Okay, contestants, your client comes to you today from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. He needs a change of temperature yesterday. He has provided you with the following tools per his AwardWallet account. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to get him out of Mongolia before the end of October and back for the least amount of points and cash out-of-pocket. He wants to visit the following cities:
- Hong Kong
- Bangkok
- Phuket
American Airlines: 235,000
Avianca: 23,000
British Airways: 54,000
United: 30,000 (manually entered)
US Airways: 158,000
Membership Rewards: 30,000
Ultimate Rewards: 137,000
Cash: $250
What do you do?
Today, there are so many award booking services provided by so many bloggers. Their fees range from $100 on up with more being charged for complex bookings. As I wrote in ThePointsOfLife Thank You, I appreciate the lessons learned from fellow bloggers about how they not only obtained the points but also how they redeemed them.
After all, it’s pointless to have one without the other.
I consider myself an expert in points bookings and boast the following resume:
- Booked a first class flight to Shanghai on Emirates and a return flight on Singapore Airlines A380 with a stopover in Bali.
- Booked a round the world ticket on American Airlines in business that was 16 segments, totaling 50,000 miles to Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America for $275.
- Booked a flight to the Final 4 for next to nothing when tickets were going for over $1000.
- Booked a free flight to Costa Rica on a moment’s notice.
Why am I so good at award bookings? Because I maintain a diverse portfolio of points and because I refuse, absolutely refuse, to let the airlines win.
This award challenge is being featured because contrary to what bloggers say in regards to the difficulty of booking a flight to Tahiti, New Zealand, and the Moon, the hardest redemption of my life (accounting for devaluations) is simply to get out of Mongolia on a reasonable points ticket.
So get creative, get clicking, and let’s see if you can come up with a more clever solution than I.
Tomorrow I’ll tell you what I booked, convincing me that I too should start an award redemption service.
Keep churning my friends,
ThePointsOfLife
What about this:
ULN-PEK 10/21 11:50-14:00
PEK-BKK: 10/21 17:05-21:15
BKK-HKT 10/22 18:15-19:35
Return
HKT-BKK-PEK-ULN on 10/24, arriving 10/25 back in ULN.
This gives you 1 (possibly 2) ~20 hour layovers in Bangkok, along with 2-3 days in Phuket. You can also open jaw your return from Hong Kong – ULN if you wanted to see all 3 places on this trip.
I searched on Air Canada – it’s 35,000 Aeroplan miles + $150. If you open jaw out of HKG, your fees drop down to about $76.
Air Canada can transfer from Amex, but you don’t have enough. You could also book this on United, but you’ll also pay the $75 close-in booking fee there. Maybe Singapore or Lufthansa?
How longs does Aeroplan take to transfer from Amex out of curiosity? And all my Amex went to Singapore Airlines Suite Class (which you coincidentally wrote about today)
I also just wrote bout my experience booking a United flight with Air Canada miles to avoid the $75 close-in booking fee. I’d assume it would work the same way for booking a different Star Alliance carrier using Air Canada miles.
For me, the Membership Rewards points transferred within 30 minutes to Air Canada.
http://www.pointswithacrew.com/how-to-book-united-american-without-75-close-in-booking-fee/ for more info.
Oh yes I did read that one. I’ve never explored Aeroplan but I did fly Air Canada from Toronto to Lax. It’s an impressive airline on points but a ripoff otherwise.
Thanks for the help
Do you have an award booking service?
Yes, I haven’t setup the page for it but I do it on the side. What can I help you with?
Award booking. Do you have an email address where I can write you privately?
Please DM me on twitter @thepointsoflife or facebook.com/thepointsoflife as I wait for my web developer to set up my award email.
I need a way to use your award booking service.
In the end, I was duped by the phantom availability of United. I had my cc # inputted and then I got the error and error and error.
It would’ve been:
Lifemiles 17.5k to Hong Kong (1 Night)
7500 + $35 British Avios to BKK (3 Nights)
$50 Air Asia to Phuket (3 Nights)
20,000 United Miles back to ULN
Total: $100 in taxes
In the end I settled for mediocrity:
$350 Hunnu Air (don’t ask) to Hong Kong (1 night)
20,000 + $36 in taxes on United to ULN (skipping Phuket for Pattaya because I’m boycotting aviation as much as possible). (3 Nights in each)
Undoubtedly one of my worst redemptions ever.
For award booking, I need an email address. I don’t You Tube, Facebook, Twitter.