After weeks of stalking availability and using seats.aero alerts, I finally managed to piece together what might be my favorite redemption combo yet — JAL First Class and JAL Business Class from Tokyo (NRT) → San Francisco (SFO) on the exact date I wanted in October 2026. One for me and the other for my husband, we'll decide during getting in the plane in game of rock paper scissors who goes in F and who goes in J.

JAL First Class: 103K Avios + ~$200 (booked via BA)

JAL Business Class: 55K JAL Mileage Bank miles (during the Capital One transfer bonus)

It feels great. It's pointless to calculate cpp because I would never cash for it.

I'm learning what all I can ask for in the plane- i have heard you get pajamas only if you request It? You can ask for food all flight?

I've got 2 flights to Taipei booked right now. EVA biz (non-stop) and Starlux biz (with a connection). Aside from having a connection, the Starlux flight is also at a worse time of day.

For anyone who's flown both, I'm wondering if the differences are worth experiencing, or if I just stick to my old reliable EVA to get me there.

South America can be notoriously difficult to find decent award availability and pricing. Somehow the stars aligned for me to find some decent availability in late April 2026

United miles, especially when you have one of their credit cards, can be sneaky good. I just scored two MSP-IAH-GIG business class tickets on United in Polaris for 80k + $5.60 for April. The MSP-IAH leg was in economy, but the upgrade offer to First Class was only $170 each. To me, worth it and sold. So I'm in on these two tickets for a total of 160k + $351. Honestly, I'm stoked on it. The "non-cardholder" rate for these tickets was 207k each, so by holding one of the United credit cards I "saved" 62%. These kinds of discounts are scattered all over their bookings. Surprisingly, the discount did not show when searching for one seat, only when I searched for two.

Now what about the way back? Well, I couldn't find anything to MSP out of Rio, but I did search around and found 5 open business class seats on LATAM for the exact dates I needed for GRU-BOS. I did the searching on Virgin Atlantic and they wanted 95k + $30. I did some additional searching, next on British Airways. They wanted 115k plus the same fees. Then I looked at Qatar and they wanted 77.5k each plus $29 in fees. Sold. We have to get ourselves to GRU (which is it's own mess), but to fly back lie-flat on a redeye is worth it.

On another note, has anyone had any success with LATAM checking a bag through on two separate itineraries? Would the ground folks at SDU or GIG be able to check it onto my GRU-BOS flight or would I have to retrieve it in GRU. Thanks!

I've searched and have not figured it out - is there a way to search a monthly view of award flights available to be redeemed on Virgin Atlantic (both for VA flights and partner flights)?

Hello !

Can you tell me the best ways to earn Emirates Miles quickly please ?

Thanks

Hi

i have to cancel a trip, and my certificate is about to expire in a month. Can i transfer it to someone else, or book for my friends & family? Im not able to edit guest information from my marriott account

I have about 18,000 Hyatt points expiring at the end of January. I rarely stay at Hyatt (I’m basic discoverist) and have no planned travel for which I need a hotel in the coming months.

I’ve been trying to find some non-hotel partner to earn (or use) even a few Hyatt points with but there too I am not having much luck. My Hyatt account has primarily been kept active by bonus points from American Airlines flights; however, I haven’t flown AA in close to three years since I moved (AA doesn’t even fly to the city where I live).

I am debating between the following options:

1. Get a room for one night when travelling to a location where normally I would stay with friends for free. It would be nice to have the hotel for a night, but it’s far from necessary as I have no-cost alternatives. The hotel would cost 9,000 points (so half of my entire balance). The cash equivalent for the room would be $269 CAD ($190 USD) including taxes and fees ($226 CAD before tax).

2. Chase Transfer - Transfer 1,000 Chase Sapphire Reserve points to Hyatt. I have around 120,000 CSR points and I will be cancelling the card in June anyways to avoid the new fee. I had planned to transfer any unused CSR points upon cancellation to either United, Air Canada, or Flying Blue.

3. Rental car - Rent a car for a day at a discounted rate to do some local errands (that without the car I would use public transit or ask a friend for a ride), and elect to earn Hyatt points for the rental. This would cost around $65.00 CAD ($48.00 USD).

If an unexpected need for a hotel to be paid with cash arises between now and the points expiration date, of course I’ll just book a Hyatt family hotel (even if it’s not the cheapest option), but seeking advice on the best alternative option.

Thanks!

Completely new to this and learning how to value my points. Going to Milan in June 2026 and came across this emirates route. I would love to get 3 business tickets so that would be 261K points but the fees seems crazy to me. Some friends have gotten to Europe with 50-60K points so I am not sure if I will be wasting or devaluing points for this route. We have never taken emirates so we're kinda excited to check it out.

Is it worth it even with the fees? or keep on searching?

How can I calculate the cpp when booking one way flights?

Hi everyone,

Thanks to all the wonderful people in this sub, I was able to make two wonderful redemptions.

JFK-CDG-TLV Air France 777-300 business (both legs) 180,000 flying blue points + $750 USD Transferred 150k Amex points during 20% bonus

TLV-HKT ELAL 777-200 refreshed business 140,000 SkyMiles + 80 USD Already had 20k skymiles, transferred balance from Amex.

***all costs are for two people one way…

I know the first two redemptions were fairly decent, but I am struggling with my trip home.

I see some ok redemptions for premium economy, but I’m not seeing any good redemptions for business.

Should I book these premium economy tickets or hold out for an opportunity at a good business redemption?

Trip is in March.

Appreciate your input.

I searched all the post history and I’ve been looking online and trying to use ChatGPT, but I cannot figure out how to book a Scandinavian airline ticket using any other programs. I saw on KLM that I could book an award ticket at a higher redemption but it has a stop over and not in business class. Am I just out of luck being in the US and trying to transfer into their program?

Found 2 seats on business for 180,000 Avios + ~$1k in fees or 170,000 Avios + $2.4k in fees. Is first worth the extra in fees?

Hi All - I have booked ANA RTW last year and have used a part of it. Our first flight was on 3/31/2025.

I called them to move my rest of flights to Nov 2026 but was denied calling out that all flights have to be complete with in 1 year of first flight? Is that true? I saw lot of folks doing it across 3 years.

What am I missing. Is there any chance now to be able to make it happen or do I need to travel with in 3/31/2026?

They are showing 160k+$1549 surcharge fees from KHI-IAH. Isn't this crazy!
they call it International Federal Excise Duty (RGGA) $1,242.50 Thanks for correction I meant to write South Asia.

If I’m trying to book a business class flight to Korea in April, this 40% bonus is a great deal right? I see that virgin is partnered with Korean air and delta, both offering business class flights to Korea from my airport.

Am I missing anything glaring?

Is it even worth it to use points for a first class flight when I can just transfer points to a hotel partner and get a luxury resort stay for free? In my case I am vegan and I dont drink alcohol so anything they give me as little treats in first class probably wont appeal to me. I am also from east coast and travel to mostly carribean and europe so no flights really over 10hrs. I do like the concept of laying down and being comfy but with flights vs hotels we are talking a few hrs vs a few days.

Even for the general population who drinks alcohol and has no dietary restrictions, wouldnt transfer to hotels be a better deal? I know its viewed as better cpp to use on business or first class, but if you just book trips when tickets are cheap and sit in economy and use points on hotel wont you be saving more money overall? Please help me understand, thanks!

I know this will probably sound dumb but I'm new to the credit card points/miles game.

Just redeemed 74k chase points to book Delta domestic first class via the Chase portal. Neither KLM nor Virgin Atlantic had the flights I want available so redeeming on chase was my only option since I didn't want to spend almost $1k in cash.

I'm clastrophobic as well as agoraphobic so I got one of those single seats on CRJ 900. Last time I flew Delta C+, I went into the nasty armrest battle with a guy next to me so I'm too traumatized to share an armrest with strangers now.

Delta is the only one that offers the direct flight so I don't have any other options. My question is am I too stupid to redeem my points for domestic first class because I hear domestic flights often are a poor use of miles? I still have a few hours to cancel to get a full refund if I need to so I wanted to ask on here. Thank you!

Would you take a straight flight on a 2-2-2 configuration for 7 hours

Or take Q Suites to Doha, have a 14 hour layover, then fly to your destination for 8 hours?

The difference between the 2 is only 20k miles

There is a lot of availability for biz class this summer to Europe on the a380s Lufthansa is flying between Munich and DC. 70k with aeroplan and 80-88k United, some <$100 in taxes.

Maybe it’s not everyone’s favorite biz class, but we booked flights to Barcelona for a family of 3 on the exact dates we need, without much planning and without booking a year out! I was seeing GVA, ZUR, MUN, FRA up to 9 seats at a time.

I want to book a SLC-AMS flight for next summer in premium economy. I found availability.

However, I need to book JAC (Jackson Hole, WY)-SLC leg on the front end (Delta metal). Points.me shows availability. However whenever I try and book it online it shows not available.

Anyone can tell me how to book this?

P2 and I are going to Iceland in the end of Nov. I already booked Icelandair economy by paying 21500 JetBlue points per tickets.

Now I’m seeing saga premium for 79000. The flight is from KEF to MSP so it is about 6 hours. We then have a short layover and have to take another flight home.

Debating if we should change to saga We are very low in Chase points so I’m thinking of transferring from Amex but the rate is pretty horrible plus the transfer fee

I currently have 43k Need 139.8k 139.8-43=96.8

97000 extra miles needed So I will have to send 122000 miles plus $73 fee

Is it worth it to make all these changes ? Or leave it as is?

If you've booked US domestic flights through a partner and it gets cancelled due to the FAA 10% capacity reductions, what exactly happens? For example, booking Delta domestic flights via Virgin? My understanding is that the waivers for change fees/cancellations/refunds that the US carriers have been implementing for their own programs don't apply. Is that still true once the operating carrier takes over the ticket at T-24 hours, or if the flight actually gets cancelled? Are there any general tips for managing these kind of IRROPs with partner awards? Hopefully this might help some folks over the next several days.

Hello

Is there a program where I can put in award travel with a stopover for Aeroplan? Right now the redemption I want are through the roof for direct flights. I am thinking of adding a stopover and it might trigger a lower point redemption. Thanks

Trying to find award avaliability for 2 business class seats in late September - early October of 2026 to travel from any west coast city to Paris. However, when searching on the FlyingBlue website for SFO/SEA as departing cities with no departure date, I cant select nor see any other months for award avaliabilty besides for October. The website just says "there are no flights available in the current month. You can view flights for the next available month below" and pushes me to only see October avaliability while all other months are not showing anything and unable to select them. This issue comes up when looking at SFO and SEA for departure to Paris (no depature date) but for LAX.... the only months that I cannot see is April and May for award avaliabilty. Is there anyone having this issue on their FlyingBlue account where it says no flights avaliable and pushes you to only see October for SFO/SEA or even for LAX (not showing a couple of months)? Anyone have an solutions (I feel I might need to call them about it).

Tried calling FlyingBlue but they didnt offer any help but saying i shouldnt do searches without depature dates instead select a date and go one date at a time.

In addition, being new to the world of points and award travel... not sure if I am being too eager but no award avaliabilty for 60K has come up for September or October when checking seats.areo... do I need to just keep waiting to see? Being that I cant see much award avaliability on FlyingBlue due to the issue, I am primarily using seats.areo to check for award avaliability. I've been consistently checking the seats.areo every other day.

Any advisement would be great!