Questions and Answers

Hi,
My son just got engaged and is going to marry a girl from California. We are from Connecticut and we have six additional adult children we want to fly out for the wedding. I have about 200,000 Ultimate Rewards points and some AA and BA miles.

My wife and I are trying to figure out the least expensive way to get these flights. She doesn’t have a lot of credit cards. What cards do you think she should get and what airline do you think will get us there and back for the least expense? They’ll get married next summer. So we have a little time.

Welcome [USER=3205]@Sodajunkie[/USER] – a few questions so we can help:
– What are the most convenient airports you’ll be flying from/to and are you ok with driving a little if needed? (ex. Maybe Hartford’s closest but you’re OK with BOS or even one of the NYC-area airports.)
– Is it ok if you’re not all on the same flights?
– Is economy ok? (Your chances of finding seats are better and your $$$/points will go farther if it is.)
– Are connecting flights ok? (You’ll have more options if they are.)

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 31693, member: 184″]Welcome [USER=3205]@Sodajunkie[/USER] – a few questions so we can help:
– What are the most convenient airports you’ll be flying from/to and are you ok with driving a little if needed? (ex. Maybe Hartford’s closest but you’re OK with BOS or even one of the NYC-area airports.)
– Is it ok if you’re not all on the same flights?
– Is economy ok? (Your chances of finding seats are better and your $$$/points will go farther if it is.)
– Are connecting flights ok? (You’ll have more options if they are.)[/QUOTE]

Hi MidSouth Skier,

Good questions.

– We prefer Hartford but we are fine with flying out of NY or Boston. Not sure what part of California we will fly into.
– We want 6-7 of us to be on the same flight. We would be willing to pay more to put us all on the same flight.
– Economy and connecting flights are fine.

Thanks.

I’d say try to accumulate as many UR points as possible between your wife and yourself and any adult children who are part of your household. Combine them (Chase allows this for members of a household) and then use the Chase Reserve option to redeem at 1.5cpp to book paid tickets on the cheapest flights you can find. You could also check if you can find United flights or DL flights via KE or Flying Blue that give you saver availability for seven on a flight and transfer to book but that’s going to be much more speculative. You could also get two or three Alaska cards and use the BOGO option to book tickets on AS.

Great advice! It wouldn’t have occurred to me to purchase the tickets with our points. I don’t have Chase Reserve but we have Chase Sapphire. Will that change my rate per point? Is it better than converting to points? I’ll have to read more about the rest to understand their programs.

Thanks!

The advantage of using your URs via the Chase portal is that you don’t have to worry about award availability. It would likely be quite tough to find enough saver award space on the same flight for all of you.

Yes, if you only have the Sapphire your redemption rate will not be quite as good. I think it’s 1.25 cents per point (someone correct me if I’m wrong) if you don’t have the Reserve. But I think the point [USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER] was making is that you’d want some of those other folks to open up their own credit cards so you pool all the points. But to pool them everyone needs to live at the same address so if that’s not the case pooling for everyone may not work.

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 31740, member: 184″]The advantage of using your URs via the Chase portal is that you don’t have to worry about award availability. It would likely be quite tough to find enough saver award space on the same flight for all of you.

Yes, if you only have the Sapphire your redemption rate will not be quite as good. I think it’s 1.25 cents per point (someone correct me if I’m wrong) if you don’t have the Reserve. But I think the point [USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER] was making is that you’d want some of those other folks to open up their own credit cards so you pool all the points. But to pool them everyone needs to live at the same address so if that’s not the case pooling for everyone may not work.[/QUOTE]

I see now. I’m glad I posted my question. You’ve both been very helpful. Thanks!

I assumed as part of the process of accruing UR points that one or more of your family would open a Reserve :).