Flight Award Travel

[anandam2012]

1 hour ago, phatposts said:

Using miles for best value is a complicated and subjective process. 

In general the easiest ways to book may not yield the best value. In many cases the best values may not be the the routes you want to travel or sometimes it is not even available for your dates. 

For example w/Chase points 

Chase calls their rewards Ultimate Rewards (UR). Value of UR depends on the cards you have. 

Freedom family : 1c | Sapphire Preferred (CSP) : 1.25c | Sapphire Reserve (CSR) : 1.5c

Lets say you have Sapphire preferred and you have 100K UR. 

It means your 100K UR can be used to book travel up to $1250.00 value on the chase portal. 

Chase Portal is nothing but Expedia backed search engine. It is like booking on an online travel agency but using your points instead of cash. 

If you have CSR, the same 100K UR will be valued @ $1500 since CSR allows redemptions at 1.5c instead of 1.25c

This is called fixed value redemption. Many users prefer this as it gives certainty, flexibility etc. 

 

Then there is more complicated (not rocket science) stuff call Award redemptions on the airline. 

This involves a bit of understanding, go through several topics called transfer partners, award charts, saver space availability, routes permitted, alliance partners, non-alliance partners etc. 

I will give one example. 

For instance Chase UR transfer to United miles. Once you transfer to United, you get United miles. United miles CANNOT be used for fixed value redemptions. For example 100K United miles cannot be used to book a $1500 ticket on united.com

If there is saver space available (very imp to realize)  you can use 42500 United miles to book a ticket on United award redemption partners (Star Alliance + non alliance). For this you may have to search segment by segment. 

For instance I am Boston based. HYD does not have lot of Star Alliance flights making it tough. So I search only till DEL or BOM and later buy a cash flight to HYD or VTZ per my needs. 

42500 UR are worth $637.50 on the Chase portal if you have CSR. 

Lets say your one way ticket is $1000 and it is possible to book award ticket for 42500 for your dates - then you should go award redemption route. If your one way ticket is $500 then you should go the cash route. 

This is just a basic example. Airline award redemptions can be extremely complicated and challenging if you let them be. Its ones interests. 

I find tremendous value in these and strongly believe in the same. Its a hobby that helped me unlock so many things in life. 

Baaga ishtam unte enroll in this and go through the self paced free coursehttps://10xtravel.com/free-tools/

Of all the blogs, guides and tutorials I found that course to be the most comprehensive. Aaa course ayyaka - vaallaki 10x insiders ani oka FB group undi. That is a very helpful community. 

Inka interest unte in person seminars, local meetups ala chala unnayi. Idoka prapancham.

 

@anandam2012 @Sizzler @keertana

100% agreed bro, earning miles is easy but best way to use of miles is difficult..andukey YMMV antaru

[phatposts]

3 minutes ago, anandam2012 said:

100% agreed bro, earning miles is easy but best way to use of miles is difficult..andukey YMMV antaru

yeah. there are so many award search consultants who will do the legwork for you for a fee. if someone does not know how to, this is a great area for hiring help

[keertana]

12 hours ago, phatposts said:

yeah. there are so many award search consultants who will do the legwork for you for a fee. if someone does not know how to, this is a great area for hiring help

why would they do it for free 

[phatposts]

8 hours ago, keertana said:

why would they do it for free 

free kaadu, fee

[keertana]

On 10/24/2023 at 8:43 AM, phatposts said:

free kaadu, fee

 my eyes 

[Sizzler]

On 10/23/2023 at 9:45 AM, anandam2012 said:

You can use Bilt Rewards portal to check availability, point.me is also good one, but subscription teesukovali anukunta

Thank you.  I have Points.me account as well but that hasn’t been helpful for me so far. 

[Sizzler]

On 10/23/2023 at 10:22 AM, phatposts said:

Using miles for best value is a complicated and subjective process. 

In general the easiest ways to book may not yield the best value. In many cases the best values may not be the the routes you want to travel or sometimes it is not even available for your dates. 

For example w/Chase points 

Chase calls their rewards Ultimate Rewards (UR). Value of UR depends on the cards you have. 

Freedom family : 1c | Sapphire Preferred (CSP) : 1.25c | Sapphire Reserve (CSR) : 1.5c

Lets say you have Sapphire preferred and you have 100K UR. 

It means your 100K UR can be used to book travel up to $1250.00 value on the chase portal. 

Chase Portal is nothing but Expedia backed search engine. It is like booking on an online travel agency but using your points instead of cash. 

If you have CSR, the same 100K UR will be valued @ $1500 since CSR allows redemptions at 1.5c instead of 1.25c

This is called fixed value redemption. Many users prefer this as it gives certainty, flexibility etc. 

 

Then there is more complicated (not rocket science) stuff call Award redemptions on the airline. 

This involves a bit of understanding, go through several topics called transfer partners, award charts, saver space availability, routes permitted, alliance partners, non-alliance partners etc. 

I will give one example. 

For instance Chase UR transfer to United miles. Once you transfer to United, you get United miles. United miles CANNOT be used for fixed value redemptions. For example 100K United miles cannot be used to book a $1500 ticket on united.com

If there is saver space available (very imp to realize)  you can use 42500 United miles to book a ticket on United award redemption partners (Star Alliance + non alliance). For this you may have to search segment by segment. 

For instance I am Boston based. HYD does not have lot of Star Alliance flights making it tough. So I search only till DEL or BOM and later buy a cash flight to HYD or VTZ per my needs. 

42500 UR are worth $637.50 on the Chase portal if you have CSR. 

Lets say your one way ticket is $1000 and it is possible to book award ticket for 42500 for your dates - then you should go award redemption route. If your one way ticket is $500 then you should go the cash route. 

This is just a basic example. Airline award redemptions can be extremely complicated and challenging if you let them be. Its ones interests. 

I find tremendous value in these and strongly believe in the same. Its a hobby that helped me unlock so many things in life. 

Baaga ishtam unte enroll in this and go through the self paced free coursehttps://10xtravel.com/free-tools/

Of all the blogs, guides and tutorials I found that course to be the most comprehensive. Aaa course ayyaka - vaallaki 10x insiders ani oka FB group undi. That is a very helpful community. 

Inka interest unte in person seminars, local meetups ala chala unnayi. Idoka prapancham.

 

@anandam2012 @Sizzler @keertana

Thank you. I will check this one. Still have lot of points accumulated and can use in future. 

[anandam2012]

3 hours ago, Sizzler said:

Thank you. I will check this one. Still have lot of points accumulated and can use in future. 

What points do you have bro?

[phatposts]

15 hours ago, Sizzler said:

Thank you. I will check this one. Still have lot of points accumulated and can use in future. 

Points can be very valuable if you know how to use them. 

If you dont know or not interested to know - hire an award points consultant. They are very very helpful. 10xtravel has that option. 

Redeeming points for amazon giftcards, using them on website (again like amazon) is usually the worst possible value. At that point you are better off selling to a points broker.

[Sizzler]

On 10/29/2023 at 12:37 AM, anandam2012 said:

What points do you have bro?

Chase UR and Amex Rewards bro. 

[Sizzler]

20 hours ago, phatposts said:

Points can be very valuable if you know how to use them. 

If you dont know or not interested to know - hire an award points consultant. They are very very helpful. 10xtravel has that option. 

Redeeming points for amazon giftcards, using them on website (again like amazon) is usually the worst possible value. At that point you are better off selling to a points broker.

Thanks for the tip. I will think about hiring an award points consultant. Point.me has been useless for me. 
 

Whenever there is a transfer bonus, I transfer them to BA or AF and use them towards travel. Still that is not the best way to utilize points, but relatively better value than paying cash. 

[phatposts]

17 minutes ago, Sizzler said:

Thanks for the tip. I will think about hiring an award points consultant. Point.me has been useless for me. 
 

Whenever there is a transfer bonus, I transfer them to BA or AF and use them towards travel. Still that is not the best way to utilize points, but relatively better value than paying cash. 

points.me useless ante - if award space is not there they wont be able to show anything. 
For India travel - Hyd ki chala takkuva options unfortunately. You need to search to DEL BOM BLR MAA and be willing to buy a local flight as a separate charge. I know its not optimal. Economy aithe - 90% nenu cash tho konesta. Points, I save for Business redemptions only. 

Very rare cases lo when economy is very expensive AND there is points availability I will decide to use it that way. 

[keertana]

1 hour ago, phatposts said:

points.me useless ante - if award space is not there they wont be able to show anything. 
For India travel - Hyd ki chala takkuva options unfortunately. You need to search to DEL BOM BLR MAA and be willing to buy a local flight as a separate charge. I know its not optimal. Economy aithe - 90% nenu cash tho konesta. Points, I save for Business redemptions only. 

Very rare cases lo when economy is very expensive AND there is points availability I will decide to use it that way. 

on average how many points(MR/UR) we may need for business round trip? 

oka 200k MR points tho velli raavocha India ki in business class 

 

[phatposts]

3 minutes ago, keertana said:

on average how many points(MR/UR) we may need for business round trip? 

oka 200k MR points tho velli raavocha India ki in business class 

 

200K tho vellachu. Guarantees ivvaleru evvaru kooda. 

Avg ante chala kashtam. But oka answer kavali ante one way 110-120K avtundi. 

United lo aithe 88K ki vastayi.

Uttine BOS - DEL Nov 2nd ki search chesthe there is an option for 88K Miles + $31 taxes.

Idi okkati [attukuni anni ide rates ki kavali ante avvadu.

See screenshot @ https://imgbox.com/7lynKLYg

 

[Sizzler]

7 hours ago, phatposts said:

points.me useless ante - if award space is not there they wont be able to show anything. 
For India travel - Hyd ki chala takkuva options unfortunately. You need to search to DEL BOM BLR MAA and be willing to buy a local flight as a separate charge. I know its not optimal. Economy aithe - 90% nenu cash tho konesta. Points, I save for Business redemptions only. 

Very rare cases lo when economy is very expensive AND there is points availability I will decide to use it that way. 

Unfortunately, Nenu mostly December time lo travel chestanu. Economy tickets are priced like business class during that time. 

BLR/MAA kooda search chesa Nenu. Next time, I will try DEL, BOM too.

Typically, how many points did you utilize for round trip business?