don’t have the right points for that.

Is there a chance that you could pick up the Alaska credit cards? Private plus business cards would get you 50K points just for signing up and paying the annual fees, plus Alaska will sell you as many miles you need. EK J would be 75 K points, F 100 K points one way.

Alaska miles are also good for Cathay Pacific, on an award ticket Alaska allow using their own flight plus one partner.

So Alaska out from MCO to the West Coast/Vancouver and a CX flight from there connecting in HKG to MNL? 50K in J or 70K in F O/W, R/T is double of O/W

If you are able to position inside the US consider transferring Amex and UR points to Singapore Krisflyer and fly SQ US-EU/Asia-SIN-MNL

They have lower award rates if you just fly SQ, and a 15% discount for booking online.
[URL]http://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/ppsclub-krisflyer/RedeemMiles_SQMI/[/URL]

If my math is correct (always a bit risky) you would need 144,5K Krisflyer miles for R/T flight in J JFK-FRA-SIN-MNL. F would be 187 K Silverkris after discount R/T.

One-ways would be 73 K in J and F 93,5 K after discounts.

There is also the options of transferring UR points to Korean or Amex MR and UR to Virgin Atlantic, but I can remember/know much about their programs. Maybe [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] can help?

Korean fly into MNL, using Virgin Atlantic points you would be on a partner like Air China or ANA.

Just an advice for the future if you are planing to return to MNL, consider stocking up on AA miles true getting their credit card and then fly Cathay Pacific or JAL there since AA have very good award rates to Asia in general.

Coming back, remember the SQ redemptions originating in MNL are exempt from fuel surcharges. So if you go both ways on SQ, book it as two one-ways. You won’t get the free stopover you get on a round trip, but you can pay (I think) US$100 for one stopover in Singapore per one way and still come out ahead. Depending on your origin city with the US, you will fly via NRT, SFO, ICN, DME or FRA. Not sure if you can stop over in this intermediate stop under this policy.