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Dominoes posted:Hey, so I got a Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card a while back, and built up a bunch of points. I've always had cash/Amazon cards before. How do I actually use the points? The Chase site can't find any flights (Stansted to Pisa). If you're not tied to Stansted you could transfer your points to British Airways Avios and fly from Heathrow or Gatwick
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May 5, 2015 13:29
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Best as I could tell, refundable tickets are sufficiently pricier than non-refundable that I'm probably just better off eating the ticket if I end up leaving Berlin prior to 90 days. Yeah, buying a refundable ticket as a strategy generally assumes you have a grand or two on hand to buy and hold the ticket for a while. If you are a low on cash, not so good.
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May 5, 2015 13:55
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Hollandia posted:Brisbane to Stockholm, departing anywhere between 20-25 June, returning 3-7 August. If you don't mind booking a couple separate one ways on a discount airline, you can go BNE -> HEL and then HEL -> BNE for $1585 AUD with Finnair. Leave June 24, return Aug 4-6.
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May 5, 2015 18:14
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smackfu posted:Yeah, buying a refundable ticket as a strategy generally assumes you have a grand or two on hand to buy and hold the ticket for a while. If you are a low on cash, not so good. No need to hold said ticket once actually past both the airline flying you in and passport control, so 24 hours or so if you buy shortly before leaving. And it probably won't be an issue, but if you do a little googling lots of people have run into issues, usually with the airlines they booked the one-way with refusing to board them without proof of onward travel.
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May 5, 2015 19:21
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Dominoes posted:Hey, so I got a Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card a while back, and built up a bunch of points. I've always had cash/Amazon cards before. How do I actually use the points? The Chase site can't find any flights (Stansted to Pisa). Like asur said, transfer to partners. Avios is generally a great deal for short haul segments.
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May 5, 2015 22:35
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Was hoping you guys could help me find a deal. Can't wait for ticket prices to change because I need them bought more than a few weeks before I can take leave. - Origin: Fayetteville Regional Airport but could leave out of Raleigh-Durham International Airport - Destination: San Antonio International Airport - Duration of trip: June 6th - June 14th but I can be pretty flexible with the dates, just want to be sure Im there for my sister's graduation on the 10th.
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May 6, 2015 05:24
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I'm looking at prices for a round trip, and while I have a set date for the departure flight, I'm not so sure about the return flight (depending on work it might be a month after the departure flight or 6 months). I don't want a refundable ticket, just an economy ticket where I can pay a bit extra to make the change. In some airlines it's really easy to see these options but in others (AA) I have no idea how to do it, they only list "lowest fair, flexible and business/first" (and flexible is insanely pricey). Whats the best way to book this? Am I gonna get screwed with the extra fee for changing the ticket?
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May 6, 2015 19:42
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Souvlaki ss posted:I'm looking at prices for a round trip, and while I have a set date for the departure flight, I'm not so sure about the return flight (depending on work it might be a month after the departure flight or 6 months). If you're looking on an American airline (any of the major ones anyway), your change fee is usually going to be $200 if it's a domestic flight. If it's international, the fee is going to be higher. You don't have nearly enough details to have an idea about what's the best thing to do in your situation though. HookShot fucked around with this message at 00:46 on May 7, 2015 |
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May 7, 2015 00:43
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Aximus posted:Was hoping you guys could help me find a deal. Can't wait for ticket prices to change because I need them bought more than a few weeks before I can take leave. $255 RDU-AUS, June 6-15 on Delta. $221 if you go to the 16th. Considering I paid $288 for MSP-CLT one way this morning, this is a good deal. The drive from AUS to SAT is about an hour unless traffic is excessively stupid, and if you go down 35 instead of the toll road, stop at Bucees and get some poo poo.
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May 7, 2015 02:10
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My actual fare on emirates lax to dxb is 182.00. Taxes and fees make up the rest. Which rules but is also really sad. I will spend much more to go 4 hrs from dxb to mle. 
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May 7, 2015 07:09
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If you find the fare on ITA Matrix, you can look at the fare rules which will list the change fee.
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May 7, 2015 13:26
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asur posted:You can either use the Chase site or transfer to partners, might be a 3rd option for cash or redemption but not sure. A quick glance at kayak however seems to show that only budget airlines fly that route and Chase isn't partnered with them so you might be screwed. pig slut lisa posted:If you're not tied to Stansted you could transfer your points to British Airways Avios and fly from Heathrow or Gatwick Mackieman posted:Like asur said, transfer to partners. Avios is generally a great deal for short haul segments. Called Chase booking; they don't support Ryan Air, but can do "statement credits", ie I book the flight, then they rebate me at 1 point = 1 cent or w/e. It's a rate similar to a traditional reward. Apparently I can also use the points for Amazon gift cards at the same rate.
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May 7, 2015 15:58
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HookShot posted:If you're looking on an American airline (any of the major ones anyway), your change fee is usually going to be $200 if it's a domestic flight. If it's international, the fee is going to be higher. You don't have nearly enough details to have an idea about what's the best thing to do in your situation though. International between SCL-ORD or SCL-GRR (once again). I can leave end of October (ideal before halloween) or end of November. As I said before, I would like to book the return flight a month after that date with the possibility of changing it to 6 months after the departure date. I also noticed I can't even book the return flight that far in advance (6 months), so I guess I definitely need to go with the first option and pay extra
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May 7, 2015 20:26
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Dominoes posted:Called Chase booking; they don't support Ryan Air, but can do "statement credits", ie I book the flight, then they rebate me at 1 point = 1 cent or w/e. It's a rate similar to a traditional reward. Apparently I can also use the points for Amazon gift cards at the same rate. I don't know if you have any other travel planned, but 1 UR to 1 cent is between a half to a third of what I'd value UR points at. If you have any international travel that is serviced by United, Singapore Airlines or Korean Air or short distance flights by BA it might be worth saving the points.
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May 7, 2015 22:20
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Not sure if this is the right thread to ask this. Me and my girlfriend are planning a 6 weeks trip to SE Asia for the second week of september using the Air Asia ASEAN pass to get around the different countries but we'd also like to stop for a week to Japan (which is not included in the possible destinations for the pass). I was wondering if there was a way to find round-trip plane tickets from Montreal to Bangkok or Jakarta or any of the Air Asia destinations you can go with the pass and have a week-long stop in Tokyo on the way there. Is a travel agency my best bet or is there a way to find this on the internet?
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May 7, 2015 23:21
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Souvlaki ss posted:International between SCL-ORD or SCL-GRR (once again). Yeah, you can only book out 330 (or 333? I can't remember) days in advance generally. I mean, your other option is to book two one-way flights, which depending on the costs might come out to being cheaper, but yeah, I think your best bet is to just book a ticket and pay the change fee and fare difference.
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May 7, 2015 23:33
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HookShot posted:Yeah, you can only book out 330 (or 333? I can't remember) days in advance generally. I'll check the 2 one-way flights option. Thanks for the suggestion! If I do go with the option of booking a ticket and pay the change fee, what would be the smartest move? book an economy without restrictions ticket? (so the price is higher but the fees are less) or it doesn't really matter because it's impossible to know the fees and fare difference?
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May 8, 2015 00:08
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Pole of Mars posted:Not sure if this is the right thread to ask this. A bunch of airlines offer stopovers in their home cities. The relavent one would be Japan Airlines in Tokyo or Osaka, which you can search via the Internet but then may have to call to get the stopover ticket price lowered to the direct ticket price.
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May 8, 2015 00:11
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ANA has an advanced search for open-jaw and multi-city flights, the prices are always comparable to regular round-trip tickets.
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May 8, 2015 14:19
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Looking to fly from O'Hare to London Oct 22-Nov 7. Found some non-stops at $1059; is there any reason to not just grab this now rather than wait to see if it goes down?
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May 8, 2015 19:04
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Pole of Mars posted:Not sure if this is the right thread to ask this. Use a multi-city search at Google Flights (or ITA or Hipmunk or...) and compare fares and routings until you find what you need.
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May 8, 2015 19:37
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Golbez posted:Looking to fly from O'Hare to London Oct 22-Nov 7. Found some non-stops at $1059; is there any reason to not just grab this now rather than wait to see if it goes down? AA, UA, and BA are all comparatively priced in the range you noted. You're a bit far out to be super concerned about purchasing at this point; you can set some alerts and watch for it to drop. Also consider hopping over to DUB and coming home that way; US pre-clearance and you avoid the UK APD. Lots of options this far out.
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May 8, 2015 19:40
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Mackieman posted:AA, UA, and BA are all comparatively priced in the range you noted. You're a bit far out to be super concerned about purchasing at this point; you can set some alerts and watch for it to drop. Also consider hopping over to DUB and coming home that way; US pre-clearance and you avoid the UK APD. Lots of options this far out. Whenabouts would the sweet spot between 'waiting to see if it drops' and 'it's probably not going to drop anymore' be? Three months? Also, 1) Weird how the UK doesn't have pre-clearance but Ireland and the UAE do. And 2) Looking at Wikipedia, it looks like the APD for coming to the US would be 71 pounds? It looks like adding a connector in Dublin might cost more than $100 in money and hassle so it might not be worth it. Thanks so much for your help. 
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May 8, 2015 19:58
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Golbez posted:Whenabouts would the sweet spot between 'waiting to see if it drops' and 'it's probably not going to drop anymore' be? Three months? Around $1000 is more or less reasonable these days, sad to say. You do see the occasional sale and stuff like that but gone are the days of sub $600 fares to Europe. If it dropped to $800 or so I'd jump on it immediately. And you're right, a cost-benefit analysis has to be undertaken if you were to try to include something like DUB in the mix. I happen to enjoy Ireland so I'm always up for an overnight in DUB so as to enjoy a pint a bowl of Dublin Coddle at The Hairy Lemon. But if it doesn't make sense, it doesn't make sense. Also, the AA day flight (leaves ORD at 9AM and gets to LHR at 11PM the same day) might be interesting if you have a hard time sleeping on planes. That way you spend a day flying and get to London at night and simply go to bed, waking up ready to go the next day.
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May 8, 2015 20:12
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Mackieman posted:Use a multi-city search at Google Flights (or ITA or Hipmunk or...) and compare fares and routings until you find what you need. Thanks! This helps a lot. Already found some decent deals for our dates. Now to find something that doesn't have a 10 hour long layover.
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May 8, 2015 22:52
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(crosspost from the credit card thread) I love referring to these info graphics, folks in this thread may find them useful: Infographic Comparison of Airline Award Charts - Which airlines have the best reward flights, by class and destination. Flexible Bank-Point Airline Transfer Partner Master Guide - Which reward points transfer to which airlines, and what alliance each airline is a part of
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May 8, 2015 23:18
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Souvlaki ss posted:I'll check the 2 one-way flights option. Thanks for the suggestion! Just doing a cursory search flex tickets in economy seem to run around $6k for that route, so I would definitely avoid that. If you're going to book and pay the change fee, just get the cheapest possible ticket for sure. Before you confirm the booking, somewhere in the terms it should have the change fee listed.
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May 9, 2015 00:56
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Mackieman posted:Yeah, you're pretty much going to have to head back out of CPH in order to make that work. Norwegian doesn't code share so if you don't want to route back to CPH, you'll be buying two one-ways and as we've noted often in this thread, those are usually wildly expensive. Also keep in mind that OAK-CPH is a long flight and if you're going with your kiddo, you would be well advised to pony up the seat fees and grab a bulkhead for extra space (kids can't sit in the exit rows). quote:Would Icelandair be competitive for price? They allow you to easily split your arrival and departure cities in Europe. I tried to look it up but I wasn't sure which European airports they serve would work best for you. Also it looks like they don't serve the bay area directly, it'd be an Alaskan Airways connecting flight to Seattle, but maybe an option to poke around with. edit: tried booking on NorwegianAir's website, both my Fidelity Amex and Qucksilver Visa failed to authorize. I called Fidelity or whoever manages that line of credit cards and the guy said it wasn't failing on their end, that Norwegian "wasn't sending all the information, [it was] bits and pieces" and speculated that they had trouble accepting Amex. Has anyone else had this kind of thing happen? edit2: nvm got it working Cicero fucked around with this message at 05:29 on May 9, 2015 |
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May 9, 2015 04:24
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Yes, using foreign carrier sites to book is a minefield.
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May 9, 2015 13:27
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I've booked Norwegian flights with an Amex (issued in Finland) before, no problems theredexter6 posted:(crosspost from the credit card thread) Thanks. Useful for determining where to move credit card miles, not so useful for determining which airlines to credit to.
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May 9, 2015 13:50
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HookShot posted:Just doing a cursory search flex tickets in economy seem to run around $6k for that route, so I would definitely avoid that. If you're going to book and pay the change fee, just get the cheapest possible ticket for sure. Before you confirm the booking, somewhere in the terms it should have the change fee listed. Thank you so much!
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May 9, 2015 20:02
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Anyone have any experience with Tripsta, CheapOair, BravoFly, Priceline etc? I think I remember someone saying that CheapO is ok, but hell if you want to change your flight at all? They're all cutting enough off the price to make me dubious. E: Well a quick google search seems to indicate that they're all pretty untrustworthy. poo poo. Hollandia fucked around with this message at 09:36 on May 10, 2015 |
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May 10, 2015 09:30
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I'm of the belief that the cheapest way to book a flight is almost always through the airline directly. The ita matrix and other search engines are awesome to find the best fare. But I always try to then find the flight on the airline website. Maybe sometimes you save with multiple carriers although you can get that through airline websites as well. And it never takes into account the value of booking directly with an airline in the event of problems.
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May 10, 2015 09:42
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Quick question-- I'm aiming to spend a week in Spain (Madrid and Barcelona) sometime in late July and will be flying from New York (booking relatively late, I guess). A friend told me that it might be cheaper to fly to a city like London or Paris and take a connecting flight to Spain. How true is this, generally speaking as a rule of thumb? A flight and hotel package I looked up appears to be around $1,700 to $1,800. This seems like a good deal to me already, so I find it hard to believe that I'd be saving much if I were taking this route. As well, does anyone have any experience with https://www.europeandestinations.com I'm looking at the reviews for this site and it seems to be all over the place, opinions-wise. Thanks!
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May 11, 2015 05:33
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If you want to fly Ryanair it could be cheaper I guess, but it generally only makes sense if you're staying in London as transferring from LHR to Stansed will likely eat all of your costs. I think that advice was relevant when deals were better/cheaper, but as it stands now unless you've got a specialized deal on a particular destination you're better off just booking direct most of the time. If you only have a week I think you'll end up flying / transferring and eating into that. I would personally rather spend an extra 100-200 dollars and fly direct to maximize my time at the destination while minimizing transit time.
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May 11, 2015 05:54
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FrenchPress posted:Quick question-- I'm aiming to spend a week in Spain (Madrid and Barcelona) sometime in late July and will be flying from New York (booking relatively late, I guess). A friend of mine flies to Spain every few months out of JFK and they are usually booked in a similar time frame. I can't remember what he typically pays for his flights but he always ends up on a direct flight via IBE or AEA. Heathrow would never work out to be cheaper just because of the exorbitant taxes and fees they charge to fly in and out of there, unless something has changed since I last looked.
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May 11, 2015 10:19
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We flew to Spain from NYC via Lisbon and it was cheaper, and included a Lisbon stopover.
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May 11, 2015 12:22
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International travel with little kids - get a red-eye so they can sleep, hope you get an empty seat next to you, and get some Crayola Color Wonder sets (blank paper and a multi-color ball pen is good too, but Color Wonder owns.)
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May 11, 2015 23:07
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I'd like to take my wife to Yellowstone for our anniversary: Origin: TUL (preferred) or OKC Destination: COD or JAC (either preferred) or BZN Duration of trip with dates: June 7-13 to June 14-20 (want to be gone about a week, with total flexibility within the June 7-20 window) Flexibility: can leave early or late, different days, you name it.
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May 15, 2015 16:53
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joat mon posted:I'd like to take my wife to Yellowstone for our anniversary: $346, OKC-BZN round trip on Delta. Leaves 6/7, return 6/14.
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May 15, 2015 23:23
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