Questions and Answers

What should I do? I always collected points with the idea of redeeming only for premium cabins and maximum return. But lately, I’ve been reading how some people are perfectly happy about redeeming their Chase Reserve UR on their portal. So that has me thinking about taking a rather impromptu trip next month to HK for my birthday. I invited my parents too. Would you use ~110k UR points for three economy round trip tickets or try to pay cash? Of course, I would ideally want to save some cash for an unplanned trip, so is using ~110k ‘worth’ it for something like this? I feel almost guilty or that I should know better than to only redeem for 1.5cpm lol!

I have about 580k UR, so I don’t think I would notice 110k being gone right away in that I don’t have immediate plans to redeem the others. I was trying to save 480k UR the last few years in hopes of booking three Korean first class tickets, so I would still have enough for that….

Yay or nay or do a combo (pay cash for some tickets but use UR for others)?

Thanks!

What’s the cash price for the dates you’re looking at?

[QUOTE=”rickyw, post: 53279, member: 1436″]What’s the cash price for the dates you’re looking at?[/QUOTE]
[USER=1436]@rickyw[/USER], they are about $550-750 for each return ticket. I felt $550ish isn’t bad for being about one month out but the $650-750 range is a little high for what I generally see for the Vancouver to HK flights. Thanks!

Agreed that $750 is pretty high. I’d probably redeem points too in this situation. As you said, you’ll still have almost half a million points leftover, which is no small change.

And redeeming points basically gives you an extra $2,000 in cash for your trip, assuming you were okay spending the money regardless.

End of the day, best redemption is one you’re happy with! I say go for it. Happy Birthday!

My opinion on this one is to go with the KoreanAir First Class tickets! You have enough miles it sounds like, and if the availability’s there, it’ll be an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience for you all!

[QUOTE=”rickyw, post: 53329, member: 1436″]Agreed that $750 is pretty high. I’d probably redeem points too in this situation. As you said, you’ll still have almost half a million points leftover, which is no small change.

And redeeming points basically gives you an extra $2,000 in cash for your trip, assuming you were okay spending the money regardless.

End of the day, best redemption is one you’re happy with! I say go for it. Happy Birthday![/QUOTE]
Thanks! I always appreciate your advice.

[QUOTE=”wilve, post: 53438, member: 1486″]My opinion on this one is to go with the KoreanAir First Class tickets! You have enough miles it sounds like, and if the availability’s there, it’ll be an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience for you all![/QUOTE]
Thanks, yes, I do intend to redeem it for that one day! Korean First may be one of the top airlines where it is even possible to book 3 first class tickets together. I feel for that aspirational trip I want to do more trip planning ahead of time.