Questions and Answers

hello,

I’m new to the blog an already hooked! I’ve been a pretty excluded delta Amex guy living in Atlanta and racked up 250k miles. The companion airfare and free bags make the card worth it. My wife has recently racked up about 250k chase ultimate reward points. All that to say, we really want to go to Australia or Africa next year, and I really don’t want to sit in economy (At 6’2, that’s not fun), and I’d like to use points.

I will be following your blog closely, but I’d love any general advice you can offer. Also, I am planning to update my “wallet”, so advice on new cards is welcome.

Thanks in advance!
Nolesrb

Welcome [USER=2266]@Nolesrb[/USER]! Australia is do-able but you’ll need to plan far in advance. I’d start looking for award space as soon as your dates open up. The Delta calendar is currently open through late July of next year.

Look for award space on Virgin Australia and on Delta itself. You should be able to book your ticket directly through the Delta website regardless of whether the flight is on Delta or VA metal. Your wife can transfer her Chase UR points to Virgin Atlantic (not a typo!) and then call them to book the ticket on either airline . She would, of course, need to open up a frequent flyer account with Virgin Atlantic. Or, to ensure both tickets are on the same PNR you could book both outbound flights out of one account and the return flights out of the other account. That would tie your tickets together in case something changes.

When looking for award space, look for your longhaul legs first. For example, look for the LAX-SYD portion only. Connecting flights might not be available now but may become available later and you can add them on but even if you had to buy a revenue ticket to get to LA, it’s still better to lock up that most important segment first.

I’m not as familiar with options to Africa so maybe someone else can chime in here.