tonrob

Just used 135,000 to book AA first class to the west coast. Cost us a grand total of $20 in taxes/fees for both of us round-trip!

Reckon I can squeeze another 30,000 miles out of their triple-miles bonus!

HoosierDaddy

Apologies for the thread crapping/tangent:

I'm about to sign up for a Chase Checking Account this weekend with an old voucher I have for Continental Airlines (OnePass).
$100 gets you 25K miles. Enough for a domestic round-trip. Their site is extremely easy to navigate when booking award travel and all the flights out of my local airport (connecting to Chicago) are on United.
European travel is 55K miles plus $200 in tax. Think I'll just redeem for a domestic trip next year.

I'll be flying home in Feb (FWA-ORD-LHR-EDI) on a friends Buddy Pass which will probably cost about $600 with the companion fare/taxes/bmi ticket.
Mind you, well worth it if business is available. 3 flights from ORD-LHR daily it usually is

Just hope I don't get stranded in Heathrow coming home

tonrob

I think there's a Continental credit card offer on now too which offers at least 30,000 miles.

HoosierDaddy

Yeah - this one Waived 1st year fee of $85

tonrob

I reckon if you've got a good enough credit score and are able to plan ahead then you need never pay for flights again.

tonrob

Just managed to use some more of these miles by buying a premium economy flight to Europe (Nice, with a stopover in London) for the end of next month and upgrading it to business class. Well chuffed!

Dan725

Did you have to call to upgrade, or could you do it online? Our flight to the UK in November is booked, but I didn't see an upgrade option. It may be because the date is so far out that they want to hold the business class till nearer the time.

As an aside, we just our freebie companion certificate too.....it just keeps rolling on in!

tonrob

While you can book online I chose to call, as one segment (NCE-LHR) seemed to be causing a problem. The only availability showing was flying into LCY. I'd rather fly ET into LHR than CE into LCY but the website doesn't give this type of option.

I was actually amazed to find availability for miles-for-upgrade so soon to the date of flights, but on viewing the calendar there seems to be availability most days. BOS-LHR is a higher capacity route though which helps.

Are you looking in the right part of the site? You so into the Executive Club bit and then click the 'book and upgrade' tab. If you've already booked then I'm not sure what the process is, although you could check availability by starting a dummy booking.

Dan725

Yep I was in the right spot - just did a trial, results the same as before; it will upgrade an economy to a premium economy, but when I put in premium economy, it says no availability for business class (Tampa to Gatwick).

I may call nearer the time if we decide to use the miles like that - but on the other hand, now the companion cert is here, we've got enough for the three of us to do another whole round trip again, so may just do that for 2011's trip

snowbunny

So the original offer is still here:

http://www.mychasecreditcards.com/20...aspx?CELL=6BZQ

I didn't get one the first go-round - anyone think it's worth it now?

I need me some BA miles.

tonrob

Unfortunately the current offer isn't a patch on last years'. This one is 25K miles now and 25K on first anniversary. Last year's offer was 50K on sign-up and then another 50K after spending $2K.

If you're looking for a card that's worth signing up for then it's the AMEX Starwood card - the points are very flexible and can be converted into various other programs (e.g. American Airlines) with a bonus (20K Starwood = 25K AA). You can get a reasonable Starwood card offer now but you just missed an even better one (30K for spending $1k) but credit card offers keep coming round.

The best quick fix (IMHO) if you want to pull the trigger right now would be Citi's offer of 35,000 American miles on their AA card.

Flyertalk has all the info (and a million more opinions to boot!)

Edit: If you really, really have to have BA miles and opt for their current offer then know that I've also had an additional 60,000 bonus miles out of them so far this year through a string of incentive offers they keep sending me to carry on using the card. Mrs tonrob has the same card but has only received some of the offers I have so YMMV.

tonrob

Starwood 30K offer now back on until 7/31.

Linky.

Just grabbed one for Mrs tonrob, and also blew the 30K I got from my last card on a free 3-night weekend in the Westin Boston Waterfront - we leave in an hour!

tonrob

Hey peeps - just want to make sure you know about the current Citi American Airlines promos for new credit card holders. There's a 75K deal here after $1,500 spend. This, plus another similar offer for 100K but linked to a $10K spend discussed here which may or may not be targeted but many seem to be having success.

Each has personal and business variants so there's possibility for doubling up.

tonrob

Just got back from my trip to Nice (with London stopover) where I used free BA miles to upgrade from premium to business - very nice it was too and well worth 50,000 miles (return, for two). It was my first time in the "Next Generation Club World" lie-flat seats, and the lounges at T5 were great (brilliant veggie tikka massala!)

Next step will be to hit the spend threshold to get the 241 voucher (only another $7K to go!) so that Mrs tonrob and I can fly in first to Europe next year (and we'll still have miles left over from that!). Not bad at all for a $150 outlay (card fees, plus the relevent taxes for the flights of course).

coastieexpat

Just did the same myself, lovely trip.

A heads up for everybody, BA has a sale on right now ex- UK, it ends on Mon or Tues.