GeoffM

Hmm, LAN Chile? Their international product certainly used to have a good reputation even in economy. Very nice wine even on a domestic leg I took 10 years ago () from LIM to SCL. Unlike Delta last week which only served Chardonnay from Tetrapaks.

tonrob

I'm under a little time pressure, at least insofar as I have to keep my travel within a certain window - including holidays from work and also the amount of time I still want to be able to spend with the family in Germany. Anyway, I've booked some more:

Malaysia Airlines A380 First Class Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur with onward connection to Siem Riep in business. MH is OneWorld, so bookable with BA and AA miles (I used the former even though more expensive as I'm strategically holding onto my AA miles for now). Also an airline I've never flown and a new first class product to try.

Also booked Malaysian business class from Phnom Penh via KL to Singapore to get to my Singapore Suites flight yo JFK. This time BA miles really come into their own when using on short hops with OneWorld partners - great value.

This leaves me with the decision on how to split up my time between Siem Riep (for visiting Angkor temples) and the Cambidoan capital. Cambodia Angkor Air flies multiple times daily between the two for not much money.

I also needed to get from Germany to Heathrow to make the KL flight. BA ex-Frankfurt or Dusseldorf would have been sufficiently early to make me overnight at an airport hotel beforehand, which I really didn't want to do, so I've made a cash booking on Germanwings from Cologne as the flight's at a much more convenient time.

The only other piece of the puzzle (hotels aside) is the booking from the US to Frankfurt. I'm holding back at the moment as while I'm very flexible on departure airport (anywhere in the North East, really) my choices as they stand are business class on the day I want or first class a day earlier or later. I have plenty of miles so would obviously prefer first (especially on a daytime flight), but we'll see.

I'll make a summary soon of total cost of what I've booked (miles/money) for illustration purposes.

HarryTheSpider

Is it possible to fly indirect from PHX to LHR in such a way to maximize Exec Club points. I've always flown PHX-LHR direct, and until now hadn't thought to see if a mix of BA, AA and others would get me more status points - I'm half way to silver, and have 2 trips to the UK coming up, and possibly one to Asia - either Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo or Bangkok.

Any suggestions on how to figure this out reasonably quickly, assuming it is even possible?

I don't mind entering Europe via some place other than LHR if needs be...

Cheers

Harold

HarryTheSpider

Is it still wine if it comes from a tetrapak?!

GeoffM

Avios will be doing it price paid soon (and cabin multiplier), rather than miles flown, so I don't think those mileage runs that some people do will be as useful anymore. So theoretically you'd earn more Avios by paying $1500 for PHX-LHR direct than you would by paying $1200 for PHX-BKK-LHR even though the latter is 3x the distance.


It is rather debatable! I'm rarely one to turn down a "free" drink but this stuff was so bad I opted for water/juice instead.

HarryTheSpider

Thanks!

Do you know when this might happen? I have an April trip PHX-LHR and also a mid July, same route.

GeoffM

I think it depends on when you bought your ticket.
We’re making some changes to the Executive Club

lansbury

United - Booking an award ticket and purchased ticket on same reservation. (2 travelers)

Has anyone done this and if so how. Online it only seems possible to book an award ticket, and then do another reservation for the purchased ticket. Which means two unlinked PNRs which in the event of delays might cause problems. Did call and ask if it would be possible to link the PNRs and gave up after about 10 minutes of gibberish. Don't want to actually trust they would get the booking correct.

tonrob

Never tried. Would ask on Flyertalk.

That said, United has a reputation of splitting PNRs when 2 seats are booked together (usually when one passenger is elite and the other not).

tonrob

I assume HTS is thinking of Tier Point-earning rather than Avios (bolding mine). While Tier Point bonuses are diminishing in certain booking classes (see GeoffM's link), the underlying logic of TP earning remains the same I think. As such you could earn more flying PHX-NYC then NYC-LON, but the advantage does depend on booking classes and cabin flown.

HTS - for your particular question I'd recommend asking on the BA section of the Flyertalk forum. No reason you won't find your answer quickly. Most of my questions are answered there in minutes.

DexterBerkeley

They do, you have the option to keep them together if you want, but I think if you do that you don't get on the upgrade list.

In terms of issues with 2 PNRs, I've hit delays in this situation when traveling with colleagues where we have different bookings but on the same flight. When this happens if we need something taken care of United have so far been good at dealing with both bookings together if you go to a desk at the same time.

toopie28

Well, Avios is a blowout for me.

I've been checking every day since October for flights going to London, business class (tried LAX, San Diego, SF) and nothing.

I've even tried buying and then upgrading and they allowed me to upgrade to first for a total of 5K.

So many points, so little to do with em.

rpjs

The word on FlyerTalk is that if you're in the US, the best use of Avios is to book American Airlines domestic flights with them, which you can do through BA's website. You can also redeem Avios for other stuff, such as hotels. I just splurged some on a night at the T5 Sofitel when on an overnight layover at LHR. There's also the trick of using them on Aer Lingus via Dublin (or Shannon) which looks to be a bit of a palaver to pull off as you can't find the reward availability directly on BA.com and then can only book by calling BA. However, reportedly it can get you business class seats from NAm to the UK for just Avios and taxes, i.e. no extra "surcharges" like BA charge if you can find the availability.

toopie28

I may try Aer Lingus - it is a palaver but I need to go onto Glasgow anyway so...

As for Hotels - last year I booked 2 nights with 90k points through avois at a fancy hotel in Amsterdam. The I opened Starwood Amex and got the same hotel for 30k.

g1ant

Manchester to Prague via LHR. 4,500 Avios + $27.
Seems like a great deal to me. I use that a lot as I always fly back to the US from mainland Europe and not the UK to avoid the UK APD.