I am new to travel credit cards and award availability. But I see many people saying it’s getting harder and harder to find flights using points. Is this true? And if so, do you see a future where it will start to reverse course?

My hope is that less people will use travel credit cards/travel less if award availability is so poor, that these companies will be forced to offer more award seats.

Thoughts?

Hi, I want to book a Qatar Airways award flight and I don't have enough Avios. Right now, Finnair is offering Avios at 50% discount. Can I buy Avios at Finnair and transfer it to British Airlines and the transfer it to Qatar Airways and book flight at Qatar ?

My concerns

1. Will Finnair allow bought Avios to British Airlines?
2. Will British allow immediate transfer of Avios to Qatar ?
3. Is there 1:1 transfer?
4. I don't have an account at Finnair or British Airlines so is this a valid option for a new sign up ? I heard you need to wait certain number of days after sign up to be eligible for transfer of Avios. Is that correct?

First look: Iberia A321XLR Business Class cabin review

I have a flight booked for Nov 29th on the A321XLR BOS to MAD
It looks like they did not offer row 1 the studio look like Jetblue has for their Mint Product.
It looks bland for a new generation aircraft.
what yall thoughts?

I’m asking this between hotels.com, Expedia, booking.com, TripAdvisor, and kayak.

I know hotels used to be best but that they now have a different policy

Does anyone know how to complete $12.50/booking partner fee not using customer service call… (English is not my strong suit)

I think the only direct flight is United on the Dreamliner, so I’m targeting that in J. Anyone got a good redemption here before? Search United and book ANA? Aside from setting up alerts on seats.aero, anything else I can do to maximize chances?

has anyone figured out how tf to book using points with virgin atlantic? I did the Chase points transfer because I found flights that would work for me. I booked a flight, got a confirmation page & booking reference number, but no eTix or email confirmation.

Turns out, I got immediately refunded (both to my card and on the VA points, back to my VA account). Tried to book again, same thing. I saw some people have more success booking thru the chat bot, but I can’t get that to work, either (tried all the web browsers on a desktop, the VA app, and a mobile browser). Now I’m 15 minutes into waiting in hold with VA customer support… sigh.

Anyone dealt with Virgin Atlantic before? Am I doing something wrong? Is there a secret way through this maze????

I checked through all the avios partners and also seats.aero and it seems like there is not a single award space (355 days out) at all for any airports in the east coast US -> DOH -> PKX. I know it is a serviced route by Qatar since it is on their website and I did see that it was bookable through them directly, but the points were like 190k one way for Qsuites.

Hi all, is it possible to transfer point from 1 finn air member to another without 90 day limit? I mean the junior finn air account holder. If I call customerservice is it possible? Even though I know charge will be higher.

I'm looking at booking an Aeromexico flight using AF points. The reservation says 1 "hand baggage" and "accessory" is included but AF's site doesn't define what they mean because it's operated by Aeromexico. My gut tells me that this means 1 carryon and one personal item.. does anyone have experience with this and can confirm?

Hello experts,

I found a fare that is 20K Avios or 28K Avios one way on Iberia for next year. I read on their website that it is possible to upgrade, either with bidding, or perhaps some other mechanisms (unsure though).

Does anyone know if it's possible to book either the Blue Class or Economy, then bid to get a better seat in Premium Economy or Business?

Thank you in advance!

I paid to fly business to SE Asia last year and now I'm hooked. I already bought US to Hong Kong (economy) with cash, but I have 140k capital one miles and want to take a nice flight home in mid-January. I don't know if I should take a less-than-ideal deal now or wait a bit. I'm trying to get Bali (DPS) to Tampa (TPA) and accept I'll have to self transfer on one or both ends to make this work.

1. I see EgyptAir and Ethiopian airlines with day-long layovers for 95k-115k points from Singapore to Chicago or ATL, but that could be a cool stopover.
2. FlyingBlue from SIN to EWR 100k points plus $550 fees/taxes
3. just pay $2800 for DPS-TPE-SEA-TPA business class with my card and save points for next trip.

Is it likely something better will come up closer to January, or should I have started planning this much earlier?

booking JL pe thru AS LAX-HND with miles. was wondering if upgrade to J is offered during check-in (cash) if there’s extra seats? TIA for your feedback.

My wife and I are traveling JFK-FRA-DEL where JFK-FRA is on Singapore Business class and FRA-DEL is on Air India Business class. We have a 10 hour layover at FRA and will probably leave the airport for a few hours. Both legs were booked on the same ticket via Aeroplan award redemption. My question however is will I get both boarding passes at JFK? Will my luggage go straight to DEL? Or will I need to collect luggage at FRA again?

I have an upcoming JAL flight booked via JAL that I have added my AA number to.

One of the segments is the codeshare flight operated by Korean Air on ICN/NRT, with a JAL flight number.

My question is how does the crediting of the Korean Air segment work? Will I be able to credit it to AA? Will I be able to request credit for it via a SkyTeam partner like VS or Flying Blue? Or will it just not count for anything at all?

Hey everyone!

I'm planning a trip to Toronto from Melbourne, Australia, and I'd love to fly business class. I’m open to stopovers in places like Taiwan, Japan, or South Korea since I think the layovers could add to the experience, especially in business class—something I want to try at least once!

I'm looking to leave around November 20th and return around December 6th. Are there any good automated websites for finding flights like these? I’ve tried seats.aero and awardsplanner but haven't subscribed to awardsplanner yet. Do you think the subscription is worth it, or are there any other tools you'd recommend for planning this trip? Thanks!

[Edit: Just realized the original post title was wrong -- I am doing looking for seats on a flight next month, not next year. Unclear why ExpertFlyer won't provide search results.]

Original post below:

Hello fellow travelers -- my ExpertFlyer Pro account has lapsed and for some reason I am unable to check seat availability on TK76 YVR - IST this Dec. 26th. When I do a search getting no results and a message that "Turkish Airlines Seat Maps are only available within 100 days of departure."

I’m searching for award travel on a Qatar partner airline, Bangkok Air. When I search, it shows me the points needed but not the times. I don’t know if this is an estimate or if it’ll let me book it once I transfer enough points in.

Before i transfer points into my Qatar airlines account, can anyone help me confirm if I’ll actually be able to book this flight with Avios on Qantas? If you have 6k Avios in Qantas, can you search and verify that the nonstop flight is available for 6k points: one way, Feb 10, CNX-USM

Thank you!

Booked SQ via Aeroplan for 87.5k. Wanted to change to one with 20k and willing to pay change fee.

1. Would it be possible to get the point difference back?
2. Also, the 87.5k is the lowest reward, is it changeable to the flexible award?

Hey all,

Just wanted some advice regarding this and people's experiences:

I have a non-stop United 787 Lifemiles award ticket this month from SFO to MEL (15.5 hrs flight)
I also have the option to book American Airlines SFO-LAX-SYD-MEL (business class 777 15hrs) via American / Alaska Mileage.

Am wondering, if it's better to to keep my current economy ticket and hope for a United upgrade at check-in to PE or J vs. booking the 2-stop journey to MEL

Thanks!!

First time poster, apologies if this isn’t the correct forum for this!

I just today booked an upper class one way ticket through VS Flying Club for December 11 for 35,000 points plus $578. Not only that but with the current Citi transfer bonus, it was only 27,000 points.

I usually book tickets for VS upper through Flying Blue, which in that direction are generally around 74k plus around $550. I booked my ticket last week for IAD-LHR on Dec 6 this way with fees on the outbound around $220. Used the current Amex bonus to cut down on points needed there too but paid a bit more points for a bit less cash. Ended up being 65k plus $365. I didn’t even check VS before I booked, although that was on 10/29 before pricing changed. I have since checked and best I could do on VS was leaving one day later for 82k plus $480 but that’s way more than what I already paid on Flying Blue for the day before.

I’ve looked into booking VS before but have never done it because it was always going to be so much more expensive than FB. If there are other hacks I should know about to fly VS between LHR and the US I’d appreciate it! Any trip to London needs a perfect ending in the Virgin Clubhouse. Even better, VS is flying the A330-9 to IAD now on some dates. (I got it on the return, but not on the trip to London.)

Thank you!

I used Capital One miles to transfer and book a business class flight from LAX to HND next year and while I've read through the wikis and other posts here, I just wanted to ask a few questions to make sure I'm understanding things correctly.

The best I could find was 90k miles plus $220 in fees on JAL. I've seen mention of ANA flights in the past for lower (70-80k) but I couldn't find any on Aeroplan and I think based on another post (or maybe an update in the wiki?) they stopped releasing them though that path? Any clarification would be appreciated. I did find a few lower options with other airlines/programs but they were either mixed cabin or over 30 hours long, neither of which I'm interested in. Feel free to also let me know if I could have done better or not, this was my first time and I wasn't 100% sure or confident.

I also used an awards/points flight searching site to find the flight originally, but when I went to the frequent flyer program and signed up, they did not have that far out available to search or book - why did the third party searching site list the flight as available through that specific points program when the program itself didn't have that far ahead available to view?

Sorry if any of this was obvious and thank you for any help.

Hi Everyone, on Monday I transferred two batches of Capital One rewards to Flying Blue to book flights from the west coast to Europe this summer. One of the batches is delayed so I missed out on the original flights I wanted. I ended up just paying cash for the flights and am going to save the rewards for next year since there is no way to transfer them back. I was hoping if I booked a year out, I would be able to find better redemptions (people kept telling me to aim for 50k each way for business class).

I’m searching now out of curiosity and only found two flights at 71,500 and a handful under 100k from anywhere in the US to anywhere in Europe through Air France or KLM. I’m using the pro version of seats.aero. I’m looking 10-12 months out. The majority of flights say not available for business but I know they have availablity. What am I missing? I thought seats.aero was supposed to be a good program but it doesn’t seem accurate. Thanks for any help. Trying to prepare for next year so I don’t run into the same issues again.

Looks like JAL is releasing multiple F seats t-14 on the LHR-HND route, every other day being on the new a350-1000. Last night there were 3(!) F seats on the a350 available on this route for 11/21, bookable through all the normal channels (BA, AA). Woke up this morning, and still 2 available.

Not sure what the deal is - new route that not everyone’s aware of maybe. But pretty amazing, nonetheless.

I’m using seats.aero for the first time, but have AMEX points. For those who’ve done this before, what’s the order of operations? Do I find the flight and then make the AMEX transfer, or is the 48hrs transfer window too long? Do you just guess which partner is best to transfer too and then only look for those seats? Thanks!

Has anyone seen if and where JAL releases last minute business class award seats on other carriers (except American) for redemption? If so is there a pecking order like there is for first release aka Cathay. I actually found business class for a flight next week on Alaska for the DFW to HND JAL route but am having trouble finding a return. I got ‘phantomed’ by Aeroplan. Finally found ANA return ticket availability but it was within the 96 hour window for the leg out. I don’t want to take the chance of transferring miles and have them stuck in ANA if they don’t transfer in time. I have called VS a few times when I saw availability on United but they haven’t had the same flights and each time patiently looked but said they are getting few ANA flights. (I don’t have enough United miles. I’ve found no Business Class ANA via LifeMiles. No JAL business on FinnAir, BA, or Cx. My ideal airports to return to are ORD (prefer ANA to get the room if ORD) or DFW on JAL or even ATL. Really would prefer a direct flight to one of these airports. Would consider JFK as well but more of a hassle for me to get home from JFK. Anything I missed or any datapoints would be most welcome. I have plenty of Avios, FB miles, and Amex.

I’m a college student and after reading a book on personal finance I got myself an Amex and started to acquire some points over the past few months. I currently have 160k MR

I do travel a few times a year but usually I book only 1 or max 2 months ahead because of my exam date release schedule. I heard that to maximise CPP it’s best to book in advance but it’s just not possible for me. Are there any ways to find deals in this short time frame?(I’m open to travel to basically any cool location if the cpp is right)

Is it even worth it to spend 160k MR or should I keep acquiring more for larger redemptions later? (I know this is subjective but I’d love to hear your input)

Any input is welcome

I am trying to book a business class award flight from LAX to Paris on Air France. The additional cash price at checkout is vastly different than what it shows when I choose a flight. For example, it will say 231,000 miles plus $550 usd but when I check out it’s 231,000 plus $1367 usd. When I look at the price breakdown for taxes, they don’t seem to add up. Is it normal to pay that much in additional cash for a business class flight? Thay makes it a wash with what the cash price would be.

On my date I can book 3 to Japan from the east coast for about 75k points per person one way. The DL booking has little on fees, the BA considerable. The DL has no hope of ever being changed to J, but with the BA (on JAL metal) the hope should be alive. Should the hope be alive that t-14 I could change the BA to J, or for 3 people is that never going to happen and I should just do DL?

For anyone who has upcoming travel and could use an award, send me a message. I have 2 Club Access Awards and 3 GOH Awards - please remember these are one time transfers.

I’m also looking to exchange one or two Suite Upgrade Awards for ones with expiration date of 4/27/25 or later. If I can’t find an exchange, I’ll think about also giving them away.