Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Moscow for less than $75


WenneTravel received a question today about using miles to go to Moscow. Unfortunately Moscow is a very difficult place to get to on most airline miles. Take a look at British Airways, for instance:



Just for a one-way ticket it costs over $300 alone in fees to get to Moscow from the U.S. Same with Air France, which Delta miles can be used on:



Here you’re spending nearly $200 in fees going one-way. Same with Air Canada, a partner of United’s:



As we often do, we’re going to recommend using United miles to get over there. Here is our itinerary:

NYC to Moscow
Moscow to NYC

And the credit cards we’ll be signing up for:

Chase Sapphire Preferred
40,000 points after $3,000 spend in 3 months
No annual fee first year

Chase Ink Bold
50,000 points after $5,000 spend in 3 months
No annual fee first year

Total General Points: 98,000
Total Cost: $0

Flights

As you know, Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer to United at a 1:1 ratio. The flight to Moscow costs 60,000 United miles, so we will transfer that many miles from Chase to United. And thanks to Star Alliance’s large European presence, there are plenty of options to fly using United miles. Availability looks pretty good in July:



On July 9 we’ll pick the following flight:



The return doesn’t look quite as promising:



But a little searching around reveals a good flight on the 17th:



This brings us to a total price of:



Given the costs I showed above for other carriers, I cannot stress enough how great it is to have United miles. This is consistently one of the best airlines to earn miles with, given their partnership with Chase, and also to redeem miles with, because of their low taxes/fees as well as easy-to-use website.

Total Miles Used: 60,000
Total Cost: $74.90

Here’s a look at the actual price for flights on the same days:

Flights



Total Savings: $875

Need help thinking about the right credit cards for you, or how to book this kind of trip? Head over to WenneTravel at www.wennecorp.com and we’d be happy to chat with you.

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