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Lot of us who use miles/points for travel gets obsessed with it and collect miles/points which due to our constraints are lying idle without being used. We wait on using certain miles/points for the time when it would give the best value forgetting that while they are lying idle they have zero value and there is always a chance they will expire without we even using them.
So here is my plan for this year. I am going to Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) so that while I still enjoy the miles/points I have, I do not drain lot of energy and time in preserving them. Here are few of the things I plan to do this year: Redeem Miles/Points in airline / hotel programs which are not my primary usage programs: All of us who collect miles/points would have invested in airline/ hotel programs due to one off flights which we can credit only on specific program to get good value. If we are not an active person in this program we would scramble to get any value out of these programs. Worst case we do not use the miles at all. So here is what I plan to do:
I usually know which are the places I want to visit in future. At least the one's within the next one year. Here is what are I am going to do.
If you are able to get credit cards in U.S.A or which ever country you are in which collects flexible points transferable to airline miles or hotel points or can be used for directly booking flights/hotels then those are the golden in these times. Here is my plan for flexible points.
So, lets have another great year of travel and maximize our time and life experiences while worrying less about all those expiring miles and points! Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.
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Japan Domestic Travel? Use United Airlines Miles (on ANA) or British Airways Avios (on JAL)1/14/2018 There are certain sweet spots on various award charts and if you are taking domestic flights in Japan then you might want to surely check these sweet spot award redemption for flying on ANA Airlines using United Airlines miles or Japan Airlines (JAL) using British Airways Avios. Using United Airlines Miles: United Airlines charges only 5,000 miles for an award flight for a distance of 800 miles or less when travelling solely within Japan. For more than distance of 800 miles it charges only 8,000 miles. Also the pricing is based on distance between source and destination on not "segment" based. This is a steal if there is award availability. ANA Airlines also charges 5,000 miles for one way award for a distance of 600 miles or less but it's distance calculation is based on segments and thus may not be as useful as United Airlines redemption. Also ANA pricing varies based on the season where as United has a fixed pricing. See the sample availability for Osaka (ITM) to Haneda (HND) airport and you will see amazing price of just 5k miles for the award although the cash price might be upwards of $100+. Also it is easy to book the flights online on United Airlines website and taxes are $0+.  5k miles for redemption of flight distance up to 800 miles in Japan Using British Airways Avios: British Airways Avios charges only 4,500 miles for distance of 650 miles or less and there is minimal taxes and fees (~$2-$3) when booking flights on Japan Airlines (JAL). For distance of 651 miles to 1150 miles it charges 7,500 miles. Japan Airlines has zone based redemption for domestic travel as well. Here is the award chart. Also the redemption starts at 5,000 miles (during promotion period) and is based on zone of travel. British Airways Avios is much easier to accumulate through multiple transfer partners such as Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, SPG, Citi ThankYou Points and Diner's club where as Japan Airlines only transfer partner in USA is SPG. You can see the sample availability for Osaka (ITM) to Haneda (HND) airport which you can book for just 4,500 British Airways Avios. Also it is easy to book the flights online and taxes are ~$2+.  4500 Avios can get you from Osaka to Haneda in Japan So if you are travelling to Japan make sure you use this options to get around Japan rather then spending $100+ for short haul flights.
Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  Happy New Year to all the folks who are reading this. Today I want to highlight something which is easily overlooked by all of us while looking to purchase our flight tickets. There are times where you would be looking to just purchase a one-way flight ticket. This could be because you are able to secure the other one-way ticket using miles in premium class or you were able to get on the myriad sale where the other one way ticket was awesomely cheap. In the miles and points world you do end up buying flight tickets with cash lot of times and below info would be useful when you do your next flight search. Buying two one-way tickets on different carrier can be cheaper in peak season: If you have ever tried to purchase a flight travelling out of USA during summer break or Christmas/ New Year you would know what I am talking about. Everyone is travelling during these times and the airlines know it and thus prices can be exorbitant. Most 3rd party aggregation sites would give preference over a round trip ticket booked as one ticket then two separate one-way tickets and this is where it would be useful to search for separate "one-way tickets" which at times would be cheaper than a single round trip ticket. Make sure you check the price on the regional website where you plan to return from and you might be in for a surprise. Converting a return one-way ticket to a multi-city ticket for future use: This is where it gets interesting. As we all know during non-peak times round trip tickets are almost always cheaper than one-way tickets. So, why not convert a one-way return trip into a round trip? Let's assume you want to travel from San Francisco, CA to Amman, Jordan in Christmas and return back in January. For the purpose of this demo I will use Google Flights as my go to tool. Below is what it looks like booking one-way return trip today for Jan, 15th, 2018:  One Way Return trip segment costing $852+ As you can say that most folks are planning to return from their vacation during early January the one-way tickets are still a tad bit higher. So, what if you tag along a future one way trip and make it a round trip? How about booking a future one-way trip to completely different destination which you might have in your visit list? Check out below for example.  Changing a required one-way trip to round trip ticket with marginal cost. As you can see, changing the search to "multi-city" and putting a destination which you might already be planning to visit in future is just ~$300 more than the original one way ticket you were looking to purchase anyway.
So, the next time you plan to travel in peak travel periods do not forget to change your search criteria and you might be in for the unexpected discount on your travel. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website. |
AuthorI love traveling / backpacking. This blog focuses on below 3 aspects of travel: Archives
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