0:21 Transfer Bonuses
- Chase UR to Marriott Bonvoy: 70% (through Aug 14, 2024) EXPIRES SOON
- Amex MR to Avios: 30% (through Sept 30, 2024)
- Amex MR to Hawaiian: 20% (through Aug 31, 2024)
- CapOne to Qantas: 20% (through Aug 31, 2024)
08:24 United Premium Cabin Awards (on United Metal) Gets Even More Expensive (Live and Lets Fly)
- We’ve talked a lot the past year or two about this being a bail out maneuver when there are no partner awards
- 200k pp one-way to Europe now as good as it seems to get for “anytime” awards (was 155k)
- Discuss: The current state of AA, Delta, and United miles
15:21 JetBlue Plus 80,000
- Direct Link
- Found on jetblue.com
- $99 AF not waived first year
- $1k min spend in 3 months
- Regularly 50k
16:14 Heightened Amex Bonvoy Welcome Bonuses
- Bonvoy Bevy
- 155k for $5k in 6 months
- $250 AF not waived first year
- Bonvoy Brilliant
- 185k for $6k in 6 months
- $650 AF not waived first year
- Available through referral
- Better offers said to end Oct 2, 2024
Main Topic: Partner Award Bookings
17:59 Qantas As An Alternative to British Airways for Domestic AA Partners Awards
- Saw one-way flights from State College to Boston through PHL on AA for around 10k/12.5k
- Flights were $300 pp one-way
- Thought I might have to use some precious AA miles, but noticed there was partner availability!
- BA wants 24k pp one-way in Economy
- But Qantas wants just 8k, and what a pleasure of a site to work with…
- They allow you to enter the FF # of AA/Alaska at the time of booking
- They clearly lay out the change and cancellation terms at the time of booking
- The record locator can be discovered (for seat selection) by checking your AA account (it just works!)
- So much better than booking with BA ever was. Why did BA get so much press back in the day?
23:42 Booking JetBlue Mint with Qatar Avios
- Space can be confirmed on ITA Matrix or Qatar’s site
- Amex MR -> BA Avios: Instant
- BA Avios -> Qatar Avios: Also instant. I established that link before.
- One gotcha: I haven’t been able to link P2’s BA Avios to her Qatar Avios account. I suspect it might be because I have my mobile number listed for both of our accounts, and there’s a lot of 2FA involved in all of this. Just a hunch.
- Online booking w/Qatar Avios is pretty straightforward. They do ask for passport number and expiration dates, which is unusual for a domestic flight.
- They have a field for adding Known Traveler Number at the time of booking, but it asks for the expiration date of KTN which I don’t know so I couldn’t add it
- I didn’t see a way to select a 3rd party frequent flyer number at the time of booking an award ticket. Non-related Qantas allows this which is really nice.
- Record locator to manage the flights (add KTN and select seats) on JetBlue’s side can be found in the individual receipt emails they send each passenger, or by chatting Qatar
- Hardest part is getting JetBlue’s IT to behave and recognize that record locator
- When I’m logged in to JetBlue I can’t add itineraries to manage. I have to be logged out.
- When I’m logged out it kept telling me my birthday didn’t match the record locator. But I’m certain the birthdays are accurate.
- I ended up having to message JetBlue on Twitter DM to select seats and add KTN numbers, whic his annoying
- The flights were $1,200+ pp one-way so with the 30% transfer bonus it made sense to book this way
- I think cancellations can be made online for a $25 fee up to 24 hours prior to departure
- All in all, assuming you’ve got the accounts established and the links set up this isn’t too bad of a booking process (much better terms than Etihad)
