Category Archives: Air Travel

Sizing Up The AA – US Merger

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AA US Merger

It’s all over the main news channels and the travel blogosphere,  AA and US have announced their imminent merger on Valentine’s Day no less!  FlyerTalk and other travel blogs are buzzing madly with speculation on what this all means for them.  Both airlines are on my list of top 8 airlines for eco-travelers.  So far, all we know officially from AA in regards to the frequent flyer programs:

Enjoy a more rewarding travel experience with American Airlines AAdvantage® and US Airways Dividend Miles.

At this time, American and US Airways will remain separate companies and each company will maintain its current loyalty program. Your AAdvantage miles are secure and existing miles will continue to be honored. Likewise, your elite qualifying miles and your elite status, including lifetime status granted under the Million MilerSM are secure and remain intact. In addition, you will continue to earn miles through existing AAdvantage participating companies, including the Citi®/ AAdvantage credit cards and will be able to redeem those miles for the same great awards – flights, upgrades, car rentals and hotels, just to name a few.

You will continue to have options for travel and benefits both domestically and internationally through our continued membership in the oneworld® Alliance. As they do today, our oneworld® partners will offer you access to a range of destinations, airline choices, and mileage earning and redemption opportunities.

You can continue to book, track and manage flights and your AAdvantage account on AA.com.

Ultimately, the combined company is expected to offer members more opportunities to earn and burn miles from an expanded global network of routes and partnerships, unmatched redemption options — including flights, hotels, car rentals, vacation packages, one-way awards and lounge memberships – and much more.

And from the US Airways site:

Enjoy a more rewarding travel experience with US Airways Dividend Miles® and American Airlines AAdvantage®. Both programs are among the most popular loyalty programs in the world and will continue to offer best-in-class elite programs, unmatched redemption options and more ways to earn miles from an expanded global network of routes and partnerships.

Until the merger is complete, US Airways and American Airlines will remain separate companies and each company will maintain its current loyalty programs (US Airways – Dividend Miles and American Airlines – AAdvantage). Existing miles will be honored, and there will be no impact to your US Airways MasterCard® or US Airways Visa® card. You can continue to earn and redeem mileage for travel awards with us and our Star Alliance partners. You can also continue to book, track and manage flights on usairways.com.

THE EFFECT ON ECO-TRAVELERS

It’s going to be tough to assess the effect on eco-travelers because both alliances have their strengths.  Right away, I can see that people traveling between North America and the South Pacific are going to have to fork out more miles in the AA program.  These awards currently cost 75k in Y and 125k in J using AAdvantage vs 80k in Y and 110k in J on US Airways.   If a trip to Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands and other Pacific Islands is on your wish list and you want to travel in business class, you might want to consider bringing it forward to take advantage of the bargains on US Airways.  Economy travelers will find AA’s award cheaper.

Once US Airways leaves Star Alliance for One World, you won’t be able to access some airports like Rarotonga.  If you have a trip planned and had earmarked US miles to pay for it, check to see if it will be accessible using One World carriers.  Star Alliance/US Airways also had an edge on awards from North America to Africa, North-east Asia and Central Asia.

WHICH STAR ALLIANCE CARRIER TO USE?

Americans will probably be better off with United since there are several credit cards that can be used to either direct sweep to UA or transfer via Ultimate Rewards.  If you are not an American and can’t get the Chase credit cards, first check what kind of credit cards you CAN get.  Chances are, you may be able to transfer them to another Star Alliance partner such as Thai, Singapore, Lufthansa, ANA, Asiana or Avianca-Taca.

If you can’t get any credit cards,  Avianca-Taca LifeMiles will be the main source of buying miles cheaply to redeem on Star Alliance carriers.  They currently have a share miles 100% bonus promo until the end of Feb but you must have been a member prior to the promo being released.  People who want premium cabin awards may be frustrated if they can’t find the same cabin class all the way through.  You can’t mix classes such as Y from MCI-LAX and J from LAX-BKK for example.  If you only want an economy award, you’d be fine with LifeMiles.

ONE-WORLD IS GOOD FOR ECO-TRAVELERS

Assuming you don’t have other issues such as elite benefits, hub airports and upgrade certificates, the change can be positive for most eco-travelers.  One World does cover most of the places we want to go.  LAN and new partner TAM (soon to be One-World) have South America pretty well covered and can even get you directly from Australia to South America without having to transit the USA.   Qantas can get you to anywhere in Australia, several places in New Zealand and many Pacific Islands.  New partner Malaysian and original One-World member Cathay Pacific can get you between Europe and Asia/Pacific.  Qatar and Sri Lankan are joining soon.  AA also has non-alliance partners of interest such as Air Tahiti Nui, Air Pacific and Etihad.   PLUS, once the miles are merged, you will be able to use your hard-earned US miles for one-way awards!

THE BAD NEWS

The merger puts the last nail in the coffin of the US Grand Slam promo that netted some of us huge amounts of miles at a very low cost between 2008-2011.  They didn’t have it last year but we could only hope for 2013 – well hope no more!

US has traditionally had 100% bonus miles on buying miles several times a year.  AA has been more conservative with only 30-50% bonus on buying miles and they have it tiered so if you only need a few to top up to an award level, it could be as low as 10% bonus.  If you want to top up your US account now, there is a targeted promo to US Mastercard holders for 100% bonus and 50% bonus to everyone else.

If you want the US Mastercard, better get it now.  The current best offer is this one.  The Chairman’s offer which had the 10,000 anniversary bonus miles was pulled today.  We don’t know if this card will be churnable going forward so will have to monitor the FlyerTalk thread for new data.

If you have upcoming hotel bookings and/or car rentals you plan on crediting to an airline, check the offers on both AA and US for the best deal.

Sharebuilder is currently offering 2500 US miles for new accounts.  Most of us already did this one for the last Grand Slam in 2011 but if you haven’t done it yet, might as well grab some cheap miles.  Use the portal from the US page.

TIME TO ASSESS YOUR TRAVEL PLANS

The likely timeline for full integration has been posted by several people, this one on FlyerTalk sounds pretty logical to me.  Star Alliance awards will be more expensive on United Mileage Plus or Avianca-Taca LifeMiles than they are in US Dividend Miles.  Size up your travel plans and see if it’s worth doing  them sooner rather than later or if it would work better in your favour to wait until the phase where they let you move miles back and forth between the two programs for a few months.  Miles To The Wild will be keeping you updated with any new developments as they are released.

 

 

 

Getting To Puerto Rico Using Miles

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Yesterday, I blogged about the Parrot Lovers Cruise.  Today, I am going to show you how to get to SJU airport in Puerto Rico FOR FREE using credit card bonuses so you can join this wonderful cruise.  Well not exactly “free” there are about $10 worth of taxes to pay.  If you are unable to travel at that time, this post is still worth reading as the advice would be valid for any trip between the USA and Puerto Rico.

OPTION 1 – AMERICAN AADVANTAGE

You need 25,000 miles per person or a total of 50,000 miles for a couple.  You can get these miles for free by getting the Citibank AAdvantage credit card.  Only one person in the couple has to get the card but if you both have good credit, you should both get one.  I have general airline credit card advice for Americans.   See below a sample screen with random dates near the cruise and allowing for at least 1 day layover in San Juan before the cruise.  There are several options for Citibank cards so choose one from this Flyertalk post which best meets your needs.  Remember, the cruise itself will take up about $800-ish per person of your minimum spending for a couple, then just put your groceries and bills on the card to make it up.  Both people can get 40,000 miles after a $1000 spend with this offer.

LAX-SJU

OPTION 2 – US AIRWAYS

The dates for this cruise have only medium and high level awards available so you need 60,000 miles per person.  But for future reference, low level awards can be had for 35,000 miles round trip if you are lucky with dates.  These lower awards are capacity controlled.   If you have the US Airways Mastercard, you get a 5000 miles discount if you fly on US Airways but not if you use a partner award.  The current best offer gives you 40,000 for first spend, extra 10,000 for balance transfer and 10,000 each year anniversary bonus.

JFK-SJU

Credit card discount

OPTION 3 – UNITED AIRLINES

I randomly chose Seattle as the departure city and plugged in some sample dates to see a schedule and award rate to San Juan.  This award valid for any US city would require 70,000 miles for 2 people.  There is a credit card that would do this for you.  If you have miles in your United account already, log in and you should see an ad to apply for the Chase United Explorer Visa on the home page.  If you pretend you are making a booking and get a fare quote, the offer will increase to 50,000 miles plus 5000 to add an authorized user plus $100 statement credit.  Ideally, both people should sign up for this offer.  You will have to make a minimum spend of $1000 per person/card which is easily done with normal household spending and the cost of the cruise.

UA Award

SEA-SJU

OPTION 4 – BRITISH AIRWAYS AVIOS

This option works best if you live in the east coast USA and have a non-stop flight to SJU on AA from MIA, JFK or ORD.  Awards are based on distance so use the Great Circle mapper tool to determine distance.

Distances

Then use the Avios chart to see how many Avios you need.

Avios Chart

You can get Avios by applying for the Chase British Airways Visa.  The current best offer is 50,000 Avios after $1000 minimum spend with other bonuses for larger spends.  For most couples, the 50,000 will be enough to get you from east coast USA to San Juan.

So now that you see how easy it is to get to San Juan for free just from getting one credit card per couple or at most one credit card per person, you need a place to stay in San Juan.  In tomorrow’s blog, I will show you how to use other credit cards to get free hotel nights to rest up before your cruise and have some fun exploring Puerto Rico.

 

February Buy Miles Promos – Are They Worth It?

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Let’s take a look at the buy miles promos that have been released so far this month and let’s assume that we want an award from North America to Brazil not during peak season to keep an even playing field.  The award costs 60,000 in economy on the 3 main airlines serving this route – AA, UA and US.  So how much would it cost to buy enough miles to complete this award?

American Airlines – to buy 60,000 miles it would cost around $1217 including tax and service charge.  You would get your credit card spend miles but no category multipliers as it is processed by Points.com.  This trip can be done for 40k in off-peak season.

AA Buy Miles Promo

 

US Airways – if you have the US Mastercard you can get a 100% bonus, otherwise you get a 50% bonus.  It would cost $1128 to buy these miles including tax.

US Airways Buy Miles Promo

United Airlines has not announced a Buy Miles Promo yet so you would have to pay full price for the whole 60,000 miles – whopping $2257.50!  If they did join the party and offered a 100% bonus promo, the cost would be $1128.75.

United Airlines Buy Miles

 

So how much would it be to simply BUY a ticket from LAX to the gateway city of Sao Paulo, Brazil?  Let’s try Kayak for a generic fare quote.  As we can see, economy fares start at $1015 for a multiple airline routing and go up from there.  The purchase price of a ticket is at least $100 cheaper than buying miles, PLUS you will earn miles from your purchase!

Kayak Quote LAX-GRU

Fare quotes will vary depending on which city you start from and which city in Brazil you want to get to.  If you are headed to the Pantanal, you would need to get to Cuiaba or Campo Grande which can be reached on Brazilian carriers GOL, TAM and TRIP.  In this case, when I tried a fare quote from LAX to CGB (Cuiaba) the fares started at $1414, so in this case if you can use a partner award all the way to Cuiaba you would save around $200, but you would not earn miles.

Fare Quote Cuiaba

 

RECAP

  • Compare costs to buy miles including the promo bonus miles with how much it costs to simply buy a ticket.  Use the examples I have provided to check every program you belong to for the destination you have in mind.
  • If your destination is not the main gateway city, try a fare quote all the way through to your final destination.  Compare that with the cost of buying a local domestic ticket.
  • Check to see if your airline program’s partners can get you all the way to your final destination.  TAM is currently in Star Alliance but will be joining LAN as LATAM and expected to join One World soon.  Copa and Avianca/Taca are in Star Alliance so can be used to get you to domestic destinations in South America.
  • If you are planning an award in business class, you may save a lot of money using a Buy Miles promo.
  • Don’t buy miles if you aren’t going to redeem them within a year.  The award prices could go up, airlines change alliances or even go out of business.

How To Prioritize Your Airline Miles Goals

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I have my Top 8 programs that I concentrate on for miles collection to maximize opportunities in both One World and Star Alliance.   I am not lucky enough to have employer paid travel that allows me to earn “free” BIS (butt-in-seat) miles so I have to be more creative in using partners to earn miles.  However with limited funds, there is only so much I can do and even within my Top 8 programs, I need to prioritize whose miles I want to earn first.  Sky Team doesn’t interest me at all because I don’t like their major US partner – Delta’s frequent flyer program.  If Virgin Australia joined Sky Team, they may be of interest but for now they have nothing to offer me that I can’t already get from Star Alliance and One World.

Factors that I don’t care about but you might:  Business travel (employer’s preferences), paying for mileage runs and earning elite status.

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KNOW WHERE YOU WANT TO GO AND WHICH AIRLINES CAN GET YOU THERE

I want to go to destinations that offer good birding with a high population of parrot species.  I also have family in the USA and I attend a major parrot conservation conference in Tenerife, Spain every 4 years.  If there are promos (Grand Slam, credit cards) that allow me to easily acquire miles I would spend them on business class for at least long-haul, otherwise we would fly economy if that’s all we can afford.  So here’s how this all adds up.

  • SOUTH AMERICA – can be reached directly from Sydney on LAN with connections elsewhere.  Y class is reasonably easy to get, J class is very difficult.
  • CENTRAL AMERICA – could reach from South America via LAN or from the USA via Avianca-Taca, Copa, US Airways, United (Star Alliance) or American and LAN (One World).
  • ASIA (INDIA, SRI LANKA, THAILAND, MALAYSIA, INDONESIA) – easily reached on either alliance with generally good availability in award seats.
  • EUROPE – has good connections with both alliances to major European cities, however only Iberia (One World) can get me all the way to Tenerife.  I want to avoid using BA for long haul due to high taxes.
  • USA – this is the most difficult award for me to get as there is a lot of demand from both USA and Australian based frequent flyers.  Award seats in business class are very hard to get, even economy is drying up on Air New Zealand.  It can be possible to route via Asia but MPM (Maximum permitted miles) can cause problems.  For Star Alliance, NZ would be ideal if they would just start releasing award seats!  Otherwise, we need to connect in either BKK or SIN and again in NRT or ICN to get to the USA.  For One World, Qantas has the only direct flights but since I am using AA miles, I also have Hawaiian and Air Pacific as potential award routes.  Unfortunately no stopovers are allowed.
  • PACIFIC ISLANDS – We go to Rarotonga every few years so my husband can see his family.  Only served by Air New Zealand (Star Alliance) and Virgin.  Other islands that are on our radar with airlines that can get us there are:  Tahiti (NZ), Fiji (Qantas, Air Pacific, Virgin, NZ).
  • DOMESTIC AUSTRALIA – One World has the monopoly on alliance based flights – Qantas.  I can also earn miles on Virgin with everyday shopping and partners.
  • AFRICA – I have a bucket list birding trip I would like to do with stops in DAR for Tanzania, JNB and PLZ for South Africa and MRU for Mauritius.  This trip would have very high out of pocket costs on the ground so would require years of saving or a Lotto win.  There are options with both Star Alliance (South African, Turkish, Ethiopian, Egypt Air) and One World (Qatar, Malaysian) but once again this is a major goal I would have to save a long time for.  I would most likely use United miles for this one, possibly Avios for JNB-MRU.

 

KNOW WHICH AIRLINES SERVE YOUR HOME AIRPORT

I use Google flights to look this up.  Just type in “Flights to LAX”, replacing LAX with your home airport code.  In my case, this is BNE.    Now scroll through the list and pull out the airlines which are in alliances and non-allianced airlines that you have easy access to partner earnings on.

  • Qantas – One World
  • Cathay Pacific – One World
  • Malaysian Airlines – One World
  • Air New Zealand – Star Alliance
  • Thai Airways – Star Alliance
  • Singapore Airlines – Star Alliance
  • EVA Air – future Star Alliance
  • Virgin Australia – not in an alliance but able to get free points from local partners
  • Hawaiian Airlines – not in an alliance but partner of AA
  • Air Pacific –  not in an alliance but partner of AA
  • Emirates – doesn’t partner with any airline I can easily earn miles with so not a good option for me.

 

CAN YOU CONNECT IN A LARGER AIRPORT WITHIN YOUR COUNTRY?

Brisbane is not Australia’s major airport, Sydney is.  However, since Star Alliance does not have a partner which serves domestic Australian flights, One World is going to give me a lot more options since I can use Qantas to get to Sydney, Melbourne or Perth from where there are additional flight opportunities.  Using the Google Flights tool, I now look up flights to Sydney (SYD).  Now I can see that in addition to the airlines that also serve Brisbane, I could connect on:

  • Etihad – partner of American and Virgin Australia, but not in an alliance
  • Air China – Star Alliance
  • Air Canada – Star Alliance
  • United Airlines – Star Alliance
  • Asiana – Star Alliance
  • Japan Airlines – One World
  • Air Tahiti Nui – AA partner, non alliance
  • Qatar Airways – future One World

 

ANALYZING THE INFORMATION AND SETTING THE PRIORITIES

On the surface, it looks like I should prioritize Star Alliance and seek out mile-earning opportunities on United and US Airways.  BUT, the main problem is getting award seats from Brisbane as I don’t want to pay out of pocket for feeder flights to Sydney or waste Virgin miles.  Two of the 3 Star Alliance partners (NZ, SQ) that serve Brisbane rarely release business class awards and even economy can be hard to find.  TG is more generous and when EVA Air joins in a few months, hopefully they will also be generous with award seats and routes via TPE will fall within the MPM for US awards.  On the other hand, One World has the only domestic Australian partner that allows me to route via Sydney’s international connections.  American Airlines has 2 major partners that serve Brisbane – Air Pacific and Hawaiian and also Etihad via Sydney.  So here is how I prioritized my airline programs:

MAIN PROGRAMS/LONG HAUL

1.  American AAdvantage – because of more flexibility and domestic Australian feeder flights, extra partners like Etihad, Air Pacific and Hawaiian, one way awards permitted and most airlines I use bookable online.  Also, One World and AA partners serve more of the airports that matter to me.   Can transfer from SPG at 20k SPG = 25k AA and use E-Rewards and flower partners to top up.  Citibank denied me the co-branded credit card but planning to try again in 6 months for the sign up bonus.

2.  United Mileage Plus – would have been first place if they had a domestic Australian partner or better flights out of BNE;  but I value one way awards and online booking so they edged out US.  Can get miles from Chase’s Ultimate Rewards and co-branded cards and any partners which I can’t credit to AA.

3.  US Airways Dividend Miles – good redemption levels but I find the restrictions of round-trip awards and having to call them to book awards stifling.  They have had the best ever promo – Grand Slam which ran every Sept – Nov 2008-2011 which allowed us to earn huge amounts of miles fairly cheap and they also can run good 100% buy or share bonus promos, making it fairly cheap to buy their miles.  If they merge with AA, these miles could potentially become AA miles which I personally value much higher.

SECONDARY PROGRAMS/SHORT HAUL

4.  British Airways Avios – I used them for a bargain one-way LAX-HNL and also have them earmarked for short haul domestic Australian and intra-South America awards.  Can transfer from Chase Ultimate Rewards and E-Rewards.

5.  Avianca/Taca LifeMiles – Good awards within Central America and South America, sometimes offers 100% buy/share miles promos.  The credit card has an anniversary bonus of 6000 miles for $75 annual fee which is a good deal and painless.

6.  Qantas – Awards are expensive so prefer to use AA as main One-World program, also Australian co-branded credit cards can have higher annual fees.  I can get free miles from shopping and phone bills so I just let them silently accumulate.

7.  Virgin – Good for credit card bonuses, transfers from Amex and short-haul to New Zealand and Pacific islands.  Can earn miles with NAB card and Virgin mobile through everyday normal use.

8.  Singapore Krisflyer – Has the best award rates between Australia and Pacific Islands, can use Amex MR to get miles but otherwise no easy “everyday spending” opportunities.

So now I know where I want to look first for incidental bonuses for car rentals, hotel stays, flowers, surveys and where to credit them to!

What are your miles collecting priorities and why?

 

 

 

Getting To South-East Asia With Frequent Flyer Miles

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The countries of South-East Asia’s bird populations are as colourful and diverse as you could expect from this culturally rich region.  let’s concentrate on the countries which are classified as “South-East Asia” by the frequent flyer programs and have great birding and eco-tourism opportunities such as (alphabetically) Burma, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.  If you are married to or involved with a non-birding partner, this is a great region to plan a trip to as they will find plenty to do while you are off chasing birds.   Unfortunately, being so far from everywhere except Australia, it can be very expensive to get there whether you use miles or cash.  Let’s look at a few options.

South-East Asia

 

ONE WORLD ALLIANCE

 

AMERICAN AADVANTAGE

For most people, joining American Airline’s AAdvantage will be the best option.  They have quite a few credit card options to quickly build your miles stash and a few partners such as E-Rewards and various hotels where you can transfer points in.  The region is called “Asia Zone 2” on this chart and includes Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Guam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Saipan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam.  Airlines which serve this area include Cathay Pacific and Qantas with Malaysian Airlines, Sri Lankan Airlines and Qatar Airways joining very soon.

Peru Award2

These figures are one-way so double if you want a round trip.  The nice thing about AAdvantage is the flexibility, you may choose to go one way in economy and one way in business, or do an open jaw where you fly into Bali (DPS)  for example and out of Bangkok (BKK).   Please note that awards between South-East Asia and South America Zones 1 & 2 are not available so if you want a route like that you will have to join up two awards such as Asia-North America and North America – South America.

USA and Canada:  Each way is 35,000 economy;  55,000 business; 72,500 first.  You can use Qantas, Cathay Pacific, and Malaysian  but there are no stopovers allowed.

UK and Europe:  Each way is 35,000 economy; 52,500 business; 70,000 first.  You can use British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Etihad or (coming soon) Malaysian Airlines and SriLankan Airlines; or use Finnair, Air Berlin or Iberia to get to Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong or anywhere Qantas flies.

Australia and New Zealand:  Each way is 25,000 economy; 35,000 business; 45,000 first.  You can use Qantas, Cathay Pacific and Malaysian.

QANTAS

For Aussies who have easy access to Qantas points via their employer or Everyday Rewards, it’s worth checking out QF’s awards to South-East Asia.  Use their points calculator as the awards are distance based, not by country.  A long distance award such as Brisbane – Bangkok will cost more than a short one like Darwin – Denpasar/Bali.  The awards look expensive compared to AA, UA and US but if you got your points for free, might as well enjoy them!

Qantas Awards

AVIOS (BRITISH AIRWAYS AND IBERIA)

By the time you read this, Malaysian will have joined One World, though the booking engine may not be online yet.  Look for bargains in one way awards between Kuala Lumpur and nearby cities such as Singapore, Jakarta, Bali, Bangkok, Vientiane and Manila.   In the examples below, the awards will range from 4500 Avios to 10,000 Avios.

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AVIOS AWARD CHART

 

 

 

STAR ALLIANCE AIRLINES

 

No matter where you live, the two best programs to use in Star Alliance are United and US Airways.  Both have their pros and cons.  With United, you can book partner awards online, book one-way awards and get lots of miles via several Chase credit cards; but if you can’t get these cards it can be hard to get miles in United Mileage Plus.  With US Airways, the major drawbacks are you have to book round-trips and you can’t book online, you have to call them.   The advantage with US Airways is that they offer frequent “Buy miles, get 100% bonus free” promos and in the past, they had the wonderful Grand Slam promos where it was possible to do partner transactions and with careful planning you could get about 120,000 miles for $400-600 incremental cost.  The US Airways Grand Slam hasn’t been seen since Sept-Nov 2011, unfortunately they didn’t do it in 2012.  Depending on where you live, Avianca/Taca Lifemiles could be useful too, but it is hard to use their booking engine for complicated routings so I suggest saving them for USA-Central/South America where they offer better value and ease of booking.

US Airways Chart

US AIRWAYS (round-trip only) Region is South & Central Asia which includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Chagos, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam.

USA and Canada:  Economy 80,000; Business 120,000; First 160,000.  You can use United, Air Canada, Air New Zealand (hard to get) or sometimes take the “scenic route” via Asia using Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Asiana or ANA (All Nippon Airlines).  US has recently started enforcing MPM (maximum permitted miles) so some Asian routings may not be acceptable.

UK and Europe:  Economy 70,000, Business 90,000; First 110,000.  Most people try to get routings using Singapore, Thai, Lufthansa, Swiss and Turkish Airlines.  Some airlines do not give US Airways business or first class awards such as Singapore, Lufthansa and Swiss.

Australia and New Zealand:  Economy 70,000, Business 90,000; First 120,000.  You can fly on Singapore, Thai and Air New Zealand.

 

UNITED AIRLINES (can book one-way or round trip.

The award chart is too big to copy paste here so please follow this link to see the whole chart.

USA and Canada:  (each way) Economy 40,000; Business 62,500; First 80,000.  You can use United, Air Canada, Air New Zealand (hard to get) or sometimes take the “scenic route” via Asia using Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Asiana or ANA (All Nippon Airlines).  You can easily see the routings via their online award booking engine.

UK and Europe:  (each way) Economy 55,000, Business 75,000; First 90,000.  Most people try to get routings using Singapore, Thai, Lufthansa, Swiss and Turkish Airlines.  You can easily see the routings on their online award booking engine but be careful if you are looking at business or first class awards as sometimes they offer mixed class awards and the long-haul section could be in economy with a short sector in business or first.

Australia and New Zealand:  Economy 30,000, Business 45,000; First 60,000.  You can fly on Singapore, Thai and Air New Zealand.

Here’s an example of London to Bangkok, as you can see they quote both the miles and taxes and the business class award are “mixed class” and if you hover over the fare, you can see which flight is in which class.

United Chart

You can see how much cheaper it is to fly from Brussels due to the very high UK departure taxes.

United Award ex-Brussels

 

These are just a few examples, please feel free to ask questions in the comments.

If you need ideas on how to acquire frequent flyer miles, please see the Resources tab and Miles and Points tab. which I will update with new offers for free or cheap miles.

LIST OF PARROTS IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRIES

Burma/Myanmar

Indonesia

Laos

Malaysia

Philippines

Singapore

Thailand

Vietnam

 

 

Planning Your Trips In Advance

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WHY YOU SHOULD PLAN

Successful ecotourism trips are a bit more complicated than the usual trip to Hawaii or Europe so it is best to plan them well in advance.  In most cases, you will be going to a much more remote area and way off the beaten track.  Eco-lodges are small and can only take a certain number of guests so it can be very risky to just grab a last-minute fare to Brazil, Australia or Bolivia if you can’t also book your lodge.  The best lodges book up well in advance.  And if you are relying on frequent flyer miles to get there, it can be hard to get availability so you are better off booking as soon as possible after flights open up their award seats.  In most cases, this will be at 330-335 days depending on your airline’s program and when the partner airlines make their flights available.

Before you can even book the flights, you need to know you will have enough miles on hand.  Long-haul trips such as USA to/from Australia, Australia to/from Central and South America and North America to/from Asia can be costly even in miles and it may take you several years to save up enough depending on how you source your miles.  If you want truly free trips, you need to source your miles from re-directing your everyday spending through credit cards and shops that give you miles but take care not to buy things you don’t need or overspend on your credit cards to the point where you can’t pay the bill in full each month.

WAYS TO SOURCE FREQUENT FLYER MILES

  1.  Credit card sign-up bonuses can be very lucrative but mind the annual fees and minimum spending requirements.
  2. Spending on credit cards, even better if you can use a category bonus (office supply stores, restaurants, etc) for increased bonuses.  An example of this is buying a gift card at an office supply store that gives you 5 x bonus miles and using the gift card to buy your groceries.
  3. Manufactured spending such as using a miles earning credit card to buy reload cards (Vanilla, Green Dot, etc) that can be loaded on a card where you can access the funds via an ATM or withdrawal to a bank account.  These methods do have their risks so I would study them carefully in FlyerTalk.
  4. Surveys such as E-Miles and E-rewards, also some are available on MyPoints.  They can be slow going, but if you are saving for a major trip, they do all add up.   In the past, E-Rewards required an emailed invitation but now you can get a link to join in the “Earn Miles” section of your frequent flyer program.
  5. Use the click-through link from your frequent flyer program to buy flowers.  They often give 30 miles per $ on special occasions like Mother’s Day, Christmas and Valentines Day.
  6. Transfer extra hotel points to your frequent flyer program.
  7. Take advantage of promos.  In the past, US Airways Grand Slam and Club Carlson’s Free Night Giveaway gave huge bonuses.  Follow this blog by rss feed or email subscription as I will blog about any good promos that come up.
  8. BIS (butt in seat) miles.  If you are lucky enough to fly for work and have it paid by your employer, that’s free miles that also earn status!
  9. Half-price buy miles promos.  US Airways and Avianca Lifemiles are pretty good about offering promos where you double the miles you get when you buy them through their portal.

MAKE A WISH LIST AND TRACK HOW MANY MILES YOU NEED

I use an Excel spreadsheet to track my personal wish list.  It contains too much personal data to post it here but basically it is something like:

  1. Indonesia – Using Virgin Australia miles sourced from credit card spend.  Need 110,000 miles for 2 people. Economy.  Booked
  2. Central America – Using US Airways miles sourced from past Grand Slam.  Need 240,000 miles for 2 people business class.  Booked
  3. Western Australia – Using AA miles sourced from credit card signup.  Need 40,000 miles for 2 people economy class.  Acheived.
  4. Spain – Using US Airways miles sourced from past Grand Slam.  Need 240,000 miles for 2 people business.  Achieved.
  5. India/Sri Lanka – Using US Airways miles from past Grand Slam and US Mastercard.  Need 180,000 miles.  Have 165,000 so  15,000 miles outstanding.  I know I will get another 10,000 from the anniversary bonus on the credit card so I need around 5000 more miles.  Easily achieved with a couple flower purchases and E-Rewards.
  6. Caribbean Islands – Could do one way on United (90,000 economy)  and one way on American (125,000 business for the return).  Need to work on this one so now I know which credit cards I need to concentrate on next.  Citibank AA cards, Chase United Explorer and SPG will serve my purpose.

Once that goal is achieved, I can start saving miles for other goals.   I have my eye on French Polynesia and Fiji, Tanzania, Madagascar, Mauritius, Bolivia and Peru for future trips.

DON’T HOARD MILES, ENJOY THEM!

I have seen a lot of people get caught up in the excitement of the “chase” or pursuit of status so they go overboard on gift card schemes, buy miles they don’t have a plan for or just keep collecting miles without spending them.  We never know what life has in store for us.  We may be fit and healthy (and alive) now but who knows what will happen in the future.  Airlines could go out of business like Ansett, SpanAir and Mexicana.  Don’t be the person who ends up with a million miles in their account they can’t use because their health worsened, they lost their job or whatever.  And you don’t get brownies points in heaven if you have left over miles.  Earn ’em burn ’em and most of all enjoy ’em!

 

Sriwijaya Airlines Promo: Buy One – Get One Executive Class

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I am in the midst of planning an amazing birding adventure around West Papua, Indonesia.  Indonesia is one of the top twelve countries in the world for parrot species, so you can imagine how I am looking forward to this trip!   Last year, I stumbled across a promo Garuda was running on flights that were booked at least 6 months in advance.  Flights to West Papua are normally pretty expensive so I jumped on the cheap fares and booked DPS – UPG – BIK – DJJ – UPG (Bali – Makassar – Biak – Jayapura – Makassar) and grabbed a SUB – DPS (Surabaya – Bali) just because it was around $20 each and there are more options to Surabaya from West Papua than to Denpasar.

That still left some local routes in West Papua which I needed to visit –  Manokwari (Arfak Mountains) and Sorong (Raja Ampat) but Garuda doesn’t serve these routes.  Only a few airlines do:  Sriwijaya, Batavia, Lion Air/Wings, Merpati and ExpressAir.  After checking each of the websites last month, I could see that Sriwijaya had the best fares but the problem is that they don’t accept non-Indonesian credit cards.  Actually none of the domestic carriers with the possible exception of Garuda, Lion Air and Air Asia do.  At least they accept Australian credit cards but maybe not USA based credit cards.  Some research on FlyerTalk, a Scuba Diving Forum and Lonely Planet found a few random reports of people getting lucky with domestic tickets and others striking out.

Fast forward to a few days ago, I have the budget in order and want to buy my domestic tickets.  I double checked all the airlines again, Sriwijaya is still the cheapest.  But wait, what’s this?

Sriwijaya Buy One Get One Executive Class

 

Let’s check this out!  It’s actually a “real” short-haul business class, not the European style where they give you economy with an empty middle seat.  The Gerry Airways blog has more details with the following photo.

Sriwijaya Business Class

 

Upon doing a dummy booking (not going to use my real dates and itinerary for security), I noticed that it cost roughly the same plus or minus $10 max to book 2 x economy tickets vs paying for 1 executive ticket with one given free.  Obviously this promo is only useful for 2 people traveling together.

Sriwijaya snip2

This was  a no-brainer, of course we would prefer to fly in executive class for about the same price as economy–but how do we book it?  There were no promo codes on the advertisement and it wouldn’t auto-price at the “Buy one get one” price online.   So I called Sriwijaya Airlines and booked the flights I wanted at the promo rate intending to pay by Visa over the phone.  Surprise!  They don’t take credit cards over the phone………….and the ticket time limit was 3 days from booking.  I tried to get them to extend it until we would arrive in Bali and could pay in person but they couldn’t do that .

So I emailed one of the travel agents that had been recommended in the links above, Mau Ke Mana and explained the situation.  Chris replied back quickly and asked for details.  I sent them and a bit later he replied that he would be able to get the tickets for us.  The quote he gave was the same as the Sriwijaya quote and an extra amount which  included his fee and an allowance for Paypal currency exchange.  If I were willing to risk that seats would be available when we arrive in Indonesia, I could wait and try to rebook and pay in person.  But since I have birding arrangements made, I didn’t have any flexibility and wanted confirmed flights in advance.   I paid by Paypal last Saturday.  He had said he would get the tickets done on Monday which was normal business hours, but much to my surprise, late Saturday evening (10pm), an email showed up from Chris with our tickets!   I was really impressed with the prompt service and feel good about recommending Mau Ke Mana.   And I am not the only one, they have a long list of testimonials from people all over the world!

Mau Ke Mana

Although I have blacked out the identifying information, this is what you can expect a Sriwijaya ticket to look like, very similar to Garuda’s e-tickets.Sriwijaya snip

Chris is also happy to answer any questions you may have, he even recommended a SIM card provider for me and let me know that Sriwijaya’s executive class entitles us to transport to the airport!

So where can you fly on Sriwijaya?  All over Indonesia, including the top birding hotspots of Ambon (for Seram), Sorong, Manokwari, Biak, Jayapura.

Sriwijaya Route Map

Avianca-Taca LifeMiles & Best Uses For Eco-Travelers

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Avianca-Taca’s frequent flyer program is one of the newest to the Star Alliance but given that it’s hubs are in countries rich with birdlife, it’s a program that all eco-travelers should get to know.

BASICS OF AVIANCA-TACA LIFEMILES

1.  First thing to do is join the program if you haven’t already.  LifeMiles has frequent buy/share bonus miles promos and they always restrict them to people who are already members as of the day the promo begins.  It’s free to join so no reason not to!

2.  You only need to have 40% of the miles required to redeem an award.  Then you can buy the remaining miles at $15 per 1000 miles.  For example in this flight from LAX to San Jose, Costa Rica; the normal price is 12,000 miles but if you are willing to pay $90, you can get away with only using 5000 miles.  You have effectively bought 7000 miles for $90 at a cost of $15.00 per 1000 miles.  (The price has increased to $15.00 per 1000 miles since July 2013.)  The technique remains the same is pictured.

3.  The normal price to buy miles is $30 per block of 1000 miles.  If LifeMiles is running a 100% bonus, this becomes $15 per block of 1000 miles.  You will only need to buy enough to get you to the 40% redemption level, then use the “More money” button to buy the miles even cheaper.

4.  The normal price to share miles is $15 per block of 1000 miles.  If LifeMiles is running a 100% bonus, this becoomes $7.50 per block of 1000 miles.  Bear in mind that the miles come out of your account and go into your friend’s account.  There is a maximum of 50,000 miles transferred per calendar year.

So let’s say you have 20,000 miles because you got the LifeMiles Visa card.  You transfer these miles during a 100% share miles promo to your spouse.  You pay $300 for the transfer of 20,000 miles and your spouse gets 40,000 miles in his/her account.  You have basically paid $300 to create 20,000 new miles (since you already had 20,000) so you bought those miles at $15 per block of 1000 miles.  Now your spouse transfers the whole lot of 40,000 miles back to you.  He/she pays $600 for the transfer.  Now he/she has 0 miles and you have 80,000 miles, so again you bought the miles at a cost of $15 per block of 1000 miles.

4.  You can kickstart your LifeMiles by getting the LifeMiles Visa (US Bank) with a bonus of up to 20,000 miles with first purchase.

 

 

SAMPLE BARGAIN ROUTES WITH LIFEMILES

For eco-tourists, the best uses of LifeMiles are to get you between airports in the birding hotspots of Central America and South America, or from the USA to Central/South America preferably on an Avianca or Taca flight.  Here are some examples, please note the difference in base price and the price when you spend 40% of required miles and add cash.

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA TO PANAMA CITY

There is a special on business class which makes this the cheapest way from A to B if you are paying cash.

Now if you don’t really care which class you are in, let’s compare with the price of the flight in miles and cash.

Depending on how many miles you have in your account, you can spend as little as 3000 miles plus $62 cash.  If you used the bonus promo above, these 3000 miles would have cost $45, so your total out-of-pocket is $107, rather than $307.

LIMA TO SANTA CRUZ, BOLIVIA

If you are enchanted by the blue-throated macaws at Barba Azul, here’s how you can get there.  First, the cash price-economy.

Now let’s see what it costs in miles.  The normal price is 9000 miles which during the promo would be $135 to buy the miles.   Or you can buy 4000 miles during the promo for $60 and another $66 for the remaining 5000 miles you need for a total of $126.  Nice savings over the cash price of $435!

PANAMA CITY TO LAS VEGAS (STAR ALLIANCE AWARD ON COPA

$510 for the one way ticket using cash.

Now let’s see how much it costs with miles!  Normal price is 15,000 miles.  Using the 40% minimum to pay with 6000 miles plus $114 cash and $25 redemption fee we have paid (using a 100% buy/share bonus) $90 for the minimum miles plus $114 plus $25 plus $28 tax for a total of $257, about half the cash price!

GETTING LIFEMILES IN EVERYDAY LIFE

It’s a fairly new program so there aren’t too many opportunities yet, though this may grow.

1.  Get the credit card and use it for purchases, get 1 mile per $.

2.  LifeMiles shopping portal.  They are having some problems with this and miles haven’t been posting while they work out the bugs.  Hopefully they will and this will become a nice source of LifeMiles.  Don’t buy things you don’t need just to get miles, but if you do need something, start at the portal and get free miles!

3.  Buy flowers or a gift at FTD.com.

4.  Transfer hotel points.  These are not the best use of hotel points but if you have some orphaned points you need to get rid of, it’s one option.

  • HiltonHonors: 10,000 HHonor Points for 1000 LifeMiles.
  • Best Western:  5000 Best Western points for 1000 LifeMiles.
  • Marriott:  10,000 Marriott Rewards points for 1500 LifeMiles.

 

IN SUMMARY

1.  Best uses of LifeMiles for eco-tourists are on Avianca or Taca flights, or some partner flights like Copa.

2.  Credit card can kickstart your miles account.

3.  Wait for Buy/Share bonuses to buy miles at a discount.

4.  Only buy enough to get you to 40% of your desired award, then use the miles plus cash tool to buy the remainder at $12-13 per block of 1000 miles.

Anymore questions, please ask in the comments?  Does anyone have plans to travel to Central or South America and planning to use LifeMiles for a cheap ticket?

Getting To Australia With Airline Miles

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Australia is a major draw card for birders and should be on most eco-travelers dream trip list.  Unfortunately, being so far from everywhere else, it can be very expensive to get there whether you use miles or cash.  Let’s look at a few options.

 

 

ONE WORLD ALLIANCE

 

For most people, joining American Airline’s AAdvantage will be the best option.  They have quite a few credit card options to quickly build your miles stash and a few partners such as E-Rewards and various hotels where you can transfer points in.  This is my first choice for travel to/from Australia as you can book your award to anywhere Qantas flies domestically and not be dependent on gateway cities only.  Example:  Dallas-Los Angeles-Honolulu-Sydney-Alice Springs.

Peru Award2

These figures are one-way so double if you want a round trip.  The nice thing about AAdvantage is the flexibility, you may choose to go one way in economy and one way in business, or do an open jaw where you fly into Brisbane (BNE) for example and out of Perth (PER).  Australia is in the South Pacific region so you can see the miles required for most departing cities.

USA and Canada:  Each way is 37,000 economy; 62,500 business; 72,000 first.  You can use Qantas, Hawaiian Airlines, Air Tahiti Nui or Air Pacific but there are no stopovers allowed.  AA no longer allows you to use Hawaiian Airlines between mainland USA and Hawaii and if you want to travel beyond Hawaii to the South Pacific you will pay 2 awards – USA-Hawaii + Hawaii-South Pacific.

UK and Europe:  Each way is 45,000 economy; 60,000 business; 80,000 first.  You can use British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Etihad or (coming soon) Malaysian Airlines and SriLankan Airlines; or use Finnair, Air Berlin or Iberia to get to Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong or anywhere Qantas flies.

 

STAR ALLIANCE AIRLINES

 

No matter where you live, the best programs to use in Star Alliance is United.   With United, you can book partner awards online, book one-way awards and get lots of miles via several Chase credit cards; but if you can’t get these cards it can be hard to get miles in United Mileage Plus.   Depending on where you live, Avianca/Taca Lifemiles could be useful too, but it is hard to use their booking engine for complicated routings so I suggest saving them for USA-Central/South America where they offer better value and ease of booking.  Singapore’s Krisflyer also offers Star Alliance awards.

UNITED AIRLINES (can book one-way or round trip.

The award chart is too big to copy paste here so please follow this link to see the whole chart.

USA and Canada:  (each way) Economy 40,000; Business 62,500; First 80,000.  You can use United, Air Canada, Air New Zealand (hard to get) or sometimes take the “scenic route” via Asia using Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Asiana or ANA (All Nippon Airlines).  You can easily see the routings via their online award booking engine.

UK and Europe:  (each way) Economy 55,000, Business 75,000; First 90,000.  Most people try to get routings using Singapore, Thai, Lufthansa, Swiss and Turkish Airlines.  You can easily see the routings on their online award booking engine but be careful if you are looking at business or first class awards as sometimes they offer mixed class awards and the long-haul section could be in economy with a short sector in business or first.

Here’s an example of London to Perth, as you can see they quote both the miles and taxes and the business class award are “mixed class” and if you hover over the fare, you can see which flight is in which class.

You can see how much cheaper it is to fly from Brussels due to the very high UK departure taxes.

 

These are just a few examples, please feel free to ask questions in the comments.

If you need ideas on how to acquire frequent flyer miles, please see the Resources tab and Miles and Points tab. which I will update with new offers for free or cheap miles.

OTHER AIRLINES

If you are from the USA, you may also want to try Virgin Australia awards booked with Delta miles or Qantas awards booked with miles sourced from the Citibank Premier Thank You card.  It is virtually impossible to get J class awards these days on QF with AA miles as members of Qantas Frequent Flyer have access several weeks earlier and snap them up.

LIST OF PARROTS IN AUSTRALIA