Questions and Answers

Round trip Boston to Bangkok in Jan. 2018 for our honeymoon in Thailand for 2 weeks.

Unfortunately for me, I just found this website, and don’t really have miles or award points to use. But, the thought of being on a plane for 20 hours in economy is painful enough that it has me looking at paying for a business class ticket on Qatar (on their A350 to Doha and A380 to BKK).

Economy is $1200 round trip. Premium economy is $2200.
I know $5000 is expensive, but is it reasonable for a trip like this?

I think that’s pretty reasonable. In June I flew ORD-LHR in (refundable) business class and it was more than that so $5000 seems not out of the ordinary.

Make sure you credit your miles earned to a FF program where you’ll get use from them! And if you have a new credit card there’s a perfect way to meet minimum spend.

Hi [USER=3519]@David R[/USER], and welcome!

If you have fixed dates, that’s not unreasonable, but even starting from scratch and outright buying the miles you could probably spend less than that. [URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2017/07/24/buy-united-miles-bonus/[/URL], for example

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 37224, member: 7″]Hi [USER=3519]@David R[/USER], and welcome!

If you have fixed dates, that’s not unreasonable, but even starting from scratch and outright buying the miles you could probably spend less than that. [URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2017/07/24/buy-united-miles-bonus/[/URL], for example[/QUOTE]

Assuming there is award space on your dates, of course!

[QUOTE=”David R, post: 37215, member: 3519″]Round trip Boston to Bangkok in Jan. 2018 for our honeymoon in Thailand for 2 weeks.

Unfortunately for me, I just found this website, and don’t really have miles or award points to use. But, the thought of being on a plane for 20 hours in economy is painful enough that it has me looking at paying for a business class ticket on Qatar (on their A350 to Doha and A380 to BKK).

Economy is $1200 round trip. Premium economy is $2200.
I know $5000 is expensive, but is it reasonable for a trip like this?[/QUOTE]

5k is pretty good for a paid business fare with a flight that long and two legs. Also then you don’t have to worry about award availability and all that stuff. If you can swing it 5k is pretty reasonable especially when it can be way more just for JFK-LHR flight

Like Tiffany said, you can buy the 150,000 United miles (barely shy of the 160,000 needed for a US-Asia roundtrip in Business) for only $2625. However, you still need to get the last 10k miles (possibly from Chase Points on a credit card signup bonus), and find award flights for 2 on those dates.

You do have to sink a fair amount of time into finding award availability, so it’d be a lot more relaxing applying for say, the Chase Sapphire Preferred/Reserve and buying the Qatar flights (Qatar also being one of the best Business class products), you get enough points/miles for maybe even a one-way in Biz in the future!

Thanks everyone, I appreciate your responses!

[QUOTE=”wilve, post: 37296, member: 1486″]Like Tiffany said, you can buy the 150,000 United miles (barely shy of the 160,000 needed for a US-Asia roundtrip in Business) for only $2625. However, you still need to get the last 10k miles (possibly from Chase Points on a credit card signup bonus), and find award flights for 2 on those dates.

You do have to sink a fair amount of time into finding award availability, so it’d be a lot more relaxing applying for say, the Chase Sapphire Preferred/Reserve and buying the Qatar flights (Qatar also being one of the best Business class products), you get enough points/miles for maybe even a one-way in Biz in the future!

You do have to sink a fair amount of time into finding award availability, so it’d be a lot more relaxing applying for say, the Chase Sapphire Preferred/Reserve and buying the Qatar flights (Qatar also being one of the best Business class products), you get enough points/miles for maybe even a one-way in Biz in the future![/QUOTE]

We will definitely sign up for the Qatar frequent flyer program. We may actually be going out there again next year. That said, neither of us travel for work, and only fly a few times a year for vacation travel, so does it also make sense to get a credit card like Chase Sapphire that has a high annual fee?

I don’t think anyone here was suggesting you credit these miles to the Qatar Qmiles program but it also depends on where you plan to use these miles.

As an example if you want to fly JFK-DOH using Qmiles it’s actually better than the cost on AA (one-way costs):
QR – 35K/70K/105K (econ/bus/first)
AA – 40K/70K/115K

But say you wanted to fly Chicago to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific (one-way prices):
QR – 75K/112.5K/150K/225K (econ/prem econ/bus/first)
AA – 37.5K/70K/110K

And if using miles on a US domestic flight there’s no question which program is cheaper. Here are one-way costs for Boston to San Francisco:
QR – 35K/70K
AA – 12.5K/25K

If I were the one on this trip, I’d credit the flights to AA simply because I’d get more use out of those miles.

As for getting a credit card, you don’t have to jump right in with the expensive Chase Sapphire Reserve and it’s $450 annual fee. Though remember that fee includes a $300 travel credit, lounge access and a whole lot of other perqs.

You could start with the Chase Sapphire Preferred which has only a $95 annual fee (I believe it’s waived the first year) and you could start building your balance of Ultimate Rewards points for future travel. Neither of these cards incurs foreign transaction fees which is something you’ll need for your travels abroad.

But if you really just want cash back you could go for the free Citi Double Cash card or the Fidelity 2% back card.

Let us know if we need to clarify further.

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 37326, member: 184″]I don’t think anyone here was suggesting you credit these miles to the Qatar Qmiles program but it also depends on where you plan to use these miles.

As an example if you want to fly JFK-DOH using Qmiles it’s actually better than the cost on AA (one-way costs):
QR – 35K/70K/105K (econ/bus/first)
AA – 40K/70K/115K

But say you wanted to fly Chicago to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific (one-way prices):
QR – 75K/112.5K/150K/225K (econ/prem econ/bus/first)
AA – 37.5K/70K/110K

And if using miles on a US domestic flight there’s no question which program is cheaper. Here are one-way costs for Boston to San Francisco:
QR – 35K/70K
AA – 12.5K/25K

If I were the one on this trip, I’d credit the flights to AA simply because I’d get more use out of those miles.

As for getting a credit card, you don’t have to jump right in with the expensive Chase Sapphire Reserve and it’s $450 annual fee. Though remember that fee includes a $300 travel credit, lounge access and a whole lot of other perqs.

You could start with the Chase Sapphire Preferred which has only a $95 annual fee (I believe it’s waived the first year) and you could start building your balance of Ultimate Rewards points for future travel. Neither of these cards incurs foreign transaction fees which is something you’ll need for your travels abroad.

But if you really just want cash back you could go for the free Citi Double Cash card or the Fidelity 2% back card.

Let us know if we need to clarify further.[/QUOTE]
Thank you for clarifying! As you can tell, I am new to this stuff. That makes sense, I just got us signed up for AA and applied the flight to that program. Thanks!