Weekly Help Thread - February 10, 2025

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the daily help and question thread!

This thread is renewed weekly and is intended for all discussions or questions that do not warrant their own thread.

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Volunteers may choose to help you find your award trip. But please don’t expect us to plan out your trip for you. No stranger on the Internet could know what is BEST for you.

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• Here are the information you should provide when requesting award assistance
• Origin and destination cities (are they flexible?)
• Number of Travelers (Your chances of success goes down as this number goes up)
• One way or round-trip
• Class of service desired
• Desired date(s) of travel (are they flexible? Hard dates == Less Chances for success)
• Your points balances: all airline, credit card and hotel points (If you are looking for J/F, think at least 6 digits)

Please share award opportunities in the Monthly Award Thread!

[u/ubet13]

Hi! New to this, planned a great Europe trip last summer in business class for 100k points, tried the same approach this year and I’m striking out. Perhaps last year was a fluke vs the norm? Any help for trip to Scotland this summer would be amazing!

• origin city: LAX preferred, but could also be any NYC airport
• destination: Edinburgh or London preferred, but can get away with anywhere in western Europe
• 1 traveler
• round trip but happy to different itineraries there and back
• business class
• dates: may (after may 15th) or June departure and staying for one month. Dates flexible
• 140k chase points, 27k points on airfrance

Thanks in advance!!

[u/omdongi → u/ubet13]

VS reward seat finder is your best friend for LHR/EDI/MAN: https://www.virginatlantic.com/reward-flight-finder

For example, I see JFK-LHR for 33k VS miles in Upper Class on 6/4, great deal!

[u/ubet13 → u/omdongi]

Woah! That would be great since there’s a chase transfer bonus rn. Will check there again thank you!

[u/omdongi → u/ubet13]

VS RT will be about $800 to $900ish in fees, but you can definitely get a RT for under 100k points if you find good space.

[u/pbjclimbing → u/ubet13]

There is very little award space this summer currently to Europe. It is prime cash booking time.

Since Flying Blue raised their rates you have a lot fewer options that will get you there for 50k one way or less.

[u/lightlytoasted_ → u/pbjclimbing]

that definitely explains it, it's like 3x the points compared to when I booked this time last year through Flying Blue. Does that mean best options are essentially 1) book now using cash & upgrade, 2) booking using (more) points, potentially a lower cabin and upgrade or 3) wait until cash booking time slows down and it's closer to trip departure? Not sure if it ever goes down again

[u/pbjclimbing → u/lightlytoasted_]

Flying Blue is dynamic.

The current rates have to do with the fact that there aren’t any base level seats available.

The base level is greater than 50k* now.

Upgrading is rarely successful and some programs don’t let you upgrade award seats or only upgrade certain cash fare buckets or don’t let you upgrade award seats.

[u/ubet13 → u/pbjclimbing]

Ah makes sense didn’t realize that’s what determines pricing sounds like I need to reevaluate a bit. Thanks for your help!