EWR to ORD for 12/19/15 Please help

[Saphira2021]

I think I am in well over my head. I have never done any MS before but wanted to start when that nice 100,000 miles offer came up for Amex Platinum. So I did. The spend part was easy enough with help from a friend but this second part is a lot more confusing. I sincerely hope for some help, otherwise my nice shiny new miles will go unused and I have wasted $450 on annual fees. I hope that is not the case. And I really want to learn how to do this as I just found out that I can finally retire any time I please.


I need to go to Chicago for a family event to be there on 12/19/15. A couple of days before and a couple of days after in/out would be great. Here are the basics:

We are flexible. Best to fly out of EWR going to ORD. Don't care the airline. Coach is all we want. 3 people round trip, 1 person one way. Have to seat at least 2 and 2 together and 3 together coming back. Truly not picky, leave between 10am and 3 pm and come back between 11 and 3. Times are flexible just not earlier so we can actually get there. One condition: nonstop flights only.
American and United seem to be competing in our market
United 755 12/17 and 436 12/21 seem reasonable price and time wise for example.


Can someone please guide me through this? I want to learn but I also can't take much longer booking as I am worried that there will be no seats left.


Thank you

 

[Matt]

Just to confirm, all you have is Amex Membership rewards for 100K?

 

[Saphira2021]

Yes, I also just got Amex PRG with 50k miles, but I haven't yet spent the $1k to get that. However, I now know enough to do that in a day. So if this is needed, just tell me.

 

[Matt]

This is what I do.. I know that Amex transfers to British Airways... BA is super for short flights as they run a distance based mileage program. There's no difference between booking a RT and 2 one ways with BA (there are some perks with other programs).

You're not going to fly on BA metal because they are Brits and we are too posh to fly from Newark to Chicago. As such, there is an alliance with AA, it is called OneWorld.

In OneWorld, partners share space. The space they share is limited, but basically AA chucks a few seats BA's way, to allow their passengers to book on AA metal (planes). It can be tricky to find exactly how much space is allocated to the partner, so here is how I fast track the search:

• Step 1.. go to AA.com and find low cost award space (MilesAAver or some crap they call it) if you see this as an option, you're pretty likely to find that they also given these seats for BA to fill.. this is good. If there is no low cost, you're not going to be able to book with BA miles.
• Step 2.. go to BA.com and search the route one more time (you could do this first, but I just think aa.com is faster and easier)
• Step 3.. open a BA Avios account, transfer your necessary membership rewards into it, and book as fast as possible.

Screenshots:

I started with 2 seats in a RT search because its easier that way.. just enter your dates/airports on the front of aa.com and check the use miles button.



This gives a range of dates (the redeem miles button plus the results being in a nice range is why I prefer to go to aa.com before BA.com


The dates in Green for 12.5K are low cost awards.. this means that BA.com has likely got the inventory... next we head over to BA.com to confirm...

At this point I'd run two one way searches to get you 2 outbound, 3 on the return..

Here's your outbound if you wanted 12/16 (sadly no 12/17 or 18...)



Here's your return:




All together, for the 2 out, 3 back you'd be able to make this happen for 37.5K of your membership rewards transferred into British Airways Avios, plus$27 in cash. If the dates are a bit too far apart from your ideal then perhaps you could consider doing what I did above, but checking out some nearby airports or whatnot..

 

[Fishing4Deals]

This is brilliant. Finally someone has provided a plain English explanation of how to do this. Thank you, Matt!

 

[smittytabb]

This is brilliant. Finally someone has provided a plain English explanation of how to do this. Thank you, Matt!

And British English to boot (extra poshness quotient).

 

[Saphira2021]

Matt,
Thank you for step by step. This is great! I did step one and it worked. i see the same dates you posted. However, i am stuck on step 2 as i get a message:
Error

• British Airways does not have traffic rights to operate directly between these two cities.
• I also can't figure out how to search on BA for using miles to purchase tickets. Did i miss it?
• one more thing to clarify: 4 going out, 3 coming back.
• also, what you found suits me perfectly. except for one thing. we can't fly from or to LGA. it is not possible. PHL is possible, worse case scenario is JFK.

 

[Matt]

Seat wise you are fine, take the 11am out. In terms of the error.. Not sure- are you signed up as an avios member and searching under the 'spend avios' link?

 

[Saphira2021]

Seat wise you are fine, take the 11am out. In terms of the error.. Not sure- are you signed up as an avios member and searching under the 'spend avios' link?

no, that's my error, will sign up for Avios then search again.

but the 11am flight is from LaGuardia. I can't go there and am looking for Newark, NJ. what did i miss?

 

[Matt]

no, that's my error, will sign up for Avios then search again.

but the 11am flight is from LaGuardia. I can't go there and am looking for Newark, NJ. what did i miss?

Ah sorry.. Am multitasking.. If AA says low cost, then it's there.. Either it's on the BA page, or its hiding off page. If you can't click on ewr then you may need to call in.

When you call in they try to charge a booking fee, you can have this waived if you are lucky, polite and explain that the website wouldn't allow you to book what you wanted.

Check first to see if it shows, if not call up.

The issue you might be facing is that there are so many flights available that the ones you want are pushed to page 2, but they forgot to add a page 2 button...

Aa.com for inventory... Much easier!

 

[Matt]

Though I should also add that LGA has a fabulous Amex Plat lounge if you can make the journey, it's almost worth it just to hang out and drink the cocktails

 

[Saphira2021]

Ah sorry.. Am multitasking.. If AA says low cost, then it's there.. Either it's on the BA page, or its hiding off page. If you can't click on ewr then you may need to call in.
.......

you are right, there is no button for EWR at all. but i can search for PHL. will try that.

 

[Saphira2021]

Though I should also add that LGA has a fabulous Amex Plat lounge if you can make the journey, it's almost worth it just to hang out and drink the cocktails

Nice, but i would rather just get on the plane and get there. but thank you for the information.

 

[Saphira2021]

Ok, i see that from PHL to ORD i can get there for 30000+22500 plus about $60-70 miles for all. That seems reasonable to me and the times sound good too.

so my next step is to transfer 52500 miles from AMEX to BA. How do i do that? $500 (amex annual fee plus surchages) for all of us to travel seems reasonable to me.
what are my next steps?

Matt, btw. did you read my last posts on health insurance? i got quite a surprise on Friday at work. nice surprise. And thank you for all the help and teaching. I promise to pay it forward in any way i can. Thanks again.

 

[Matt]

Next you need to head over to Amex, click through to membership rewards/ use rewards/ travel/transfer partners.. add new partner (enter your BA number) and transfer.

Frankly, with Amex it may be faster to call up the number on the back of your card and ask card services to make it happen.

Congrats on the health insurance!

 

[Saphira2021]

Thank you so much for your help! I booked all flights and am all set now. and hooked too of course.

this is heady stuff. I just spent less than half on what i would normally pay for those tickets. next trip will be all with points.

Matt, would you please point me in the direction of discussions on how to convert all those GCs back to cash? this is the last part I need to finesse as it can't all be MOs.

I thank you very much and really appreciate your help.

 

[Matt]

Thank you so much for your help! I booked all flights and am all set now. and hooked too of course.

this is heady stuff. I just spent less than half on what i would normally pay for those tickets. next trip will be all with points.

Matt, would you please point me in the direction of discussions on how to convert all those GCs back to cash? this is the last part I need to finesse as it can't all be MOs.

I thank you very much and really appreciate your help.

I'd head over to the beginners section of l2 next. Most people in your situation would start with Serve or Redbird, depending on nearest store, and if $5k per person per month is too low, move on to MO or other cards.

Let's keep that talk out of l1.. But you could certainly do all MO, people are doing 6 figures of that a month.

 

[Saphira2021]

I'd head over to the beginners section of l2 next. Most people in your situation would start with Serve or Redbird, depending on nearest store, and if $5k per person per month is too low, move on to MO or other cards.

Let's keep that talk out of l1.. But you could certainly do all MO, people are doing 6 figures of that a month.

Thank you. I will look again there but I have trouble finding things here, for some reason have trouble following the organization of the site. Must be me.

I already have blue bird and loaded some of the gift cards there already. Just have trouble getting it out. Thanks for the info on MO. And thanks again for all the help you gave me and your time and patience, very much appreciate it.

 

[Matt]

Thank you. I will look again there but I have trouble finding things here, for some reason have trouble following the organization of the site. Must be me.

I already have blue bird and loaded some of the gift cards there already. Just have trouble getting it out. Thanks for the info on MO. And thanks again for all the help you gave me and your time and patience, very much appreciate it.

Add a credit card to bluebird under pay bills... Pay it.

 

[Saphira2021]

Is it safe? Won't Amex connect the dots?