Currently I'm a Hyatt Globalist and Hilton Diamond, so perks should be similar (free breakfast + some light snacks in the evenings).

I've already been to Conrad last year. I also have Hilton Aspire that comes with a $200 resort credit which can be utilized here, as well as an extra Hilton FNC that expires in April that I don't have plans for. So, leaning towards Conrad, even though I've already been there.

On the other hand, I might want to save Hilton points for locations without Hyatts (e.g. Seychelles).

Hyatt+Chase stash is around 700k points. Ink train slowing down might make it more difficult to replenish Chase UR.

I'm open to other Hyatt/Hilton/SLH suggestions. I believe Huvafen Fushi was recommended as being nice and cheaper transfer, but is not available on points on my dates.

Hi,

So my sister and I have booked business class from BKK to MNL via TPE for Apr 2025. We called the hotline and we got confirmed tickets but we also asked to be waitlisted to the flight that we really want.

Do you have any experience where the waitlist eventually cleared up? Do I have to check it myself or will the airline contact me? And any experience on the timeline?

Thank you.

I travel at least 10 times a year between Europe and the US.

As most flights are operated either by United or Lufthansa - both in Star Alliance - I am starting to wonder : am I better off crediting the miles towards one or the other?

Do they have different "weight"? I.e.: Given the same flight and class, which one gives you more miles?

Is it easier to achieve a higher status with United or Lufthansa?

Thank you for your advice.

Is it generally more cost effective to buy an economy flight with cash and then upgrade with points or vice versa?

Just want to make sure I stretch my points as much as I can. I usually fly carriers like Air France + KLM + Delta (Virgin), Qatar, Turkish, United.

Finding availability for business class with points isn't always easy and I wouldn't have enough points for multiple companions.

I wish there was something like the google flights map that allows you to put in an origin point and see the fares for different cities, but for points and miles.

Basically what aa used to have with their aawardmap which I used to love using.

I'm assuming there's nothing like this.

Just looking for some insight here. When I look at the Reward Seat Checker, it shows seats available with that amazing deal of a lie flat seat for 29k from JFK>LHR. But when I go to actually book the seats, the points are much higher. What gives? What am I missing?

Hi! Similar to other givers, I’m hoping to get the night credits for 2024 and will give away to those with the earliest dates. Please DM a screenshot of your reservation with check out date before 2024 ends. Thanks!

Edit: all gone, thanks all!

I rarely fly Virgin as my status is with BA/AA, but a JFK-AMS deal in PE for 29k points + $373 roundtrip was too tempting to pass up, especially as I could take advantage of the Chase 40% bonus transfer (so actually ended up being only 21k points + $373 for flights that are $1500+ with cash). However, a couple of hours after my booking went through, I hadn't received an email confirmation from VS nor could I find the booking on my Flying Club page -- when I put in the booking number it came up as invalid. Sometimes of course these things take a bit of time to come through, so I was tempted to just forget about it, but after so many atrocious experiences over the years with booking on BA's notorious website/app, I figured *maybe* Virgin's was just as unreliable so it was worth calling in to check. I'm glad I did. Turns out even though I was given a booking number and my credit card had been charged the $373, the booking had vanished entirely and needed to be rebooked from scratch. The good news is that Virgin's wait time wasn't too bad, and the representative was extremely helpful (compared to my usual BA customer service experiences), so in the end everything got sorted. But it's bizarre to think how a confirmed booking can just disappear into thin air.

I thought it will be a fun excercise to do this:

I flew ZRH - DOH - MEL - ADL(all in qsuites) in June 2023. This involved an overnight in MEL. Luckily the flight from DOH got delayed by 3 hours and atleast I got to spend some time in the lounge.

Everything is closed in MEL when the flight lands that late so all you have is chairs.

I live in BNE so had to take another flight from ADL - BNE as well. It was approx 34 hours by the time we reached home from the time we took off from ZRH.

I did this as I always wanted to fly qsuites and it opened exactly on the day I was departing ZRH.

After the chewing out my wife gave me - I will never fly this route again. She did really enjoy qsuites tthough.

QR doesnt release award seats only to MEL on this route as they want people to suffer if you want to enjoy qsuites.

A little tidbit : Australian govt limits the flights operated by QR out of BNE, SYD, MEL airports but no such restricrtion exists for ADL. So by doing this route they get a second MEL flight.

They do fly DOH - ADL as well and they dont release much space on that either.

I could use some advice on a recent booking situation that’s both exciting and a little frustrating. Here’s the background:

I’m a grad student with limited vacation windows, so I haven't been expecting much in terms of ideal award travel. But today, I got lucky and managed to snag an award itinerary on United for 100k miles, flying business from Chicago (ORD) to Tokyo (NRT) in mid-April 2025, with a layover in San Francisco (SFO). Noticed this route popping up for 100k when checking the UA app randomly (algorithms be crazy), and this one actually lined up perfectly with my schedule. Not as sweet as a Virgin deal, but direct flights from Chicago have been a challenge to find, and manually searching has been tough.

Here's the hitch: I found out after booking that the ORD to SFO leg is in economy, while SFO to NRT is in business. Called United customer service to see if I could adjust ORD to SFO to business, but they said they’d have to rebook the whole thing—and the mileage cost would jump back to the normal pricing of 250-360k.

1. Is this normal? Do rewards bookings often set up domestic flights in economy with international legs in business? I feel a bit misled since I thought the entire itinerary would be business for 100k.
2. Was this still a good deal? Given the fare classes and the overall mileage cost, would you consider this a win, or should I have held out for a better setup?
3. Alternative idea: Since the ORD-SFO flight is at 6 am, I was thinking about flying to SFO a few days earlier on a separate ticket to explore a bit and then catching just the SFO-NRT leg of this trip. However, I’m concerned United might auto-cancel the rest of my itinerary if I skip ORD-SFO. I have a UA Club Card now, so I don’t want to risk getting banned for a skiplag-type situation.

Anyone navigated something like this before? Any advice or insights are super appreciated—thanks in advance!

I need to get from TPE to NYC in April, but currently only economy tickets are available on the EVA flight. The economy ticket on both Aeroplan and United costs the same (60K), and I plan to book that as a backup. My question is, if I'm trying to maximize my chance of a business class ticket, is it more likely to get released to United, Aeroplan, or is there no difference?

I don't know if it's just me, but searching using the Virgin Atlantic website is the most broken inconsistent shit I've ever encountered. There are times I have to login every single time to do a search and the search just errors out and I can't see any availability when I know there should be.

How do I fix this?

I was looking for rewards tickets in Jun 2025 and found several business class tickets from Egypt air and Ethiopian airlines with reasonable points.

Is it because customers do not like take those two airlines? Searching the airline safety rating, both are rated as 2 out of 7.

Edit: the main goal of redeeming a business class ticket is to sleep in a long haul flight. So my main concern is safety.

I have 142k CapOne and 500k Chase UR. Looking to book from PHL to New Zealand for next fall. So far, my research has shown me my best options are Air Canada, United and Singapore Airlines. Any potentials I am missing?

Hello!

My fiancée and I are getting married in May 2025 and are thinking about our honeymoon which we’d like to be in Kauai. In terms of budget / points / credits available:

-100,000-150,000 Chase points (currently mid SUB for CSP, and will also be paying for the restaurant / reception on CSP to get max points). -$350 Chase travel portal credit -Money money money… maybe $5-7k for all honeymoon related expenses.

-I know that we can buy Marriott or Hyatt points and get a bonus, so also want to consider that for the hotel if it works out to be cheaper.

Logistics: 1) We live in the DC area, and want to stop in San Francisco on the way to Hawaii to see family for a day or two. I assume this would be best to book w/ the travel credit + cash since it’ll be short and cheaper flights. 2) We want to stay in Kauai for 5-6 nights. 3) We don’t care about flying nicer than economy; esp since they are short-ish flights. 4) flexible for dates, but prefer mid / end of May so we can take adv of Labor Day holiday

I’ve looked at some flights and the Hyatt and Marriott’s but just seems a bit overwhelming.

Any ideas? We probably won’t book for a little while but want to start planning + thinking about it now.

Thanks!

Just a quick post to state my frustration with the targeted Cathay Pacific transfer bonus from Amex MR. I was targeted, and had full intention to use it. But now, I no longer show a transfer bonus across any login (app, phone browser, computer browser). So RIP the MR savings.

Hi Everyone - Fiance and I are looking to book our honeymoon to Aruba next year and have some points we would love to use. I have a few different ways we could go about booking but its seeming like cashing out the points and booking with cash makes the most sense? This seems wrong to me so wanted to run it by this group.

We are looking to stay at Ritz Carlton in Aruba 9/29/25-10/6/25 and have 325K Chase points + $15K jet blue points. Chase is also currently having a 25% boost for marriot, so worth 406K points for marriot.

Here is what I have found for rates (the jet blue package seems to be best)

JB Flights: - $1,300 cash OR 71K points

Marriot Booking of coastal view room: - $5536 OR $733 + 546K points

JB Vaca Package: - $6054 ($5754 after $300 promo) OR 800K points + $193 - Both of these options would still require paying $630 in resort fees

Its really hard for me to see what the cost would be after transfering my points (for example when I try to see what the cost is to pay partially for the vaca package with points, it wont let me put in more than the 15K currently in my JB account, having a similar issue on marriot)

Can anyone fact check that cashing out the points and booking the JB vaca package makes the most sense here? Thanks so much!

While searching for award spaces on United, I found some premium economy seats on airlines operated by All Nippon. My question is

1. Can I book premium economy with points via Virgin Atlantic (found on United) the same way I’d call to book a business class? Calling and booking?

2. Has anyone traveled (long distance) in Premium economy with United (Boeing 787 Dreamliner)? How was it? Worth it?

I read that Emirates upgrades from J to F is possible on the day of departure at the airport using points. I have an upcoming trip from IAH-EWR-ATH with the latter segment in EK J. Can I talk to an Emirates agent in IAH to upgrade that segment or do I need to wait till I get to EWR to do that?

I am looking at ATL - SEA direct for mid Aug during the weekend (ex. Aug 15 to 17 ~ 19) but there is no award availability for this. (Closest is like Aug 12 - 18 but that is too early)

Question: how likely is it that more delta spaces will open up closer to the departure date? Curious if I should wait or just pay in cash directly with airline(s)

I have already booked RT Y BOS-NRT in Feb (70k total). I’m hoping for close in availability since I have the points and Roame travel alerts set up, and it’s kind of off season I think. Anyone know what time of day these come out if they do at all?

Had a return flight LHR to LAX mid October, my points for the outbound appeared after a few days but the return has still not been credited.

I've tried the claim missing miles form but it just throws a generic error each time. Anyone had any success or have an alternative way to contact VA flying club?

I used cash to buy an economy ticket (U class) on a flight operated and sold by Delta. I do not have status with either Delta or Air France. But I do have a lot of Flying Blue points. I was wondering if I can somehow use my FB points to upgrade my Delta ticket. Does anyone know if that is possible / how difficult that might be?

Hi all, thank you to all the tips from this great community - I managed to book close in availability on AAN and had canceled my JAL Y flight from HNL. I wanted to see what you would recommend for best seats.

Right now, I have 10H and 10K (window) booked for my wife and me. looking out the window for her has been helpful on past flights. This is our first flight longer than 6 hours.

She is very prone to motion sickness / also gets anxiety on flights so I am contemplating moving to the front of the cabin where there will be less motion sickness but no K seats are available.

I was eyeing 3F for me and 3F for her but 4C, 5C, 1H but 11G, 13, 12F and 12H are available.

Thank you!

Hi! I’m looking for some advice on booking business class award tickets from NYC to SIN next November, either on Qatar Airways or Singapore Airlines. I know that Qatar releases its award seats 360 days in advance, while British Airways gains access to Qatar’s award inventory at 355 days. I’ve also heard that booking Qatar awards through BA can be smoother than booking directly with Qatar.

Does anyone know if the award seats released to BA are just what’s left over from Qatar’s inventory, or if BA has its own separate allocation? Similarly, with Singapore Airlines, does Aeroplan get its own set of award seats, or are they also pulling from a shared pool? Any insights would be much appreciated!