Thanks JC_jun for starting this.

I'm not a frequent flyer (anymore), now down to maybe 2-3 medium/long haul flights a year but still enjoy the occasional J and F flights on revenue or miles. My target in general have been long haul J for the whole family, which unfortunately limits me to CX and QR mostly, but can't compain.

I am fortunate enough to have US based credit cards which is where I've earned most of my miles. I am happy to answer questions on AAdvantage and UA Mileageplus programs, and also about US based UR/MR points although there are lot more experienced people on flyertalk

You get access to the domestic lounges via the following:

1. membership, typically $450 per year
2. pay a day use fee around $50 per day
3. elite status of you fly enough
4. some credit cards grant access, typically those with very high annual fees of $300-450 per year

Flying first class cross country in domestic which might cost you $2-3k will not get you access to the lounge if you don't have any of the above. There are a lot of elites around, so many lounges will be crowded during certain times of the day. I typically go to the domestic lounges to take a shower and grab a drink only.


Yes that is still the case until March 2016 when it goes up in line with the rest of OW. Imagine flying Etihad Residence from SYD to AUH which is 14+ hours for only 60k miles. I've had my fun booking QR, JL, EY and CX J and F, although F on CX only so far. Even had the whole family in CX J last year too. Still, all good things come to an end.

First, strategies change with time as airlines adapt, so as usual YMMV.

You have to choose the correct airline. For OW I primarily look at CX and to a lesser extent QR or JL. If the schedule fits, MH works too. For *A I used to check primarily TK but it's far harder to get premium seats now.

Next decide on where you want to go. There are 5 daily HKG-NYC CX flights for example, but far fewer flights to EU cities.

Airlines release different numbers of premium seats. CX will release up to 5 J and 2 F up to a year out, JL and QR will release 4 J and 2 F a year out too, but I've booked 5 seats on JL J before. Read up flyertalk and you'll get some details on the other airlines.

Closer to departure date, between 3 weeks to the day of departure, some airlines eg. LH or CX will release most of their unsold seats so you can easily get all 6 seats in J. I've even seen 5 CX F seats open once upon a time. For example, Dec 24th shows CX J wide open on HKG-JFK/EWR and JFK/EWR-HKG is wide open in CX J on Dec 25th.

There are other things that you learn from experience, eg. JL J SAN-NRT used to be wide open, KUL-DOH is really hard to get but SIN-DOH and BKK-DOH are typically much easier. You can technically get BKK-AUH-CDG on the QR A380 with 2 in F and 4 in J.

FWIW I'm planning for another trip to the US east coast probably towards the end of 2016, I'm targeting potentially QR J KUL-AUH-BCN then BCN-NYC-xxx on AA Y returning on CX or JL J NYC-HKG/NRT-KUL.

There are options, but none are easy or quick. To just earn miles through credit card spend, I can easily give you a card as an "employee" but the earning rates on the Maybank Premiere cards are significantly better.

To earn miles via sign up bonuses means you need to have a credit history. You need to have a US Social Security number or Tax ID number to have a credit history, so even though you can get a Tax ID number through various ways, it'll take a year or so of spending and paying your card to build up credit history. A typical sign up bonus is 50k miles after $3k spend in 3 months. Exceptional ones go up to 100k or more. So again you'll have to decide if it makes sense or not.

I should ask you where you're doing this, but offline of course I haven't had the need to do it recently, have done it before but the avenues have closed for me recently.


This post has been edited by tishaban: Dec 22 2015, 10:49 PM

Only if the bank allows it. For example Citibank Malaysia allows transfers to Avios but not AAdvantage/Skymiles. This is very country dependent.

As far as I know today, no bank in Malaysia allows transfers to AAdvantage or Skymiles. There websites that can exchange it but it's usually poor value.

In all honesty I hardly ever keep my miles, earn and burn. They depreciate so if at all possible don't keep them.

Skymiles is also among the least valuable miles around. With Citi and Amex I'd rather dump them to BA Avios.

As far as I remember, Amex Membership Rewards points don't expire. Citibank however does. Maybank TP does as well.

Having said that, I would never transfer my credit card points to any airline, particularly if you don't have a plan to use them anytime soon. It's a gamble IMO. You do it only when the miles are close to expiry at the end of your 3 years.

If you don't spend enough to get a lot of air miles, you could redeem for short haul flights. Some of them eg. KUL-BKI makes a lot of sense since the flights themselves can be expensive.

Hypothetical question, would you spend 120k miles on an Etihad Residence redemption? Compared to about half for a regular CX or JL first class?

Sorry Etihad Apartments, not Residence.

Still wondering if it's worth spending all those miles, almost double a typical first class trip when I don't have a lot to burn

Haha, maybe I should go all out and do KUL-SYD-AUH-JFK. 28 hours in Etihad Apartments but that's getting a bit ridiculous

Have to calculate my available miles again...

I am using AAdvantage miles. Need to burn them quickly so thinking of good ways to do so.

BKK-DOH is frequently available in F. QR F from BKK is on the 380 too. SIN-DOH is also frequently available, more so than KUL-DOH. You shouldn't have any problems getting DOH-AUH. KUL to mid east on AAdvantage is a very reasonable 30k in J or 40k in F.

Wakaka share the joy my friend

Go for all of it if you have the miles (or cash)! EY F has certainly set the standard, plus it's reasonably attainable with miles. Personally I would love to fly in F more frequently and add to my pajamas collection but I'm flying almost always with family so that limits my options a bit.

Time to earn more miles!

Thanks, I forgot about this one since I usually keep my SPG for hotel redemptions.

Don't forget the SPG promos too. End of 2015 had their keyless promo + end of year promo and you could easily net ~4k SPG points (before bonuses) with a single RM320 stay at the Aloft KL Sentral.

Enjoy your EY F trip, I can't seem to get a time when me and the spouse can be on EY F while the kids ride in J. Either not enough F seats or not enough J seats open haha.

Yes, you can use Krisflyer to book other Star Alliance tickets directly. Search on how to redeem miles on Star Alliance airlines for details. There are award charts to show you costs etc.

I have AUH-KUL booked in EY 332 business class for our return after the CNY week, but just found availability AUH-SIN in EY 789 business suites. Unfortunately it is one day later which means the kids will miss school for 2 whole days which also means the missus probably will veto this...

Argh!

I agree education is important, but I value informal education ie. going out and experiencing the world much more than formal education/schooling.

But flying on the Dreamliner in Etihad first/business is just luxury that the kids are getting too used to haha. Will stick with the original plan on the 332.

This post has been edited by tishaban: Jan 19 2016, 09:36 AM

Very cool that they are giving out Alaska Airlines miles. Redeem on Emirates, Cathay, Qantas, Korean... I wish I had lots of those miles.

There definitely is a market for something like this in the region too.

Some people have asked me previously how to get a US based card. For those who are willing to try it out, here's a possible way doing that. Note that this is neither free nor quick. You need the following:

1. social security number or employer identification number (EIN)
2. credit history
3. a US based address that can forward to your permanent address

Once you've received your SSN or EIN, you need to apply for a basic credit card and spend for 6-12 months to establish a credit record. Ideally open a bank account so that you can pay for your cards too.

Why do you want a US based credit card? Google it up.

Anyone here applied for the Citibank Prestige card, with the current ongoing promotion of USD100 hotels.com and 200k Citi Rewards Points? Very few responses in the Citibank specific thread, so I thought I'd ask here.

https://www.citibank.com.my/prestige/applynow.html

In summary:

- RM1,060 annual fee *not* waivable even for the first year
- 1 Citi Reward Points per RM1. (2 points per overseas RM)
- 200,000 Citi Rewards Points after spending RM12k in 2 months (roughly 30k AM/KF/Enrich with the added advantage of Avios, Qatar, Etihad, HHonors, IHG, etc.)
- USD100 hotels.com voucher
- free 4th night stay if you fulfill certain requirements
- free KLIA limo, free PPL etc.

My objective is purely the miles so overall the 30k free miles is attractive, the free 4th night is lukewarm, the RM1k annual fee is a huge turn off.

This seems to be a watered down version of the US Citi Prestige card

https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/credit-ca...i-prestige-card