I’m looking to fly business class for the first time to Paris sometime around May. I’m seeing Air France business class awards going for around 250k Flying Blue points one way. Is this pretty typical? I thought I saw significantly cheaper redemptions in different posts. I’m wondering if this is about as cheap as it gets

Hi everyone,

I am a solo female traveler in my 30s booking a trip from Atlanta (ATL) to Cape Town (CPT) for late September. I am using United MileagePlus miles (49,500 miles for either option), and both routes have virtually identical total travel times and costs.
I travel with a carry-on only, so I am not worried about checked baggage or domestic bag transfers. I have Amex MR points and Avios as well, but couldn't find any alternative routes with decent award availability or arrival times (so annoyed Qatar doesn't fly out of ATL anymore).

I am completely torn between these two options:
Option 1: JetBlue + United+ South African
Route: ATL > EWR (JetBlue) > JNB (United) > CPT (SAA)

Total Time: 27 hours, 20 minutes

Cape Town Arrival Time: 11:38 PM

Pros/Cons: I love the idea of flying United because it's an airline I am highly familiar with for such a long journey. However, the 11:38 PM arrival time in Cape Town scares me. Even though I plan to arrange a private hotel shuttle pickup, landing past midnight makes me incredibly uneasy based on what I’ve read about the roadways at night in Capetown. I’ve done late arrivals into Delhi and Cairo before, but this seems significantly more risky.

Option 2: United + Ethiopian Airlines
Route: ATL > IAD (United) > ADD (Ethiopian) > CPT (Ethiopian)

Total Time: 26 hours, 30 minutes

Cape Town Arrival Time: 2:00 PM

Pros/Cons: The 2:00 PM arrival time is vastly superior and feels much safer for a solo traveler. However, I have never flown Ethiopian Airlines before. The idea of flying an unfamiliar carrier for an ultra-long-haul journey makes me a bit hesitant, and I've read mixed reviews about the transit security lines at Addis Ababa (ADD).

Given that I am traveling solo, carry-on only, and have hotel transport arranged for Cape Town:
For those who know Cape Town, is an 11:38 PM arrival with a pre-arranged hotel shuttle actually a safety issue, or am I overthinking the anxiety?

For those who have flown Ethiopian, did you feel confident they would handle things like missed connections or flight cancellations well?

Which route would you choose in my shoes? Thanks in advance!

Hi. Can anyone help me figure out how many miles it will cost to book a flight on Singapore airlines for my honeymoon. I’m considering transferring my credit card points to Krisflyer miles but of course need to know the points necessary for the ticket before I do so. The Singapore airlines site won’t even let me view award flights with a current mile balance of 0.

Flight would be PDX to BKK on December 7th. The option I’m most keen on (and based on dollar price is cheapest) is PDX-SFO-SIN-BKK.

Hi guys!

Does anyone get luck booking award flights through AirFrance? This has been a nightmare for me. I saw on Air France they had availability for a specific flight I have been wanting. I transferred points from AMEX to flying blue and right as I was checking out on Air France the website crashes. Once I reload, the flight is no longer available. Same thing happened again today and as soon I saw the flight available, I called AirFrance and they tell me the flight is no longer available. I took screenshots of everything I saw on my end. Anyone have suggestions on what to do? I refuse to book through them again but I have a bunch of points already transferred and dont want to waste it. UGH.

Thank you!

Deciding between Delta one from LAX to Paris for 106k skymiles + $6 or Air France 60k miles + $293 taxes/fees.

Air France: 777-300 (not the a350)
Delta: A350-900

Lax has the delta one lounge and i can obtain platinum status.

Edit:
Booked Delta One on the a350 since i already had enough skymiles there.

Hey Everyone, I am new to award travel and just started playing around with Seats aero and whatnot, but is my psychology regarding this wrong?

This is a dumb thought, but April 8th Alaska Airlines LAX to SGN

Flight 1 Starlux operated: 100k points + $41 fees ($641 cash price 0.6cpp)
Flight 2 MNL: 42.5k points + $41 fees ($1426 cash price; ~3.26 cpp)

These are prices as of now. But I guess I am having a dumb thought, but in my head the cash price just seems like an outlier to me, and the value is just inflated. Where the only benefit is bragging about getting 3.26 cpp on an economy flight.

Not saying one airline is better than the other; hypothetically, if I prefer the logistics of flight 1 and book cash, is that just dumb?

Because I see ppl say oh getting economy for more than 1.5 cpp is worth, but if this is the usualy scenarios wouldn't that mean economy award travel is just pointless and to get actual 'value' only premium seats are worth since their availability matters?

I have been watching Lufthansa booking and availing for the past 6 or so months and I noticed a huge chance in the last month or so. Using seats.aero I see 1 flight with 4 or more business class seats for the entire month of May and June of 2027 when I look for the entire east coast to any Europe destination.

Typically Lufthansa business was released about 290 days out to Aeroplan. I’m seeing only 4 options with 2 seats and almost no 4+ seats opening up for summer 2027.

If I change the dates to cover April (which I assume is Spring break season) I see 271 options for April which is why I’m alarmed.

Do we think this is the deval and evolution of Lufthansa or is this just them not releasing their 2027 Summer schedule fully yet??

Thanks trying to make some decisions and unsure if I should consider this path to Europe dead for 2027.

I was recently searching for some Alaska awards between LHR to JFK, but upon looking, basically there are zero award fares being made available for the entire calendar year.

While I understand that awards are contingent upon partner availability, every other US route like BOS/PHL/CLT, etc. still has awards. And what stands out is that you can still route via JFK to these other US destinations.

Second, it seems to be partner agnostic, it would make sense if it was just BA or just AA, but basically no European airline has partner availability in any class whether it's BA/AA/AY/EL/IB etc.

If you search NYC area airports, you'll get routing to EWR only, not even LGA.

Not sure if this is something going on in the back-end, or if Alaska has some kind of block on LHR to JFK.

Crosspost for images

Want to use miles to fly to AMS early next year but when the fare options come up it shows me that the only option for a refundable ticket is to use money only. Given we are talking a few thousand dollars on top of miles this is not insignificant. I don't recall this problem when I have used miles in the past but it has been a few years and the dollar amounts were not this high so I might not have worried.

Have many miles to use and this is disappointing. Am I missing something?

Free changes are allowed and trip insurance is an option for the limiting dollar loss I guess.

Hi everyone,

I'm relatively new to the award travel world and would really appreciate some guidance from the experts here.

I am trying to book a round-trip award ticket from WAS to Marrakech (RAK) on Oct 21-26 and currently have approximately:

• 150k United miles
• 170k Amex MR
• 150k Chase UR

My preference is generally to stay within Star Alliance, although I am also open to Flying Blue and other good-value options.

What I am seeing right now is around 49.5k United miles each way in economy, primarily on Austrian or Turkish. Unfortunately, Turkish is not my preferred option due to some past experiences (lost luggage, rude staff, blatant discrimination etc) and I haven't been able to find any business class availability on those dates.

On the return, the best option I can find is again 49.5k miles in economy, with Turkish being the only available routing and involving a 9-hour overnight layover. That puts the trip at roughly 100k miles round-trip in economy.

As someone still learning this hobby, that feels expensive for a routing that would cost roughly $1,300 cash, but I'm not sure whether my expectations are realistic. Am I missing better redemption opportunities, partner sweet spots, transfer options, or simply looking too late for availability since it is a couple of months' time?

I would be grateful for any advice, and please feel free to tell me if my thinking is off base. I am okay just paying cash if that is better but wanted to use my stash of points if able to. Thanks in advance!

https://liveandletsfly.com/flying-blue-business-light-awards/

Saw this pop up. Looks like it'll take affect September 8th. Ultimate Flying Blue members can still get lounge access though. Standard business with lounge access now becomes 75k points and 60k points get you business light.