Reader request: New York to London with Chase points

For the couple people who read my blog regularly, I apologize for the month-long hiatus as I was unable to type with both hands due to shoulder surgery.

This past weekend a WenneTravel reader sent in a request for help booking a flight to London from New York City. She had close to 100,000 Chase points from her Chase Ink credit card (thanks in no small part to a 50,000-point signup bonus), and was looking to use those to finance her trip.

Booking airfare vs. transferring points to airlines

Chase's Ultimate Rewards points are valuable but also complicated because they can be used in two ways. The first way, which is the easy way, is to simply purchase airfare, hotel rooms, or rental cars on Chase's website. Each point is worth 1.2 cents, so a $500 airfare would cost 41,600 Ultimate Rewards points.

The second way is to actually change your Ultimate Rewards points into airline miles or hotel points. Let's say you look on United's website and you see a flight costs 25,000 miles. You can send 25,000 Ultimate Rewards points to United and buy that flight. The same can be done with: British Airways, Southwest, Marriott, Hyatt, Virgin Atlantic, Amtrak, and more.

Airline miles options

3 airlines that partner with Chase provide nonstop service between NYC and London: United, British Airways, and Virgin Atlantic. I made a fake booking on each one to determine the mileage price and taxes/fees:

United - 60,000 miles + $200
Virgin Atlantic - 35,000 miles + $450
British Airways - 40,000 miles + $700

Why the ridiculous taxes/fees? Every airport charges airlines to land planes there. Heathrow's charge is on the very high end. Their fee is based on how far the plane has traveled to get there, meaning that flights over the Atlantic are expensive. Airlines pass that charge on to customers, so generally if you are traveling anywhere but London you should avoid going through Heathrow.

Fare options

As I mentioned before, you can also just buy airfare directly through Chase's website with your points. The best fare:

Delta - $880 = 70,000 Ultimate Rewards points

Which option is the right choice?

Immediately we can cross off British Airways. Compared to Virgin Atlantic, they are more expensive in both miles and dollars. The other thing we can do is cross off United, because for just 10,000 more points we can save $200 by flying Delta. So the choices really come down to personal preference between spending more points or spending more money.
Personally, I feel that Ultimate Rewards points can get far better value than they're getting on this route. Virgin Atlantic costs 35,000 miles + $450, so we can calculate the points' value by doing the following math:

$880 (cheapest fare) - $450 (VA taxes/fees) = $430
$430/35,000 miles = 1.2 cents per mile

1.2 cents per mile is actually the minimum value you should get out of your Chase points, because that is their value when used directly on airfare. When I transfer 9,000 points to British Airways to fly between DC and Chicago, I'm saving myself a $250+ airfare, which works out to nearly 3 cents per mile of value. Similary, taking Amtrak anywhere along the Northeast corridor between DC and Boston costs 8,000 Chase points roundtrip when transferred to Amtrak. These trains easily cost $200 roundtrip themselves, giving you 2.5 cents per mile of value, more than twice what you're getting on this route.

So my recommendation is to transfer 35,000 Chase points to Virgin Atlantic ticket and pay the $450. Save those points for another day!

Understanding the merger of US Airways and American Airlines, and what it could mean for you

In early December, American Airlines and US Airways announced that they were going to merge, having finally gotten the approval of the Department of Justice. Here are the basics you need to know:

1. US Airways is going away and all their planes, flight crews, and branding will become American Airlines.
2. The new American will have all the old American hubs plus all the US Airways hubs.
3. The combined airline will be in the Oneworld alliance.

Why I’m ecstatic about the merger

1. The merged airline will be in Oneworld

American Airlines is currently in Oneworld, while US Airways is in the Star Alliance. The airlines won’t be completely combined for a year at least I would guess, but in the meantime US Airways will be leaving Star Alliance and joining Oneworld. This will happen on March 31.

Why does this matter to me, and perhaps to you as well? Because my favorite airline in the world is in Oneworld, British Airways. I spend 9,000 British Airways miles (Avios) to fly American between DC and Chicago. When US Airways joins Oneworld, I’ll be able to spend 9,000 miles to fly so many more places. This is because US Airways has a hub at my home airport, Washington-Reagan. I will be able to use 4,500 Avios to fly one-way anywhere from DCA that is 650 miles or less. Here’s a visual.

For those that live at a US Airways hub, the same will be true for you. Their hubs are Charlotte, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Washington DC. Start earning those Avios!

2. One airline will fly between all of my top destinations

I fly to Saint Louis for work and Chicago and Boston for girlfriend and family. Currently, AA serves Saint Louis and Chicago from DC, while US Airways serves Boston. Now I will be able to fly one airline between all of them, meaning I can earn both elite status and miles faster.

3. US Airways Dividend Miles are going away

US Airways consistently has had some of the worst award availability of any carrier, plus they charge some ridiculous fees to use your miles. Now technically US Airways is taking over American and just using American’s name, but since they’re using American’s AAdvantage program I’m assuming (or maybe hoping) that they will keep American’s more liberal award availability policy.

4. Dividend Miles will become AAdvantage miles

This is kind of a corollary of the last one, but all my Dividend Miles and AAdvantage miles will be combined at some point. The US Airways Barclaycard has been kind to me, and I’ve earned about 150,000 US Airways miles by signing up for a few of them. Now all of those miles will be actually useful!

Why I’m nervous

The merger won’t be all great news for customers, especially leisure travelers who are more price-sensitive.

1. One less airline means less competition

Last year there were five major airlines that had a nationwide presence: American, US Airways, United, Delta, and Southwest. This year there will be four. Theoretically the new American should be the same size as American and US Airways individually, but I would guess they will start trimming flights on routes where they offer too many as a combined airline. Plus, the deal they made with the Department of Justice stipulated they have to give up some flights at Reagan, O’Hare, La Guardia, Logan, Dallas-Love, LAX and Miami, so they’ll legally have to fly fewer flights. Four airlines instead of five means that fares will remain higher because there will be fewer seats available for purchase and fewer airlines to begin fare wars. This will hit leisure travelers especially hard in my opinion.

2. One less airline means one less award program

By the same token that fewer seats will mean higher fares, fewer seats will also mean less award availability. Flights will be fuller, and airlines don’t tend to sell cheap award tickets when flights are full. Whenever I’m looking for flights, I like looking at all of the major airlines’ award programs to see who has the best deal for the route I’m looking at. Granted, US Airways never won this competition. Seriously, not once in my two years of possessing US Airways miles. But it will still make finding award seats tougher when there is one less airline making them available.

3. Loss of the Barclaycard

US Airways’ credit card, as I mentioned, is a treasure trove of free points. You sign up, make one purchase, and earn 35,000 miles. No annual fee the first year. And I’ve gotten three different cards in the past year. Sad to see it go as the new American will stick with American’s current suite of Citi credit cards. Sign up for the Barclaycard while you still can.

4. Loss of lounge access with Amex Platinum

A month ago, Amex announced that the combined US Airways and American Airlines were not going to renew their contract with Amex Platinum. Currently, Platinum cardholders get unlimited access to both airlines’ airport lounges, a benefit I use almost every single time I fly. Now I will have to either buy membership in the new American’s Admirals Club for $500 a year, or get the Citi Executive card, which is also $500 a year, in order to retain my access.

Today’s news

The combined airline had mentioned that there would be a merger-related announcement on January 7, and this morning I received an email with some good news. Starting today, the following will take place:

1. You can now earn and redeem US Airways miles on American Airlines and vice-versa

This makes one-way award tickets on US Airways now possible by using AAdvantage miles.

2. Elites will receive reciprocal benefits on both airlines

Now when I fly home I can get priority boarding and free checked bags using my AAdvantage Gold.

3. Reciprocal lounge access

Members of either club can now visit both.

4. Codesharing (in two weeks)

This means you’ll be able to piece together fares and award tickets using flights on both airlines. For instance, if you buy a ticket from Phoenix to Boston via Dallas, you could fly US Airways to Dallas and American to Boston but have your bags transferred like you were flying one airline.

If you have questions about the merger and what it means for you, feel free to reach out via Twitter @wennecorp or by posting a comment here.

An important development at Air Canada for holders of Amex Membership Rewards points

Amex Membership Rewards are a great currency. You can earn them very easily with a number of different Amex cards, including Premier Rewards Gold and Platinum, both of which offer signup bonuses.

The points are usable like cash on Amex’s travel website at one cent apiece. This means you can use the points to purchase airfare, hotels, rental cars, and other forms of travel. This is a good feature, but what makes Membership Rewards great is the ability to transfer the points to many airlines as miles. Some of these airlines are well-known, like Delta and JetBlue. 25,000 MR points can become 25,000 Delta SkyMiles instantly. Oddly enough, however, Delta and JetBlue are probably the worst partners that Amex transfers to in terms of value.

My personal favorites? Air Canada and ANA. You might have heard of Air Canada, being the national airline of…Canada. And ANA is All Nippon Airways, a large airline in Japan. These are my two favorite airlines despite my having never flown either of them.

These programs are my favorites for a few reasons, the first of which is that they’re both in the Star Alliance. Star Alliance includes United Airlines, US Airways (for a couple more months), Lufthansa, and some other major airlines all over the world. I can use ANA or Air Canada miles to fly on these partner airlines.

Second, they’re both great programs for specific uses. ANA charges you based on the total distance you fly roundtrip. You can fly a lot of short flights, something that might cost hundreds of thousands of miles on a regular airline, for just 20,000 miles with ANA. It’s perfect for complicated trips. Last August I was able to book two roundtrips on United, one from DC to New Orleans and the other from DC to Chicago, on one ticket for just 22,000 ANA miles. That would have cost 50,000 United miles for the same flights.

Air Canada, on the other hand, is great because they don’t charge last-minute booking fees. I can book a flight on United or US Airways only a few days before I want to leave and it only costs me a few dollars, versus the $75+ it would cost me to book the same flights with United or US Airways miles.

The new development

Starting January 1 (2 days ago), Air Canada began allowing one-way tickets for exactly half the price of a roundtrip. Previously a one-way ticket cost something like 70% of a roundtrip, meaning one-ways just didn’t make sense to purchase with Air Canada.

This development is huge because it makes the program much more flexible. Now if I want to fly one-way in Star Alliance I’m not limited to just United miles anymore. My American Express points can transfer to Air Canada, which I can use to book the same flights as United miles can. For last-minute, one-way trips, this is now the best program in Star Alliance for me.

How to find flights

Air Canada’s mileage program is called Aeroplan, and it can be accessed at www.aeroplan.com. Creating an account takes just a few minutes. Once you’re done, you can log on and click “Use points” and then choose “Flights” from the drop-down menu. Enter your search and it will bring up any flights bookable with Aeroplan miles. DC to San Francisco on United, for instance, is 12,500 one-way, plus about $5 in fees for next Saturday, January 11. The same flight would cost 12,500 miles plus $77.50 with United miles.

How to transfer Membership Rewards points to Aeroplan

Log in to your Amex account and click on your MR-earning card. On the right you will see your points balance. Underneath your points balance click “Use Points”.

On the MR page that appears, one of the drop-down bars is labeled “Use Points”. In this drop-down, click “Travel”.

On the “Travel” page, the left black column has “Other Travel”. Choose “Airlines” in this menu.

A list of airlines you can transfer points to will appear. Aeroplan is the second choice. Transfer away!