I Saved Over $8,800 Dollars!
- Kira
- Sep 15, 2016
- 6 min read
Okay, so that title might be a little disingenuous, because I never would have spent $8,860, but we booked our flights to India using points. Did you start collecting travel points after reading our previous posts? If so - great! If not, maybe our latest booking will answer more questions and get you to pull the trigger.
For those of you that don't want to read the wall of text, the short version of the next several paragraphs is this: we collected 310,000 airline miles using credit card sign up bonuses and used those miles to book two round trip business class tickets to India. We paid a total of $188 for the tickets which have a cash value of $9,048.
In my experience, it is never easy to book award travel that really makes the most of your miles. And this was no exception. So here is how it all went down.
We had already acquired a significant number of Membership Rewards Points last year when American Express offered a 100,000 point bonus with their platinum card. Only Mike was able to get this targeted offer. However, we were both able to get a 50,000 bonus with an American Express Gold card - also last year. So we had over 200,000 Membership Rewards points between us. Since we added each other as authorized users on these cards, I can transfer points to Mike's airline accounts and visa versa. We used some of our Membership Rewards to book an Airbnb in Bali and hotel in Hong Kong, so we had a lot of points, but only enough for one ticket.
Since we had so many Membership Rewards and they give you quite a bit of flexibility we decided our next step would be to start researching the "best" airlines to take to India, and then figure out how to get points on that airline for one ticket and use our Membership Rewards for the second ticket. We found, from Million Mile Secrets, that Star Alliance had the most options.
We did not have a very large cache of United points, but they are pretty easy to acquire so we began that process. We applied for a United Explorer card (50,000 bonus + 5,000 when an authorized user makes a purchase) and a United Business Explorer card (50,000 bonus). We needed 160,000 points which meant after these bonuses we were still a bit short. We transferred 14,000 points from an old Chase Sapphire account. [Chase Sapphire generates Ultimate Rewards and they transfer 1:1 to United. I recommend the Chase Sapphire as a great starter card for people wanting to collect miles because Ultimate Rewards are so versatile.] We used Rocket Miles when we booked a few hotel stays. We also took a United flight this summer that we paid cash for which gave us some miles as well. We used the United shopping portal, and made sure we were signed up for the dining program. In very short order we had enough miles for one round trip business class ticket on United.
Long story short in acquiring miles: it took 4 credit card bonuses, some smart spending and sign ups, and about 6 months of not really trying to get the number of miles needed. It could have been done much faster, but since we were not on a tight time frame we decided to take it slow and be conservative. It is counter productive to overspend or unnecessarily spend on your credit cards to get miles. The miles then cost you money. Also, I did some poor math and about two months ago found out we were 13,000 miles short on Membership Rewards. We signed up for the SPG card at this time and did a quick spend to get those miles (SPG gives you 25,000 reward points and they transfer very well, so they are good fill-in points).
Okay - so here we are, we have enough United miles and enough Membership Rewards....Now the problem. Membership Rewards do not transfer to United. So, we had to find a Star Alliance partner that they do transfer to, and then find flights on both providers that match up.
Membership Rewards transfer to three Star Alliance partners: ANA, Air Canada, and Singapore Air. However, not all partners eligible for booking. For example if I transfer my Membership Rewards to Air Canada, I would not be able to book a Swiss Air flight, because Air Canada does not open award seats for Swiss Air, even though they are both in the Star Alliance.
ANA is a highly reputable airline, however I quickly learned that even though they only charge 130,000 miles for a r/t Business class ticket, their fuel surcharges are very high. I found a few matching flights, but the fuel surcharges were running over $800.00. I felt like that kind of defeated the purpose - although $800.00 round trip in business class to India isn't too bad. I decided to move ANA to a "worst case" option.
Singapore Air resulted in the same issues as ANA with fuel surcharges, and I also really struggled with finding matching/available flights. Not to mention they require 180,000 miles for a r/t business class ticket. I crossed them off the list as a option.
With my choices dwindling I began a daily search on Air Canada. I found many matching flights. However, often the Air Canada flight would be an economy ticket and the United flight would be business. Or the flights wouldn't quite match up. Or Air Canada would put me on an ANA flight and I would be looking at those high fees again.
Mike and I started discussing flying separately. Membership Rewards transfer to lots of other airlines. What if we just fly separate and try to arrive as close to the same time as possible? We both agreed this was not ideal, but could be workable if nothing else came to pass. So I continued searching...
Now, before I move on, I am going to tell you how my search process works:
1. I looked at our trip plan and figured out the earliest date we would want to leave, the latest date we could leave and still make it on time, the earliest date we could come home without cutting anything short, and the latest date we would want to stay in India. Having this flexibility helps. If your dates are rigid it is much more difficult to find flights.
2. I logged onto both my United account and Aeroplan (that's Air Canada's reward program) account.
3. I entered a search for my trip with flexible dates.
This generated a calendar that shows availability and I can then compare between the two programs within the parameter of the dates I set forth for myself in step 1.
4. On United, there are often flights available even if the calendar says otherwise, so I would first find a flight on Aeroplan and then see if I could match it on United. For example, the calendar above says that no flights are available on the 25th, but when I choose the 25th there are several options. I am not sure why it does this, but it does. Conversely, Aeroplan will not even let you click on a day that has no award flight options.
5. Also on United, it doesn't sort by Business Saver seats so I always clicked that to make sure they were on the top. Sometimes at first glance it looks like nothing is available but you re-sort the list options will appear.
6. Aeroplan will not show you the total fees until you are able ready to book, so I work through each scenario to see the total fees as well as the matching flights. Also, remember if you are searching Aeroplan the fees are in CAD not USD - which makes them a bit less expensive, as long as you purchase with a card that will not charge you foreign transaction fees.
7. Once you find the flights that work. Book!
Okay, are you confused yet? I hope not!
In the end, we found matching flights on United and Aeroplan that will take us from Tucson to Delhi and back in business class. We transferred our Membership Reward points to Aeroplan which happens instantly, then transferred the SPG points to Aeroplan which take 3 - 5 days. When the miles finally posted we went to book, and the flight was no longer showing up on United's system. I messed around a bit and found that when I entered the search for two passengers the award ticket we wanted was there, but for one passenger it would disappear. This made no sense, so we knew it was a system glitch. (Are you noticing all the glitches we have found on United's system?) Mike called up United told them what was going on and was able to book over the phone while I simultaneously booked the Aeroplan flight online.
One flight was booked with 150,000 Aeroplan miles and one flight was booked with 160,000 United miles. The taxes and fees on the Aeroplan flight were $117 CAD ($88 USD), and the taxes and fees on the United flight were $74 USD + $25 fee for booking on the phone. Because we are flying in a premium cabin we will have free checked bags, and lounge access during our layovers, this will further decrease the out of pocket costs associated with our flights for the this trip.
India here we come! Stay tuned to our blog for some amazing new updates we will be talking about in the near future!! And, please do not forget to donate to our amazing charities!
As always, feel free to email me if you have any questions and I will be happy to help out. I love doing this and want to spread the tools available.
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