Frequent flyer miles, hotel points, great travel sites and deals

So I've racked up quite a few Continental miles and want to use them to fly internationally. I'd like to use the upgrade feature where we can pay for an economy ticket and upgrade to BusinessFirst. Does anyone have any experience with this? Every time I look for flights it says that the flights are not available for upgrade. It is pretty freaking frustrating.

 

I did this with the Continental Presidential Plus card... I've had Silver Elite on Continental for years and I didn't want to pay for the Pres. Club at airports all the time (I usually fly once a week - and always Continental)...

I plan to cancel it when my free first year expires. Personally, I don't care if i take a credit score ding. I have near perfect credit and am willing to take a ding for a year's worth of free pres. club access...

 

That has happened to me in the past with international flights too... but I always end up getting several emails in the 4-6 weeks leading up to the flight telling me I can use my miles to upgrade to first...

But YMMV... so be warned.

 

I've kind of assumed that this is the case. One of the things that I've noticed is that when you book on Continental that it limits you to Continental flights (in the upgrade capacity).

I have shopped around for 1st class tickets on Travelocity and have been able to get 1st class tickets to Europe for about $2k which I think is a steal. I think the way they get them so low is by putting you on different carriers that are within the same airline group (SkyTeam\StarAlliance). For instance this summer, we flew from Houston to Newark 1st class via Continental and then fly 1st class from Newark to Stockholm via SAS.

I'm wanting to book next Christmas and I've found similar deals for similar prices and think that it is better than using my miles. They seem to butt rape you on upgrade fees and the such.

 

Another tip re: Continental award travel.

As long as the airline is part of the Star Alliance, you can call Continental and have them apply your Continental miles to booking award travel on any Star Alliance airline.

For example, Turkish Airlines doesn't show up on Continental.com, but I called in last week and booked a roundtrip nonstop economy fare from Chicago to Istanbul for 55,000 Continental miles. All I paid was $66 in tax.

My dad has even used Continental miles to fly business class on Emirates from Houston to Dubai, although that was a bit trickier. He had to call Continental, and then Continental had to get it approved from Emirates. It ended up working though.

EDIT: You can also ask them to waive the $25 "call center" fee when you call in to book award travel. I just told them that I'd have preferred booking online for free, but for whatever reason, the Turkish Airlines fare wasn't showing up online, so I was forced to call in.

They obliged.

 

My thoughts exactly.

I just applied for the Citi American Express card through American Airlines, as well as the Citi Visa card through American Airlines.

Both cards have an $85 annual fee (first year waived), but they each give you 75,000 American miles once you spend $4,000 on each card within the first 6 months.

Even though I'll have to cancel both cards after one year, 150,000 American miles is definitely worth it.

To put it into perspective, off-peak economy flights from Texas to Japan on American are only 25,000 miles one-way.

 

Those deals perked my interest... but I couldn't find them.

All I found was this - which only offers 30K or 40K miles
https://creditcards.citi.com/credit-cards/aadvantage-credit-cards/

 

Here's the link.

I applied for both the Amex and Visa yesterday, was approved for both.

I read parts of the thread on FlyerTalk about it, and it looks like as long as you apply for both cards on the same day, you'll be approved for both. Some people who applied for one card a few weeks after being approved for the other were denied the second card.

I applied for the Visa online, called the 1800 number afterwards for instant approval. Then applied online for the Amex card, called the 1800 number again for instant approval. Worked like a charm.

 

I've had an American Express Hilton HHonors credit card for years. Purchases earn points towards free hotel stays and upgrades.

http://hhonors.com

 

1.
Airline: CO OnePass Platinum Elite, Skywards Gold
Hotel: SPG Platinum, Mariott Rewards Platinum
Rental Car: Hertz #1 Gold Five Star, SIXT Diamond

2.
For luggage, Briggs & Riley, Red Oxx, and Victorinox have served me well. Expensive checked luggage will get destroyed. And pack light, with the right techniques.

Don't exchange your foreign cash when you leave a country unless you don't plan on returning there often. I have pouches filled with several currencies and keep them safe with my dollars.

Buy good headphones that can isolate very well. I use in-ear monitors, Shure SE 535.

Buy a Kindle or some eReader.

Women in hotel bars and lounges are often shady. Stay alert.

Get international roaming.

Buy a spare cell phone charger and keep that in your carry-on. Ditto for a backup debit/credit card with a different account # in case your primary one gets blocked or stolen.

3. Will get back to you.

 

I still think the Starwood American Express card is the best credit card in terms of accumulating reward points.

If anyone is interested, I can refer you - you'll get 25,000 Starpoints for signing up (and I'll get 5,000 Starpoints for referring).

 

I applied to those 2 cards too last November. 150k miles safely in my account now.
Applied to the BA card for 100k miles a year ago
2 Starwood cards for 60k points
United card for 50k miles

 

There is an actual option in "advanced search" for flights to search for flights that are immediately upgradeable.

You can also put in the upgrade request on flights that you've already booked if you have enough miles. 75% of the time, the upgrade will end up clearing. It'll only not clear on heavily invested business first flights, like Saturday-Monday IAH to Heathrow, etc.

 

Thanks for the reply..sounds good....guess i'll stay there. I'm planning to stay there for 3 nights but might use the flight + 5 nights that you mentioned but I have my flights already. Maybe i'll just transfer the points to some airline miles and use it some other time. hmmm.

 

The Flights+Nights deal worked great for me. I was already planning on using points for more than 7 days in Tokyo, which would have cost me ~70,000 points anyways. I basically got a free flight out of it.

The Flights+Nights deal basically gives you 5 free consecutive nights at a category 4 hotel (Sheraton Miyako Tokyo is Category 4), plus 50,000 airline miles on most any airline. Roundtrip flights to Tokyo in March on American ended up being 50,000 miles.