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Kobayashi posted:Thanks for the quick and detailed feedback, this is exactly what I was looking for. The combination of bad experiences and byzantine policies made it tough to know what to focus on. I'm going to try to get United to acknowledge my previous flights onto my account -- I save all my travel documents in lieu of souvenirs so it shouldn't be hard to prove -- and let the rest slide. Adjusted for inflation, I know I'm paying like a tenth of what people used to pay when actual customer service mattered. Plus there's so much other bullshit with airport security, finding usable WiFi, other passengers, customs, terrible food, and weather that flying will never be something I look forward to. Experiences like airport security and customs are greatly enhanced by the addition of Global Entry to your passport and the accompanying access to Pre-Check at TSA checkpoints. Though the lines have been getting dramatically longer at many Pre-Check stations, it's still a hell of a lot better than a regular screening. And the first time you skip a two hour wait thanks to Global Entry, you'll wonder where it's been all your life. Usable wifi is becoming easier to find, I've discovered. Free usable wifi, on the other hand, is still not always there. But it's much like any other commoditized service: if you want it, pay for it. Food is also getting dramatically better in many airports across the country, especially major hubs. Weather and other people, I'm right there with you and there isn't a hell of a lot anyone can do about those things. Kobayashi posted:Are you sure you about that? Because I'm almost positive I've self-checked in myself (using the built-in passport scanner) every other time I've flown back to the US. In fact, I specifically remember seeing US Airways as one of the touch screen option. I think all the other US majors were on there too, but I could be mistaken. Regardless, no one else was backed up. It was just United. And yeah, I know it was the storm, so I don't blame for that. Some countries have different rules, but in general, you must go through a security check (have your bags been with you the whole time, did someone other than you pack them, etc) and get a sticker on your passport or notation on your boarding pass that you've cleared that check. Only then are you allowed to go through the airport security check and to the gate. In many cases the gate agents will check that information again, or for the first time if you don't have the sticker or notation due to something like being a transfer passenger. You'll almost never find kiosks that will print boarding passes for international flights that are inbound to the US. Some airports and airlines do have kiosks available, but they're informational or customer service oriented. They generally won't do bag drop or boarding passes. In some cases, you can get mobile boarding passes, but they won't be accepted for entry to the security screening area unless you've gone through the aforementioned check. It's a pain in the rear end, I grant you, but it's governmental policy. I've flown back to the US from LGW, MUC, ARN, GIG, GRU, NRT, SNN, and HKG and had pretty much the same experience at all of those gateways. The only outlier there was SNN because they have pre-clearance in Ireland.
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Jan 6, 2014 17:16
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Well I've been looking around for a while but I thought I'd come in here and ask goons about flights - goons always give the best advice. My fiancée and I want to go to NZ for our honeymoon over Christmas and new year this year. We live in london. We're looking for London (any) to Aukland for three weeks, 20th December to 10th January 2015 Obviously some of these flights you can't yet buy tickets for - but should we be booking as early as possible? We're very flexible on times and dates don't mind two stopovers and longer travel times don't really matter (sub 40 hours for sanity's sake). Given all that, it seems hard to find good prices - just too much information to cram into search engines. One final request - it'd be really helpful if we could find somewhere we could pay with a deposit (up to about 50% of final cost) as we have a wedding to save up for etc etc Thanks in advance wizard airfare goons
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Jan 6, 2014 21:42
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So you can't use miles to book any part of these? If not, you should wait a (long) while to book. No real options to pay with deposit. Your best bet is to get a credit card with no interest for X number of months and use that.
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Jan 7, 2014 02:36
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First, thanks for the thread! Second, do you really save money from the websites that book flights and hotels together? If I'm looking to travel with no loyalty to any airline or hotel chain should I be looking at Travelocity, etc first? Lastly here's what I'm working with, help me if you can. I'm wanting to travel abroad, and can either go for Spring break or during the Summer. The problem is the places I want to go during these time may be prohibitive: Origin: BOI Destination: Either SYD (Sydney, Australia) or AMS (Amsterdam) Duration: 3/21-3/28 or anytime from May-August Flexibility - Not much on the spring break, obviously in the summer.
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Jan 7, 2014 06:29
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lenoon posted:Well I've been looking around for a while but I thought I'd come in here and ask goons about flights - goons always give the best advice. Firstly, congratulations. My wife and I just celebrated our fifth anniversary last weekend.  sellouts is correct: it's too early to be buying those flights unless you're using miles. Most carriers sell 330 days out so you're unlikely to find pricing for much of that at this point. The upside is that you know what you want to do and you can start watching fares when they are available. Run a search on Matrix or Hipmunk once a day, LHR, LGW, LCY, STN, MAN, BHX - AKL. This search will check in and out of each of those airports to find the best fares. MAN and BHX are in there as Qatar and some of the middle eastern carriers use those airports due to costs and lack of slots at LHR and this discount accordingly. Not a hard and fast rule to be sure, but certainly something to keep in mind. As far as a deposit, no, no real way to do that. What you can do, though, is expect to pay around 1200GBP per person round trip. You can start saving for that now and then hopefully find a cheaper fare when you're ready to buy.
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Jan 7, 2014 14:40
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Thanks! 1200 or so is what we have seen as a general price for booking the same kind of flights in November (as these are available). We have about 1500 total at the moment, so well on the way to getting a full total together. I hadn't really thought of looking for those connecting flights leaving from outside London, so ill keep that in mind. At the moment travel agencies are looking like the best places to go - as they will let us pay a deposit (goddamn weddings and honeymoons are expensive!)
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Jan 7, 2014 14:48
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savesthedayrocks posted:First, thanks for the thread! I haven't done a ton of that, and while there are unpublished travel agent fares and things like that, it has been my limited experience that the flight is more or less priced and what the flight is, and the savings are found in heavily discounting the hotel room. You should do your due diligence and check both methods, but booking separate and directly with the company selling the service or product is usually the safest bet. SYD is an expensive place to get to because there's only a couple of flights down there. AMS is a bit easier, especially during Spring Break, but will be expensive as well during the summer because that's peak travel season. I'm actually heading to LHR, VIE, SZG, EDI, and DUB over Spring Break this year (my wife and sister both work in education) because it is dramatically less expensive than summer, not to mention less crowded. AMS for Spring Break is coming back at $1195, not terribly out of whack with the rest of that market right now. I checked out of SEA too in order to see if there were any savings in leaving from a larger gateway, no dice. For SYD, it's about $1600, and MEL is about $1500. Summer looks similar at the moment, so it's a good time to start watching those routes.
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Jan 7, 2014 14:52
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Depending on how flexible you want to be, my guess is if you fly out on Christmas Day itself you will get either a cheaper price or an empty plane, or maybe even both, because no one wants to fly on Christmas.
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Jan 7, 2014 16:36
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Australia is expensive, period. It will be cheaper for you to go in May-August as this is their winter. You also have a bigger travel window rather than spring break. I wouldn't lose 2 days of a 7 day window traveling all the way down there, personally. I've been twice now and the airfare "savings" are immediately forgotten when everything else is so expensive. If you're balking at the airfare there I'd be careful you're not going to be miserable thinking about the cost of everything in the day to day of vacationing there. I flew SYD-AKL on Christmas Day and the flight was booked solid and I was only able to get business class FF tickets on the 7:30am flight, the rest of the day was already 0d out ~325 days before departure. But for those paying it may have been a bit cheaper.
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Jan 7, 2014 20:13
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Mackieman posted:SYD is an expensive place to get to because there's only a couple of flights down there. AMS is a bit easier, especially during Spring Break, but will be expensive as well during the summer because that's peak travel season. I'm actually heading to LHR, VIE, SZG, EDI, and DUB over Spring Break this year (my wife and sister both work in education) because it is dramatically less expensive than summer, not to mention less crowded. Thanks for all the help! I've flown internationally twice, but only once with a layover. With international flights, whats the shortest comfortable layover. A couple of the results came in at just over an hour, and I don't want to cut it too close.
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Jan 8, 2014 05:02
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Remember that at most international airports outside of the US you can transit without clearing immigration. So exit plane, metal detector, go to next gate
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Jan 8, 2014 05:06
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savesthedayrocks posted:Thanks for all the help! I've flown internationally twice, but only once with a layover. With international flights, whats the shortest comfortable layover. A couple of the results came in at just over an hour, and I don't want to cut it too close. sellouts posted:Remember that at most international airports outside of the US you can transit without clearing immigration. So exit plane, metal detector, go to next gate Yep, the only concern is the particular airport you're transiting at. Most of the time, an hour is fine. The only time that is questionable is if you have to change terminals at LHR or FRA.
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Jan 8, 2014 16:38
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Mackieman posted:FRA. That was the one! Looks I'll pick a different leg.
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Jan 9, 2014 03:20
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sellouts posted:Remember that at most international airports outside of the US you can transit without clearing immigration. So exit plane, metal detector, go to next gate Except when you're flying into Europe and the next flight is within the Schengen area, then you have to pass immigration before you can get on your connection. An hour is very tight even if you're not transferring at a humongous airport - and you can add CDG to that list.
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Jan 9, 2014 07:45
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True and a good point. With cdg 60 min is usually good if your flights depart from the same terminal. If they don't make it 90 min. But yes, just because it is legal doesn't make it any less nervewracking. But if there are limited flights a day to your final destination you may be stuck with the legal minimum.
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Jan 9, 2014 09:36
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I'm looking for Vancouver to Lyon (Seattle or Paris can substitute if need be) for February 6 - 16. The lowest I can find is around $950 and it's not getting any cheaper, I would've thought this would be an inexpensive time to go to Europe.
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Jan 11, 2014 02:25
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Cometa Rossa posted:I'm looking for Vancouver to Lyon (Seattle or Paris can substitute if need be) for February 6 - 16. The lowest I can find is around $950 and it's not getting any cheaper, I would've thought this would be an inexpensive time to go to Europe. Cheapest thing I could find on Matrix was $880 for YVR - LYS and then CDG - YVR (it will probably be about $70 from LYS to CDG by train or LCC so not much saving)... and I looked at all sorts of weird city combinations. I don't think you're going to get much cheaper than $950. Itinerary Vancouver (YVR) to Lyon (LYS) - Thu, Feb 6 WestJet Vancouver (YVR) to Toronto (YYZ) - Thu, Feb 6 WestJet 706 Dep: 10:15AM Arr: 5:41PM 4h 26m Boeing 737 Economy (D) Layover in YYZ 0h 59m Air France Toronto (YYZ) to Paris (CDG) - Thu, Feb 6 Air France 351 Dep: 6:40PM Arr: 8:05AM 7h 25m Boeing 777 Economy (V) Layover in CDG Fri, Feb 7 2h 20m Air France Paris (CDG) to Lyon (LYS) - Fri, Feb 7 Air France 7652 Dep: 10:25AM Arr: 11:35AM 1h 10m Airbus A321 Economy (L) Paris (CDG) to Vancouver (YVR) - Sun, Feb 16 Air France Paris (CDG) to Amsterdam (AMS) - Sun, Feb 16 Air France 1240 Dep: 7:15AM Arr: 8:35AM 1h 20m Airbus A321 Economy (L) Layover in AMS 4h 45m Air France Amsterdam (AMS) to Vancouver (YVR) - Sun, Feb 16 Air France 8378 Dep: 1:20PM Arr: 2:20PM 10h 0m Airbus A330 Economy (V) OPERATED BY KLM ROYAL DUTCH AIRLINES Cost per passenger (including taxes & fees) $879.20 Total cost for 1 passenger $879.20 edit: or $860 if you want to arrive in Paris and leave from Lyons Vancouver (YVR) to Paris (CDG) - Thu, Feb 6 WestJet Vancouver (YVR) to Toronto (YYZ) - Thu, Feb 6 WestJet 700 Dep: 7:00AM Arr: 2:29PM 4h 29m Boeing 737 Economy (D) Layover in YYZ 4h 11m Air France Toronto (YYZ) to Paris (CDG) - Thu, Feb 6 Air France 351 Dep: 6:40PM Arr: 8:05AM 7h 25m Boeing 777 Economy (V) Fri, Feb 7 Lyon (LYS) to Vancouver (YVR) - Sun, Feb 16 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Lyon (LYS) to Amsterdam (AMS) - Sun, Feb 16 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines 1412 Dep: 7:00AM Arr: 8:50AM 1h 50m Embraer RJ-170/190 Economy (L) OPERATED BY KLM CITYHOPPER Layover in AMS 4h 30m KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Amsterdam (AMS) to Vancouver (YVR) - Sun, Feb 16 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines 681 Dep: 1:20PM Arr: 2:20PM 10h 0m Airbus A330 Economy (V) Cost per passenger (including taxes & fees) $859.20 Total cost for 1 passenger $859.20 Geriatric Pirate fucked around with this message at 12:44 on Jan 11, 2014 |
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Jan 11, 2014 12:40
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Are there any cities in Europe that consistently have cheaper flights into PHL rather than one of the NYC airports?
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Jan 11, 2014 16:29
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Cometa Rossa posted:I'm looking for Vancouver to Lyon (Seattle or Paris can substitute if need be) for February 6 - 16. The lowest I can find is around $950 and it's not getting any cheaper, I would've thought this would be an inexpensive time to go to Europe. What about taking the TGV from Paris to Lyon, since it looks like you end up going through Paris on the way there. I imagine that would be cheaper and shorter (considering the layover) then flying that branch.
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Jan 11, 2014 21:25
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I'm traveling on a family vacation to Australia in late Feb early March and was just curious if anyone has any input on the itinerary/cost. I don't travel terribly often, and particularly not internationally so I'd just like to make sure I'm not missing something obvious. The itinerary we'd like to accomplish is as follows: leaving NYC on 2/20/14 to CNS leaving CNS on 3/3/14 or 3/4/14 to SYD leaving SYD on 3/7/14 to NYC The start and end dates are probably not flexible at this point, barring some massive savings. The CNS to SYD date is flexible within those 2 days but not beyond that. We found a flight on Qantas that ended up being $1683 and seems like a pretty good deal arriving and leaving from all the destinations at reasonable times. Is anything better out there?
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Jan 11, 2014 21:26
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Just thought I'd provide an update: After a number of (unsuccessful) attempts to get credit for my flights through the United website, their phone support was able to help out. I'm still waiting on one leg of my travel from a partner airline, but I now officially have United Plus silver status, which I suppose is better than nothing. Thanks for the help.
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Jan 17, 2014 15:46
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I'm planning a trip to Raleigh over Memorial Day weekend, LAX-RDU. 05/22-26. I've been checking everywhere literally every day since December and can't find a flight cheaper than $380 (and that was a week ago, it's gone up to 420 now.) Am I looking wrong or is it just that much? I'm flexible in that I can leave the night of the 22nd or morning of the 23rd, and return the evening of the 23rd or morning/afternoon of the 26th. I can fly out of Burbank or Long Beach if I have to.
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Jan 17, 2014 18:18
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It's likely that much. 400 for a transcon is pretty standard now, you're traveling on a holiday weekend and you don't have much flexibility in dates. It kind of is what it is, but maybe mackieman can squeeze out 25 dollars or something. Edit: 600 on southwest god they're such a joke from the west coast. So happy I don't fly them. sellouts fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Jan 18, 2014 |
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Jan 18, 2014 17:59
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This may sound like a silly question/statement, but I'll give it a go anyways. My wife and I are trying to book award travel on United Mileage Plus from San Antonio (or College Station) to Budapest in early June (later than the 6th, but soon after is preferred). It appears that almost nothing is available at the saver rate and that the options seem to have ZERO options for flying Lufthansa for the trans-atlantic leg (we would prefer the IAH->FRA A380 flight) even at the regular rate. We will be flying back to Texas from Brussels in late June or early July. I've tried pulling up flights directly from IAH, ORD, IAD, etc. to pick up SOME options and pretty much nothing exists there either. It also looks like most of the flights are pretty much empty (seatwise). Am I just so far ahead in my booking plans that United and Lufthansa haven't released seats for summer awards yet? In previous years, we've never booked before February and never as late as March. Should I just chill until February (even though I really want to start reserving rooms and trains)? What would account for the fact that I can only book awards that use Lufthansa for the short trip from Munich or Frankfurt to Budapest and not as part of the trans-atlantic leg? (We prefer Lufthansa on transatlantic because of the free booze. At least I'm not denying it.)
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Jan 21, 2014 03:33
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Just got home from VNO so let me catch up on real world stuff and then I'll come look at these.
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Jan 21, 2014 18:35
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I did finally get a one way booked to Budapest. Now I'm hoping that I can find something 20'ish days later that leaves from Brussels and plants us back in College Station or San Antonio. 
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Jan 21, 2014 21:12
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Joose Caboose posted:Are there any cities in Europe that consistently have cheaper flights into PHL rather than one of the NYC airports? Consistently...no. Your odds are better where you have multiple airlines competing on the same route.
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Jan 21, 2014 21:23
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Kobayashi posted:Just thought I'd provide an update: After a number of (unsuccessful) attempts to get credit for my flights through the United website, their phone support was able to help out. I'm still waiting on one leg of my travel from a partner airline, but I now officially have United Plus silver status, which I suppose is better than nothing. Thanks for the help. Glad you got it working for you. Remember that the PQD requirements are in effect now so just because you have the miles doesn't mean you've got the status.
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Jan 21, 2014 21:24
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bobula posted:I'm planning a trip to Raleigh over Memorial Day weekend, LAX-RDU. 05/22-26. I've been checking everywhere literally every day since December and can't find a flight cheaper than $380 (and that was a week ago, it's gone up to 420 now.) Am I looking wrong or is it just that much? I'm flexible in that I can leave the night of the 22nd or morning of the 23rd, and return the evening of the 23rd or morning/afternoon of the 26th. I can fly out of Burbank or Long Beach if I have to. sellouts posted:It's likely that much. 400 for a transcon is pretty standard now, you're traveling on a holiday weekend and you don't have much flexibility in dates. It kind of is what it is, but maybe mackieman can squeeze out 25 dollars or something. Yep, sellouts is correct. You could drop it a bit by going down to SAN but the gas cost to drive down there would eat up that savings really fast.
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Jan 21, 2014 21:26
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LaserWash posted:This may sound like a silly question/statement, but I'll give it a go anyways. Not silly in the least. This is a common issue that I deal with all too regularly. To get things started, do you have any level of elite status in MileagePlus? I ask because I have Platinum status so I can see some fare buckets that regular members can't in some cases. Also, are you looking for economy or business (or first)? For the purposes of clarification, saver award bucket definition on Star Alliance carriers is thus: X is economy, I is domestic first/international business, and O is global first. The best way to search here is going to be via expert mode on united.com and price things out segment by segment. The way the UA booking engine works is that if you're trying to book SAT-IAH-IAD-MUC-BUD and X space is not available on any of those segments, the trip will not return as an option. So you have to price each segment individually and determine where the award space is. Enabling expert mode in united.com makes the fare bucket listing next to a revenue fare into a link that, when clicked, opens a modal layer that shows the current inventory for all fare buckets on the flight. Here's a SAT-IAH segment that has award space on June 9:  To enable expert mode, log into your MileagePlus account, go to My Account, then Manage Profile at the bottom. On the next page, click View All Flight Search Preferences, and then check the box to enable Expert Mode. Do not save your credentials for login as the wonky way UA currently manages session state on their website will cause the fare buckets to not display unless you've freshly logged in each session. You can see in the image that the flight in question, UA1578 has 1 seat in the X bucket and 9 in XN. XN is the award bucket for elite members who have Gold or higher status in the program. Since you need two seats, that isn't going to work. As I write this, the earlier departure has three seats so you're good to go there. Make a note of that flight and move to the next one. The next key to remember is that UA doesn't serve BUD directly. This means a partner carrier will be part of the award, and it will likely be Lufthansa due to sheer number of available flights. United.com should show award availablity buckets in the same way, X for economy and I for business, though they're not listed in the same order. Given your current searches aren't yielding a lot of working results, your best approach may be to find space on the TATL legs and then work your way back. That said, make sure that you're always using the advanced search page and selecting 50 results to display for awards, as less than that may not show you all the partner carrier options. Once you've pieced together an award itinerary that works, if you can't book it online (even with doing a multi-city search and feeding in each segment one by one), you may have to call the award desk and have them book it for you. If you go this route, be sure that you tell them that the website wouldn't let you book it otherwise they may try to charge you a fee. The other thing to consider is that if you find space on the long segments but nothing on the domestic stuff, it may be worth the change fee to lock those in and add the domestic segments later. Those fees are reduced (or eliminated) if you have status. Additionally, booking LH economy because they have free booze is a DRAMATICALLY TERRIBLE IDEA. Economy on the A380 sucks pretty hard due to a lovely seat, and their IFE isn't great either. UA Economy Plus is definitely the way to go here if you're not booking business. UA is starting IAH-MUC non-stop in March so that makes it even easier to get to Germany where it's a quick hop to BUD. If you really need some drinks, let me know and I can mail you a stack of drink chits. I've got several laying around. That said, I see SAT-IAH-MUC-BUD//BRU-FRA-IAH-SAT, saver economy, depart June 9, return July 8. United.com does not show this as available if you try to book a multi-city, but space is there so you can book what the engine will allow you to do and then call within 24 hours after ticketing to add the additional segments because you can make changes (or cancel) any booking within 24 hours of making it, regardless of status. All that is a tad bit rambling in nature so I'm hoping it's useful. Feel free to ask more questions if you need to.
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Jan 21, 2014 21:56
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I agree with you on the IFE on the A380, but otherwise found economy on Lufthansa to be comfortable enough (at least equivalent to United Economy) - when we flew, it was toward the front of the bottom deck on the aisles, so it was as comfortable is it's going to get with 500-600+ of your best friends for the next 10-11 hours. I'm just in total awe of that plane. Watching those wings hang off of the runway (with the tail camera), into what looked like the taxiway at the airports as it lugs toward takeoff is something that every one should experience sometime in their life. If I'm booking rewards with no status, how hard is it to change the last leg of my trip from IAH->AUS to IAH->SAT or IAH->CLL. What kind of fees are involved? I'm seeing flights getting back to Austin, and would rent a car to get to San Antonio or College Station if need be, but would prefer to leave that part of the looooong journey back home out of the itinerary. LaserWash fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Jan 23, 2014 |
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Jan 23, 2014 00:28
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Less of a specific trip question, more of a travel hacky question I guess: So my girlfriend and I are currently doing the distance thing, her in San Francisco, me in Houston. As a result, I'm doing a lot of IAH/HOU->SFO/OAK trips these days, usually about one or two a month. For the most part, I've been getting my tickets by popping open Priceline/Expedia/Kayak/Southwestern tabs and just taking the cheapest (Priceline is usually the cheapest, typically about $350-400, though I've done as low as $300 and as high as $450), usually booking about 2 weeks to a month in advance. About ~75% of these have ended up being US Airways flights that connect in PHX. On my US Airways flight back to IAH today, they did a typical airline credit card spiel, and I zoned out until I heard the bonus miles amount: 40K bonus miles after your first purchase with the card, and just an $89 annual fee. After I landed, just for shits and giggles I checked how many miles my next planned trip would be (IAH->SFO for Valentine's, so from about 2/14-2/18 give or take a day on either end), and it ended up at 25K miles. The card also apparently knocks 5K miles off miles redemptions, so it looks like that could be as low as 20K miles. With two 20K mile trips it looks like I'd be getting almost $500-600 worth in travel just for the $89 annual fee? This seems way too good to be true, so I wanted to check in with the travel vets here to make sure there isn't some way they can dick you over that I'm overlooking. If you cancel after the first year do they drop the moneyhammer on you or something? Are these miles crazy hard to use? tl;dr: 1. I fly Houston->San Francisco a lot, usually booking flights about 2 weeks to one month in advance, typically paying ~$350-400. Does this seem solid or am I overlooking cheaper flights somewhere? 2. I fly US Airways a lot since Houston->San Fran flights go through their hub, was offered a US Airways card that gives an immediate bonus 40K miles for an $89 annual fee. Good deal or no?
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Jan 23, 2014 00:29
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I'll speak a little to this. It really does work. It's really that easy. As you can tell, I live in College Station, so United and American Airlines are "the only games in town," which basically means I'm loyal to United because Star Alliance and the flexibility that United gives you in travel. My wife and I collected miles for a few years while we traveled to Europe every summer for the first few years after we got married. I got curious about this stuff too and started looking and reading at places like Million Mile Secrets and The Points Guy ($3000+ every year just for flights to get to Europe adds up). So I finally got the nerve last year and signed up for the United Mileage Plus card that is offered through Chase. By the time you add up the signup offers, the cosigning bonuses, the miles you gain from the spending requirements (which we cover with utility bills, groceries, every day stuff, etc.), we ended up with 60K+ miles... each. So we flew to Europe for free last year. We're essentially doing the same thing this year too. This year I personally signed up for the Chase Sapphire Plus card and got 45K+ United miles and with the remaining balance saved from years past are flying to Europe AGAIN, FREE, this year. My wife hasn't even signed up for her card, so we'll be doing that soon as well. Our grand total for the two one-way tickets from Texas to Hungary this summer? $55 of taxes... total. We just signed up for the US Airways card a few weeks ago, have met the "use once" threshold to gain our miles and plan to at some point use those miles to fly to Seattle to see my brother or have those miles roll into American AAdvantage miles once that part of the merger concludes. As to your concern about finding flights: It can be a little difficult during the summers and other "prime" travel times. Obviously us going to Europe during the summer is one of those times. As an example, we've got one of our flights booked from Texas to Hungary booked for this summer, but we're hoping we can find a return flight from Brussels back to Texas in the next week as availability is always shifting around. Otherwise, to find award flights (at the reduced rate) I'd say it's pretty easy.  One thing I've learned: It is important that you continue to use the cards even after you've met the spending requirements. It shows card companies that you are "using" their card for more than just getting free travel. That way it doesn't look like you are "robbing" them for their mileage when you want to sign up for the 25 variations of each card they offer (example: I have Chase United Mileage Plus and Chase Sapphire Plus, it allows me as a person that uses those cards to make it look like I would use other products if I wanted to sign up for those as well and cash in for some sweet, sweet airline miles.) The point is, if you sign up for these cards, make sure you are using them on a regular basis (at least once a month).This being my second year as a United Mileage Plus cardholder, I decided to keep the card and cancel my wife's. It allows us to use the boarding priority - which is kind of "baller" the first time you do it, still gain a few miles as we spend (which isn't all that spectacular), free first bag, and get lounge passes fwiw (not much). Meanwhile, somewhere down the road, my wife can sign up again for another 50K+ miles. I only fly to conferences once a year (which are paid by my employer) and Europe in the summers when we want to get away from the hell that is College Station, TX. So the card "scheme" works great for us. We haven't even covered the opportunities that other banks like Barclays, Citi, etc. and other airlines like Southwest, American, Lufthansa, Virgin, etc. etc. etc. offer. The fun has only just begun for us.  I'm still an amateur, still learning how to play the game, but holy crap if it doesn't work. tl;dr: Yes, this works. Do it. Seriously, you pay for airline tickets still? LaserWash fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Jan 23, 2014 |
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Jan 23, 2014 01:45
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LaserWash posted:
Are you making a moral argument, or did you get bitten by inactivity fees or something? If it's the latter, then I would like to know what happened.
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Jan 23, 2014 02:33
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We are looking for to fly home from a multi-week excursion in the UK. •Origin: Dublin •Destination: JFK or Newark •Date: July 6th or 7th. •Flexibility: Either day is fine or any other Irish airport. Thanks!
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Jan 23, 2014 03:06
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Kobayashi posted:Are you making a moral argument, or did you get bitten by inactivity fees or something? If it's the latter, then I would like to know what happened. Not a moral one, just a "get more miles, must. have. more. miles. om nom nom nom nom nom..." point. The example I used was that since I use my Chase United card, I was more likely to be approved for the Chase Sapphire Plus card... and more products as well. Later on, when I cancel that Sapphire Plus card, I'll be able to "churn" that card for another bonus a couple of months or years later. Granted, I ALWAYS pay my cards back at the end of the month, so all of this is only a good idea if you have good credit and pay your bills (duh!).
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Jan 23, 2014 03:17
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Yeah, I don't know if that theory holds too much water. The bank(s) issuing the cards are just purchasing a bunch of miles at a predetermined rate. It's nothing more than that and your history with the bank, the airline and free travel are basically irrelevant. I've had cards go inactive and had no problems signing up for other cards with equal bonuses. The airlines literally don't care and the credit card companies don't care as long as you're eligible for the card and met the requirements for the bonuses which are usually just length of time since you've had the card previously and completely unrelated to usage aside from cursory credit utilization ratio stuff. And given United's recent devaluation I'd examine if they still make sense to use given that you don't really seem to fly all that much if your only perks are coming from credit cards. I find 1 way tickets to anywhere to be a (relatively) terrible value in comparison to the more exotic types of bookings but to each their own. I think I averaged just under 26 dollars in taxes on my most recent redemption, the large amount I'm sure is the loving taxes flying out of LHR in a premium cabin. I'm too lazy to figure it out now but at the time I think the fees were like 8 dollars to go to HKG or something. Also, what's your monthly spend on these cards / amount of flying for conferences to not make you pay for airline tickets anymore? Just curious. Feels a little unsustainable to get 120k miles/year to do your travel once you get through the sapphire card and eat through the initial sign up bonuses, but maybe not. RE: US Airways. I guess 45k is a good mileage amount. Back in my day we didn't sign up until we had 80k+ in bonus miles! But those days are long gone. Anyways I would sign up for it while you can (and dividend miles still exist), take the bonus, spend the minimum amount, immediately cancel, then sign up for the AAdvantage card and get that bonus as well. Then I'd probably sign up for the SPG Amex and use that full time, as I find AA to be much easier to use for award travel and for earning miles, with the SPG 1:1 ratio and 5k bonus for every 25k transferred. You'll likely see more savings if you can book more than 2 weeks out. If it's so regular why wait until you're in the 21 or 30 day advance purchase window? Edit: I should probably mention that it's rarely "that easy" as US Airways joins AAdvantage, it's kind of yet to be determined on how some of those benefits will roll in. I can already tell you that I doubt they're going to let the $89 card use first class check in, it's likely going to be business class or priority aaccess / gold check in where available. I also don't know if the 5k discount will extend to AAdvantage but hopefully. I'm kind of doubting it does given that you would want to book 2 1 way awards as each award is 12.5 and it seems like the card would subtract 5k from each award making the flights 7.5k, which is outrageously low. I'd still take the miles and use the plan above as the miles will transfer over to whatever the new program is. That being said I just checked IAH/SFO availability on AA and it looks awesome 2-4 weeks out for the cheapest economy awards. Nice! sellouts fucked around with this message at 09:32 on Jan 23, 2014 |
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Jan 23, 2014 09:11
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LaserWash posted:I agree with you on the IFE on the A380, but otherwise found economy on Lufthansa to be comfortable enough (at least equivalent to United Economy) - when we flew, it was toward the front of the bottom deck on the aisles, so it was as comfortable is it's going to get with 500-600+ of your best friends for the next 10-11 hours. I'm just in total awe of that plane. Watching those wings hang off of the runway (with the tail camera), into what looked like the taxiway at the airports as it lugs toward takeoff is something that every one should experience sometime in their life. It's not hard at all, assuming there is space available. The issue is fees, and you'll pay every time you want to make a change. The chart is located here: https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/mileageplus/awards/travel/ticketing.aspx
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Jan 23, 2014 16:05
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sentientcarbon posted:Less of a specific trip question, more of a travel hacky question I guess: To your first point, I think the answer is, "it depends." Are you looking at SJC as well? Booking further out may net some savings as well. I'd also start watching for a larger peiod of time before you're ready to buy as I regularly see routes from Texas to SFO (I'm in AUS) for $250 round trip. They're only available for short periods of time usually, but it varies. And it varies between airlines (AA, US, UA, B6 if you fly out of AUS, VX, etc). As to the issue of credit card miles, that seems like a crappy deal to me, honestly. Sure, you could get two domestic saver tickets with the miles, but I'd rather parlay those into a larger international premium cabin redemption if possible. If you're flying US a lot, I hope you've been banking those miles. I would not expect many of those card-specific benefits to exist after the AA/US merger is complete. One never knows, but then one never knows. MErgers are almost always customer unfriendly so I wouldn't expect any great enhancement to any benefits as that process moves forward. You'll be lucky if things stay the same.
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Jan 23, 2014 16:13
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marsisol posted:We are looking for to fly home from a multi-week excursion in the UK. Are you trying to book a one-way? If so, prepare to pay the full fare which can easily run north of $1500 out of DUB or SNN.
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Jan 23, 2014 16:15
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