Quantcast

asthejoeflies

Helping you and your family save money on your vacations to Disney and beyond

Deciding Between Miles, Points, or Cash for Short Haul Flights

Short trip, lots of options, not all equal
Short trip, lots of options, not all equal (gcmap.com)

If you’ve just started the miles and points game, the temptation might be to use your newly earned miles for everything. Or, you might be in the situation where you have a ton of miles but don’t know what to do with them. I play the miles and points game for two reasons. First, I want to experience things that I’d never be able to afford in cash (namely, international premium cabin flights). But the second reason I play this game is to make travel more affordable. If you’re in this game for the second reason at all, it’s important to know how to make judicious decisions about when and where to use your miles.

[Read more…]

The DIY Guide to Booking Award Tickets – Part VII: Searching for Award Space Segment by Segment

Singapore's Indoor Rainforest - you'll have to search segment by segment to get there in September on miles
Singapore’s Indoor Rainforest – you’ll have to search segment by segment to get there in September on miles

People have different opinions when it comes to booking award tickets with frequent flyer miles. I, for one, love booking award tickets and enjoy the challenge that comes with doing so. Booking award tickets are like puzzles to me and I love solving them. Other people hate booking award tickets, consider them too much of a hassle, or even go so far as to believing their frequent flyer miles are completely worthless. I’ve decided to put a guide together for those of you who fall in between – people who want to book award tickets themselves but feel like they need some pointers. This guide will assume some basic knowledge, namely, that you know how to log in to your frequent flyer account and check your mileage balance. Other than that, the guide is here to help you through the process – hope you find it useful! Feel free to refer to the index at the bottom of the page for other entries.

In Part VII, we will take a look at the importance of looking for itineraries segment by segment. This is the key to a lot of international award bookings. You would think that when searching for award, you’d just type in your origin and destination and all the options would show up. If only. It’s pretty natural to do just that, not find any options, and think you’re out of luck. That’s where searching for award space segment by segment comes in.

[Read more…]

The DIY Guide to Booking Award Tickets – Part II: Know Your Award Types and Charts

There are multiple airlines whose miles you can use to get into these seats - but deciding which ones to use can be difficult
There are multiple airlines whose miles you can use to get into these seats – but deciding which ones to use can be difficult

People have different opinions when it comes to booking award tickets with frequent flyer miles. I, for one, love booking award tickets and enjoy the challenge that comes with doing so. Booking award tickets are like puzzles to me and I love solving them. Other people hate booking award tickets, consider them too much of a hassle, or even go so far as to believing their frequent flyer miles are completely worthless. I’ve decided to put a guide together for those of you who fall in between – people who want to book award tickets themselves but feel like they need some pointers. This guide will assume some basic knowledge, namely, that you know how to log in to your frequent flyer account and check your mileage balance. Other than that, the guide is here to help you through the process – hope you find it useful! Feel free to refer to the index at the bottom of the page for other entries.

In this installment, we will take a look at the three main types of airline specific award miles you might have and get a better understanding of which types of miles are best for what situations. While this is by no means meant to be completely comprehensive, it should serve as a base to help you evaluate what type of miles you should use (or need to get) to find your perfect award redemption. I’ll also include some links to award charts to help you figure out which awards will cost what prices.

[Read more…]

Using British Airways Avios to book American Airlines tickets

Sometimes British Airways Avios are your best American option
Sometimes British Airways Avios are your best American option

A friend asked me if I could do a post on using British Airways Avios for flying on American Airlines flights. It may seem counterintuitive, but there are times when you want to use one type of airline mile to fly on one of its alliance partners. In this case, British Airways and American are Oneworld partners, and you can save some miles by using BA Avios in the right instances. Here’s how:

[Read more…]

There’s a Burn Notice on my Points: Delta Skymiles Part 2

Adding a free oneway can really extend the use of your miles (gcmap.com)
Adding a free oneway can really extend the use of your miles (gcmap.com)

Burn Notice: Introduction

Burn Notice: Delta Skymiles Part 1

Burn Notice: Delta Skymiles Part 2

Burn Notice: Hilton HHonors

Burn Notice: American AAdvantage

I’ve had a burn notice on my points for a few weeks now. Last week I talked about how we will be burning our Delta Skymiles to fly to and from Italy in business class this summer. While it seems like we are getting a great trip for our 200,000 Delta Skymiles (which we are), there is a lot more that we could do with them. Since we’re a young family, we didn’t want to push it – but I wanted to illustrate some ways you could extend a trip using the same amount of miles. Hopefully some of you can use these tips to get even more for your miles!

[Read more…]