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Best Use of Virgin Atlantic Miles [by Partner]

Best Use of Virgin Atlantic Miles [by Partner]

Like Alaska miles, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has a unique set of mileage redemptions that varies by partner, some of which are amazing deals.

In truth, I made a note to look into their partners after OneMileAtAtime booked and posted about a first class flight on ANA for 120,000 miles... Which ended up being only 92,500 Amex MR points (due to a transfer bonus). An amazing first class deal.

But there are lots of great deals that are even better with a 30% bonus. With a 30% bonus, a oneway to New Zealand for 30,000 miles is nearly 23,000 miles. A 25,000 miles business class ticket to Africa would be 19,200. And a 10,000 mile flight to Europe would be 7,700...

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Master List Of Airlines To Bid On Business Class Upgrades

Master List Of Airlines To Bid On Business Class Upgrades

Many airlines offer last minute upgrades as an auction / bidding system, and some offer them on sale at check in, or on the app.

Below I made a list of 37 airlines (in alphabetical order) with their paid upgrade policies, and links to how to either check if you're eligible, bid, or see an explanation of the rules.

Most of these airlines are using the same system for upgrade bidding, but all with slightly different terms.

First, I'll explain a little bit about the differences of the upgrade bids that airlines generally have, and the other variations for paid upgrades.

Then, after the Master List Of Airline Bid Upgrades, I'll share some rules and thoughts.

Read more
Cheapest Miles To Hawaii

Cheapest Miles To Hawaii

Continuing my reborn "cheapest miles" series is the cheapest miles to Hawaii post where I'll list all the best airline miles deals to Hawaii, and break down some of the best options.

There are tons of great Hawaii deals! There are 11,500 mile flights to Hawaii from the majority of the country, 27,500 business class awards (if you're willing to get a BOA card), and technically 22,500 mile business class flights on Korean.

Read more
Why To Consider Chasing Copa Airline’s Status

Why To Consider Chasing Copa Airline’s Status

Copa Airlines has a tight relationship with United (partnership? part ownership?) and has cloned a lot of United's program, like its award chart.

I realized that Copa upgrades work on United airlines, which made me look into the rewards program further.

With 6 global upgrades and 6 regional upgrades that work on United (as well as complimentary upgrades on Copa), the Copa PreferProgram becomes an interesting choice for status-chasers in the US.

The other benefit of Copa's status over United, is that it doesn't require $15,000 in spend to get the global upgrades. And, it requires less miles to get status, and it currently isn't revenue based earning, even on United flights!

Recap of what we'll discuss: Copa's status requires less miles, earn more miles,...

Read more
All-Inclusive Hotels Using Points

All-Inclusive Hotels Using Points

Redone: June 3, 2019

As someone obsessed with free things and food, you'd think I'd love all-inclusives that are bookable with points...

I've become disgruntled by the hit-miss experience (mostly miss). In fact it's my love of food that has me avoiding cheap all-inclusives at all cost. I can't last two meals at most all-inclusives.

Read more
Most Valuable Hyatt Hotel Redemptions [A Data-Driven Look]

Most Valuable Hyatt Hotel Redemptions [A Data-Driven Look]

I put together a list of the cash rate for each Hyatt hotel (and partners) to find the Hyatt hotels' best points to cash value, the most expensive Hyatt hotels, best category 4 Hyatts (for the free night) and the average points rate.

This ended up being especially valuable to me since I was unfamiliar with many of the SLH hotels Hyatt added for booking, as now I can see the rates and values for every hotel.

 

The process was to find the lowest best flexible rate for each hotel. Then to get the value I just took the cash rate and divided it by the points rate to get the cents per point value.

Read more
How To Find Cheap Repositioning Cruises

How To Find Cheap Repositioning Cruises

A while ago I saw a sale for a $149 (pp) cruise from the Mediterranean to the US, and it piqued my interest in finding repositioning cruise deals.

Essentially, a repositioning cruise is often a discounted cruise that is a oneway instead of a roundtrip because the cruise line is transitioning the ship to a different region, to take advantage of a different peak season. The deal I saw was a ship that was moving to the Caribbean for winter.

While the deal from Europe didn't work out for us, I got to thinking that it might be a fun way to get home from Europe, and somehow even cheaper than the average flight (despite including stops in the Mediterranean and days of food).

In...

Read more
Best Use of Virgin Atlantic Miles [by Partner]

Like Alaska miles, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has a unique set of mileage redemptions that varies by partner, some of which are amazing deals.

In truth, I made a note to look into their partners after OneMileAtAtime booked and posted about a first class flight on ANA for 120,000 miles... Which ended up being only 92,500 Amex MR points (due to a transfer bonus). An amazing first class deal.

But there are lots of great deals that are even better with a 30% bonus. With a 30% bonus, a oneway to New Zealand for 30,000 miles is nearly 23,000 miles. A 25,000 miles business class ticket to Africa would be 19,200. And a 10,000 mile flight to Europe would be 7,700...

Read more
Master List Of Airlines To Bid On Business Class Upgrades

Many airlines offer last minute upgrades as an auction / bidding system, and some offer them on sale at check in, or on the app.

Below I made a list of 37 airlines (in alphabetical order) with their paid upgrade policies, and links to how to either check if you're eligible, bid, or see an explanation of the rules.

Most of these airlines are using the same system for upgrade bidding, but all with slightly different terms.

First, I'll explain a little bit about the differences of the upgrade bids that airlines generally have, and the other variations for paid upgrades.

Then, after the Master List Of Airline Bid Upgrades, I'll share some rules and thoughts.

Read more
Cheapest Miles To Hawaii

Continuing my reborn "cheapest miles" series is the cheapest miles to Hawaii post where I'll list all the best airline miles deals to Hawaii, and break down some of the best options.

There are tons of great Hawaii deals! There are 11,500 mile flights to Hawaii from the majority of the country, 27,500 business class awards (if you're willing to get a BOA card), and technically 22,500 mile business class flights on Korean.

Read more
Why To Consider Chasing Copa Airline’s Status

Copa Airlines has a tight relationship with United (partnership? part ownership?) and has cloned a lot of United's program, like its award chart.

I realized that Copa upgrades work on United airlines, which made me look into the rewards program further.

With 6 global upgrades and 6 regional upgrades that work on United (as well as complimentary upgrades on Copa), the Copa PreferProgram becomes an interesting choice for status-chasers in the US.

The other benefit of Copa's status over United, is that it doesn't require $15,000 in spend to get the global upgrades. And, it requires less miles to get status, and it currently isn't revenue based earning, even on United flights!

Recap of what we'll discuss: Copa's status requires less miles, earn more miles,...

Read more
All-Inclusive Hotels Using Points

Redone: June 3, 2019

As someone obsessed with free things and food, you'd think I'd love all-inclusives that are bookable with points...

I've become disgruntled by the hit-miss experience (mostly miss). In fact it's my love of food that has me avoiding cheap all-inclusives at all cost. I can't last two meals at most all-inclusives.

Read more
Most Valuable Hyatt Hotel Redemptions [A Data-Driven Look]

I put together a list of the cash rate for each Hyatt hotel (and partners) to find the Hyatt hotels' best points to cash value, the most expensive Hyatt hotels, best category 4 Hyatts (for the free night) and the average points rate.

This ended up being especially valuable to me since I was unfamiliar with many of the SLH hotels Hyatt added for booking, as now I can see the rates and values for every hotel.

 

The process was to find the lowest best flexible rate for each hotel. Then to get the value I just took the cash rate and divided it by the points rate to get the cents per point value.

Read more
How To Find Cheap Repositioning Cruises

A while ago I saw a sale for a $149 (pp) cruise from the Mediterranean to the US, and it piqued my interest in finding repositioning cruise deals.

Essentially, a repositioning cruise is often a discounted cruise that is a oneway instead of a roundtrip because the cruise line is transitioning the ship to a different region, to take advantage of a different peak season. The deal I saw was a ship that was moving to the Caribbean for winter.

While the deal from Europe didn't work out for us, I got to thinking that it might be a fun way to get home from Europe, and somehow even cheaper than the average flight (despite including stops in the Mediterranean and days of food).

In...

Read more
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