r/awardtravel

Looking for a sanity check from the award travel crowd. I did this way in advance and it’s the first time I’ve used my venturex points on an international Carrier.

Family of 4 traveling NYC to Barcelona in August 2027 for a cruise.

Booked through British Airways Avios on Iberia:

Outbound Aug. 11 JFK 8:40 PM → MAD → BCN 12:45 PM

Return Aug. 22 BCN 1:35 PM → MAD → JFK 6:55 PM

Total for all 4: 194,000 Avios round trip $1,114.12 taxes/fees

That’s 48,500 Avios round trip per person, or 24,250 each way.

The schedule is a big part of why I like it. The 8:40 PM outbound lets me work most of the day instead of burning another vacation day, and the 12:45 PM BCN arrival lines up nicely with hotel check-in. The return also works well after our cruise without rushing to the airport.

What’s interesting is that the exact award itineraries have since disappeared from Point.me, while the flights themselves are still scheduled and my reservations remain intact in BA and Iberia.

I briefly considered Aer Lingus from EWR, but it would cost more Avios, more cash after cancellation fees, and would leave much earlier in the day.

Iberia also quoted roughly $70 per 23 kg checked bag for the full outbound itinerary once baggage purchase opens.

I also managed to grab 2 rooms at the Grand Hyatt Barcelona for Aug. 12 to 14 for 60,000 Hyatt points total, so effectively 15,000 points per room per night. That gives us two connecting rooms for the family for the two nights before the cruise.

For peak summer, fixed dates, and 4 seats together, how would you rate 194K Avios + $1,114 total? Strong redemption, average, or nothing special?

Has anyone here flown to Hawaii from mainland USA in business class or premium economy using points?

Based on what I’m seeing on Seats.aero, there doesn’t seem to be a ton of (affordable) availability in premium economy or business class. However, I’m seeing quite a bit of economy availability through Air Canada Aeroplan and Qatar Airways.

Are there any other transfer partners I should be looking at that tend to have good award availability for flights to Hawaii?

Also, if I book an economy award flight through Air Canada or Qatar Airways, does anyone have experience with upgrading to premium economy or business class afterward? If so, how much did the upgrade cost, and was it worth it?

For context, the vast majority of our points are earned through Capital One, so I’d ideally like to stick with transfer partners that work with Capital One Miles.

Would appreciate any advice or firsthand experiences!

I have been trying to book an AF J flight. CDG-JFK on 5-30.

Etihad and JAL say there is availability, but I would prefer to use Virgin Atlantic. I called Virgin Atlantic and they say there is nothing. I checked Delta as well and they have nothing. I then figured it has to be that for some reason it is available to non-alliance partners, so I checked Qantas and they have nothing.

Are Etihad and JAL both showing phantom availability, or do they get more access than other airlines?

I have about 300k points with Amex. I really don't need it with an airline since I have more points than I know what to do with on United. I was thinking of transferring it to Hilton only because they have a 2:1 transfer ratio. My logic is fly free on United and then maybe stay for free at Hilton.

I've never used Hilton points. Any pro's or cons of doing this?

Any other options I should consider?

Canceling & happy to coordinate

Welcome to the daily help and question thread!

This thread is renewed weekly and is intended for all discussions or questions that do not warrant their own thread.

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• Here are the information you should provide when requesting award assistance
• Origin and destination cities (are they flexible?)
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Please share award opportunities in the Monthly Award Thread!

Anybody else always get errors trying to book FlyingBlue, KLM, and AirFrance award travel?

Everytime I see award travel for their flights on award travel sites when I try to sign in and book on all 3 sites I have issues

I’ve tried the KLM and AirFrance app without success too. As well as mobile website

Also have tried my laptop. What’s the trick? I always get

“Sorry, something went wrong…. Please try again.”

Good afternoon. I am not a frequent traveler at all. My daughter will be studying abroad next spring in Europe. My wife and other daughter will be travelling over to visit her. Based on where we live it is possible for us to fly out of Newark, Philly, Baltimore relatively easily. Is it possible to still find good deals if you are limited to flying in and out on exact dates? I feel like most of the time when I see someone get a great deal on a flight it is because they can be extremely flexible about when they fly. Based on our daughters schedule and our work schedules we will not be able to be flexible with dates. Also what is the recommended time frame to be looking? Is it better to look now or wait to try and book closer to when we will be going? I have a little over 200K in Chase points and I'm hoping I can use that to put a decent dent in the flying cost. Thanks!

Hey, had some questions that I've gotten different answers too online about a recent award. basically international one way arriving from abroad to us. Abroad flights are swiss business. Then in the us one short 1 hour connecting leg in economy cause first wasn't available. My questions:

For bags, swiss lets you take 2 carry on + personal + 2 checked. 2 checked will go all the way, but for the 2 carry ons, given that even in first united domestic doesn't offer that, will they let me two bring on or at least gate check one without paying for another bag.

Second question. For lounge access. The connecting terminal is IAD. Given i'm coming in on a business ticket, does it give lounge access? Not the biggest deal cause have pp access but curious where i should go.

Thx!

Hi everyone!

I’m considering booking a hotel through LifeMiles Hotels, mainly because they offer LifeMiles for hotel stays and I’d like to take advantage of the miles.

Before I pay, I’d really like to hear from people who have actually used it.

For those who have booked through LifeMiles Hotels:

Was your reservation confirmed without any problems?

When you arrived at the hotel, did the hotel have your reservation in their system?

Did you have any issues with payment or check-in?

Did you actually receive the LifeMiles after your stay?

If something went wrong with the reservation, did LifeMiles help you resolve it?

Would you use LifeMiles Hotels again, or would you rather book through Booking.com, Expedia, etc.?

I’m especially interested in experiences from people who paid through LifeMiles Hotels and then actually stayed at the hotel.

I’d really appreciate any positive or negative experiences. Thanks!

Could someone check how much tax I would need to pay for a direct flight from Munich to Helsinki operated by Finnair? The Qatar website does not show the tax amount since I do not have enough points. Thank you in advance.

TLDR: what are my chances of putting in a high bid price to upgrade premium econ to biz? Are biz flights for bidding offered on every flight with empty J seats?

Booked a CX J LAX>HKG but having trouble finding a flight back. My SO already secured a return flight CX J 11/26 (booked with points by diamond member BIL). My only option is to pay cash to be on same flight back, which is to the tune of $5k. At this point, I might as well cancel my award flight and just pay for round trip with cash ~$6k

But I have an idea

What if I purchased a CX PE and bid a decently high price to upgrade to J? PE is ~$2500 and J is $5500. So I have $3000 buffer, bidding anything less would save me money from buying J outright. Any holes in my strategy? Open to other ideas. $6k is too much but I’m preggos so it’s ideal for my SO to be on same flight to help with luggage.

Background:

I need to book an AA flight through Finnair using Avios. I transferred Amex points to BA which worked instantly. I then go to transfer Avios from BA to Finnair on the Avios.com site. Everything looks normal and the transfer says it was successful on the Avios website. I will then get an email from Avios asking me to verify my identity which I complete (have tried both my DL and Passport) and it says verification complete. As soon as I do this I get another email saying the Avios transfer was unsuccessful.

I have found a few similar examples to this but never a straight up answer on what the issue is.

Some other data points:

• My name, email, phone number, address, DOB, and passport info is identical across BA and Finnair (Qatar too).
• My name in all places is only First and Last.
• My BA and Finnair accounts have both been open >30 days.
• My BA and Finnair accounts are linked. I can see both of them in the Avios website with my account numbers and Avios balances.
• 2FA is set up on all accounts.
• I'm only trying to transfer 30k points so its not a large amount.
• My Qatar and BA accounts are also linked and I can see my BA Avios balance on the Qatar website without having done anything else.

There are only 2 possible causes of this I could find but not verify if either is true. I'm hoping anyone here may have better information on what the issue is.

1. My DL and Passport both list my middle name but none of my accounts (including Amex) have my middle name. I do not list my middle name ever when flying and have never had a single issue with it. Could the verification not work because my middle name is listed on my DL and Passport but not the accounts?
2. I saw one unverified comment on one thread that there could be a 7 day waiting period between transferring in Avios (via Amex) before you're able to move them between Avios accounts.

Have any Australians successfully booked flights through virgin atlantic?
Any tips to get this done? There is no Australian number to call, online chat doesn’t help.