Hawaii Sweet Spot

The way to book these tickets, is by using your British Airways Avios miles to book a flight on their One World partner, American Airlines.  British Airways uses a mileage-based award chart to redeem points for flights on British Airways or with their partner airlines.  Based on their award chart, you can book flights that are less than 3,000 miles for only 13,000 Avios each way.

Fortunately for everyone on the West Coast, Hawaii is located just under 3,000 miles from the mainland.  British Airways calculates the cost of the award based on each flight segment, so this deal only works on nonstop flights.  British Airways partners with both American Airlines and Alaska Airlines, so there are plenty of nonstop options from multiple West Coast cities.

American Airlines – You can fly nonstop from either Los Angeles or Phoenix to Honolulu, Maui, Kauai or Kona.

Alaska Airlines – Flying on Alaska Airlines gives you options to fly out of many more cities than American does.  You can fly to the Hawaiian Islands from any of these cities; Anchorage, Bellingham, Los Angeles, Oakland, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle.

How To Find Award Availability

When you start your search to see if award space is available, be aware that availability on Alaska doesn’t show up on the British Airways website.  I always start my search on American’s site because they are partners with Alaska too and have access to their award space.  Just be sure you log in to your frequent flyer account first.  When you do your search, you’ll want to look for dates that have Mile Saver availability.

If you’re planning to fly on Alaska Airlines, you’ll need to call British Airways and book the flight over the phone.  Just have the flights you found available to give to the phone agent to make the call go quicker.  Before transferring points to your Avios account, I would call them and confirm the availability of the Alaska flight with them first.  If you’re flying on American, you can go to BA’s website and confirm the flight is available there.

After you select the nonstop flights you want, you’ll see the total is 26,000 miles plus the $11.20 for the airport taxes.

Booking Flights

Once you have confirmed the flights you want are available, you’ll need to transfer enough points to your Avios account.  Simply log in to your Chase Ultimate Rewards account and find British Airways by selecting “transfer to travel partners”.  Every time I’ve transferred points from my UR account to BA, it has taken less than 5 minutes for the points to show up in my Avios account.

If you’re flying on Alaska, I would politely ask the agent to wait a moment while you transfer the points.  Just be sure you’re already logged into your Chase account and ready to go before you make the call.  Once your points are in your account, book your flights to the Aloha State.

How To Book For Less

This sweet spot works any day of the year, as long as there is availability on the flights you’re looking.  However, sometimes it is possible to book flights to Hawaii with less than 26,000 points.

Transfer Bonuses – Occasionally, credit card companies will offer bonus points if you transfer your points to British Airways.  Recently, Chase UR offered a 30% bonus on points transferred to BA.  In this case, you could book your flights to Hawaii for only 20,000 points!  Keep an eye out for these transfer bonuses if you’re planning a trip to Hawaii.

Travel Portals – Periodically, I’ve also seen some really great sales to Hawaii from the West Coast.  If you have the card_name, card_name or card_name you can redeem your points for travel at a fixed rate.  Based on their redemption rates, if you see a fare for less than $390 and you have the Sapphire Reserve card, it will cost you fewer points by booking through Chase.  The same is true if you find a fare for less than $325 and use one of the other cards.

Do You Need More Points

Are you a few points short for your trip to Hawaii or are you just starting out earning miles?  My favorite way to accumulate points for this redemption is by using my Chase cards that earn Ultimate Rewards.  By using the card_name, card_name and Chase Freedom Flex cards together, you can easily build up your balance over time.  However, if you need points in a hurry, the quickest way to get them is through a welcome bonus.

You can transfer both Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express’ Membership Rewards points to British Airways.  Keep in mind the 5/24 Rule if you’re applying for a new Chase card.  Right now, the cards with the best welcome bonuses are:

• card_name – bonus_miles_full  This is a great bonus for this card. Here’s why I think this is the best rewards card for people to start earning points.
• card_name – bonus_miles_full  Terms apply. You can read my review of the card here.
• card_name – bonus_miles_full.  Here’s why I think this is the best travel rewards card out there.

Final Thoughts

Remember that Hawaii is a popular destination and will require some flexibility when looking for award space.  If there’s no availability, try other dates or check back periodically because awards seats can open up later. We planned our trip when the kids were out of school for Spring Break.  At first there was no availability at all during the week we wanted to go.  I checked back every week and few months before we wanted to go, seats became available on multiple flights.

The post How To Fly To Hawaii For 26,000 Points Or Less appeared first on Easy Travel Points.

The Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles program has been around for a long time.  I have seen it listed as a Citibank transfer partner but didn’t know much about it.  I knew the program had a region-based award chart and you can typically find a sweet spot or two with those types of programs.

I’m a huge fan of British Airways’ Avios distance-based program because there are some excellent redemption options.  The most popular redemption is the sweet spot from the West Coast to Hawaii.  Another great redemption is being able to fly from several cities in the U.S. to Mexico for under 10,000 points each way.

With most loyalty programs converting to a dynamic pricing model, I didn’t think I’d find another overall program that I would like as much.  Boy was I wrong!  Turkish’s Miles & Smiles program has a lot of great redemptions that almost everyone can take advantage of!  I promise, you guys are going to love this program!

Earning Turkish Miles & Smiles Miles

Unless you frequently fly to Istanbul for business, you may be asking yourself, “How do I earn Turkish Airlines miles”?

Credit Cards

Earning points with your credit cards is the quickest way to earn miles.  The Miles & Smiles program is a transfer partner of Citibank’s ThankYou program.  Your ThankYou points will transfer to the Miles & Smiles program at a 1:1 ratio.

You can quickly earn ThankYou points with cards like the Citi Prestige or the card_name.  Plus, if you also have the card_name, you convert your points into ThankYou points on a 1 cent per point basis.  Here are a few highlights of these cards:

card_name – bonus_miles_full  There are several excellent categories that will be earning 3x ThankYou points.  This card has a $95 annual fee.

card_name – This is an excellent card for everyday spending.  bonus_miles_full  I think this is such a great card that I’ve had it in my wallet for several years.

Citi Prestige – New cardmembers will get 50,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 within the first 3 months of opening an account.  You’ll earn 5x points on all restaurant and air travel purchases, as well as 3x on other travel purchases. This card gives you an incredible 4th night free on virtually all hotel bookings made through ThankYou.com.  You also get several statement credits and a free Priority Pass membership.  The card does carry a $495 annual fee.

Other Ways To Earn Miles

Flying – Turkish Airlines is a member of the Star Alliance, so you can earn points by flying on one of their partner airlines.  United would be the most popular airline to earn Turkish miles with for those living in the U.S.  The amount you’ll earn will vary by airline and the type of ticket you have.  Just be sure to enter your Miles & Smiles number when making a reservation.

Marriott Bonvoy – You can transfer your Marriott Bonvoy points to the Turkish Miles & Smiles program at a 3:1 ratio.  Plus, for every 60,000 points you transfer, you’ll get a 5,000 mile bonus.  For example, if you can transfer 60,000 Bonvoy points for 25,000 Turkish miles.

Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles Program Overview

The more I have looked into this program, the harder it was for me to understand why this program isn’t more popular.  Then I read that the Miles & Smiles program has recently upgraded their website.  Apparently, the previous site had a horrible search function and it was next to impossible to find award availability.  Sounds like a recipe for turning your loyalty program into something no one wants to use.

The current website is actually really easy to use.  I was able to find a lot of availability for the sweet spots I was researching.  There were a couple wonky things about it but once you know about them, it’s pretty easy to use.  For example, when setting up a Miles & Smiles account, you are only allowed to use numbers for your password.  The site doesn’t tell you this, so I won’t tell you how many times I received an error message before I finally figured it out.

Before we get into the best uses of your Turkish miles, here are several highlights about the program:

Program Highlights

Traveling With Others – You can purchase up 5 award tickets at once using miles from your account.  You can also purchase an award ticket for someone else even if you’re not traveling with them.  I have read in different forums that booking an award ticket for someone else can range from fairly easy to somewhat tedious.  I haven’t done this yet but when I do, I will update you on the process once I do.

When you call to put your award reservation on hold, they’ll be able to tell you how to do it.  Just be sure to have everything set up before you transfer your miles.  You don’t want the award space to disappear while you’re waiting for your miles to show up.  You can call them at 1-800-874-8875.

Promo Awards – Turkish Airlines periodically will offer promo awards at reduced rates.  Be sure to sign up for their newsletter to be notified of these award sales.

Award Reservation Holds – You can put an award reservation on hold for up to 72 hours.  This is very important because it can take a day or two for the miles to transfer from your Citi ThankYou account to show up in your Miles & Smiles account.

Segments – You are allowed to have up to 4 segments on both the outbound and return flights.  This is huge!  This allows pretty much everyone the ability to take advantage of the sweet spots mentioned below.

Stopovers – When flying on Turkish Airlines, you are allowed one stopover in Istanbul.  It doesn’t matter if this is on the outbound or the return flight.  Stopovers are great because they allow you the chance to see another city for free.

Open-jaw – Open-jaw itineraries are allowed if you’re booking a round-trip award ticket.

One-way Awards – You are allowed to purchase one-way award tickets.

Change/Cancellation Fees – You can change or cancel your award flight for $25.

Surcharges – Turkish Airlines doesn’t pass on any surcharges for flights on United.  However, surcharges are imposed on Turkish and other Star Alliance partner flights.  For some itineraries, they can be pretty hefty so it won’t be worth redeeming your miles for those flights.  For instance, I found a one-way flight to Venice on Lufthansa that had a fuel surcharge of $263.90.

Mileage Expiration – The miles you earn with this program will expire 3 years from the date you earned them.  You can pay a fee to extend the expiration date of your miles.  The fee can get expensive, so I would simply recommend not transferring them until you’re ready to use them.

Booking Miles & Smiles Award Tickets

From what I’ve read, redeeming your Miles & Smiles miles before was quite the Herculean task.  However, now the process is actually quite simple.  Just be aware there is one search tool for Turkish Airlines flights and another to book awards on Star Alliance partners.  Don’t worry, I’ll walk you through it.

Booking A Flight On Turkish Airlines

If you want to book a flight on Turkish Airlines, the process is pretty simple.  Start by logging in to your Miles & Smiles account.  Next, check the “Award ticket” box in the search area, which will then take you to the search function.  Enter in your itinerary and the search tool will display any available award flights.

The results will display both economy and business class availability.  The one thing I didn’t like, was the search tool doesn’t give you a flexible search option.  So if the day you’re looking to fly doesn’t have availability, then you’ll need to search day by day until you find an open seat.  Hopefully they’ll add the ability to search by week or month soon to make it a little easier.

Booking A Star Alliance Flight

If you want to fly on a Star Alliance partner, you can’t use the same search tool that you find on the home page.  It’s a little hidden but once you find it, it’s just as easy to search for flights.  Let me show you how to find it.  First, you’ll need to log into your Miles & Smiles account.  Next, click on your name in the top right corner to display the drop down menu and then select “Miles Transactions”.

This will take you to a summary page of your account’s activity.  On the right side of the page you’ll find the “Star Alliance award ticket” section.  Click on “book now” and it will take you to the search tool for flights on Star Alliance partners.  From here, the search tool is the same as the other one as far as I could tell.

Miles & Smiles Sweet Spots

Buckle your seatbelts, this is where the magic happens.  A lot of airlines are changing their programs to have a dynamic pricing model.  Translation; they can charge you whatever they want, whenever they want.  That’s one reason why I’m loving the Miles & Smiles program.  As long as you can find availability, the rates are fixed no matter when you travel.

To make it even better, because this program is region-based, allows multiple segments and is a partner of United, virtually anyone can take advantage of these redemption sweet spots.

Hawaii

Last year when I took advantage of the amazing sweet spot to Hawaii I thought it was an absolute steal!  Not only does it require fewer miles but it isn’t limited only to flights from the West Coast.  With Turkish miles, you can fly in economy from anywhere in the U.S. to Hawaii for only 7,500 mile each way plus $5.60 in taxes.  And if you’re lucky enough to find availability, you can fly in business class for only 12,500 miles each way!

I found availability from Phoenix (where I live), New York and even South Bend, Indiana to Hawaii.  If you’ve ever wanted to visit Hawaii, this is how you need to do it.  Any other airline will easily cost you triple the points to go to Hawaii.

Alaska & Puerto Rico

Alaska has been on my bucket list for a long time.  For only 7,500 miles each way, I can check it off my list.  You can also fly to Puerto Rico for the same rate and soak up some sun.

Domestic Flights

These same rates apply to all domestic flights as well.  These are perfect if you’re flying between major cities or to a small town that can typically be very expensive to fly to.  How about flying to Rapid City, South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore?

Europe

This program is also a decent value when it comes to award flights to Europe.  You can fly each-way for 30,000 miles in economy or 45,000 miles in business class.

Mexico

This summer I took advantage of another Avios sweet spot to Mexico but again, this is only good if you live in select U.S. cities.  Now everyone can fly to Mexico for cheap!  Economy tickets are only 10,000 miles each way and business class is just 15,000!  If you find it, definitely spend the extra miles and fly in the front of the plane.

Other Sweet Spots

With this program being region-based, I’m sure there are many more sweet spots to take advantage of.  I’ll update this with more as I find them.  In the meantime, play around with it and I’m sure you’ll stumble on something great!

Final Thoughts

The Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles program is quickly becoming one of my favorites.  I love that there are so many great values and they aren’t limited to just certain cities.  I don’t think this program will stay under the radar for too much longer, so take advantage of some of these deals as quickly as possible.  If you find a great redemption that I missed, let me know in the comments so we can add it to the list.

The post Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles: Everything You Need To Know appeared first on Easy Travel Points.

Next summer our family is planning an adults trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico over a long weekend.  Cabo is definitely a popular destination during the summer time so flights can be very expensive.  When I searched for flights from Phoenix for the weekend we’re going, they were over $600 round trip.  Luckily, using British Airways Avios points I was able to book the flights for only 18,000 points per person plus taxes.

Avios Sweet Spot To Mexico

If you don’t have a Southwest Companion Pass, the next best option for flying to Mexico is to use your Avios points.  Just like the sweet spot to Hawaii, these great redemptions exist because British Airways uses a distance-based award chart.  And because they are part of the OneWorld Alliance you can redeem your Avios points for flights on American Airlines.

British Airways prices their award flights on a per segment basis, so this redemption only works on nonstop flights to Mexico.  If you live near an American Airlines hub in the southern part of the country, this redemption option is perfect for you.

To redeem your points using the lowest number of miles required, the flights need to be less than 1,151 miles.  However, nonstop flights that are longer than this might still be a better redemption with Avios than using your American miles.  Here are a few examples of routes that fall right into this sweet spot:

• Los Angeles (LAX) to Cabo San Lucas (SJD) are only 9,000 BA points each way.
• Phoenix (PHX) to Cabo, Guadalajara (GDL), Puerto Vallarta (PVR) and Mazatlan (MZT) are all 9,000 BA points each way.
• Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) to Cancun (CUN) Cabo and Mexico City (MEX) are all just 9,000 BA points each way.
• Charlotte (CLT) to Cancun are just 9,000 BA points each way.
• Miami (MIA) to Cancun are only 7,500 points each way.

Here are screen shots of the flights I was looking at when planning our trip to Cabo next summer.  You can see the nonstop flight we wanted to take from Phoenix to Cabo San Lucas was over $600 if we wanted the main cabin option where we can make sure we sit next to each other on the flight.

I found the exact same flights on American while searching for award space using British Airways.  Instead of paying over $600 for those flights, I spent just 18,000 Avios points per person plus taxes.

Finding Award Availability

In order to search for award availability to use your Avios points to fly to Mexico, you’ll need a British Airways account.  If you don’t have one, it’s free to sign up and only takes a few minutes set it up.  Once you’re logged in, you can start searching for your flights.  British Airways will show both nonstop and connecting flights when you’re searching for award availability.  Remember, because they charge per segment, you will only want to look at the nonstop flights.

If you don’t see availability, you can always double check for flights on American’s website.  You’ll want to look for nonstop flights that are available under the saver award category.  If you happen to find some there, give British Airways a call with the flights you found and they should be able to help you book the award flight.  They do charge to book award flights over the phone but if you kindly tell them the flight wasn’t available on the website, they will typically waive the fee.

How To Earn Avios Points

I’m sure reading about these great award redemptions already has you planning your next beach vacation.  However, what if you don’t have enough Avios points to book your trip today?  Don’t worry, Avios points are one of the easiest point currencies to earn.  They are a transfer partner with both Chase and American Express, so there are several options to earn the points you need.  Keep in mind that each of the Chase cards mentioned below is subject to the infamous 5/24 rule.

The easiest way to get Avios points into your account is by transferring them from a credit card that partners with British Airways.  Both Chase and American Express allow you to transfer your points at a 1:1 ratio.  My favorite Chase card card_name card.  bonus_miles_full  If you’re a frequent traveler, I also like the card_name.

Another option to consider is the card_name.  You will earn membership rewards points with each purchase that can also be transferred to British Airways at a 1:1 ratio.  bonus_miles_full  Terms apply.

The last option is the card_name that allows you to earn Avios points with every purchase.  If you live near an American Airlines hub and travel with them frequently, this could also be a good option.  bonus_miles_full

Bottom Line

Flying to Mexico using British Airways Avios points is great sweet spot for award travel.  Using these points can easily save you hundreds of dollars of flights.  If you plan ahead, you can even use your points to fly during busy times like Spring Break or over a holiday weekend.  If you have any questions about how to redeem your Avios points for flights on American, leave me a comment below or contact me any time.

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