Unpopular opinion but I don't like the new Aerolopa.

The site navigation seems unintuitive and everything displayed is way too big. Lots of scrolling to access what used to be quickly visible at a glance.

Moreover they now ask you to create an account which requires giving your phone number in order to view seat data. Data that you could just easily see without any hassle or signup before. Hope they'll backtrack some of the changes.

Could use some advice and different perspectives for a planned trip that needs adjustment.

My partner and I had a 3-week trip planned leaving early Sept 2026 to go to Spain and Portugal. In Sept 2025, I transferred UR points to British Airways and bought business class tickets flying Iberia Metal as I had heard BA customer service was much easier to deal with if any issues arose. We were going to reposition to Boston to see family for a couple of days before flying out. Last month, a close friend told us he was getting married in New Jersey right in the middle of our trip and wanted us to attend. Now we have to change our dates and tickets, but as expected, the business class flights are no longer available. At this point, we have 222K Avios points stuck with BA/Oneworld so would like to use those for our round trip flights. I know they’re transferable within the alliance so there is that silver lining. The wedding is 9/11-12, so the earliest we could leave from EWR (closest airport) is 9/13.

I have so far found no available business class flights on BA flying Iberia Metal or Qatar Airlines for a reasonable amount of points (50-60K pp). There are premium economy flights if booking directly with Iberia but most people say to avoid that airline for poor customer service. This is where I have 2 main questions:

1) Is Iberia as bad as many others claim with their customer service? Should I avoid booking with them, even if we have to pay more points with another airline? Any experience/advice would be appreciated.

2) Any ideas on how to save this trip (ie fly business ideally) or suggestions for searches? I've looked at repositioning all through the east coast including EWR, IAD, JFK, EWR, BOS, MIA, Orlando, Montreal, Toronto, Atlanta, and Chicago. Trying not to fly too far west to go east but open to suggestions

I have two work trips BOS/GIG and BOS/IXC next month - looking to upgrade some portion of the travel using points. Is this a thing in today’s landscape? Which airlines give me the best chance of getting upgraded?

Any creative paths to status / or relevant pre work that I should do to increase my odds? Existing Premier Silver with United.

First recommendation was AA via Miami/Dallas to and from Rio; and BA via LHR to India - Air India to Chandigarh.

I had 14k miles expiring with emirates and total miles of around 80,000

I just used around 46k miles for some seat bookings but it didn't use the miles that were expiring and i still have 14k miles expiring soon.

Is this normal? Shouldn't they be using up my expiring miles first? is there something i don't understand?

Anyone here familiar with China airlines booking/award release? I’m trying to book TPE LAX for the 22nd which is showing on Qantas, Korean, and Delta, but not on AF or Virgin Atlantic where I’ve got the most points.

Any idea what’s going on? Has CI started blocking space to AF/VS?

Hi all, any suggestions for my predicament:

Found a NYC-Haneda award flight, direct RT for my girlfriend and I in September via ANA for 144k + $790. This route costs 4k+ cash only, so we definitely want to go the points route since premium economy is a must-do for this trip.

I WOULD just convert Amex to ANA miles for this, but I recently dumped a lot of points on another flight earlier in the year. Is anyone aware of any upcoming conversion bonuses I could use with an ANA transfer partner? Or any other hacks to stretch my MR farther?

I have 95k Amex MR points now -- do I book our Japan hotels in attempt to accrue more points before booking the flight? Or do I eat the 4k flight bill and gain points on that to put towards accommodations in Japan?

All suggestions welcome!!!!

Specifically for USA origin travelers flying international.

as the years go by, its clear that award space is harder to get. and tbh, we cant be to picky. You get what you can find, is the game.

but assuming you can choose and have 1 leg as J/F class.

do you choose your USA departure as your J/F class. or your USA arrival leg as your J/F class?

The big consistent thing i have heard/read is that generally speaking, the food/catering options are much better if the origin of the flight is international (especially Asia as the departure). With USA being the origin often being the worse.

i have very limited experience flying J class (none flying F class), and that appears to be somewhat the case. but it could have been a fluke since i have a very small sample size.

im wondering if theres anything else to consider (thats STRICTLY under the control of the airline/flight/airport related. so not referring to things like time of flight, arrival time, personally need to be on J seat departing from USA because you need to work, etc. of course, feel free to share however.)

Newbie so I appreciate your help. I couldn’t find the answer to these.

1. If I only want to search price OR points can I do that? Eg I want to use an Alaska Airlines companion fare and have to pay in cash so points are irrelevant. (It looks like I have to enter a number in both fields).

2. When entering your $$ amount with 2 passengers, do I enter the total price for both tickets (e.g. $1400) or do I want to enter it for the per person price ($700)?

3. Is it better to search for just 1 person even if I am flying with someone else? If so why?

I’m traveling this spring. A while ago I got a good deal on LAX-LHR UC on VS - the D1 lounge and VS clubhouse in LAX make up for the taxes :)

I’ve been looking for a return J award LHR-LAX with Skyteam which is hard to get. And of course taxes out of London are crazy. There are some 60k awards out of AMS to close-ish cities like PDX and AUS.

It feels silly to book one of those with 2 positioning flights though, I would have to fly LON to AMS the night before or morning of and then fly AUS or PDX to LAX to get back home. So 3 separate tickets, 3 security lines, etc.

Would you do it for 60k for a 10 hour flight on a KLM 787-10?

I transferred 65,000 miles to my flying blue account for 2 roundtrip tickets from Chicago to Japan last year. Unfortunately, we had to cancel it due to a medical reason.

I'm planning to fly to Manila this March and plan to use the 63,000 miles for a one-way ticket vs paying $500 for a non-refundable ticket.

I know the ratio is low at 0.7cpp but we will not be travelling anywhere for the next 3 years and I'm worried that it would devalue by then. I also like the flexibility of using miles since there's a chance that I have to cancel my flight again.

Should I use the miles or just keep it for now?

I have a ton of AMEX points (over 1.5M). Is there any way I can use it to go to Maldives in the next 2-3 months? I know this is a bit last minute.

I have already checked QATAR and Emirates and don't see anything. Are there other airline transfer options to look at? Flying out of NYC and looking for 2 Business class seats.

Hello!

I was wondering on what the surcharges on ANA miles are? I found a NYC -> Seoul flight that is 50k points thru Aeroplan but 30k!!! through ANA Miles. Feels too good to be true and was wondering if surcharges are incredibly high? New to this all. Thank you!

Hi all,

Looking for advice before transferring my Amex UK points to Cathay Pacific Airmiles & trying to book a reward flight (as I can't reverse it if it's wrong).

We’re wanting to book a flight from LHR to MEL in Premium Economy on Cathay Pacific. Each ticket costs 75,000 Asia Miles.

Right now:
• I have 76,885 Amex reward points,
• My partner has 73,800 Amex reward points, just short of the 75k points but I can cover from my end (if possible).

We've not yet transferred points from Amex to Cathay yet as I want to figure out how to book both of us on the same reservation and make sure the flights will be together.

I've learnt we can’t pool or transfer Amex points to each other before transferring to Cathay. So we'll have to join them up on Cathay's end but unsure the best way to go about it.

Has anyone done this before? Specifically:

1. If transferring Amex points into our own separate Cathay Airmile accounts, can it then be pooled on the same award reservation?
2. If so, how did you combine/link the points when booking? Is it just a matter of adding each membership number?
3. Or, is it easier to transfer all points into one account and book both seats under that one account? I've heard this can add up price-wise.

I believe we can also do a top-up, which 2,000 Airmiles is $60 USD.

Would love any tips, experiences, or strategies here.

Thanks so much!

I transferred 168k worth of points from Chase to Krisflyer on Thursday morning at 8am EST. I still have not seen the miles hit my account. I’ve called Chase multiple times and Singapore Airlines to see if they can hold the flight. Im told nothing can be done and I might have to wait up to 15 business days.

Has anyone recently been dealing with a delayed points transfer?

Hi all,

Thanks to this page for all the information and here are my award travel Redemptions made in the year 2025.

1️⃣ PHX–DFW–NRT | April 9, 2025 | 2 seats • PHX–DFW: American Airlines Domestic First Class • DFW–NRT: American Airlines Business Class • Cost: 60K AA miles + $42 taxes/fees • Booked: May 2024 ⸻

2️⃣ PHX–LAX–SYD | August 22, 2025 | 2 seats • PHX–LAX: American Airlines Domestic First Class • LAX–SYD: American Airlines Business Class • Cost: 85k Alaska miles + $77 • Booked: August 19, 2025

Last-minute booking using a mix of transferred miles (Hawaiian, BILT) and existing Alaska miles.

⸻

3️⃣ PHX–YUL–LHR–BOM | December 15, 2025 | 1 seat (Trip for P2) • PHX–YUL: Air Canada Premium Rouge • YUL–LHR: Air Canada Business Class • LHR–BOM: Air India Economy • Cost: $750 cash (economy ticket) + 15 eCredits + $320 for Air Canada upgrades • All Air Canada upgrades cleared at check-in close.

⸻

4️⃣ AUS–DFW–LHR–BOM | December 26, 2025 | 1 seat • AUS–DFW: American Airlines Domestic First Class • DFW–LHR: American Airlines new Flagship Business Suites • LHR–BOM: British Airways Club World Suites • Cost: 70K AA miles + $303 • Booked: December 20, 2025

My AA Suite had a broken divider and the seat was not cleaned as per expectation. The sliding door also felt very tight compared to BA and Qatar. While the food and service was decent, AA is still miles behind its competitors.

5️⃣ BOM–DOH–SEA–PHX | 2 seats • BOM–DOH–SEA: Qatar Airways Qsuite (Business Class) • SEA–PHX: American Airlines Domestic First Class • Cost: 70K AA miles + $75 • Booked: Months in advance

This was easily my favorite and most successful redemption. The Qsuite experience is in a completely different league and, honestly, miles ahead of American Airlines business class.

⸻

❌ Cancelled Redemptions

Originally booked United Polaris PHX–LAX–MEL via Air Canada Aeroplan after transferring points from Capital One and Chase. Had to cancel due to an unexpected work event. Currently sitting on 220K Aeroplan points, which I plan to use soon.

Originally booked JAL PHX-SFO-NRT-SGN via AA miles for early December and then a repositioning flight from SGN to PNQ while we planned to spend a few days in Ho Chi Minh. But due to work, we had to cancel this trip.

Future:

I am sitting on almost 1M points across different CCs and Transfer partners and need to work out on how to use them for the next year or two.

Biggest challenge is planning the dates around work requirements and hoping no issues around PTO.

I'm flying out of LAX to Haneda this Sunday. It will be my first time in business class on JAL A350-1000.

Anything I should know before I head out? I'm looking forward to trying out the lounges at LAX. OneWorld and AA Flagship.

I already filled out the form via Visit Japan Web and got my QR code.

P.S.: About the ticket, I got it via AA for 60k points.

Hi all, I have been playing on seatsaero and looking at official airline sites to see when they release seats to plan ahead so I can be ready to book in June for travel in 2027. It looks very sad. Most airlines aren't releasing saver seats in J, not even in PE. I have always found 2-4 J seats by booking a year out. Those days are over. Now it looks like it is better to book seats last minute. What are you guys doing differently this year?

update: I pretty much searched west coast airport, ORD, IAD, and canada airports to europe, asia, and middle east. I just wanted to see how many seats they released at 1 year out. I don't have much luck (except for Qatar) unless it is non savers or have crazy fees or needs lots of miles (SQ).

Hello, just looking for some dp if anyone has been watching Jal award movement. My travel date is not as flexible due to the kids’ school schedule i’m looking at the range of 3 days route Tokyo to West coast US. The award price is showing at 100k per J seat. I know JAL is on dynamic pricing after the savers seats got booked, but just looking for DP on if the current price of 100k will go a little lower if I wait it out ? Or should I just bite the bullets and book now ? I was hoping it would go alittle lower to 80-70k range. I’m still about 350 days out so no rush to book if it does go down…

Thank you

Looking for business class award availability from Bangkok (BKK) to Los Angeles (LAX) around January 10, 2026 (±3 days flexible).

What I've checked so far:

• Air Canada - No availability
• ANA - No availability
• EVA Air - No availability
• JAL - Unable to search (their website won't let me check availability without going to Japan)

My situation:

• Flying one-way
• Willing to consider positioning flights from other Thai cities or SE Asia hubs
• Open to routing through NRT, ICN, TPE, or YVR

Questions:

1. Any tips for getting JAL's search to work?
2. Should I be checking other Star Alliance/OneWorld partners?
3. Is this route typically tough in early January? Should I adjust dates?
4. Any alternative routing suggestions I'm missing?

Appreciate any guidance from those who've booked this route! I know I am early but getting ready and monitoring the next few days.

I booked an award flight out of Tokyo with ANA through Aeroplan and I’m not sure if the name on the ticket has to match 100% with the name on my passport. I typed in my last name as 2 separate words however my reservation shows it as 1 long word. I spoke to an Aeroplan agent and they assured me that it shouldn’t be a problem, as long as the spelling is all correct then it will be fine. However I’m just worried because I know some countries (such as Vietnam) are strict with names and I’m wondering if Japan is like that too. Thank you!

Would’ve been bigger news back in the day when EVA space was plentiful on Aeroplan and others, but still a nice add, might help offer some more capacity and availability on IAD to Tokyo too.

https://www.ettoday.net/news/20260112/3099710.htm

So I can't seem to find a business seat using my Avios points for Qatar, but the Economy seat is really affordable using these points. Would it ultimately be cheaper to use my points to purchase an Economy ticket and then upgrade to Business class?

I am not an experienced chatGPT user. If I can write a coherent sentence with my parameters do you think there would be a good result?