280000 Gateway Rewards Points - How best to get to NY

[frankie4fingers]

Hi all

Next December is my wife's 40th birthday and in Aug our 10th wedding anniversary. I am trying to see if someone can help me plot out what would be the best way to try and get to New York using my gateway rewards points. The ideal would be to fly business class, both ways would be awesome but I think that will be unachievable so one way would also work.

I know that the Amex points can be transferred into various frequent flyer programs but the various options for then booking flights either direct or through code shares gets me lost. One other thing that makes this possibly more complex, or maybe easier, is that I have a Citibank Signature card that also has 115000 rewards points. The Citibank site shows partner FF programs that I can transfer points into are Velocity, Krisflyer or Skywards. I think the Citibank points would be worth somewhere around 40,000 FF points dependant on where they transfer into.

I was looking at travel around 11/12/13 Sept with a flexible return around 10-14 days later. I could be a little flexible and travel slightly later as well (talking a few days in reality).

I am thinking now, or almost now, is the best time to look at transferring points as the airlines would likely just be releasing seats for 11 months time.

Is there anyone who can offer any advice on this. Would welcome any help.

Thanks
Ian

 

[mokuni]

Hi all

Next December is my wife's 40th birthday and in Aug our 10th wedding anniversary. I am trying to see if someone can help me plot out what would be the best way to try and get to New York using my gateway rewards points. The ideal would be to fly business class, both ways would be awesome but I think that will be unachievable so one way would also work.

I know that the Amex points can be transferred into various frequent flyer programs but the various options for then booking flights either direct or through code shares gets me lost. One other thing that makes this possibly more complex, or maybe easier, is that I have a Citibank Signature card that also has 115000 rewards points. The Citibank site shows partner FF programs that I can transfer points into are Velocity, Krisflyer or Skywards. I think the Citibank points would be worth somewhere around 40,000 FF points dependant on where they transfer into.

I was looking at travel around 11/12/13 Sept with a flexible return around 10-14 days later. I could be a little flexible and travel slightly later as well (talking a few days in reality).

I am thinking now, or almost now, is the best time to look at transferring points as the airlines would likely just be releasing seats for 11 months time.

Is there anyone who can offer any advice on this. Would welcome any help.

Thanks
Ian

Would help if you told us where you are based in.

 

[frankie4fingers]

Would help if you told us where you are based in.

Doh. Can't believe I forgot the key piece of info.

Schoolboy error on my behalf.

I'm in Melbourne.

 

[rock86]

Transferring them to Krisfley you'll certainly have enough for both of you one way in J, MEL-SIN then the new direct SIN-EWR.

 

[hossein_au]

If you end up having to book one way in J and one way in Y, I recommend booking in Y on the way over and J on the way back. Flying in Y is doubly-painful if you have just flown in J...

 

[frankie4fingers]

If you end up having to book one way in J and one way in Y, I recommend booking in Y on the way over and J on the way back. Flying in Y is doubly-painful if you have just flown in J...

That's a fair point. Flying J on the way over would hopefully allow for reduced jetlag so we enjoy NY more.

If jetlag was there on the way bank then having that at work would be better I think.

 

[frankie4fingers]

Transferring them to Krisfley you'll certainly have enough for both of you one way in J, MEL-SIN then the new direct SIN-EWR.

Thanks.

I see some mentioning flying via Asia so not sure if transferring to Asia miles makes sense.

 

[hossein_au]

If you end up having to book one way in J and one way in Y, I recommend booking in Y on the way over and J on the way back. Flying in Y is doubly-painful if you have just flown in J...

Regardless of the class of travel, you get jetlag if you don't plan your activities during the flight. The absolute worst jet lag I have ever had was flying QF in First from London back to Melbourne. I slept well from DXB to MEL, but arrived in Melbourne late at night. I ended up not being able to go to sleep that night in Melbourne and I had a terrible couple of days trying to adjust.

I also must note I usually do not get jet lag at all; I try to half-adjust my sleeping pattern the night before my long-haul flights and then fine-tune it during the flight. I am usually fine by the time I get to my destination regardless of the class of travel.

 

[frankie4fingers]

Regardless of the class of travel, you get jetlag if you don't plan your activities during the flight. The absolute worst jet lag I have ever had was flying QF in First from London back to Melbourne. I slept well from DXB to MEL, but arrived in Melbourne late at night. I ended up not being able to go to sleep that night in Melbourne and I had a terrible couple of days trying to adjust.

I also must note I usually do not get jet lag at all; I try to half-adjust my sleeping pattern the night before my long-haul flights and then fine-tune it during the flight. I am usually fine by the time I get to my destination regardless of the class of travel.

That's an interesting idea, never done that.

What do you generally do to fine tune during the flight?

 

[hossein_au]

What do you generally do to fine tune during the flight?

I just eat, drink and sleep based on the destination time. If the time difference is less than 5-6 hours, I adjust to the destination time straight away. If the time difference is more than 5-6 hours, for example for trips to Europe, I adjust in 2-3 steps (move my eat/drink/sleep by about 4 hours as I board the plane, and then another 4-5 hours when I get to Asia).

 

[frankie4fingers]

I just eat, drink and sleep based on the destination time. If the time difference is less than 5-6 hours, I adjust to the destination time straight away. If the time difference is more than 5-6 hours, for example for trips to Europe, I adjust in 2-3 steps (move my eat/drink/sleep by about 4 hours as I board the plane, and then another 4-5 hours when I get to Asia).

Thanks for the advice, will give it a go next time I go long haul.

 

[Mr_Orange]

Thanks.

I see some mentioning flying via Asia so not sure if transferring to Asia miles makes sense.

Asia Miles are specific to Cathay Pacific (CX) so you would transit via HKG which is good because you can avoid changing planes on the west coast of the US.

If you transfer to Krisflyer (Singapore Airlines - SQ) you would obviously transit via Singapore as per the post above.

 

[Mr_Orange]

The Citibank site shows partner FF programs that I can transfer points into are Velocity, Krisflyer or Skywards. I think the Citibank points would be worth somewhere around 40,000 FF points dependant on where they transfer into.

Follow up. The Amex Gateway points can be transferred to the following:

• Virgin Australia Velocity (VA)
  
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer (SQ)
  
• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles (CX)
  
• Emirates Skywards (EK)
  
• Etihad Guest (EY)
  
• THAI Royal Orchid Plus (TG)
  
• Malaysia Airlines Enrich (MH)
  
• Air New Zealand Airpoints (NZ)

The overlap with your Citibank partners is therefore VA, SQ and EK which may influence your choice if you want to use both lots of points.

 

[goldenhorn]

If you end up having to book one way in J and one way in Y, I recommend booking in Y on the way over and J on the way back. Flying in Y is doubly-painful if you have just flown in J...

Totally agree - you'll come home with depression!

 

[goldenhorn]

Consider paying for the service the guys at FF Solutions offer.

Amazing service and totally worth the reasonable fee for the headaches it removes.

I've booked awards tickets SYD-FCO in Qatar J class for next Sep, but I'm using them to find my one-way trip home from Europe next October because of the complexity of points I have left over in different programs, and I just don't have time to work out all the possible options.

Award Flight Assist - Frequent Flyer Solutions

 

[frankie4fingers]

Thanks to all for your responses. So far I have booked with SQ in J to go over. Can't get the new route to Newark so have provisionally got seats to JFK via FRA. I don't need to ticket until June next year so will keep an eye on whether seats on the Newark route become available.

I may look to pay for someone to see about a suitable route to come home via. Not fussed where we go by but wherever it is we may look at a two day stopover on the way home to break it up.

Any further pointers them please keep them coming, all great advice so far.

 

[rock86]

Thanks to all for your responses. So far I have booked with SQ in J to go over. Can't get the new route to Newark so have provisionally got seats to JFK via FRA. I don't need to ticket until June next year so will keep an eye on whether seats on the Newark route become available.

I may look to pay for someone to see about a suitable route to come home via. Not fussed where we go by but wherever it is we may look at a two day stopover on the way home to break it up.

Any further pointers them please keep them coming, all great advice so far.

How many points have you got left to play with?

 

[frankie4fingers]

How many points have you got left to play with?

I have a total of 253,846 with Krisflyer and I believe that 236,000 of them are used for the wife and I to fly one way in J.

The miles aren't committed to spend yet as I haven't ticketed the reservation so I could change tact if needed and potentially look at a Star Alliance partner if one was deemed better value.

 

[hossein_au]

I have a total of 253,846 with Krisflyer and I believe that 236,000 of them are used for the wife and I to fly one way in J.

The miles aren't committed to spend yet as I haven't ticketed the reservation so I could change tact if needed and potentially look at a Star Alliance partner if one was deemed better value.

So, when you wrote earlier that you have "booked" the one-way tickets to JFK, you haven't actually booked the tickets yet? You probably have some seats "on hold" at best I guess. If I were you I would ticket them soon as any hold might be lifted without any advance notice.

 

[frankie4fingers]

So, when you wrote earlier that you have "booked" the one-way tickets to JFK, you haven't actually booked the tickets yet? You probably have some seats "on hold" at best I guess. If I were you I would ticket them soon as any hold might be lifted without any advance notice.

They are marked as reserved and the SQ agent said we had until June to ticket them. Would they be revoked despite what the agent told us? The other issue is a cough up when they were originally booked by the first agent. He chose flights that didn't have sufficient cross over between arrival in SIN and departure to JFK. So they decided to book a second flight from Melbourne that left earlier.

That's all good but they can't merge the two bookings now. So I have a second booking that has a waitlist for the JFK flight. They are concerned that if they release the first confirmed reservation to JFK then I may lose my seats completely.

Their advice was to just hold both bookings and if the waitlist on the second comes free to just cancel the first.

If it doesn't though then where to go.

I am tempted to ticket the first complete booking despite the shortened crossover time. They booked it for me via their call centre so it's not my cough up to need to worry about.