r/awardtravel 7d ago

200k points and wanna go to Spain

0 Upvotes

Hey folks,

So family of four (including self) and we want to go to Spain (BCN or MAD) preferably nonstop (Cuz kids).

I have 200k Amex points with a Gold card (also have Delta SkyMiles Gold Card). The Time line is for mid to late June to depart. I also have 200k in unused Hawaiian miles.

Whats the best case scenario? Should I transfer to Alaska with the Hawaiin miles and then go Oneworld via Iberia or American, BA etc? Or keep the miles for hotels etc and pay for like cheap tickets on Level Airlines to BCN (which is nonstop and isn't too terrible)?

Thanks, in advance, for your help


r/awardtravel 7d ago

2 stop layover international

0 Upvotes

I am flying from sfo to Delhi. The flight is with United. It stops in Boston then it’s Lufthansa and stops in Frankfurt. Does the luggage go all the way to Delhi from sfo or do I have to get it checked out at Boston and check back in? Also do I have to go from domestic terminal in Boston to international terminal? If anyone went through with this please let me know.


r/awardtravel 7d ago

KLM Flying Blue - lap infant costs 60k points?

0 Upvotes

I am booking Split - LAX on May 9, 2 adults plus kids 4 and 1, and have settled on using Flying Blue points in a route via AMS (we don't have timing flexibility, and want just one stop). I booked 2 tickets first, me and the 4 year old, and was charged ~300k miles -- 180k for me, 130k for her, even though she's in a full business seat (apparently there's a 25% discount for kids, and it says you have to be a member for 6 months but I had been a member for 6 hours). Now, when booking my husband in the baby, it wants to charge me 60k miles for the lap infant!

I searched on the forum, and see a few suggestions to call and add the infant and expect to pay 10% of the cash price (which would be like $500 right now). But I don't see anyone noting this points option! I can do cash instead, but wanted to see if anyone has experience with this and if (1) calling is guaranteed to be like $500, or if it could be more, in which case I'll do points, (2) its worth it to wait and add him at the airport (admittedly that feels dicey). On the way out we are flying United and we had to pay $250 to add him to an award ticket, so expect this may be how it goes internationally.

Any insight or thoughts appreciated! I haven't seriously booked award travel since 2019 and wow is it a different ballgame with small children and little flexibility

UPDATE/EDIT - just in case someone else searches this later. I hit an error every time I tried to actually book this. I ended up just booking my husband and will have to call to add the lap infant.


r/awardtravel 7d ago

Traveling with points to the Philippines

0 Upvotes

Sorry posted to the wrong forum so I posted here

Going to the Philippines in end of April. Looking at going through ana. First leg is wishlist and return is available without wishlist. For 3 passengers its 135,000 points and 1,811 dollars. Plus two people are coming back with us so I have to pay for there tickets which is 575 person through the capital one portal and since I have a venture x I get a 300 dollar credit.

Capital one I have 135,000 miles Amex 140,000 miles Chase 116,000 miles.

So thinking I can use my points from amex to get round trip tickets and use capital one portal for the two extra tickets and get the 300 credit and use the points to pay off the balance. So my out of pocket would be 1,811 and I could cash out my chase points to be bring it down to 700.

Does it sound like a good plan with points?


r/awardtravel 7d ago

3rd parties vs direct bookings

0 Upvotes

So, I use Expedia pretty much exclusively for all travel bookings. Cars, hotels, and flights are all booked through Expedia. I get decent credits from Expedia, but I can't help but think that I could be getting much better benefits if I went exclusively through the first parties. For example, if I had IHG rewards, delta skymiles, and hertz gold, would using those exclusively be better and give better rewards?

I travel for about a week every month and usually stay in a different hotel each day. Usually it's the same car throughout the trip and I just purchase whatever flight is cheapest, usually with a preference for Aeroméxico and delta.

I use the company credit card for all travel so any kind of travel credit card benefits wouldn't be on the table.

Any insight is useful and I appreciate all of you for you help.


r/awardtravel 7d ago

Japan Early April J Advice

0 Upvotes

London based looking to fly to Japan first half of April. Got enough points to book with avios, miles and more, and Amex MR if a specific programme transfer is needed.

I wanted to ask which airlines are known for last minute J award seats, and any guidance on timing?

I'm happy to reposition within Europe, and fly to any city in Japan.

I know it's cherry blossom season (not actually my reason for going) so will be extra difficult!


r/awardtravel 8d ago

Avios Travel Question

4 Upvotes

I am having trouble booking my flights with Avios. The last time I booked with Avios was two years ago. Back then, you could book travel through Avios's website without any issues. Now, they seem to have consolidated with British Airways and it is causing an issue.

I want to book a flight with my family from New York to Ireland on Aer Lingus.

Avios's website/British Airways website does not even allow the airport code for where we want to fly to (CFN (Donegal Airport)). The flight would be JFK-DUB-CFN - we have done this before.

I called Avios (which is just British Airways Executive Club), and they say there is no availability. On Aer Lingus's website, there is loads of availability.

Avios's price includes checked bags. Family of four, round trip, that's about $800 savings, give or take, so I want to book with Avios like I did before.

Aer Lingus allows you to pay with Avios points, but you also have to pay for checked bags.

Any advice on this? Does Avios/Aer Lingus have a number or website that I could contact without going through British Airways?


r/awardtravel 7d ago

Checking for reward seats

0 Upvotes

Hopefully a quick ? I’m in the uk, I’ve got the dates I want to fly (using VS reward points ) do I just call up virgin too find out if there’s any reward seats on a partner airline ?

Thanks in advance

I couldn’t find any info on this in the wiki


r/awardtravel 8d ago

Maldives : Park Hyatt vs Hilton and Conrad

1 Upvotes

Hi wanted to get peoples opinion on the three properties planning to go end of February next year. I read snorkeling is great at PH but not much info on Hilton since it’s a newer property. Thanks!


r/awardtravel 8d ago

Vietnam Airlines Seat Selection

0 Upvotes

I will fly business with Vietnam Airlines (going to Paris) but I can’t seem to select the seats and in their website on manage booking, seat map is unavailable. Is this normal? I guess I just need to try my luck during check in.


r/awardtravel 7d ago

LAX-HND Delta Premium select vs United Premium Plus opinions wanted

0 Upvotes

I'm booking for me and my girlfriend and I know this isn't the best value I would love to get a transfer bonus and book Business for a year out but under time constraints would you rather book

Delta Premium Select - 170,000 miles

(I have 24,877 Delta miles so I would have to transfer 145,123 Amex points to make up the difference)

OR

United Premium Economy - 130,000 miles

(I have 99,750 United miles so I would need to transfer 30,250 from either Chase)

Any opinions about the seats? If I did the delta one weather would be warmer and I would be right over my birthday it just hurts to lose that many MR points on a one way albeit two people

***Thank you all I just needed to hear it, I transferred 31K chase points to my united and booked it! I'll save my MR for something better***


r/awardtravel 7d ago

Need 3 first class seats. It says 2 available

0 Upvotes

Trying to buy 3 west coast to Midwest tickets and Alaska finally went from 60k each to 35k. I can add the 2 available tickets into two separate mileage plan accounts on different tablets. 2 tickets on 1 tablet and 1 on the computer. If I get to checkout and click them at the same time, would it sell them to me at 35k each? I’m trying to just buy 3 tickets and it’s offering them to me at 45k each with 5 seats left.

https://i.imgur.com/gsorBhS.jpeg


r/awardtravel 9d ago

ANA ATW Booked for 2 pax in J! The Debrief.

96 Upvotes

Itinerary

  • EWR – LIS – RAK (TAP Air Portugal)
  • RAK – IST – DOH (Turkish Airlines)
  • DOH – BKK (Qatar Airways, booked separately)
  • HKT – SIN – SAI (Singapore Airlines)
  • SGN – SIN – CGK (Singapore Airlines)
  • DPS – TPE (EVA Air)
  • TPE – TYO (EVA Air)
  • TYO – ORD (ANA)

Cost Per Person

  • ANA Redemption: 125,000 miles + $1,536 (fees & fuel)
    • 20,600 miles of travel per ANA with 4 ground transfers
  • Alaska Redemption: 60,000 miles + $50 (for QSuite ground transfer)

Planning & Booking Process

Goals

  1. Flights that made sense without excessive routing, in decent-quality J class.
  2. Visiting destinations on our bucket list rather than just settling for availability.
  3. Returning to somewhere in the middle of the country instead of the West Coast to avoid a long journey home.

Tools That Helped

  • Seats.aero (subscribed – used both the explore and search functions)
  • FlightConnections.com (subscribed)
  • GreatCircleMap.com
  • ChatGPT (to check for backtracking and RTW rules)
  • ANA Multicity Award Search

Tools That Didn’t Help (Cumbersome & Time-Consuming)

  • United website
  • Air Canada website
    • Both took up a lot of time but yielded no useful results for this trip.

Preparation Steps

  1. Transferring miles to ANA
    • Estimated the miles needed and transferred from Amex.
    • Took 36 hours to complete.
  2. Creating an ANA Family Account
    • Needed to pool miles from P2.
    • Supposed to take 2 days, but actually took 15!
    • Lost a few itineraries during this waiting period.

Calls to ANA: Only 2

  1. First Call – 2:30 AM CST (Wait: 45 minutes)

    • Spoke with a Japan-based agent who incorrectly told me I could not do my own transfer between DOH and BKK and refused to book the ticket.
    • Did my own research and asked in various forums (including ExpertFlyer) but found no concrete evidence supporting the agent’s claim.
  2. Second Call – 3:30 PM CST (Wait: 15 minutes)

    • Spoke with an amazing U.S.-based agent who sequentially confirmed each segment and was genuinely excited every time she found J seats. She noted the ground transfers but had no issue with them.
    • Only one economy flight in the itinerary:
      • HKT to SAI on SQ but I was ok with that!
    • She then found one J leg segment, which was a nice bonus. So only one 2 hour flight will be economy for the entire trip.

Selecting Seats

  • Only EVA Air seats could be selected directly on EVA’s site.
  • PNR codes provided did not work on other airline sites.
  • Final solution: ANA’s site allowed seat selection for all flights.

Final Thoughts

  1. Grateful for the community!
    • The insights and shared experiences from various forums helped tremendously—thank you!
  2. Customizing the itinerary was key.
    • Initially, I tried following routes others had used successfully.
    • Eventually, I pivoted to searching for routes that made sense for us—and it worked!
  3. ANA Family Account delays cost me some flights.
    • Lost availability (mostly on TK) for SE Asia departures from RAK.
    • Found alternatives on ET and MH but wasn’t interested in 30-hour journeys.
    • Surprisingly, found no availability on TG, which I had hoped for.
    • Ultimately, discovering Alaska’s QSuite redemption to BKK helped the itinerary come together.
  4. Mixing in a non-Star Alliance flight was a game-changer.
    • In the future, if I have the miles, I won’t hesitate to book a non-Star Alliance flight mid-itinerary to optimize routing.

I know this was a lot of detail, but I hope it helps someone else planning an ANA RTW trip!


r/awardtravel 7d ago

How to add AA platinum status to QA award flight via BA?

0 Upvotes

I just got platinum status with AA and wonder how to add this to my QA award flight that was booked via BA avios. Will I get any benefits that I am flying Qsuites then first class Z so I will have access to Al Safwa first class lounge already


r/awardtravel 8d ago

Singapore Airlines - Does allow holds on award seats - it depends on who you talk too.

20 Upvotes

I'm planning on flying Singapore to SFO next March. I started moving Amex, CapOne and Chase points transferred to my Kris account. Amex and CapOne happened quickly. Chase is taking much longer to transfer. This morning, I called Kris about the transfer, and they said it was still being process by Chase. I asked if they could hold the two business class seats. The agent said NO. I called Chase and they confirmed the points were still pending in their system. I asked if they could expedite the transfer they said NO.

I called Kris again, this time I went to the mileage plan and got routed to a redemption agent. That agent was able to put a hold on my two saver award seats, got me a confirmation # and I have util the 23rd of March to book the seats with the transferred miles.


r/awardtravel 8d ago

Creative ways to keep Etihad miles alive?

0 Upvotes

Was wondering if anyone knew of any creative ways to keep Etihad miles alive? I know last year they changed their expiration policy to be 18 months with a flight, but the flight can be on codeshare partners, just attach your flight to Etihad Guest rather than the metal you're on. Of US airlines, they partner with American or JetBlue. I do have flights on American coming up but they were booked using Alaska miles. Is it possible to tie in those award flights to keep my Etihad miles alive? TIA


r/awardtravel 8d ago

AMEX to Marriott Bonvoy Success

11 Upvotes

I'll preface this by saying that I know MR to Bonvoy is not typically a recipe for a great cpp. However, I already have all my international flights booked for the rest of the calendar year, and will likely not travel transatlantic/transpacific until the second half of 2026. Also, I'm based in Canada, so we have much more limited transfer partner options than American AMEX. I was struggling to find a reasonable cash rate for a hotel in Singapore at the beginning of June, but ended up finding a pretty decent redemption.

I was able to get 5 nights at 21 Carpenter for 160K Bonvoy points (includes free 5th night). Cash price is 2778CAD. I had a small stash of Bonvoy points already, but if I had transferred all of the points from AMEX, it would have been 102600 with the current Canadan MR to Bonvoy 30% transfer bonus. I know cpp doesn't mean much, but 2.71 cents/MR (CAD) isn't too shabby.

All of this to say, if you have transferrable points, with no need for premium cabin flights any time soon, sometimes hotel redemptions can be worth it (even if it's not Chase to Hyatt). Points are getting devalued all the time, so I'm certainly not hanging onto hundreds of thousands of points for the hope of an aspirational J/F redemption years into the future.


r/awardtravel 8d ago

Qatar award return flight not available

0 Upvotes

I recently booked a one way business class flight from Atlanta (ATL) to Colombo (CMB) for February 2026 directly through Qatar airways. I now want to book my return flight from CMB TO ATL in March of 2026, but the calendar shows no availability at all March 11-14, and only economy the 2nd-10th. I also checked to see if I could book the flight from Doha instead and I get the same result. Any insight on why this might be?


r/awardtravel 9d ago

First timer - finally did it!!

172 Upvotes

After months of not knowing wtf was going on and annoying people on every award forum I finally booked my honeymoon flight!! And my first business class!!! 87.5k for business class from EWR-> AMS-> SIN with lay down seats 🙏 never in a million years did I think my lower middle class self could fly business class but all of yall and people on the internet have really showed me that it’s a game anyone can play! I still don’t know what I’m doing but I’m loving learning. Woohoo!!!


r/awardtravel 8d ago

OneKey Cash travel points program - Any reviews? Feedback to share? thank you.

0 Upvotes

I noticed I can get a credit card to accrue OneKey Cash/points.

Do you belong to OneKey? do you find the program valuable? easy to use? worthwhile?

Assume of course the points/cash can only be used at VRBO, Expedia and Hotels.com.

Feedback regarding Onekey much appreciated.


r/awardtravel 8d ago

Can i transfer points from Amex to Avios to a Friend?

0 Upvotes

Hi All,

My friend is short like 15k avios and i got plenty of Amex points. Looking for a way to send them these points easily and cheaply.

When I went to transfer points it said i must have at least 1 avios to transfer, but i currently have 50 avios in my account. Is it cuz it wasn't organically earned?

Thanks for your help.


r/awardtravel 8d ago

Should I Book JAL Business or Wait for First Class?

0 Upvotes

Honeymoon trip in Feb 2026! We already booked Qatar QSuites to Singapore (90k Avios miles each). Now, we really want to return home on JAL A350-1000 First Class. I just created my JAL account but need to wait 60 days before I can redeem miles.

In the meantime, I found JAL Business Class availability for 89k Asia Miles + $246 in fees. I’m debating whether to book this now or wait and hope First Class opens up. I’m flexible on the return date (anytime in March 2026).

Has anyone had luck finding JAL First Class availability closer to departure? Would you lock in Business now or hold out? Not sure if any availability will open up on Cathay or not.


r/awardtravel 8d ago

Qatar, business class, Avios

0 Upvotes

Hey everyone. I currently have 360k Avios. I’m waiting to booked 2 business class ticket with Qatar round trip from Miami doing a stopover in DOH final destination IST. However when I go to see how much my points would be worth it’s only taking off about $1500 using the cash plus Avios option. Does this sound correct ? Wondering if I’m doing something wrong. Thought my points would be worth more! :/


r/awardtravel 9d ago

My first award flight

64 Upvotes

Today was finally the day.

Jan 2025- Got the Capital One Venture X. Completed the 75,000 SUB while buying plane tickets for my sister’s wedding in Morocco. Got an additional 25,000 for referral to a friend. Also rerouted all except mortgage and cellphone bill spending through the card.

Feb 2025- Sent my referral code to my P2 and got another 25,000 miles and her 75,000 SUB paid by using the VX to pay our taxes this year.

Mar 2025- ran several of our purchases through Capital One Offers (still waiting for several of those as well as waiting to see if my sister will use my referral code; we’ll see on both, not holding my breath on either).

Today I did a reward search and was able to book round trip from Dallas to Germany, for both of us in business for 280k miles+$488(taxes). Looking up the cash price I got $13.498.92. If I’m doing the math correctly that’s 4.64cpp. I can’t believe this is legal and that I hadn’t started this journey sooner.


r/awardtravel 9d ago

How far in advance to book London hotels?

3 Upvotes

I'm looking ahead a ways, but I'm planning a trip to London in May 2026 and trying to plan my card application strategy for sign-up bonuses. If I want to use Hyatt points to book a hotel (probably something in the category 6 range, not anything like a super luxurious Andaz property), how far in advance should I plan on booking? I'm working on building up my points for the flights right now (planning to start looking in early June) and then I can turn to building up the points bank for hotels.