Questions and Answers

Thanks to a suggestion from [USER=522]@PhatMiles[/USER], we’re going to try out a new feature here in the forum.

I’ve created a new “Thread Prefix” called “Trips & Tips”. As long as you’re a registered member of the forum, you can use that tag to post stories and reviews here on Ask Lucky. Tell us about the great mileage redemptions you’ve made, the best methods you’ve found for earning points, or even some fun travel tips. Feel free to add pictures, gifs, etc. (we’re especially partial to memes, of course).

If it gets popular, we can look at the logistics of eventually sharing some of the posts on the main page as well.

Thanks for making this such a fun community, and thanks for the idea [USER=522]@PhatMiles[/USER]!!

Maybe make this a sticky post [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER]?

Done!

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 17738, member: 29″][USER=184]@MidSouth Skier[/USER] Nicely done! Sounds like an amazing trip. Also, Happy Belated!

I think [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER]’s intention was for readers to start a new “question” using the “Trips & Tips” question/thread type instead of just posting here.[/QUOTE]

Oops. Oh well. Feel free to move it if necessary.

been waiting for something like this for a long time 🙂

[B][U]Beware[/U] of Hawaiian Airlines . . . hooray for JetBlue! [/B]

Long story: please bear with me (it’s worth it).

I took my wife and two college-aged kids to Hawaii over Christmas. We flew on two separate Confirmation Codes: 1) my kids from OAK-OGG (12/19) and OGG-OAK (12/25) on one reservation (COSAEK); 2) my wife and I, from OAK-OGG (12/19 — same flight), then OGG-LIH (12/25), LIH-OGG-OAK (12/29) on the other (CPMWWM).

When I made the reservations online, I noticed there was no way to “plug in” our JetBlue TrueBlue numbers, so immediately upon completing the reservation (and paying for the tickets), I called Hawaiian to add our numbers. The Customer Service rep told me we would only receive 50% credit (1 point for 2 miles), but since this was more valuable to me than Hawaiian miles, I thanked her but opted for the JetBlue miles instead. She attached our numbers and I thought all was right with the world.

In January, I had noticed that NO miles had yet been credited to our JetBlue accounts, so I called Hawaiian and was first told that we were entitled to ZERO miles (due to the fare class). When I pointed out that wasn’t what I was told when I purchased the tickets, he double-checked and told me that my wife and I were entitled to:
[LIST]
[*]NO miles from OAK-OGG;
[*]100% of the miles from OGG-LIH (202 miles);
[*]NO miles from LIH-OGG;
[*]100% of the miles from OGG-OAK (2,349 miles).
[/LIST]
(Isn’t that 50% of the miles, as I was initially told?)

But he told me I had to talk with JetBlue about the miles. I tried to inquire if Hawaiian had bothered to tell JetBlue, and he replied, “You have to talk to JetBlue.” After reaching this impasse, I asked for a supervisor. She told me that the customer service rep was wrong, and that I was actually entitled to:
[LIST]
[*]NO miles from OAK-OGG;
[*]100% of the miles from OGG-LIH (202 miles);
[*]100% of the miles from LIH-OGG (202 miles);
[*]NO miles from OGG-OAK.
[/LIST]
What’s the point of having 404 miles on a 5,000 mile round-trip? I asked what I would receive if I had used my Hawaiian FF number. “We’ll credit you 100%,” was the reply, “but only if Jet Blue hasn’t credited you with anything.”

I checked with JetBlue, which had posted nothing to my account, but credited 101 miles to my wife’s. So I phoned JetBlue to see if they could delete those 101 miles, so we could get 5,000 each on Hawaiian. After explaining the situation, the JetBlue supervisor asked, since we were expecting 50% credit on JetBlue, if she could just add 2,500 miles to each of our JetBlue accounts? [B]YES![/B] [B]Kudos to JetBlue!!![/B]

Next, I checked on our girls’ JetBlue accounts: nothing. So, I contacted Hawaiian Airlines via their website, after logging into each of their respective accounts, and applied for missing mileage credit(s) for the OAK-OGG flights. Both requests were denied (170104-1339861 and 170104-1339871, respectively), because they have hyphenated last names, and on their tickets, their names were [U]not[/U] hyphenated, and so “We are unable to verify the passenger’s name in the submitted itinerary.”

We shall NEVER fly Hawaiian Airlines again . . .

Hello Tiffany, I would appreciate it if you can forward this video to lucky. I did a trip review with Xiamen’s new 787-9 business class seat to New York JFK on their inaugural flight. It is labeled with subtitles and includes everything from the lounge to post arrival press conference. The 787-9 business class are substantially different from the 787-8 business class seats that lucky had and from talking to their CEO, this will be their new business class seat in future planes.
Here is my review: [MEDIA=youtube]y1oSAcrM4Xw[/MEDIA]

[USER=4]@Lucky[/USER]

I was married in 2015 in bali . . . this was a surprise wedding (bride believed we were eloping). Through the use of mostly american and united miles, i planned and booked all 20 guests on award tickets from the united states to bali, 15 of them in business or first class. Most of them had never been out of the country, let alone asia, so i included stopovers along the way for most of them – including hong kong, helsinki, tokyo, thailand, and sending 6 of them to the great wall. The highlight was the look on my wife’s face when everyone was waiting for us at the villa i rented in northeast bali for the celebration.

[QUOTE=”Jon B, post: 29798, member: 3063″]I was married in 2015 in bali . . . this was a surprise wedding (bride believed we were eloping). Through the use of mostly american and united miles, i planned and booked all 20 guests on award tickets from the united states to bali, 15 of them in business or first class. Most of them had never been out of the country, let alone asia, so i included stopovers along the way for most of them – including hong kong, helsinki, tokyo, thailand, and sending 6 of them to the great wall. The highlight was the look on my wife’s face when everyone was waiting for us at the villa i rented in northeast bali for the celebration.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 17604, member: 7″]Thanks to a suggestion from [USER=522]@PhatMiles[/USER], we’re going to try out a new feature here in the forum.

I’ve created a new “Thread Prefix” called “Trips & Tips”. As long as you’re a registered member of the forum, you can use that tag to post stories and reviews here on Ask Lucky. Tell us about the great mileage redemptions you’ve made, the best methods you’ve found for earning points, or even some fun travel tips. Feel free to add pictures, gifs, etc. (we’re especially partial to memes, of course).

If it gets popular, we can look at the logistics of eventually sharing some of the posts on the main page as well.

Thanks for making this such a fun community, and thanks for the idea [USER=522]@PhatMiles[/USER]!![/QUOTE]

I think it would be fun to hear of trips planned and steps users have taken to get there. I am married with four kids and hectic life does not allow for a lot of travel. I do not have to travel for work, so there are not a lot of extra built in ways to earn miles for trips. That being said I got into this hobby a couple of years ago and find it fun to make strategies for specific trips and then work towards that goal. I currently have two trips I am working towards.

[B]First Class[/B] [B]Trip to Europe for 15 year wedding Anniversary[/B]
Chase Sapphire Reserve for me 100k points
Chase Business 60K points
Chase Ink Business 30K points
Chase Sapphire Preferred for wife 55K points

My strategy, maximize universal point earning for a few years and maybe narrow to specific points as needed closer to trip date. I should have between 400-500K Chase reward points by the end of the year and our anniversary is not until May of 2020. I think I should be able to make a first class anniversary trip a reality.

[B]December 2018 New York City Holiday Trip[/B]
Barclay Aviator MasterCard me and wife 120K AA points
Citi Platinum AA Card me and Wife 60K AA points
IHG Card for me and wife 160K points plus 2 free Anniversary Nights

2 first class anytime tickets first week of December DFW to NYC 180K AA points.
4 nights Intercontinental Times Square 140K points plus 2 free anniversary nights.
Total Cost of trip 280 dollars new credit card fees.

[B] [/B]Maybe someone could maximize points better or stretch points further, but for our specific needs this trip is perfect. I would love to hear of other trips people have planned, strategized, and taken.

ORD-HKG Cathay First, then onto Perth Cathay Business. 80K Alaska Miles +$92

ORD-NRT-BKK JAL First/Business, 75K Alaska Miles +$34.10
BKK-HKG-LAX Cathay Business/First, 70K Alaska Miles +$81.81

SEA-HKG (INAUGURAL CATHAY SEATTLE FLIGHT!!)-JNB 62.5K Alaska +$46.70

All of these within 16 months! Alaska easily takes the cake!

Great advice from Dave!

Just to add to the American routing question – you can do this, but AA will charge you for two awards since you are transiting a third region (Hong Kong). Only transiting Europe or Middle East (on Qatar only) is a valid routing to be charged one award on AA…

Wanted to share a recent success story that unseated my best ever redemption (two first class tickets on Korean ORD – ICN – BKK RT for my wife and I’s honeymoon) to this point. For context, while I couldn’t have been happier with the redemption — Korean First Class is incredible, they added all sorts of touches for our honeymoon that went above and beyond, the fuel surcharges, are incredibly low, etc, etc — the reality is that at 380k pts roundtrip, it was still a hefty redemption.
[B]
On to the new adventure….[/B]
I am an avid skier, grew up ski racing and still make it out 30-40 days a season. One of my absolute bucket list goals was to powder ski in Japan, and somehow, I am making that happen, AND doing it in style again with my wife.

[I]We took advantage of the highly mentioned Virgin Atlantic partner award redemption on ANA for First Class Tickets. Meaning, we were able to redeem 120k VA miles pp for RT F on ANA. Moreover, I happened to wait a couple of weeks after I started looking for availability and then the AMEX 30% bonus hit. Meaning I was able to redeem [B]185k[/B] miles and ~$600 TOTAL for two RT tickets.[/I]

After looking at the cash value of the tickets today at $20,367 pp, with the AMEX promo, this came out to by far my best ever CPM redemption at ~22 cents/mile. While I know we all have different travel goals/strategies, my jaw hit the floor when I realized the value of the two sweet spots (VA and ANA, and AMEX Promo)
[B] [/B]

We are gonna to Cambodia next couple weeks, any pieces of advice?

Hi I was just browsing availability for April and noticed AA has a 787-9 run from LAX-DFW. First class(International Business) is available at the same price as the other flights using points or cash.

Don’t know if this thread still is a thing but…

After trying 4 different routing over the phone using JAL miles, had finally succeeded booking a family member on round-the-world type ticket! They seem to be more conservative with MCTs and simply combining available segments (even on JAL metal) often led to errors saying that those segments cannot be combined. The agents didn’t know what rules I was violating either, so it was a bit of a ride…

NRT-ORD (JAL Business)
ORD-destination (AA domestic Econ)
destination-ORD (AA domestic First)
ORD-ATL (AA domestic First)
ATL-DOH (QR Business)
DOH-NRT (QSuite)

all for 120K and ~$200 in taxes and phone agent fees! So excited for someone I know to be trying out the famed QSuite!

Hi everyone…

I spent way too long earlier this evening searching for how to upgrade from business to first on American transcon, so figured I’d share how easy it was in case anyone in a similar situation.

Ben has written a bit about using Business Extra certificates to upgrade, which I don’t have. Also, it’s pretty much understood (but never explicitly written – that I could find), but you can’t use 500-mile stickers to upgrade.

Anyways, I got to the Admiral’s Club in SFO and confirmed with the agent that first was wide open. She advised me it was only 15,000 miles to upgrade. No cash co-pay since I was booked in D class (same goes for all paid business fares except I). A quick phone call to AA, they pulled the miles from my account, and I was upgraded in less than 5 minutes.

I know it’s not the most glamorous cabin available, but I have a shameful hoard of AA miles, so this seemed like a no-brainer and a last minute treat heading home from vacation.

Hope this helps someone else! 😎

[QUOTE=”rickyw, post: 66485, member: 1436″]Hi everyone…

I spent way too long earlier this evening searching for how to upgrade from business to first on American transcon, so figured I’d share how easy it was in case anyone in a similar situation.

Ben has written a bit about using Business Extra certificates to upgrade, which I don’t have. Also, it’s pretty much understood (but never explicitly written – that I could find), but you can’t use 500-mile stickers to upgrade.

Anyways, I got to the Admiral’s Club in SFO and confirmed with the agent that first was wide open. She advised me it was only 15,000 miles to upgrade. No cash co-pay since I was booked in D class (same goes for all paid business fares except I). A quick phone call to AA, they pulled the miles from my account, and I was upgraded in less than 5 minutes.

I know it’s not the most glamorous cabin available, but I have a shameful hoard of AA miles, so this seemed like a no-brainer and a last minute treat heading home from vacation.

Hope this helps someone else! :cool:[/QUOTE]

How was Transcon F?

[QUOTE=”OCTinPHL, post: 66490, member: 4556″]How was Transcon F?[/QUOTE]

Really good, actually! It was a redeye, so being able to sleep for 4ish hours was great. I haven’t flown AA biz on their 777-300 recently (I think the seats are the same bones), but the seat just feels so much wider.

I also had 5 hours to kill at JFK, so the real treat was 2 meals in Flagship Dining before connecting to a regional jet to get home.

Oh, and I sat next to Danny Devito and Terence Howard in FFD, so that’s my new go to spot for celeb sightings, ha

One easy way I found to get miles was using Norwegian Reward. One of there partners is Surveys for Cashpoints, where you answer some questions to get “cashpoints”, which is the frequent flyer scheme. It gives you 500NOK worth to begin with (around 5 euros). I managed to make multiple accounts and my miles started to build up and I just saved around £90 of my flights, for a few hours of work!

Holy moly, how did the world change…!! My wife and I went on to a quick round-the-world trip in February, just missing this whole craziness of COVID.

Award itinerary booked:
ORD-CDG (J, when there was a 50% promo awards and 25% MR transfer bonus so worked out to be like 22k + taxes)
CDG-AUH-SYD-AKL (Etihad apartment, Etihad F, Qantas J, booked as single itinerary using 110k AA miles)
AKL-LAX (AA Y booked during the crazy 6k OW promo award)

Truth be told, we booked the AKL-LAX leg first. Would’ve booked RT, but the date didn’t work out. Then a few days later, Air France came out with a really fantastic promo award in J – combined with the transfer bonus, this was absolutely a no brainer. The trickiest part was figuring out how we are getting from Paris to Auckland but it all worked out in the end! Also, as a bonus, taxes were also offset by Arrival+ and Altitude Reserve points so no real out-of-pocket expense for the flights!

Etihad apartment was one of my “to do’s” – very happy we got to do this when we could. We also stopped at Puerto Rico once we made it back to the stateside. Best date week ever 😀

[USER=4751]@Taroman[/USER] I think you’ll be reminiscing on that trip for quite a while 🙂

[USER=1436]@rickyw[/USER] – you bet 😉 can’t tell you how many times we’ve already looked through the trip photos since we’ve been back. My favorite memory was when my wife entered her apartment, she turned around in confusion that I wasn’t following because of the sheer size of the seat lol