NatashaB

Amex offers are doing a $15 off when you spend $15 at Amazon.

tonrob

I had some orphaned SQ miles from a previous transfer, and decided to push the boat out just for the novelty factor vs. the usual crappy intra-EU business offerings. I wouldn't recommend this as a reasonable use of miles to anyone though.

Emirates also flies to GLA, BCL and BHX. There was no F availability to anywhere in the UK for the range of dates I was interested in. Given they fly to so many EU destinations though, there's always somewhere to go to that's just a relatively short hop to MAN.

tonrob

Sat at the bar in the Grand Hyatt DFW. Started yesterday with Amtrak (paid cash, shock horror) to New York Penn. then stayed a night at Indigo Chelsea using a Chase IHG annual free night.

This morning Uber-ed it to JFK, quick Global Entry interview (funded by AMEX Platinum benefit) then off to the AA Flagship private check-in (ta, Citibank). Escorted through security, then spell in the Flagship lounge before trying out the new-ish AA reverse herringbone seats on the A321T First Class trans-con to LAX. Then into the LAX Flagship lounge. Had been plied heavily with Lanson by the crew, had to pace myself a bit before another (much shittier) F segment on a 22 year-old 752 to DFW.

Saddle-sore, chilling out and winding down over a beer at the Hyatt bar (thanks again, Chase), reading myself for the main event tomorrow - Emirates First Class for the 8,000 odd miles to Dubai (gracias, AMEX). Looking forward to all the Emirates bling, Dom Perignon, $500 Hennessy brandy and a shower on the plane!

g1ant

Trip report please... and how big is the door of the showers?

Being a little "rotund" I don't want to get stuck in the door next March

tonrob

Emirates flight was great. Only me and one other guy in First, so we had one-and-a-half flight attendants each! Great food, and lots and lots of Dom Perignon 2005 consumed. Hanging out at the bar chatting to the crew was fun, as was showering at 37,000 feet. 14 hours passed all too quickly.

Conrad Dubai is very nice as well (cheers, Citibank!). Got in about lunchtime, had a bit of a nap and then spent the evening gawping at the nearby Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa. Decided against going up as it seems a bit of a con - observation floor is only halfway up and costs over $100!

Mallory

Took a chance at churning hubby for another BA Chase card - approved immediately. 50k miles.

Using BA miles to go to LHR in Sept, with two free nights at a very nice hotel in the airport area. Off to Kew Gardens before going forward.

Just spent a week in Seattle and Vancouver - free flights from our US Airways cards, which we were offered on a flight to St Maarten earlier in the year. Plus free luggage and zone 2 boarding.

All thanks to TonRob's advice!

g1ant

How much did you have to pay in surcharges on the BA ticket to LHR ??

Mallory

Charlotte to LHR $650 each. The tickets at moment are selling for $1650 each during high season. So not bad. We had enough miles left over for two nights free at a very nice hotel near LHR.

PS - The flight is with US Air, as BA do not have gates at Charlotte. (Which is now American Airlines).

tonrob

Sat in the F lounge in the Emirates A380 terminal at Dubai. This lounge is seriously massive - it runs the length of the terminal and I swear it takes 10 minutes to walk end to end. Been here two hours and spotted only 3 other passengers!

Enjoyed my few days in Dubai even though it was too hot to do much outdoors. The Conrad was fantastic - both in terms of rooms/decor and service. Well worth 210K Hilton points for 3 nights, although these have become harder to replenish now that Citi has imposed an 18-month restriction between applications.

Emirates First to Munich this afternoon (going to have to have another shower even though I won't really need one!), followed by a night at the on-airport Hilton before Singapore Suites class to Manchester in the morning.

All going well, but I'm going to have to gauge my champagne consumption carefully so I don't end up in a mess, especially given that tomorrow morning's flight leaves at 06:30 (hopefully jet lag will help).

tonrob

Ok, so I ended up in a mess. At least I tried.

Sat in the Flounge at T5 now. Emirates was good again from Dubai to Munich. The crew weren't quite as warm as the last flight, but the food was great and another shower in the sky was had. G1ant - the shower door opening is the exact distance from my elbow to the tip of my index finger. Just need to find a tape measure now to see how long that is.

Got a nice upgrade to a suite at the Hilton Munich Airport, but by this time I had sufficiently lost my presence of mind to the extent that I believed that a visit to the nearby on-airport beer garden ("Airbrau") was a good idea. You can pretty much guess how that ended up.

Amazingly I woke with my alarm at 4.45am and had chance to grab some scrambled eggs in the Senator lounge prior to boarding my Singapore Airlines flight to Manchester. An aircraft swap saw me in old-style First Class rather than suites, but as I've got an upcoming A380 booking from SIN-JFK I wasn't too bothered. I'd prebooked the vegetarian Indian breakfast, which included cauliflower full of chillies, and apparently I was the only one drinking as I polished off most of a bottle of DP 2004.

My stay in Manchester was short - just a quick visit to the lounge for a cup of tea and a chocolate croissant before boarding my flight to Heathrow.

My next flight will be to Düsseldorf to go and see my girls, then heading off to Copenhagan with the bigger one for birthday beers and such.

g1ant

Don't be hard on yourself. I woke up one time in the Kempinski, Munich airport with a Spaten umbrella/sunshade in the corner of the room. I still have no idea how it got there.

tonrob

Just begun the final leg of my trip, sat in the (poor) Cathay J/F lounge at FRA.

Cathay First to Hong Kong then Business to Ho Chi Minh City, for the princely sum of 67.5K AA miles plus about $100 in co-pay. Then 2 nights at the Intercontinental Saigon (courtesy of IHG's "Into the Nights" promo last year) before Singapore Business to SIN then First (Suites class) to JFK funded by AMEX Membership Rewards.

I'll be back home for about 36 hours before heading back to JFK for a business trip to London...

N1cky

Urgh!!! I find this whole thread both inspiring and daunting.

I'm trying to sort out our vacation for next summer. We're wanting to fly from SFO to Paris, stay 5 nights, fly to Barcelona stay 5 nights, fly to Manchester for a few days, before flying back to SFO.

We're not flexible with dates (a day or 2 either side), we need to fly out around July 13, and back around July 30.

We've got 300,000 BA Avios points, around 200,000 Chase points.

To complicate things more, if I book flights direct I can deduct $1,950 from the total cost.

Also if I book certain hotels direct I can get a fantastic discount, so it's not really worth me using points for hotels.

Can anyone give me some pointers?

I can't use Avios points for my flights from/to SFO as there's no availability in July.

I can use 120,000 Chase points for SFO-Barcelona, then Man-SFO. Those flights would cost me $5,173 if booked direct with the airline, I'd pay $2,143 cash, so 120,000 points seems expensive.

Tonrob, you must have the patience of a saint to figure out all your trips.

Bob

I would have hated to be the chap going over the phone book sized portion of your N-400 citizenship application of trips abroad

N1cky

OMG yes, I bet he just stamped an approval and didn't bother.