mhb1757 Posted October 13, 2017 #1 Share Posted October 13, 2017 i have been accumulating Chase Sapphire points for a while. Will have about 300k of them soon. We have booked a Jan 2019 Sydney to Auckland cruise and am trying to figure out the best way to use the points to get the 2 of us there and back. I know it’s too soon to book Air so all of this is hypothetical but if anyone has experience using chase points I’d appreciate some advice. Really hoping to fly business on that long Pacific leg. Would I be better off converting the points to miles and trying for award seats? Airline suggestions? Could we cash purchase K seats and use points/miles to upgrade? Would we do better just using the points toward purchase cost? I don’t have status on any of the legacy carriers. Used most of my Delta miles a few months ago so I have maybe 20K left. Tons of WN points so we could fly from LA, SEA, PHX, IAH. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruiserBruce Posted October 13, 2017 #2 Share Posted October 13, 2017 Not aware of anybody flying down under from PHX or SEA. You are forced to go Vancouver, SFO, LAX, DFW or IAH. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJ2002 Posted October 14, 2017 #3 Share Posted October 14, 2017 We have found the best availability for reward seats on Star Alliance, and we use United's award search to locate available flights. When we've found flights that work for us, we transfer the points from Chase to United. It's always been an instantaneous transfer when we've done it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buggins0402 Posted October 14, 2017 #4 Share Posted October 14, 2017 i have been accumulating Chase Sapphire points for a while. Will have about 300k of them soon. We have booked a Jan 2019 Sydney to Auckland cruise and am trying to figure out the best way to use the points to get the 2 of us there and back. I know it’s too soon to book Air so all of this is hypothetical but if anyone has experience using chase points I’d appreciate some advice. Really hoping to fly business on that long Pacific leg. Would I be better off converting the points to miles and trying for award seats? Airline suggestions? Could we cash purchase K seats and use points/miles to upgrade? Would we do better just using the points toward purchase cost? I don’t have status on any of the legacy carriers. Used most of my Delta miles a few months ago so I have maybe 20K left. Tons of WN points so we could fly from LA, SEA, PHX, IAH. 300K is probably light for a UA point transfer for two business tickets to Australia. But, airline transfer is usually the best bet on Sapphire. Searching miles needed on some of the other Sapphire transfer partners can be difficult, however. Last year I found two first class tickets to Saigon on UA and then bought our way home business buying miles on AA (during a mile purchase sale) from Seoul...but I had a few miles (not many) in an AA account to up what I needed. UA also does mile purchase sales from time to time...but not as frequently as AA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBWC Posted October 14, 2017 #5 Share Posted October 14, 2017 Starting November 1st, United business class to Australia/New Zealand will be 80k each way, so 320k roundtrip for two. Very hard to find saver awards for the United nonstop, though we got it for SYD LAX in April. You will most likely have to route through Asia, Asiana seems to have lots of award availability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buggins0402 Posted October 14, 2017 #6 Share Posted October 14, 2017 Starting November 1st, United business class to Australia/New Zealand will be 80k each way, so 320k roundtrip for two. Very hard to find saver awards for the United nonstop, though we got it for SYD LAX in April. You will most likely have to route through Asia, Asiana seems to have lots of award availability. Isn't it currently 80K, going to 90K 11/1, for business saver? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ISLABONITA Posted October 14, 2017 #7 Share Posted October 14, 2017 I have a cruise in Feb 2018 and was able to purchase tickets via their portal cheaper than transferring to United. So that is another option. You can also look at going via Honolulu as I am to break up the trip. Sent from my VS990 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buggins0402 Posted October 14, 2017 #8 Share Posted October 14, 2017 I have a cruise in Feb 2018 and was able to purchase tickets via their portal cheaper than transferring to United. So that is another option. You can also look at going via Honolulu as I am to break up the trip. Sent from my VS990 using Tapatalk Were these business class tickets? Isn't the Sapphire site redemption 1.25 or 1.5 cents per point, depending if preferred or reserve? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ISLABONITA Posted October 14, 2017 #9 Share Posted October 14, 2017 Were these business class tickets? Isn't the Sapphire site redemption 1.25 or 1.5 cents per point, depending if preferred or reserve? I purchased economy seats with points then upgraded for a $130 fee for the first row after 1st class on this plane. https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Hawaiian_Airlines/Hawaiian_Airlines_Airbus_A330-200.php They call it premium economy. Used 47k points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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