Stopovers
The future of the miles game is not in earning but in maximizing. The days of 100k card bonuses are mostly over. So don't go blowing your miles like you used to. Here are a few ideas to better your next trip.
6) The Middle East/India for 65,000 United miles
When you use stopovers to see Both the Middle East/India and Southeast Asia it prices the ticket as 65k instead of 80k. This simple trick could be saving people 15k on one roundtrip.
To understand why see my post The Secrets of Award Engine Pricing.
5) 50k for Hawaii...
Read moreOne thing you may know already, is that I love stopovers. I think it's the future of the game and many of the lesser known airline programs have really generous stopover rules. I'll share more about that soon but Lufthansa is a case and point. They allow two stopovers and two open-jaws.
This is way more generous than most of our domestic airlines and yet they have some sweet spots in their award chart. North America to Europe roundtrip for 50,000 miles is particularly a good deal. Two stopovers for 50,000 miles is a steal. An...
Read moreMost airline programs that allow stopovers have a pretty simple way of figuring out the price, they make some zones/regions more powerful than others. Okay but what does that mean?
Before I explain, let's just say this entire post assumes two things: 1) we're talking international flights and 2) we're starting from the USA (the lower 48 states), even though it applies differently in different places. Okay, so what that means is that if you're flying to Europe the computer prices 60,000 miles round trip and if you're going to Africa it prices 80,000 miles. But what if you create...
Read more25 hours in Aruba and a hotel with a boat shuttle to a private island; a night in Panama discovering "Old City"; and 5 days in Puerto Rico, which includes everything from beaches, the "Old City" and the Rainforest. This was the most fast-paced week-long trip we've ever done, but we did it right. Perhaps this was our attempt to travel with a limited amount of time and still use the generous routing rules to see more on the trip.
- Where and how we booked it
- Renaissance Aruba
- Radisson Decapolis Panama
- Exploring Old City Panama
- InterContinental San Juan
- Exploring...