I'd like to share some of my recent experiences playing the points game. First, I have to give a big thanks to Global Entry. He's extremely knowledgeable, smart, and I value his opinion very much. He's a MASTER of the miles/points game and helped me tremendously.

Some of this might be common knowledge, but I haven't read through all 43 pages of this thread so not sure if something has been repeated.

First Trip
Sometime in July I booked a business class ticket on Cathay LAX to BKK. This cost me 70,000 points (approximately 1 week before departure). There was no availability on OneWorld alliance coming back. I decided to just monitor the return daily and see if anything became available.

To find the award availability and book it, I signed up for British Airways and used their online award tool. I wrote down the flight numbers and called up AA to make the booking. Just a note, Cathay/AA will not let you book premium economy. Regardless, I think its only worth spending these miles on business or first class to get the most bang for your buck.

I also had a bunch of AMEX points. I found a business class ticket back on Delta for 70,000. It turns it might have been a "Phantom Fare". Unfortunately, I had to transfer my Amex points to Delta before I could even attempt to book it. Each time I tried to book it, at the last step before ticketing it said this fare is not available. The 70,000 business class ticket would then disappear. It would appear 10 minutes later and when I tired to book it, I got the same error. REAL SHADY.

I called Delta and they confirmed that that fare was not available, despite what was being shown online. They wouldn't agree to transfer my points back to AMEX either. I figured I was out of luck and would just have to keep the points in Delta for the future. Other business class tickets on SkyTeam alliance I could book were like 170k+.

I've heard some stories of airlines not letting you board unless you prove you have a return flight booked. To be safe I booked a refundable ticket. I bought this ticket on Orbitz, printed it, then cancelled the ticket. When I checked-in the agent only asked how long I was staying. No mention of a return ticket was inquired anytime during my trip.

Around Wednesday I found some OneWorld alliance reward flights departing the next day. I jumped on one and booked a business class out BKK --> LAX (JAL) one day before departure. I had a business class ticket booked before the devaluation for the same dates, so I just swapped that ticket for this one. I paid the pre-devaluation rates of 55,000.

All-in-all I think I paid roughly $150-200 mainly booking fees and other fees related to making an award ticket purchase within 7 days. It might not have even been that much. I think these tickets retail for about $2,500 each way so I was pretty pleased.

Cathay is nice and the service is great, but I like the JAL product better. More space, more privacy, nicer flight attendants. I also hate Chinese so maybe I'm biased. Both products have full-flat beds for the leg over the Pacific.

Second Trip
In about 10 days I'm flying back to Asia, this time to Japan. With the 70,000 Delta points I found a business class trip one way, Tokyo --> LAX. I used those points to purchase this ticket after I found out availability on ANA for roughly 75,000 points (using United online award search tool).

Unfortunately, I wasn't aware that ANA doesn't let you book one-way awards. This may be common knowledge to some, and Global is probably laughing reading this. I already booked my Delta flight at this point, and already initiated the transfer to ANA so was kinda pissed.

Delta wouldn't cancel the trip (so I could book roundtrip via ANA), AMEX wouldn't stop the transfer, and ANA wouldn't refund the points back to AMEX. I figured my options were to purchase an economy revenue ticket out (approx. $550), or figure out a way to transfer some points to United.

I looked in my United account and had around 15k points from random travel. I also have the Chase Freedom card I use exclusively for gas. To my surprise, I had about 35k Chase Freedom points (only allowed to be redeemed for cash). After doing some research, I figured out I could transfer these Freedom points to my Sapphire account and then transfer to United. I was still short some miles, but found out I could buy enough miles for around $500-$600. This would give me enough points to get a one-way business ticket to Tokyo via United. Instead of redeeming the 35k points for cash I used them towards the reward flight (65,000 points), which cost $2,000 full retail. I'd rather redeem the points for a $2,000 ticket than get $300 in cash.

I was going to spend roughly the same ($550) for the economy ticket so I bought the miles and used the points to get the business class ticket. The miles were roughly 2.5 cents per mile. Not great, but acceptable in my mind.

For the second trip I spent around $550-650 total (mainly the miles purchased), but the retail for these tickets were around $4,000+ RT. Not as good as my first trip, but I think its acceptable. I know the numbers worked out to be over 2 cents / mile.

Anyway, I hope this can provide some insight on people new to the points game on how to book OneWorld award (via British Airways tool), Star Alliance awards (United online tool), or SkyTeam awards (via Delta tool; although sometimes its shady). Another thing, is that you have to be very flexible with you dates to pull this off. It may not be best for people with tight vacation schedules due to work obligations. You have to be comfortable looking for flights and picking up and leaving, potentially with only 24-hour notice.

I find it much hard to spend the points and find availability than to mine them.

I've repositioned myself for 3 business class trips to Asia by taking advantage of the $1250USD fares on Qatar Airways ex-Colombo. I'll be in China soon, and will stop in Bangkok. For $100 (or using BA Avios on UL, if I don't feel like flying AirAsia), I'll position to Colombo, where I'll fly back to the US.

The cost is remarkably low, and the positioning costs to CMB are remarkably cheap. Qatar flies A340's with lie-flat business class seating to CMB and the A350 from Doha to Boston.

I do think miles are valuable currencies to have, but if the out-of-pocket costs associated with a mileage redemption start going up then it may make best sense to simply purchase the ticket outright.

CMB fares are widely available under $2000 to BOS, NYC, DFW, ORD, LAX, SFO, MIA, and probably more. Etihad often has fares under $2000 as well.

(06-25-2016 08:56 AM)Brodiaga Wrote:  Global Entry:

I have a general question about not living in the US and getting/using US credit cards, bonus points and airmiles. Specifically for those who have US credit history, existing accounts, SSN, etc. and fit all the requirements for getting US cards and using other financial services except that they no longer live and work in the U.S.

What is the best way to keep using all these benefits if you are based overseas? Get a mail forwarding address, such as Global Mail, etc? Keep a US phone number? Use a US vpn? Any potential issues and things to consider?

I think this is a question I missed. I have no issue with this - I've used my parents address as a US legal address (certainly not for tax returns, though, as I'm spending more than 330 days outside the USA this year for the income tax exemption), and even used a fellow RVF member's home address to renew my Nevada driver's license. I haven't had much of an issue. Frankly the most frequent annoyance is signing onto online bank sites which don't like my Chinese IP address, nor do they like my VPN IP address. They frequently want to confirm I am who I say I am, which means switching sim cards in my phone. Not so terrible, but the issue is magnified because I manage accounts for my parents as well, and I don't have access to their phones (they're stateside) and hence cannot receive a confirming text to their phones. I can get confirming emails, but often hotmail and sometimes other email providers also ask for identity confirmation, via phone, which is a vicious circle. Since my folks live 12 hours time difference from me, it can make this a bit of a headache. Other than that and the general difficulty/expense of receiving mail in the far east (as in new credit cards you'd like to use to hit minimum spends), its not that onerous. Lots of ways to generate spend that don't necessarily cost more (or much more) than a card in hand at the local pub.

(08-06-2016 10:22 PM)Armogan Wrote:  I'd like to share some of my recent experiences playing the points game. First, I have to give a big thanks to Global Entry. He's extremely knowledgeable, smart, and I value his opinion very much. He's a MASTER of the miles/points game and helped me tremendously.

Some of this might be common knowledge, but I haven't read through all 43 pages of this thread so not sure if something has been repeated.

First Trip
Sometime in July I booked a business class ticket on Cathay LAX to BKK. This cost me 70,000 points (approximately 1 week before departure). There was no availability on OneWorld alliance coming back. I decided to just monitor the return daily and see if anything became available.

To find the award availability and book it, I signed up for British Airways and used their online award tool. I wrote down the flight numbers and called up AA to make the booking. Just a note, Cathay/AA will not let you book premium economy. Regardless, I think its only worth spending these miles on business or first class to get the most bang for your buck.

I also had a bunch of AMEX points. I found a business class ticket back on Delta for 70,000. It turns it might have been a "Phantom Fare". Unfortunately, I had to transfer my Amex points to Delta before I could even attempt to book it. Each time I tried to book it, at the last step before ticketing it said this fare is not available. The 70,000 business class ticket would then disappear. It would appear 10 minutes later and when I tired to book it, I got the same error. REAL SHADY.

I called Delta and they confirmed that that fare was not available, despite what was being shown online. They wouldn't agree to transfer my points back to AMEX either. I figured I was out of luck and would just have to keep the points in Delta for the future. Other business class tickets on SkyTeam alliance I could book were like 170k+.

I've heard some stories of airlines not letting you board unless you prove you have a return flight booked. To be safe I booked a refundable ticket. I bought this ticket on Orbitz, printed it, then cancelled the ticket. When I checked-in the agent only asked how long I was staying. No mention of a return ticket was inquired anytime during my trip.

Around Wednesday I found some OneWorld alliance reward flights departing the next day. I jumped on one and booked a business class out BKK --> LAX (JAL) one day before departure. I had a business class ticket booked before the devaluation for the same dates, so I just swapped that ticket for this one. I paid the pre-devaluation rates of 55,000.

All-in-all I think I paid roughly $150-200 mainly booking fees and other fees related to making an award ticket purchase within 7 days. It might not have even been that much. I think these tickets retail for about $2,500 each way so I was pretty pleased.

Cathay is nice and the service is great, but I like the JAL product better. More space, more privacy, nicer flight attendants. I also hate Chinese so maybe I'm biased. Both products have full-flat beds for the leg over the Pacific.

Second Trip
In about 10 days I'm flying back to Asia, this time to Japan. With the 70,000 Delta points I found a business class trip one way, Tokyo --> LAX. I used those points to purchase this ticket after I found out availability on ANA for roughly 75,000 points (using United online award search tool).

Unfortunately, I wasn't aware that ANA doesn't let you book one-way awards. This may be common knowledge to some, and Global is probably laughing reading this. I already booked my Delta flight at this point, and already initiated the transfer to ANA so was kinda pissed.

Delta wouldn't cancel the trip (so I could book roundtrip via ANA), AMEX wouldn't stop the transfer, and ANA wouldn't refund the points back to AMEX. I figured my options were to purchase an economy revenue ticket out (approx. $550), or figure out a way to transfer some points to United.

I looked in my United account and had around 15k points from random travel. I also have the Chase Freedom card I use exclusively for gas. To my surprise, I had about 35k Chase Freedom points (only allowed to be redeemed for cash). After doing some research, I figured out I could transfer these Freedom points to my Sapphire account and then transfer to United. I was still short some miles, but found out I could buy enough miles for around $500-$600. This would give me enough points to get a one-way business ticket to Tokyo via United. Instead of redeeming the 35k points for cash I used them towards the reward flight (65,000 points), which cost $2,000 full retail. I'd rather redeem the points for a $2,000 ticket than get $300 in cash.

I was going to spend roughly the same ($550) for the economy ticket so I bought the miles and used the points to get the business class ticket. The miles were roughly 2.5 cents per mile. Not great, but acceptable in my mind.

For the second trip I spent around $550-650 total (mainly the miles purchased), but the retail for these tickets were around $4,000+ RT. Not as good as my first trip, but I think its acceptable. I know the numbers worked out to be over 2 cents / mile.

Anyway, I hope this can provide some insight on people new to the points game on how to book OneWorld award (via British Airways tool), Star Alliance awards (United online tool), or SkyTeam awards (via Delta tool; although sometimes its shady). Another thing, is that you have to be very flexible with you dates to pull this off. It may not be best for people with tight vacation schedules due to work obligations. You have to be comfortable looking for flights and picking up and leaving, potentially with only 24-hour notice.

I find it much hard to spend the points and find availability than to mine them.

Yes, I smiled when I read this, and thanks for the props. BKK was a good time. Everyone makes these kinds of mistakes (before I knew better I was crediting miles to all sorts of different programs on revenue flights, rather than aggregating them for awards and status), don't let them dissuade you from moving forward with the hobby. And scan the 43 pages, and you would have known about the sapphire card, and that the Ink is only the card of choice for gasoline during the quarter when they give 5/c a point for it. Not the whole year. And you can use Alaska miles to book CX Premium Economy with very little competition, tho since AA is coming with their own PE, I am guessing its going to soon become more competitive to book those CX Y+ seats.

(08-07-2016 12:25 PM)elcidcampeador Wrote:  I've repositioned myself for 3 business class trips to Asia by taking advantage of the $1250USD fares on Qatar Airways ex-Colombo. I'll be in China soon, and will stop in Bangkok. For $100 (or using BA Avios on UL, if I don't feel like flying AirAsia), I'll position to Colombo, where I'll fly back to the US.

The cost is remarkably low, and the positioning costs to CMB are remarkably cheap. Qatar flies A340's with lie-flat business class seating to CMB and the A350 from Doha to Boston.

I do think miles are valuable currencies to have, but if the out-of-pocket costs associated with a mileage redemption start going up then it may make best sense to simply purchase the ticket outright.

CMB fares are widely available under $2000 to BOS, NYC, DFW, ORD, LAX, SFO, MIA, and probably more. Etihad often has fares under $2000 as well.

. There are some super values even on O/W tickets ex -CMB. Seems Qatar and Etihad do this every few months, when they dump undersold flights. Having just returned on a 787 from Doha in business (to HKG), and as a frequent J passenger on QR, I can confirm its a quality product.

Cid, I think you'd probably agree- these things are all just tools in the tool chest. I buy flights, I get awards, I position, use various programs, systemwide upgrades. Its all situational. If one has a free enough schedule, one can save money by being opportunistic about values - such as you are with the ex-CMB fares (and if you've not been around Sri Lanka, its worth a few days of your time to hit Galle, the tea plantations or even the jungles of the east coast).

I've been looking for ex-CMB fares to Miami, actually, today. Wonder if they're all gone for August. Let me know if you see any.

In case everyone doesn't already know, Chase is coming out with a new card called the Chase Sapphire Reserved.

The highlights known so far:

* 100k signup bonus after spending 4k in 3 months.
* $300 travel credit on anything travel related per calendar yer
* 3X on Travel and Dining Worldwide

$450/annual fee.

Apparently there was a link up briefly on Sunday and many got approved who were way over the Chase 5/24 rule.

This Sunday or Monday will be the official release date. If I get approved I'll try and get my Sapphire Preferred downgraded to Freedom Unlimited. I'm way over the 5/24 rule though and was denied the Freedom Unlimited and Hyatt cards earlier this year, and that was before I went on another CC binge of Amex and Alaska cards this summer.

(08-17-2016 05:20 PM)Onto Wrote:  This Sunday or Monday will be the official release date. If I get approved I'll try and get my Sapphire Preferred downgraded to Freedom Unlimited. I'm way over the 5/24 rule though and was denied the Freedom Unlimited and Hyatt cards earlier this year, and that was before I went on another CC binge of Amex and Alaska cards this summer.

Is there a way to get a card downgraded (e.g. Sapphire preferred to Freedom) and keep your card number and also keep this card as one entry (tradeline) in your credit reports? Or will this show up as a completely new card in the reports with and the previous card will show up as closed?

(08-17-2016 05:30 PM)Brodiaga Wrote:  

(08-17-2016 05:20 PM)Onto Wrote:  This Sunday or Monday will be the official release date. If I get approved I'll try and get my Sapphire Preferred downgraded to Freedom Unlimited. I'm way over the 5/24 rule though and was denied the Freedom Unlimited and Hyatt cards earlier this year, and that was before I went on another CC binge of Amex and Alaska cards this summer.

Is there a way to get a card downgraded (e.g. Sapphire preferred to Freedom) and keep your card number and also keep this card as one entry (tradeline) in your credit reports? Or will this show up as a completely new card in the reports with and the previous card will show up as closed?

I'm not sure, I've just read that you can downgrade the card to a Freedom or Freedom Unlimited.

(08-17-2016 05:30 PM)Brodiaga Wrote:  

(08-17-2016 05:20 PM)Onto Wrote:  This Sunday or Monday will be the official release date. If I get approved I'll try and get my Sapphire Preferred downgraded to Freedom Unlimited. I'm way over the 5/24 rule though and was denied the Freedom Unlimited and Hyatt cards earlier this year, and that was before I went on another CC binge of Amex and Alaska cards this summer.

Is there a way to get a card downgraded (e.g. Sapphire preferred to Freedom) and keep your card number and also keep this card as one entry (tradeline) in your credit reports? Or will this show up as a completely new card in the reports with and the previous card will show up as closed?

Product changes will not add a new entry from my previous experience.

I was looking at buying this yuuuge luggage with wheels and soft sides but it's over sized according to most airlines max dimensions, the website says the piece of luggage is 68" total (W+H+D) and a few airlines I've checked with have all said 62" is the max size before extra charges on international flights.

Has anyone had to pay extra for luggage that is just slightly over? I'm assuming in a few years they will lower the max even a few more inches.

I'd like to buy it because it would be good for long trips and I wouldn't have to be so precise with my packing, but I'd hate to be charged extra all the time.

Anyone else sign up for the chase sapphire reserve?

I'm still waiting for mine to arrive.

I did but still pending approval. Unfortunately I recently applied for a received about 6 other cards so I think I probably will not be approved.

Been wanting to write a post on positioning.

Lemme provide an example -

I needed to come back to the USA to renew my passport, to receive a delivery of furniture into my family's Miami apartment, and to take advantage of a ridiculous Jet Blue promotion (more below).

For those of you who read this thread, you know I don't dig on economy, or even premium economy, on long haul flights. I've done it, but I avoid it.

I live near Hong Kong, and flights out of Hong Kong back to the USA, in premium classes, well, they're pricey. Round trips usually start around 3500, though there are sales occasionally ex. HKG. There are also ways to get upgrades if you have top status with an airline, but when you have a fairly narrow window for travel, it can be impossible to wait for a cheap fare sale or to find upgrade space on a flight.

That's where positioning comes in. If one simply searches HKG - MIA, over a several week period, you'll find flights in the 3500-4000 RT USD range. HKG people have money to spend on premium class fares, and thus the costs are higher.

However, by changing the origin of a RT flight (or in some cases one way), for premium classes, we can see significant differences in the costs of RT premium class tickets.

After using HKG-MIA as a baseline, I begin to search for HKG to different USA locations, seeing if I can get a significant price drop for flying elsewhere. The best tool for this is Google Flights. Put in your intended origin and destination, and class of service, and then when it prices open the map. Set the price to the price quoted to your city of destination, and let the map populate with prices to all the other destinations on the map. You can further filter your results by travel time, airline, number of connections etc. You'll likely find that one or more cities might have a cheaper RT than the city you want to go to.

Is it enough cheaper that buying a second RT ticket (perhaps in economy since its shorter, on a regional or discount carrier perhaps) will make the all in cost substantially less than flying the main carrier all the way there and back? Will you need a hotel given the connection times (and allow for immigration clearance , however long that takes you in the country where the transit is taking place - US immigration, by way of example, is cleared in the first city a traveller enters in the USA (except for certain cities, like Toronto and Abu Dhabi and Nassau that have US clearance abroad).

Check the price, plus hotels and any additional costs, vs your baseline RT ticket? Is the savings worth it? Also consider the fact that if you book different alliances (and even in some cases within a single alliance), should you miss a connection, you may be at risk of paying a change fee and additional ticket cost. You'll want to leave enough time to make sure that you're fairly likely not to have this happen. Its never happened to me, but I often build in a nights stopover or a long layover.

So that's the first search against your baseline. The second search can be a search of a airport near your origin to the city of final destination. I know that many cities near HK have far cheaper business class flights out of them than HK does. Bangkok is famous in travel circles for this, especially for flights to Europe. Even a better value, Colombo Sri Lanka isn't as well known, but savvy Asian based premium class traveller use it as a origin point for flights to USA/Canada. Recent RT fares from CMB to Boston in business on Qatar have been between 1100 and 1300 RT, earning 40000 redeemable miles on AA, and 27,000 EQM (Status miles). And we're not talking flying United - these are long flights on an A350. To me, those flights have negative cost, as the miles alone are worth more than the cost of the ticket (arguments can be had, but I think they are - at least the way I'll use them). Depending on the time of year, other cities in Asia that are good to check fro discount biz fares are KUL, HKT, DAC, PEN, and CGK. (You can often find low priced tickets on Qatar (QR) and Etihad (EY) on these routes).

When one is looking at a CMB-BOS ticket at 1300 or even 1300 RT, its clear there is going to be an arb over a flight from HKG to the USA at 3500 USD> Even buying a positioning RT HKG-CMB (e.g., positioning yourself to CMB for the flight), and BOS-MIA, the savings will still be over 1000, easily, even with a CMB hotel and the mass of the journey will still be in biz class. I'm also an elite with AA, so I have a good chance to upgrade on such a BOS-MIA flight, had I booked it. Unfortunately, these CMB fares were not available for late August when I was looking so I had to find another way.

In addition, positioning this way can be built into an opportunity to look around a new city/country a little bit, depending on visa availability (Thailand is easy, as is CMB). Cheap hotels abound in both places. Its no hardship for me to spend time in Bangkok for a day or two before a long haul in general - and this also removes the possibility of a missed connection.

The next step of searching for the lowest premium long hauls is simultaneously searching for nearby cities on both the origin and destination. While google allows you to put in three cities on both origin and destination to find the best fare, or to use the map to search destination costs broadly from a single location, the engine on which google's search is based is far more effective, if a little harder to learn to use.

ITA Matrix, with a little learning, can allow you to search a month at a time for fares for all cities within a certain distance of your origin/destination. For example, I can search basically all carriers flying from cities within a certain distance of HKG (500,1000, or 2000 miles) to my destination or cities within those distances of it. I can do this over a month of fares, and I can do it with other parameters, such as within a certain alliance or airline, connections in certain cities (or excluding certain cities),etc. There are some bloggers who've written step by step guides to using ITA Matrix. A few runs through and even the tech challenged like me can get the hang of it. Regular searching will also begin to educate you on which routes are often available at a discount, on which airlines.

While I couldn't take advantage of the CMB - BOS fares because of my travel dates, I found a ticket using ITA Matrix that was still a good deal, allowed me to visit a new country, and earn a lot of miles.

I put in a 2000 radius around HKG and a 1000 mile radius around MIA for a week time span, and found QR tickets ex-Dhaka Bangladesh, for around 60 percent of the price of the HKG biz class tickets. THey'd be through Qatar, so I'd actually earn more mileage than flying biz from HKG (going the long way) so treating RDM as a rebate on ticket cost (which i think makes sense economically), these tickets had even more of a discount than the HKG-MIA tickets. And prices to Miami ex-Dhaka were around the same as heading to Boston, and cheaper than biz class for my dates than tickets from BKK, CMB and the other cities I mentioned.

The reason I had to get back was Jet Blue did a matching promotion where they would match a virgin american balance of a Jet Blue member if you took one RT flight before the end of August, up to 75K of match. I did not have any miles in my Virgin American account, but I have SPG miles. Even better, I have photo shop

I sent my photo shopped screen shot to Jet Blue, they approved me for the promotion, to get 75K miles. I needed a RT before the end of august, so during my stay in Miami, I booked a trip to Nassau Bahamas for an overnight. The JB miles are worth more than 1000 USD, and the Bahamas ticket cost 200. I'd not been to Nassau, so there was that too. Anyway, it made it worth it to get back and not wait for a lower fare ex-CMB.

Positioning can vary in cost - you have to run the numbers, look at the risks of missing a connection, hotel costs, and even the value of your convenience and comfort. Look at the different FF mileage earned from the various itineraries and then make an informed decision. Or suck it up and fly economy (we've all done it).

One thing that makes it cheaper for me to position is that I have miles and points in many different alliances. A ticket to Bangladesh from HKG direct was 1000 dollars on Dragonair (connections cheaper but long wait times). However, because I have British Airways points (and can transfer them from the Sapphire and if need be, AMEX cards), I can book that ticket for 10K points, a good redemption even for the indirect flights which cost more than 300. This allows me to preserve the savings of my flight, because I can position at a low cost.

Similarly, I have plenty of Starpoints at the moment, so I used them (cash and points) to book the Westin Dhaka in Gulshan. Similarly, I used a voucher from ten paid nights from Hotels.com to book my second night in Bangladesh almost for free. My out of pocket for positioning and a look around Bangladesh for a few days, staying at nice international hotels (westin in a big ass suite) was less than 200 USD (though Bangladesh visa fee is ridiculously 50 dollars).

I'm in the USA currently, on a flight to LA from MIA for a client. On my way back, after I hit Dhaka, I'll spend a day or two there again I think, as I have an interest in their textile markets for sales in China. After that, I'm considering positioning with a cheap flight an hour away to Kathmandu (also having a look at textiles there) and then using those same BA points to fly Dragonair back to HKG from Nepal.

Happy travels.

Similar to what I do.

I've been flying out of Toronto and to a lesser extent Chicago now because premium class fares are 30-50 percent less than out of DTW. It's only a 4 hour drive for me to both cities so it just makes sense. This only accounts for the times I have decided to pay for business class.

On top of that if I don't fly Delta therefore I almost always have to connect in Chicago, Philadelphia, or DALLAS anyways.

So what's the deal with the Sapphire Reserve, do you apply for it and then cancel the Sapphire Preferred? Or if you call in and try and get the Preferred changed to the Reserve directly, will you lose out on the 100k bonus?

You have to reapply to get the reserve. I know you can downgrade from preferred to unlimited but I don't think you can upgrade.

I don't have the preferred so I'm not sure if you can.

(08-30-2016 01:38 PM)BallsDeep Wrote:  So what's the deal with the Sapphire Reserve, do you apply for it and then cancel the Sapphire Preferred? Or if you call in and try and get the Preferred changed to the Reserve directly, will you lose out on the 100k bonus?

You can downgrade your Preferred to a Freedom card (there are two types). You have to apply for the bonus. An upgrade form Preferred to Reserve won't do it. I got denied because of 11/24, but I don't regret getting 4 Alaska cards and 4 Amex cards this summer. I'll wait a year or so for when the bonus goes back up.

So I finally took my First class Cathay flight to HKG than to MNL. My God! It was more of an experience than I expected. For the long haul I was fortunate to have the whole first class cabin to myself and the crew where based out of HKG and not USA so naturally they were sweet as pie. I really connected with the head stewardess, we had some deep convo in the beginning of the flight and they treated me like Gold throughout. Since the cabin was empty they gave me two seats. One for sitting and one just for sleeping across the isle.

I probably gained about 10 lbs in 16 hour flight from all the food and drink. I felt like I was at a resort and I didn't want the flight to end. Big thank you of course to Global Entry because I would never have known about how to accomplish this. It has changed my perspective on flying and it feels great to know I will probably never need to fly economy on long hauls again.

The trip wasn't without it's negatives though. I had a short regional flight on AA to get to the main US departure city. Since these were two separate tickets (paid regional booked several months after the award ticket) I called AA several times in the weeks beforehand to make sure:

1) They would check my baggage through from origin to final destination in MNL so I wouldn't have to pickup my bags and re-check them for my CX flight. This was important since it was only a 2.5 hour connection window.

2) They wouldn't charge me the $200 per bag fee for overweight/oversize luggage to Asia since my First class CX ticket allows 2 checked bags up to 88 lbs. AA is limited to 50 lbs. My two bags were in the mid 50's

I got different answers from calling AA. They are a mess and the answer seems to depend on how how cloudy it is that day. I finally got the answers I was hoping for and felt all was good. Then comes the day of my flight. They were able to check my bags through just fine but the ticket counter lady tries charging me $435 for my bags.

I spend about 45 mins at the counter arguing with them. They called AA and was told to charge me, I called AA and they said they would allow me to use points to book a new award ticket for the short haul. Just a bunch of scamming. Finally a supervisor came over and she sided with me. The ticket agent really wanted to charge me and was protesting to her own supervisor! Fortunately I was able to skate through, but it wasn't easy. Seems AA's new policy is to charge international luggage fees regardless of the connecting long haul OneWorld alliance carriers policy. This is a new change that I read about on ViewFromTheWing.

I thought all was good until I caught my connecting CX flight. With just a small travel guitar in a hard case and briefcase I thought there would be no issues. After all, I was able to take them on the plane for my regional AA flight and now I'm flying first class on CX. Well, all was good until the last minuite when I was about to leave the ticketing counter when the lady saw my guitar and pointed to it like I had a booger coming out of my nose. She brought over her supervisor and both were bent on my checking the guitar. Eventually I had to let it go and they said they would talk with the flight crew about it and see if they would allow it, so off I went through security and to the lounge without my guitar and pretty pissed.

When I was standing in line to board the same lady came over and told me the guitar was waiting for me on the plane. It fit perfectly in the closet that comes with each seat. For you guitar players (Talyor GS mini with SKB hard case). The crew was actually surprised it fit so well in there.

So there it is. Hope the story can be of some use to someone, and thank you Global.

AA was correct to try and charge you.

Baggage policies for multi-carrier itineraries require the first carriers policies to be enforced on flights in/from the US.

Outside of the US, they'd allow it as CX would be considered the MSC, most significant carrier.

Read: http://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_HK/tr...rules.html

I downloaded Award Wallet and as I was adding all of my points programs I discovered my IHG points were 0 instead of 70,000+. Come to find out they were stolen and used for some hotel in California.

IHG resolved it by giving me a new account number and reinstating all the points. In talking with their rep it seems they have this issue happen often so if you have any IHG points it's a good idea to checkup on them.

This is for Global Entry, Onto or others who might have some knowledge.

This February I will be flying a family member to Guangzhou from the Midwest for a few weeks. I would like to purchase the family member a business class return ticket. Most I see are around $3,500 round trip. My work has recently also upgraded by travel allowance each year to $3,300 international flights and almost $1,000 domestic flights (inside china). I can only use that money on my own tickets so I will fly business class to USA and back and also pick an expensive flight to shanghai first class or something. So I will be signing up for probably both the Chase cards, the preferred sapphire and the new card. Both need about $4,000 dollars in spending and I can do that in 3 months with the tickets.

Since I need to buy the ticket from the Midwest to Guangzhou/CAN first it looks like Im going to have to bit the bullet. Ive looked into what Global Entry has described but it really does take some skill to figure it all out. Flying from HK to Sri Lanka and then to Qatar to NY to Midwest. If I can save a major portion of the $3,500 that would be great and I will look more into it.

Is there anything else I may be missing? I looked into premium economy but that is almost the same price as business class without the bed, I don't understand why anyone would pay for that. Must be low miles needed and everyone is just using miles of that instead of business class. All I can guess.

Ive seen some good flights from Chicago to Hong kong with united, but fuck united. I actually need to look more into this and then just pick family member up in HK and spend the day there, or night there, than take the train to Guangzhou. But the business class I looked at into HK was very pricey indeed. Shenzhen does not appear to have much going on in the way of cheap flights in or out which is strange, since EVERYONE in china flys to Shenzhen and takes the bus into Kowloon instead of flying into HK which is usually twice the price.

I feel like im missing something obvious and would ask you about my plans, what Im doing wrong. Thanks guys


EDIT

I was looking at this website called http://www.jetnsave.com/blog.html Jetnsave which they say has very low prices for international business/first class flights. Im going to look into this.

How many cards do you have? Chase really does abide by the 5/24 rule.

I'm in the Midwest as well and your SOL when it comes to cheap flights to Shenzhen. Delta is having a sale to Shanghai (maybe even GZ) from Canada to Shanghai on business class. It's around 2500 Canadian dollars on delta but the connections maybe too tight.

Quite possibly something better may come around cyber Monday and Christmas sales wise?

Mentavious is right, and I would apply for the Chase Sapphire Reserve first since it's a much better promotion and card. After you get approved, then go for the Sapphire for the extra bonus points. Rumors are the 100,000 Reserve signup bonus will only be available through Sept. Also, you have a better shot at the card if you go into a branch and ask if there are any "Pre-Approval" offers for you on CC's. If there are no branches near you then just apply online.

You probably should figure out which airline you ultimately want to fly and then find an airline miles program that partners with that airline.

For example: If I want a one-way Cathay Pacific first class, my options are AAdvantage miles (110,000) or Alaska Miles (70,000). Citi has the AAdvantage mile CC bonus, Bank of America has the Alaska Bonus. Starwood points transfers into both AAdavantage and Alaska. Asia Miles are Cathay's own mileage program and Amex MR's transfer in but I don't believe it's a good redemption value.

Alaska miles are the better value so BOA and Starwood cards are the best way to acquire those. I got 4 BOA cards (2 personal, 2 business) in about a 30 day span. That was 120k Alaska miles right there. You have to be careful with applying for too many BOA cards though. You don't want to get your Alaska account revoked.

Chase UR and Amex MR are both transferable into Singapore KrisFlyer, British Airways, and FlyingBlue (AirFrance) so if one of those programs partners with the airline you want then you get CC's from both and really accumulate some points in a specific airline program.

That's about all the knowledge/advice I can offer, wish I knew more really.

Quick search on revenue flights, best I am seeing are the Toronto flights on China Southern,....


Toronto (YYZ) to Guangzhou (CAN) — Mon, Feb 13
Overnight flight
China Southern 312
Dep: 12:30 am
Arr: 5:10 am
15h 40m
Boeing 777
Business (I)
Tue, Feb 14

Guangzhou (CAN) to Toronto (YYZ) — Sun, Feb 26
Overnight flight
China Southern 311
Dep: 2:30 pm
Arr: 4:30 pm
15h 0m
Boeing 777
Business (I)
Mileage
15,454 total miles
CO2 Emissions
4,816 kg (estimated by ITA).
Airport Information
Toronto Lester B Pearson (YYZ)
Guangzhou Baiyun International (CAN)
Cost per passenger (including taxes & fees)
$2,466.50
Total cost for 1 passenger
$2,466.50
How to buy this ticket
Tickets cannot be purchased directly from ITA Software.
Provide this information to a travel agent to help them match the fares found.
Make sure to provide the exact booking and fare codes shown.
Fare for 1 adult
Fare 1: Carrier CZ IPRCA YTO to CAN (rules)
Passenger type ADT, round trip fare, booking code I
Covers YYZ-CAN (Business)
$1,094.79
Fare 2: Carrier CZ IPRCA CAN to YTO (rules)
Passenger type ADT, round trip fare, booking code I
Covers CAN-YYZ (Business)
$1,094.79
CZ YR surcharge (YR)
$213.60
CZ YQ surcharge (YQ)
$8.00
Toronto Airport Improvement Fee (SQ)
$19.10
Canadian Harmonized Sales Tax (ON) (RC)
$2.50
Canadian Air Travelers Security Charge (CA)
$19.80
China Airport Fee (CN)
$13.50
Subtotal per passenger
$2,466.50
Number of passengers
x1
Subtotal For 1 adult
$2,466.50
Changes to this ticket will incur a penalty fee.
Fare Construction (can be useful to travel agents)
YTO CZ CAN 1123.10IPRCA CZ YTO 1123.10IPRCA NUC 2246.20 END ROE 1.277710 XT 19.80CA 2.50RC 19.10SQ 13.50CN 8.00YQ 213.60YR
Total Airfare & Taxes
$2,466.50


A few thoughts. I'd suggest flying on revenue tickets yourself and booking awards for friends/family, when possible. This allows you to obtain status and have more control of earning miles. Why buy status for someone else, especially if they don't fly as much as you?

Avianca Lifemiles are on sale right now (I think at 1.4 c/ point). Consider a purchase of Lifemiles and booking ANA or Aseana or Singapore with them. I think you can buy about 170K miles with those dollars, which should be enough for a roundtrip. I doubt availability is going to be a big issue. This may give you more flexibility than a revenue ticket, but again, no one earns miles for an award ticket. Will they reimburse a miles purchase? My old employer wouldn't.

There are some cheap flights out there. Do you have a reason to go to the USA in the next few months?? These cheap J flights on Qatar and EY (down to about 1100 r-t some dates) earn about 40K each RT in RDM on AA. Not the most efficient but you'd end up with ExPlat or well on the way with a few of those flights, even at super low cost.

Hit me by PM with your Skype if you want to chat about it. Figuring this out will take far more detail than you've provided here (for understandable reasons). Can help you figure out a CC strategy (remember the timing issue for this too, spending money to meet sign -up bonuses takes more time for us Asia based folks) or alternative.

Wuhan and Fuzhou (probably others) were $1700 in Business class as of yesterday. May work for your dates.

(09-05-2016 05:48 PM)elcidcampeador Wrote:  Wuhan and Fuzhou (probably others) were $1700 in Business class as of yesterday. May work for your dates.

Where do these flights start in the USA? NY, Chicago? That's a killer deal if from Chicago.

So you can now status match SPG membership level to Marriot and vice versa.

I just transferred 60k SPG points to 180k Marriott points. Very good conversion rate I would say!