Wanted to share a data point since I saw others hit the same issue. Qantas’s site was showing JAL first class award space (DCA/IAD–JFK/ORD–HND) that didn’t actually exist — every booking attempt failed with system errors, and a Qantas agent later confirmed on the phone that the seats were never real.

Rookie mistake on my end: I transferred first and tried to book second. ~400K Amex MR points went to Qantas before I’d actually locked in the seats, which Amex normally treats as irreversible. Lesson learned — call and verify availability before transferring, not after.

I filed complaints with Qantas, Amex, and the Airline Customer Advocate (ACA), kept everything in writing, and pushed back when initial reps said nothing could be done.

About 7 weeks later, Qantas Executive Relations agreed in writing to reverse the points as a “one-off goodwill gesture.” It just landed.

Takeaways:

• Verify availability by phone before transferring
• Document every error code and rep name
• Escalate past first-line support — don’t assume “irreversible” is final if the airline’s system was at fault
• Pester the airline as much as possible — persistence is what got this resolved

I was snooping around the LifeMiles website and noticed they had a disclaimer at the bottom of the LimeMiles+ subscription page that said the free cancellation/change benefit was no longer available to new subscribers.

I'm not a subscriber at the moment, but I was a few years ago when I used LifeMiles frequently. The free cancellation/change benefit saved me so many times, and while it was a pain to have to call customer service to cancel, I never had an issue dealing with them and always found their agents to be friendly and efficient.

Avianca is truly sucking the life out of the program - I always saw LifeMiles as the "black diamond" of FFPs in that it was for "experts" only. Website requires the patience of a saint to deal with. So many functions require speaking to customer service. Some redemptions have to be booked via email (and feel borderline scammy). But we were rewarded with insanely good deals.

Gone are the days of booking last minute LifeMiles redemptions on UA from IAD to LHR/CDG for just 20k points.

Their mixed cabin award pricing is gone.

Those weird pricing anomalies that made no sense (IAD-LIS in J on TAP for 35k points) are gone.

I get Avianca is a business and I know they have a financial case to make these changes, but it's just sad to see one of the last remaining "fun" FFPs basically make so many changes.

Got a flight I want to book for P2 and I in a month and I’m wondering if anyone has tried using the QR shopping portal to credit Avios to their account and unlock the ability to add to the list.

If not I guess I’m spending $100 on a B6 flight to JFK and taking the train home.

I have the CSR and I’m looking to book a 7-night Hawaii stay at the Andaz Maui, transferring 365k UR points to Hyatt.

I’m wondering if this is the right use of my points. FWIW my partner and I have always wanted to go to Hawaii.

The total cash rate for the time period I’m looking at (May/june) would be around $6250. I’m not very experienced in award travel but 1.6 cpp isn’t terrible? Just want to know if I’m doing the right thing burning that many points

Used to get my hopes up after seeing JAL A35K inventory for 60-80k AAdvantage, but now I just assume it’s phantom.

https://ibb.co/xK3fyZnX

Same set of tickets on Etihad:
Cash only costs me AED 3980

Cash + miles costs me AED 5320 + 133574 miles

What's going on here?

Looking for advice on what, if anything, I can get with my points.

Amex - 30k Avios - 9k Aeroplan - 8.5k

Not sure if I should consolidate these for max effect or wait til I have more. I want to fly London - Peru and I know this is nowhere near enough to get me there but wanted to know if it was possible to use these to reduce the price?

When booking an international business class ticket on United with miles, why is there such a hefty additional miles fee? I'm paying 90,000 miles and then it also charges me an additional $556. Is also seems to inconsistently show up. https://imgur.com/a/QuEYB8e

I’m planning a trip to Japan for Jan/Feb 2027. I’ve got a good chunk of Capital One Venture X points that transfer to JAL.

I’ve been checking the JAL site daily for saver-rate seats (55k points, business class) one-way from NYC or BOS to HND, but nothing’s opened up for Jan/Feb yet. (After researching I realize its most likely too late and I should’ve been looking since early this year)

What I *did* find is a “plus rate” seat: 75k points, business class, HND → JFK in Feb (the return leg only).

So now I’m stuck deciding between three options:

1. Grab that 75k return seat now, keep hunting for a saver-rate seat for the outbound leg
   
2. Just buy an economy/prem economy seat outright for the way there, save points
   
3. Sit tight and hold all my points until I can snag saver rates both ways

Anyone dealt with a similar situation? Is locking in the return now a smart move, or does that usually backfire?

I have about 250k Chase ultimate reward points and I’m thinking of transferring them to United for a one way business class ticket from US to Japan which costs 220k miles. I know this is way more than the theoretical bargains but based on researching this subreddit, those are practically impossible to get.

So is there actually a better way to use my points? 220k points for a $4000 ticket still seems like a pretty good redemption value.

I've been racking cc and their welcome bonuses, cause I've started to see the money I can make by redeeming them well. I know its tough, but getting the hang of it and in the last redemption I saved around 350$.

this forum has many point nerds, but I also assume some of them aren't good or/and just frustrated with it cause you start with similar expereinces, so I’m trying to better understand whats your real friction? Is it -

- the headache when trying to redeem points? (availability, confusing transfer partners, bad value, too many tabs, fear of messing up, etc.
- Have you tried and then given up and started cashing out points cause its easier?
- what would make redeeming points actually feel easy and worth it for you?

If your a points geek, your earlier experience might be worth it. But for the rest, who tried and failed, or never tried, how do you feel?

As many have discussed, in several posts about 4 months ago. I have tried to transfer my AmEx points to Air Canada's Aeroplan and the points haven't shown up. It's been half a week and when I called AmEx they just said "wait". I resubmitted the transfer on AmEx's website already with no success.

Old posts talk about the points being rejected, or there being a glitch. Anyone have any experience how to get this figured out so I can book?

Thanks, much appreciated for your time!

I have been sitting on over half a million UR points for a couple years now, and decided I should spend them if it made sense before the 4:3 devaluation took place this fall.

Booked:
3 nights Hotel Martinez, Cannes - 260k points (Cash rate €1250/night)
5 nights Hotel Palais de la Mediterranee, Nice - 185k points (Cash rate €950/night)

Total spend of 445k UR points for 8 nights in the French Riviera next month, cannot wait!

How did I do?

EDIT: This is ‘leisure’ travel, think friends and family, and only short term so I am covering the cost, hence cheapest is my number one priority. I have a United Explorer card. I’m short: is there any way I can fly economy plus, when booking a basic economy ticket, other than outright shelling out for an extra leg room seat, each flight?

So I’m starting a new job in August where I’ll be flying AUS to DC about 3x a month, plus 4ish trips to Europe. Used to have United Premier status a while back but lost it during a couple lighter travel years in grad school, and they won’t reinstate it even though I explained the new travel is about to kick in hard.

Problem is AUS-DC only has nonstop options on United and Southwest - American and Delta would mean connecting every single trip, which sucks for a 3x/month thing.

I dug into all three programs a bit and they’re basically the same trap right now: United needs PQP plus a minimum of 15 actual qualifying flights, and Basic Economy gets you the points but zero credit toward that flight minimum. Delta’s the same deal, basic fares don’t count toward upgrades no matter your Medallion status. And AA just gutted their Basic Economy upgrade eligibility for elites entirely as of a couple months ago, so even top status doesn’t save you there anymore.

I also actually need the legroom for a medical thing, so this isn’t a really a nice to have situation for me (even though my top priority is keep costs down i.e. basic economy so I can make it work), the upgrade access would be nice though.

So I’m stuck - United’s the only real nonstop option but they’re being stubborn about status (which frankly might not even be worth the squeeze as I’ll probably be doing basic economy for these segments), and going Delta or AA means eating a connection every trip in exchange for maybe-better upgrade odds down the line.

Anyone been in a similar spot with a hub gap like this? Any glaring pros / cons I’m missing? Is it worth taking the connection hit for a program that treats you better, or just grind it out with United since the routing is so much better?

Trying to figure out a strategy before this travel actually starts in August. Appreciate any input.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Thinking of booking a one way JFK - HAN with 37.5k Citi TYP. Should I create an AA login to book this or do it through Citi portal? Is it a good deal?

In the past, i’ve had luck getting my MR credited back from AC due to proven phantom availability. I will now be trying to do the same with JB after cancelations. Anyone else get their points back after transfer?

So we’re planning a 10-night trip to Oahu, Waikiki area, in November (dates are fixed). Looking on Marriott, any mid- to high-tier properties are well over 500K points + fees.

I have about 425,000 points with Marriott and one free night award (up to 40K points).

Since I’m around 50K-70K points short, I was thinking of transferring some points from my Amex account. I understand there’s currently no transfer bonus, so it wouldn’t be the most strategic option.

Are there smarter ways of using my points that I’m missing, rather than just booking straight with Marriott or doing a 1:1 Amex-to-Marriott transfer?

Unfortunately, I would’ve been able to use the points I had before the devaluation, but bad timing, I guess.

I am looking to make my first redemption, SFO - MUC in business, in mid August. I have had points alerts on and today the first two showed up as options:

Option 1
57.5k AA miles + $60
SFO - LAX (6h layover) - LHR (4h layover) - MUC
All first/business (777 for overseas), AA for first two then BA
REFUNDABLE - I can book this while waiting for Option 3 (currently "holding" it for 24h, I have 80k AA miles)

Option 2
75K AC miles + $96 (from C1 or Chase)
SFO - ZRH (1h5m layover, with longer options) - MUC
All business on Swiss (777 for overseas)
$75 change fee, available on many days in the last month

Option 3 (not yet available - seems like it often shows up exactly 3wk before)
75K AC miles + $57
SFO - MUC direct
Business on Lufthansa (A380)

It seems to me like the Lufthansa direct is the best option. Swiss also seems like a good option, while AA has poor routing and I also value AA miles a bit higher than C1 miles since I can use them on economy. I'm not sure if I should lock in the Swiss route now, or book AA waiting for Lufthansa. I currently have an AA economy flight booked for 20k miles, and I have never flown business so I want to try on this route. I've also seen some Lufthansa flights with a connection in FRA show up.

Does anybody have any experience with these routes/airlines? Would y'all recommend locking in swiss, waiting for the lufthansa flight, or another option? Are these the best options on this route?

Edit: had wrong change fee

I have been on the hunt for EVA air business class tickets from the east coast for December (2026) for 2 travels (final destination is Vietnam) but I’ve seen nothing via Aero plan. Moving points over directly to EVA and redemption is so difficult i’m not sure it’s worth the risk even with the current capital one transfer bonus. I know flights are released 1 year out. Is it likely that there will be more availability for Business Class seats for December or am I out of luck? I’m even willing to consider late november for travel as well.

Also if anyone has any insight on upgrading economy award tickets with EVA please share. Are cash upgrades allowed prior to or at check in?

We’re waiting to pull up to our gate and have about 2.5 hours before flying out. Any recommendations on which lounge to use?

Based on numerous online DPs, many SQ accounts now require some sort of account activity in the account to search for award flights. You'll get a pop-up saying "redemption ineligible" if you cannot.

Need to credit some sort of miles to SQ to get around it (I think bank transfers also work, but I didn't try). Also, creating a new SQ account does NOT get around this restriction.

There is something about required activity in the last 15 months or so, but I did not read too much into it. That means, even if you have had activity a long time ago, you may not qualify. Another QR-like change, though, definitely not as bad.

This is also a slow rollout, so not all accounts are going to be hit yet (it's been going on slowly for 2 weeks).

Hi I am looking at booking an American Airlines US domestic Flight using JAL Miles. I seem to receive the below error message when submitting after entering my passenger details.

Error: The JMB membership number and name do not match those registered in membership information. Please confirm both pieces of information and try again. (1306 - 39)

Is there anyone that has faced this issue that can point me to what may be wrong? I have tried any/all combos of my First and Middle name and nothing seems to work. I booked a flight about a month ago with JAL miles from the US to Japan and never had this issue.

Thanks!

Soo was planning to book directly via qatar for 2pax+infant but unfortunately the new rules prevent that.

I saw 2 economy seats available via British airways on a qatar flight. Can I book those and then try to upgrade directly via qatar with points?

Has anyone successfully upgraded using points a BA award flight with Qatar airways? From economy to business

Other options are open a qatar credit card or take a short partner flight which 100% guarantee the ability to book for 2pax+ infant but finding the time for a flight would be tough rn.