Map of Myanmar/Burma. Yangon = home of the main international airport for the country. Mandalay, Bagan and Inle Lake are popular tourist destinations within the country.

There are essentially 3 major international entry points for Myanmar: Yangon, Mandalay and Naypyidaw.

Destinations served from Yangon-RGN:

This represents all non-stop flights to/from Yangon-RGN

This is a zoomed in view on the region

Destinations served from Mandalay-MDL:

All non-stop flights served from Mandalay-MDL

Destinations served from Naypyidaw-NYT:

Non-stop routes flown to/fom Naypyidaw-MDL

Most travelers will find it most economical and logical to make Yangon-RGN their Myanmar entry and departure points. From Yangon, you’ll need to plan the rest of your destinations.

Of all of the above flights, those wishing to travel with miles or points will be most interested in the routes operated by companies who participate in one of the 3 major alliances.

British Airways Avios

Transfer Partners: 1:1 Chase Ultimate Rewards & 1:1 AMEX
Alliance: Oneworld Alliance

A pretty good option for many might be to include a combination of a paid booking and an award booking with British Airways Avios.

The Avios award chart is distance-based and based upon segments, meaning, if you add in a few connections, you can quickly wind up with a rather unreasonable price tag in miles. A great option, however, could be to book a paid flight to/from one of the following gateways and then book an award to carry you to the final destination of Myanmar.

Referencing the Avios award chart:

You’ll find that the 3 Oneworld routes into Myanmar will cost:

The even better news is that British Airways won’t hit you up for outrageous fuel surcharges that might make this method a deal breaker. Here’s a few sample bookings:

Kuala Lumpur-KUL to Yangon-RGN will only cost you 15k Avios + $35 roundtrip in economy

American Airlines

Transfer Partners: Not partners with Chase or AMEX
Alliance: Oneworld Alliance

American Airlines no longer allows stopovers on its awards, but an open-jaw shouldn’t be a problem since it permits one-way award bookings. If you’re traveling from North American to Myanmar (or any other country in “Asia 2” as designated by American Airlines:Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Guam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Saipan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam):

North American to Myanmar on American Airlines requires 70k American Airlines miles roundtrip in economy

We’ll go more into depth on the best routings using American Airlines miles to Yangon-RGN but, in the meantime, here are the intermediate airlines that you can choose from to bring you the last stretch to Myanmar:

Delta SkyMiles

Transfer Partners: 1:1 AMEX
Alliance: SkyTeam

The Delta SkyMiles program is making big changes starting Jan 1, 2015, but, so far, the award prices to Southeast Asia (including Myanmar) will remain the same. Here’s the award chart for Delta award flights booked after Jan 1, 2015:

Delta Skymiles 2015 Program = 80k SkyMiles in Economy to Myanmar

Delta Skymiles 2015 Program = 140k SkyMiles roundtrip in BusinessElite to Myanmar

The one big change that will affect an award booking is that (until Dec 31, 2014) you can include a stopover and open-jaw in your award booking. This will likely end on Jan 1, 2015 when the new program takes hold. The good news? You will be able to book one-way SkyMile awards, which means you could spend 40k SkyMiles getting to Myanmar and then return on a different airline’s rewards or purchase a paid ticket home.

SkyTeam actually has a pretty solid presence when it comes to routes to/from Myanmar; here are your choices for the last leg:

United MileagePlus miles

Transfer Partners: 1:1 Chase Ultimate Rewards
Alliance: Star Alliance

Given all of your options, the United MileagePlus program may very well be the most versatile program to use for award travel from the U.S. to Myanmar and other countries in South Asia. Although it’s not the cheapest U.S. based carrier (United costs 10k more miles RT than American), United still allows awards to be booked with 1 free stopover and 1 free open-jaw:

A United MileagePlus award ticket to Myanmar will cost you 80k miles roundtrip in economy

Economy: 80k miles
Business: 140k miles
First: 160k miles

This means you can easily visit 3+ cities on one award ticket.

Pros: United doesn’t pass on fuel surcharges from their partner airlines. Thai Airways is a Star Alliance member and is very well suited to get you around Southeast Asia.
Cons: If you book Business or First class with partner airlines the award prices increase dramatically.

US Airways

Transfer Partners: Not partners with Chase or AMEX
Alliance: Oneworld Alliance

Economy: 80k miles
Business: 120k miles
First: 160k miles

Pros: Allows one stopover or one open jaw, No fuel surcharges except on British Airways and Iberia
Cons: Fuel surcharges on British Airways and Iberia

AeroMexico

Transfer Partners: 1:1 AMEX
Alliance: SkyTeam Allaiance

Economy: ~112k KMP miles
Business: ~152k KMP miles

Air Canada Aeroplan

Transfer Partners: 1:1 AMEX
Alliance: Star Alliance

Economy: 90k miles
Business: 155k miles
First: 215k miles

Pros: Allows stopovers and open-jaws
Cons: Warning! Many carriers might charge a fuel surcharge from around ~$300 for economy to ~$900 for business

Air France/KLM Flying Blue

Transfer Partners: 1:1 AMEX
Alliance: SkyTeam Alliance

Number of Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles required for a roundtrip award:

Economy: 80k miles
Premium Economy: 160k miles
Business: 200k miles

Cons: Warning! You’ll get hit with fuel surcharges!

Alitalia MilleMiglia Club

Transfer Partners: 1:1 AMEX
Alliance: SkyTeam Alliance

It’s not entirely clear if Myanmar falls into Indian Sub-Continent or Southeast Asia on Alitalia’s award chart as they don’t specifically list it, but this will give you a ball park idea:

Economy: 70k – 80k miles
Business: 95k – 100k miles

ANA Mileage Club

Transfer Partners: 1:1 AMEX
Alliance: Star Alliance

Economy: 75k – 100k miles
Business: 115k – 145k miles
First: 180k – 220k miles

Asia Miles

Transfer Partners: 1:1 AMEX
Alliance: Oneworld Alliance

Asia Miles has a distance-based award chart that goes up in price depending upon how many partners you choose to book with. For example, here’s the chart for booking 2+ Oneworld Alliance members:

You’ll be hard pressed to use any less miles than the Award Zone 10 or 11 so count on the following amounts:

Economy: 95k – 110k miles
Business: 140k – 160k miles
First: 205k – 235k miles

Pros: “You can make a maximum of five stopovers, two transfers and two open-jaws at either origin, en-route or turnaround point, subject to airline partners’ terms and conditions.”
Cons: Fuel surcharges!

Iberia Plus

Transfer Partners: 1:1 AMEX
Alliance: Oneworld Alliance

While Iberia also uses Avios, the same currency as British Airways, its award chart is priced a bit higher:

Economy: 82.5k – 112.5k miles
Business: 165k – 225k miles
First: 249k – 337.5k miles

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer 

Transfer Partners: 1:1 Chase Ultimate Rewards & 1:1 AMEX
Alliance: Star Alliance

Economy: 70k – 75k miles
Business: 160k – 170k miles
First: 215k – 220k miles

Virgin America Elevate

Transfer Partners: 100 Elevate points = 200 Membership Rewards® Points AMEX
Alliance: None

While Virgin America doesn’t publish a full award chart, they do give you a few estimates on select routes. Below is the range for flights from San Francisco-SFO to Hong Kong-HKG and Dubai-DXB so it should give a decent estimate of what to except if requesting a full booking to Myanmar.

Economy: 40k – 50k Elevate points, adjusted to typical rates = 80k – 100k AMEX points
Business: 95k – 115k Elevate points = 190k – 230k AMEX points
First: 130k Elevate points = 260k AMEX points

BOTTOM LINE: You’ll want to use the miles/airlines that make the most sense for you. I’ve been hoarding Chase Ultimate Rewards points so any of the airlines that partner with Chase will be a good choice for me. For 80k miles roundtrip that includes a stopover and an open-jaw, United will likely be our best bet.

Featured image: https://flic.kr/p/8ZQFgr

The post Traveling to Myanmar Using Miles and Points first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

The Deal

For a limited time, all transfers from American Express Membership Rewards points to British Airways Avios will receive a 40% transfer bonus. It is reported that this deal will last until 1/31/2015, but it is always possible that it could end sooner– so, I would suggest jumping on it ASAP. The transfer is hard coded on the AMEX website at a rate of: 1,000 Membership Rewards® Points = 1,400 Avios.

You can use British Airways Avios miles to book oneworld alliance partner flights, including those on: American Airlines, US Airways, Cathay Pacific, LAN, Qantas, etc….they’re great for short distance, non-stop flights that could otherwise cost $100s or $1000 but require very few Avios.

How to Get It

1. You must have a British Airways Avios account (can be created for free here) and a U.S. based American Express card with at least 1,000 Membership Rewards points to continue.
2. Login to your AMEX account and click  “Use Points” –> “Travel”:
   
3. Follow the prompts to “Transfer Points”
   
4. Select British Airways Avios as the transfer partner:
   
5. You should see the following offer confirming that you’re eligible for the promotion:
   
6. Use this chart to determine how many Avios you’ll require. For reference, a roundtrip flight from New York-JFK to St. Kitts and Nevis-SKB in economy requires 20,000 Avios per person.
7. I’ll assume that McCown and I want to take a flight from New York-JFK to St. Kitts and Nevis-SKB and use the Avios calculator:
   
   
8. Once you confirm your transfer amount, click “Transfer this Amount” and follow the prompts to complete the transfers.

In this above scenario, booking a roundtrip flight to St. Kitts for 2x passengers for 29k AMEX points is an absolute steal given that most U.S. carriers (Delta, United, American etc…) would require 70k miles for the same booking. This same booking on an American Airlines paid reservation would cost around $1,504 total, so you wind up with a return of 3.96 cents/point:

Don’t Forget:

• For British Airways, transfers normally occur immediately, but please allow up to 48 hours.
• Terms of the promotion: “Get 40% more Avios when you transfer Membership Rewards® points to your British Airways Executive Club account by 1/31/2015. Terms apply.”

BOTTOM LINE: We’ll have a few more posts on just how awesome this deal is over the next few weeks but, in short, jump on it!

The post American Express Membership rewards 40% Transfer Bonus to British Airways Avios first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

This opens up lots of opportunities for maximizing short, non-stop flights out of or to American Airlines’ and US Airways’ hub cities:

• US Airways hubs: Charlotte-CLT, Philadelphia-PHL, Washington-Reagan-DCA and Phoenix-PHX.
• American Airlines hubs: New York-JFK, Miami-MIA, Dallas-DFW, Chicago-ORD and Los Angeles-LAX

First in this series, we looked at the US Airways hubs and only US Airways flights:  Charlotte, North Carolina-CLT, then Philadelphia-PHL, Washington-DCA and Phoenix-PHX. Now, with the merger getting closer and closer to finalizing, I’ve begun mapping the American Airlines hub cities with a combination of AA and US flights. I’ve started with the New York hub at JFK and included flights from other New York area airports including LaGuardia-LGA, Newark-EWR, Westchester County-HPN and Long Island-ISP.

The New York-JFK hub is a substantial hub for American Airlines, with about a dozen international destinations as well as decent number of US cities served.

I have compiled this map to help assist in visualizing and then planning just how far a British Airways Avios will take you on AA/US:

Some great values are:

• As with all of these Avios redemptions, just about any Zone 1 city in green is probably a great value at just 9k Avios roundtrip, especially those destinations to Canada (Montreal-YUL or Toronto-YYZ)
• New York-JFK to Bermuda-BDA for 15k Avios (if you can find availability) is a steal.
• Any of the destinations in the Caribbean end up being a pretty solid deal for just 20k Avios roundtrip: San Juan-SJU, Saint Thomas-STT, Saint Maarten-SXM, St Kitts and Nevis-SKB or Cancun-CUN.
• All of the European cities served by AA out of JFK can be booked for only 40k miles RT, which can be a good deal most of the time, especially compared to Delta or United who charge 50% more miles at 60k RT: Dublin-DUB, Manchester-MAN, London-LHR, Paris-CDG, Madrid-MAD, Barcelona-BCN, Zurich-ZRH, Milan-MXP.

Pros to booking with Avios instead of AA or US miles:

• You can often save thousands of miles if you optimize your route
• British Airways is a transfer partner of American Express and Chase Ultimate rewards so it might be easier to generate points

Cons to booking with Avios instead of AA or US miles:

• The Avios award chart is based on non-stop flights, adding additional segments will increase the cost of an award.
• Booking with Avios isn’t always cheaper. For example, AA’s seasonal saver awards to Europe cost just 40k miles RT, so you’d be better off booking with AA miles because you can take advantage of multiple segments. Another example is that New York to the West Coast is 25k miles with Avios or with American miles, so it’s a wash either way.

Here’s a simple chart with the destinations served:

When you’re ready to book, follow this guide: How-to: Book US Airways Flights With British Airways Avios. And, don’t forget that you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards Points to British Airways to book flights with Avios.

BOTTOM LINE: Although the addition of US Airways to the Oneworld Alliance only adds ~15-18 flights to American’s New York markets (mostly short, regional destinations), AA+US still has quite a strong route network with many choices to save a lot of points/miles when booking award tickets if you try to use BA Avios. Only 15k miles from New York to Bermuda? Yes, please.

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First in this series was Charlotte, North Carolina-CLT, then Philadelphia-PHL and Washington-DCA. Now, we’ll look at Phoenix, Arizona. It turns out that just short of the Washington-Reagan hub, Phoenix has only a few international destinations–but, they have Mexico pretty well covered along with a few Canadian cities.

I have compiled this map to help assist in visualizing and then planning just how far a British Airways Avios will take you on US Airways:

Some great values are:

• As with all of these Avios redemptions, just about any Zone 1 city in green is probably a great value at just 9k Avios roundtrip.
• All of the Hawaiian destinations are a great deal at just 25k miles round trip: Kona-KOA, Kahului-OGG, Honolulu-HNL and Kauai Island/Lihue-LIH.
• Cancun-CUN for 20k Avios or Cabo San Lucas-SJD for 15k Avios is a solid deal.

When you’re ready to book, follow this guide: How-to: Book US Airways Flights With British Airways Avios. And, don’t forget that you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards Points to British Airways to book flights with Avios.

BOTTOM LINE: Phoenix’s strong suit seems to be the short hop flights to Mexico and especially the 25k Avios roundtrip flights to Hawaii. Most other carriers will charge you at least 45k miles to Hawaii or 35k miles to Mexico or Canada, making the non-stop US Airways redemptions a great deal.

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First in this series was Charlotte, North Carolina-CLT, then Philadelphia-PHL and now we’ll look at Washington, D.C. It turns out that the Washington-Reagan hub has the fewest international destinations–most of the flights end up being commuter flights to/from the Eastern half of the U.S.

I have compiled this map to help assist in visualizing and then planning just how far a British Airways Avios will take you on US Airways:

Some great values are Washington-DCA to:

• As with all of these Avios redemptions, just about any Zone 1 city in green is probably a great value at just 9k Avios roundtrip.
• Bermuda-BDA or Nassau-NAS can be booked for only 15k miles round trip in economy.
• Southern Florida destinations are another pretty good deal for 15k miles round trip: Ft. Lauderdale-FLL, Miami-MIA and Key West-EYW

When you’re ready to book, follow this guide: How-to: Book US Airways Flights With British Airways Avios. And, don’t forget that you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards Points to British Airways to book flights with Avios.

BOTTOM LINE: The U.S. Air hub in Washington, D.C. has the least interesting routes of all of their other hubs, but there’s plenty of value to be found booking Avios awards in the U.S. Even if you’re not able to take an exotic vacation from DCA as easily, it makes great sense for booking otherwise expensive flights to the eastern half of the US.

The post US Airways Flights: Using British Airways Avios out of Washington, D.C.-DCA first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

First in this series was Charlotte, North Carolina-CLT, and now we have flights out of Philadelphia-PHL. There are easily 60+ million people that can reach Philadelphia International Airport in less than a 4-5 hour drive or train ride, making it a highly accessible airport and one that can be easily leveraged for very good Avios redemptions. I have compiled this map to help assist in visualizing and then planning just how far a British Airways Avios will take you on US Airways:

Legend

Some great values are Philadelphia to:

• Most of Western Europe (the UK, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, the Netherlands) for 40k Avios roundtrip in economy.
• Freeport-FPO, Nassau-NAS and Bermuda-BDA for 15k Avios roundtrip.
• All of the Caribbean for 20k Avios roundtrip.
• A bunch of cities in Eastern Canada (Ottawa-YOW, Toronto-YYZ, Toronto-YYZ & Quebec City-YQB) for 9k Avios roundtrip.
• Just about any Zone 1 city in green is probably a great value at just 9k Avios roundtrip.

When you’re ready to book, follow this guide: How-to: Book US Airways Flights With British Airways Avios. And, don’t forget that you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards Points to British Airways to book flights with Avios.

BOTTOM LINE: Philadelphia-PHL is US Airways’ central hub and provides the largest selection of flights that can be booked with Avios. Some make great sense (i.e. Bermuda for 15k miles, Quebec City for 9k miles) whereas others are better off booked with regular US Airways/American miles (i.e. West Coast flights).

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First in this series is Charlotte, North Carolina-CLT. From my research, appx 30 million people live within a 5-hour drive of the city, making it relatively easy for them to drive and take take advantage of the savings of non-stop flights. I have compiled this map to help assist in visualizing and then planning just how far a British Airways Avios will take you on US Airways:

Legend

Some great values are Charlotte-CLT to:

• Toronto-YYZ for 9k Avios roundtrip in economy.
• Freeport, Bahamas-FPO for 9k Avios roundtrip in economy.
• Any of the Zone 1 destinations are typically a great value.
• These destinations in the Caribbean for 15k Avios roundtrip in economy: Key West-EYW, Nassau-NAS, Bermuda-BDA, Turks and Caicos-PLS, Cancun-CUN, Cozumel-CZM.
• Other destinations in the Caribbean for 20k Avios roundtrip in economy: Belize-BZE, Montego Bay-MBJ, Punta Cana-PUJ, San Juan-SJU, St. Thomas-STT, Saint Croix-STX, Saint Maarten-SXM, St. Kitts-SKB, Antigua-ANU, St. Lucia-UVF, Aruba-AUA.
• A few cities in Europe fall under the 4,000 mile mark, making them only 40k Avios roundtrip in economy: Lisbon-LIS, Dublin-DUB, Manchester-MAN, London-LHR.

When you’re ready to book, follow this guide: How-to: Book US Airways Flights With British Airways Avios. And, don’t forget that you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards Points to British Airways to book flights with Avios.

BOTTOM LINE: This is a great addition for the ~30 million of us that are less than a 5-hour drive from Charlotte-CLT airport.

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British Airways/Iberia Avios miles are [glossy term=”distance based awards”]:  on the surface, it seems like you’re getting a bad deal on award redemptions. But, as with anything involving miles, it opens up possibilities to find great values on non-stop short distance flights.

Here’s the British Airways Avios award chart:

Benefits of Booking US Airways Flights With British Airways Avios

• Avios can often save you miles when booking– although it can make some awards cost more.
• You can do a “cash and points” option when booking Avios awards which will allow you to purchase Avios at a rate of appx 2 cents/mile at the time of booking. This can help you if you’re short on miles.
• Booking with Avios can help you avoid the US Airways “quick ticketing fee” of $75 when booking within 21 days of travel: “Making a reservation for travel less than 21 days from today will cost an additional $75 per ticket unless you’re logged in as a Dividend Miles member with Gold, Platinum or Chairman’s Preferred status.”
• You can also avoid the $25 US Airways “award processing fee.”

How to Book

1. Go to USAirways.com: The British Airways award search feature is a pain to use; you’re much better off searching for the available seats on US Airways first and then keying in exactly what you want (and have already proven to be available) on the British Airways site.
   
2. Select “Calendar – My travel dates are flexible”: Fill out the search form, making sure to select the calendar view at the bottom. This will help you hone in on available travel dates.
   
3. Calendar View: The calendar view will allow you to see available dates. You will only be able to book awards at the “Low” level–“Medium” level awards will not be visible on British Airways for booking with Avios.
   
4. (Optional) Switch to non-stop: Since Avios are distance based and will charge you per segment, I like to search for non-stop flights only. This requires knowing the US Airways hubs a little better, but will help you in the long run. For example, even by looking at the above calendar, it might have some flights that are from Charleston-CHS to Washington-DCA with a connection in Charlotte-CLT. While this is typically fine for traditional US Airways redemptions, it will make the award cost 2x the British Airways Avios points because you will be charged 4,500 Avios for the CHS-CLT segment and then 4,500 Avios CLT-DCA segment, each way.
   
5. Select your flights and write down dates, times and flight numbers: Now we have a very concise list of all of the non-stop flights from CHS-DCA. Sounds like I’ll have 3 options: at 7:42am, 11:16am or 1:40pm. Also, any flights in the “First Low” column are bookable with Avios.
   Here are my choices for the return flight:
   
6. Head to BritishAirways.com: With a list of available flights, dates and times that are priced at the “Low” award level, it’s time to login to the BA website and begin searching. BritishAirways.com –> Executive Club –> Spending Avios:
   Spending Avios –> Book flights with Avios
   
   
   
7. Search for your flights: This brings you to the British Airways award search. Now, enter the exact cities and dates that you found on USAirways.com:
   
8. Pick your flights: If you did a good job on picking the flights (properly picked only flights available at the “Low” award price), then you should see exactly the same thing. If you don’t see the flights you want, there could be a system error or someone could have booked the flight in the last few minutes. If you’re positive that your flight is available on the US Airways website at the “Low” award level, you can call the British Airways Executive Club and attempt to book over the phone. Here is what I am seeing after my search:
   Success! My flights are available for the CHS-DCA leg.
   And for the DCA-CHS leg! Now, I simply select the flight I want and review the pricing.
9. Review pricing: After searching gcmap.com, I find that Charleston-CHS to Washington-DCA is 444 miles:
   A quick reference of the British Airways Avios award chart tells me that a 444 mile flight falls into “Zone 1” and should price in at 4,500 Avios each way, per person:
   Sure enough, it prices correctly at 4,500 Avios + $2.50 in taxes each way:
10. Cash and Points Redemption? This next screen basically gives you the option of doing a “Cash and Points” style redemption by essentially purchasing Avios. For a 9,000 Avios award booking, BA will let you purchase up to 4,000 Avios. They will charge you an extra $80 for 4,000 Avios = essentially purchasing them for 2 cents/point. This actually isn’t a horrible proposition. I have never used the option but keep in mind that it’s an option in the future if you’re ever short on Avios.
11. Pay and ticket: The next few screens are just passenger info and payment screens. When you’re finished, you will see your 6 character booking code– this is British Airways specific. Be on the look out for your confirmation email– this has the 13-digit eticket number that is to pull up your reservation on USAirways.com:
    
12. Pick seats on USAirways.com: Head back to USAirways.com –> Travel Tools –> Manage Flights
    
13. Input Ticket Number and travel date: Do not include the dash! Only the 13-digit Ticket Number. Ex: 1008500009836
    Success! It found my reservation. Note: You might have to wait a few minutes to an hour for the BA system to sync with the USAirways system before your flight can be found.
    
14. Pick seat and done!:

BOTTOM LINE: Being able to book US Airways flights with British Airways Avios has opened up some great possibilities. While some routes will cost you more miles/points, many routes are cheaper and you can avoid the US Airways Award booking fee of $25 and “quick ticketing fee” of $75 when traveling within 21 days of booking.

The post How-to: Book US Airways Flights With British Airways Avios first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

Why the Caribbean?

Here’s our fourth installment in the Ultimate Honeymoon series: the Caribbean.

The Caribbean is a highly desirable place for honeymooners from the US:

1. It has world class beaches, snorkeling, scuba diving–all that one might want on the traditional honeymoon
2. The proximity to the US makes it easy and (relatively) cheap
   
3. On certain islands, you could split your time between beaches and exploring tropical rain-forests, but it might be hard to pry you away from that pristine beach.
   
4. At a max of 2-5 hours from the US, it’s just so convenient
   

How to Get There:

Pay for Airfare

Deciding which island in the Caribbean will probably be the hardest part of your planning–there are just so many choices. To throw out a few data points on airfare, U.S. to:

• Turks & Caicos, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Jamaica etc… ≈ $519 – $670
• Barbados, Martinique, St. Lucia, Guadeloupe, Saint Vincent, Sint Maarten etc… ≈ $690 – $1,120

Sample cash airfare prices

So, yes, heading just a few hours to the southeast of America can easily cost you $1,000+ per person! Now here’s how to do it with airline miles (for free!):

Use British Airways Avios miles/points

The first thing to know about British Airways Avios points is that, because British Airways is a member of the Oneworld Alliance, you can use its points to book flights on American Airlines. The great news is that American Airlines basically has a monopoly on flights to and within the Caribbean.

Furthermore, British Airways/Iberia Avios miles are [glossy term=”distance based awards”]:  on the surface, it seems like you’re getting a bad deal on award redemptions. But, as with anything involving miles, it opens up possibilities to find great values on non-stop short distance flights.

Partner awards that especially interest me are the direct flights from Miami on AA. In many cases, Miami ends up being a short hop to exotic and foreign destinations. A big thing I look for when I travel is to get away from what’s familiar and comfortable — and you don’t necessarily have to travel across the globe to achieve that. Using your British Avios to book on American Airlines can be your answer to a relatively inexpensive honeymoon in this part of the world.

Benefits of using British Airways Avios to consider when researching:

• As briefly stated above, British Airways’ award chart has some great values for getting from the U.S. to the Caribbean:
  

How to get British Airways Avios

• Earn 50k Avios by signing up for a Chase/British Airways credit card:
• You can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Avios (see bottom of post for tutorial on transferring). Points transfer at a ratio of 1:1 so you’d need in the ball park of 18,000 to 80,000, depending on distance and if travel is in economy or business class. Currently, the best American Express signup bonus is for the Premier Rewards Gold card with a bonus of 25,000 Membership Rewards points–not a great deal. It’s been 50,000 – 75,000 points in the past, so you might want to wait for that offer again:
  

  Not the best signup bonus but still useful if you need AMEX points

Sample Itinerary

Sample dates of: Monday, Sept 15 to Monday, Sep 22

Day 1: Dept New York-JFK to Antigua-ANU
Day 1-4: Relax on Antigua
Day 4: Fly from Antigua-ANU to Tobago-TAB
Day 4-6: Explore Tobago
Day 6: Take early morning ferry from Tobago to Port Of Spain. Sightsee a bit before taking a flight from Port Of Spain-POS to Miami-MIA. Spend the night in South Beach.
Day 7: Fly from Miami-MIA to Newark-EWR.

Price to book this itinerary with $cash x 2 = $3,108 for a couple

Total Avios miles needed: 64,000 Avios + $255 total for 2 people

Analysis = return of 3.86 cents/mile on your BA Avios or AMEX Membership Rewards points is pretty awesome.

Destinations Leaving New York

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Destinations Leaving Dallas-Ft. Worth-DFW

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Destinations Leaving Miami-MIA

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Intra-Caribbean Flights with Avios

British Airways flies a surprisingly large number of routes within the Caribbean.  These options can save you hundreds of dollars if you’re interested in doing some island hopping and really opens up your possibilities. Here are the destinations served:

Legend: Red = British Airways operated flights (confirmed bookable with Avios)
Green = Codeshare American Airlines, operated by Seaborne Airlines (confirmed bookable with AA miles, not positive about Avios)

As stated in the caption, any flight in Red on the map or with a designation of BA in the below chart is 100% bookable with British Airways Avios miles. All of the flights are under the 651 miles threshold and therefore qualify as “Zone 1” and will only require 4,500 Avios miles for a one-way flight.

The flights in Green are operated by Seaborne Airlines and codeshared as American Airlines flights. The American Airlines site confirms that you can book Seaborne Airlines flights with American AAdvantage miles (link): “Use AAdvantage miles to book award travel on Seaborne flights to or from San Juan, Puerto Rico and the routes noted below, with the AAdvantage participating airline awards. These awards allow travel on any combination of AAdvantage participating carriers.” It does state that, to book a flight, you’ll have to call the American Airlines reservation line to inquire about award availability and to book. A quick search on AA.com confirmed that the award space isn’t visible online. When I searched for British Airways Avios space on one of the Seaborne Airlines routes, San Juan-SJU to Fort-de-France-FDF, it came back that the route isn’t operated by BA or any of its partner airlines. This could mean that it is not possible to book the Seaborne Airlines routes with Avios or that you simply have to call British Airways to book– in the same way you must call AA to book with their miles.

Here’s a quick comparison of how much money you could save by booking one of these routes with points instead of $cash$:

Sample booking and analysis for one-way flight from Saint Lucia-UVF to Port Of Spain, Trinidad-POS on Oct 13

Analysis for one-way flight from Antigua-ANU to Punta Cana, Dominican-PUJ on Oct 8 = great value of 4.83 cents return on your Avios!

How to Book an American Airlines Award with British Airways Avios

1. Search AA.com –> Book Award Travel for available dates. If you’ve made your mind up on a destination, then search until you find dates that will work and make notes. If you’re flexible on destination but have fixed dates, then I suggest searching all of the routes and making detailed notes– this will help you put the puzzle together later. Full guide on searching American Airlines availability.
   …
2. If you don’t already have the miles, Transfer AMEX Membership Rewards points to BA Avios
   
   
3. Login to BritishAirways.com –> Executive Club –> Spending Avios –> Book flights with Avios and search the exact dates and cities you found from the AA website. If all is well, you should find your flights. Proceed through the booking process.
   
   
   I always select the top choice which represents points due + taxes only. Any of the choices further down are essentially giving you a choice to buy Avios for 1.3 cents. Some might see this as a good deal, others not. Personally, I skipped it because, with the promo going on, I can transfer AMEX points to BA Avios at a cheaper price than buying those same miles for 1.3 cents/Avios. For example, if you expect to earn 1.5 cents/points on your AMEX and you add in the 35% bonus, you’ll find that you can transfer AMEX miles to Avios at a cost of 1.11 cents/point vs buying them for 1.3 cents.
   …
4. All done! You can now head back to AA.com and add the new itinerary to your account by searching the flights and dates. This should load up your full reservation in the American Airlines system and allow you to review and pick your seats.

BOTTOM LINE: Using British Airways Avios miles could be your answer to free honeymoon flights to crystal clear waters and great beaches without having to travel too far from home.

The post Ultimate Honeymoon: The Caribbean for Free with British Airways Avios first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

British Airways flies a surprisingly large number of routes within the Caribbean–this can save hundreds of dollars if you’re interested in doing some island hopping and really opens up your vacation possibilities. Here are the destinations served:

Legend: Red = British Airways operated flights (confirmed bookable with Avios)
Green = Codeshare American Airlines, operated by Seaborne Airlines (confirmed bookable with AA miles, not positive about Avios)

As stated in the caption, any flight in Red on the map or with a designation of BA in the below table is 100% bookable with British Airways Avios miles. All of the flights are under the 651 miles threshold and therefore qualify as “Zone 1” and will only require 4,500 Avios miles for a one-way flight:

The flights in Green are operated by Seaborne Airlines and codeshared as American Airlines flights. The American Airlines site confirms that you can book Seaborne Airlines flights with American AAdvantage miles (link): “Use AAdvantage miles to book award travel on Seaborne flights to or from San Juan, Puerto Rico and the routes noted below, with the AAdvantage participating airline awards. These awards allow travel on any combination of AAdvantage participating carriers.” It does state that to book a flight you’ll have to call the American Airlines reservation line to inquire about award availability and to book. A quick search on AA.com confirmed that the award space isn’t visible online. When I searched for British Airways Avios space on one of the Seaborne Airlines routes, San Juan-SJU to Fort-de-France-FDF, it came back that the route isn’t operated by BA or any of it’s partner airlines. This could mean that it is not possible to book the Seaborne Airlines routes with Avios or that you simply have to call British Airways to book, in the same way you must call AA to book with their miles.

Full Seaborne Airlines route map

Table of all destinations and miles required

Carrier: BA = British Airways, AA/BB = American Airlines codeshare on Seaborne Airlines

Miles Stretch Analysis

Here’s a quick comparison of how much money you could save by booking one of these routes with points instead of $cash$:

Sample booking and analysis for one-way flight from Saint Lucia-UVF to Port Of Spain, Trinidad-POS on Oct 13

Analysis for one-way flight from Antigua-ANU to Punta Cana, Dominican-PUJ on Oct 8 = great value of 4.83 cents return on your Avios!

Another interesting piece is that for the British Airways flights, most if not all of the aircraft are Boeing 777-200s–not your typical puddle jumper! This is because the bulk of the flights originate from London-LGW, stop at one island to drop off/pickup passengers and then continue onward to the final island.

British Airways B777-200–pretty rare to be island hopping on a bird this size…

Ready to book? Reference our booking guide here: Cheap travel to Caribbean/Latin America with British Airways/AMEX points

Need to transfer American Express Membership Rewards Points to your British Airways Avios Account? Reference our guide here: Transfer from AMEX to British Airways Avios

BOTTOM LINE: Taking advantage of the British Airways distance based award chart + BA’s network of intra-Caribbean flights can save big $ when traveling around the Caribbean and might help you squeeze 4.5+ cents/points out of any AMEX points you may have.

The post Caribbean Island Hop with British Airways Avios (only 4,500 points/flight!) first appeared on Weekend Blitz.