BootsnAll Travel Community

I've done two South American trips and two Asian trips if you count the upcoming one. For all the hassle, there is nothing like finding out you paid $60 in taxes for a flight combo valued at $1000-$2000. This trip would cost me $2852 on Expedia when I looked a minute ago.

One trick I learned this last time around is that not all the agents know all the connect points. I first dealt with a clueless agent. Then I tried to talk with the supervisor who cut me off twice. The third phone call I was fuming and wanted to talk with the supervisor again, but the agent kept cool and asked me what I wanted. About 11/2 hours later, I had all of my connections and will be going and returning from India in under a day - I didn't even get that when I paid!!!

Just keep calling back until you get the right one.

Three things to maximize the value of your deal: 1. Do an open jaw ticket 2. Don't fly into or out of a hub (use the one that is most convenient) 3. Take advantage of layovers coming or going

What's been your experience?

Agreed. Interational trips are, IMHO, the BEST use of FF miles, much more "bang for your buck" in terms of getting places than using them to just go across one's own country.

For me, banking the miles from 3 roundtrips to Europe during the off season (when the fraes are around $300-400) racked up enough miles for an First Class ticket to New Zealand (which would be a HEC of a lot more than what I paid for the europe trips).

And, if one's saving the miles, I'd say "go the extra mile", really save up & go at the front of the bus, in either business or first, which really takes the edge of the long haul, and is usually WAAAAAY better than any airline's domestic biz. or first prodcut.

And remember, all the major international airlines are part of alliances now (more or less). So if you build up your miles on United, you can redeem it for a flight on ANA. The foreign airlines international biz and first is usually a lot better than the u.s. airlines

The best use I've ever found for frequent flyer miles is for going to small/unusual domestic destinations.

The prime example of this is going to Nunavut in Canada (someday I'll head up there for a hiking trip in Auyuittuq National Park.) The cheapest return fare I could find to get to Iqaluit was $1700. But if you leave from Ottawa or Montreal it's a short haul domestic flight, and only costs 15000 miles for a free ticket.

Similarly, flying to, say, Thunder Bay, Ontario from Toronto will often cost you $700 or $800, yet it's still a short haul domestic as a reward flight.

I'm not sure if this situation applies so readily where there's more competition in the air travel industry, but in Canada it's definitely worth thinking about.

edit: Just realized I didn't comment on how I actually feel when using miles... In fact I've never cashed any of mine in just yet, so I can't really comment on that

I'm curious - does anyone here know how many American Airlines FF miles it would take to get a OneWorld RTW ticket?

quote:

Originally posted by Brooke vs. the World:
I'm curious - does anyone here know how many American Airlines FF miles it would take to get a OneWorld RTW ticket?

On AA, it varies by how many total miles the trip is.
For economy class:

0-1500 30K
1501-4000 35K
4001-9000 60K
9001-10000 70K
10001-14000 90K
14001-20000 100K
20001-25000 120K
25001-35000 140K
35001-50000 160K

more details here:
http://www.aa.com/aa/pubcontent/en_US/AAdvantage/partne...irlines/oneWorld.jsp

Braslvr,

Say you take the 50K trip for 160k, how many stops can you make?

shoot man, that's a much better use of miles. i don't really like the rtw ticket, but if you're getting it with your miles i think it would be sooooo worth it. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction braslvr - I was poking around yesterday and just not getting to the right info.

"Members may fly up to 16 segments and may stop in each city once, but may not connect in the same city more than twice. Passengers may not stopover or connect in the city where travel originated." --and this is without going over the flight mileage.

I am all about long haul upgrades. It makes me feel...less stressed and more comfortable.

The value/ff-mile is also much better than free tickets, at least with my preferred airline.

You know, I just don't like spending my miles. It's kind of like a savings account for me... I just hoard them.

I know - totally counter-productive. I guess the way I look at it is that the ticket needs to be over X dollar amount before I really want to spend it, or I will just buy the ticket.

And the ones I want to spend the miles on, are usually when there are no mileage seats available.

So I've actually been selling my miles to friends, although it makes me so sad to see the balance going down in my account.

quote:

Originally posted by Brooke vs. the World:
shoot man, that's a much better use of miles. i don't really like the rtw ticket, but if you're getting it with your miles i think it would be sooooo worth it. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction braslvr - I was poking around yesterday and just not getting to the right info.

"Members may fly up to 16 segments and may stop in each city once, but may not connect in the same city more than twice. Passengers may not stopover or connect in the city where travel originated." --and this is without going over the flight mileage.

Brooke, I'd suggest a visit to the OneWorld forum on Flyertalk. There's some serious OW mileage-using experts there.

quote:

Agreed. Interational trips are, IMHO, the BEST use of FF miles, much more "bang for your buck" in terms of getting places than using them to just go across one's own country.

That's a poor generalization, since it heavily depends on just which country one's own happens to be. In Canada, tickets accross the country (say Edmonton to St. John's) cost significantly more than flights to London, and about the same as other European or South American hubs. But it takes twice as many miles to go to South America, and 140% more miles to go to Europe.

While there are exceptions to be sure, in general the consensus is that international awards-especially business or first class awards are the best use of FF miles. RTW, or "Circle Pacific" or similar are also very good. I feel for you re domestic Canada ticket prices. When there is no or little competition, this happens. With all the merger talks going on now in the US, I think we are headed in the same direction.

I used frequent flier miles for the first time to buy the tickets for my upcoming trip to Argentina. I do agree that it's no fun to see your balance going down, but in another way, it feels like I'm just getting a free trip.

quote:

Originally posted by 2wanderers:
That's a poor generalization, since it heavily depends on just which country one's own happens to be. In Canada, tickets accross the country (say Edmonton to St. John's) cost significantly more than flights to London, and about the same as other European or South American hubs. But it takes twice as many miles to go to South America, and 140% more miles to go to Europe.

Ouch, that sucks. That makes Canada clearly one of the "exceptions" that braslvr alluded to.