It’s hour 10 of a 14-hour flight to Tokyo, and as I sit in my business class suite, this seems like the perfect time to share everything I know about winning the miles game. Because nothing feels sweeter than traveling swank and knowing you did it with miles.
My biz class mini-suite on JAL (Japan Airlines).
I’m traveling from NYC to Hanoi, Vietnam on JAL (Japan Airlines). It’s a 23hour trip in total. The cost in real money for this round-trip? $8,000 USD. My cost? 140,000 miles and $75 in taxes. And I booked it three days ago.
So here we go. First I’m going to take you through winning the miles-redemption game. Then we’re going to talk winning the miles-hoarding game.
Miles Redemption
Do Your Homework
Before you ever make a call to your airline’s mileage awards desk, you need to do your homework. Take my trip to Hanoi. I started with a visit to Kayak, to see what the flight options from NYC to Hanoi looked like. I like Kayak for all their filters. I eliminated the 2+ stop trips and focused on 1-stop trips (there are no nonstops). Then I filtered by my airline’s alliance (American is Oneworld), so I could narrow in on only the trips I could access with my miles.
This is a key point that I think many people miss: your miles awards are not limited to trips with your airline only. They are your gateway to all the partner airlines in your airline’s alliance.
So for me, I learned that NYC-Hanoi on Oneworld had quite a few options: Cathay Pacfiic via Hong Kong, JAL via Tokyo, and Qatar via Doha. At this point, I like to filter by “Duration” so I can see what, in a perfect world, would be the shortest trips to my destination.
Then I start printing out pages and getting out my nerd highlighter to start making initial picks. I’m looking at duration, but also the connection city for each airline. Not only because you may have a long enough layover for a day trip, but if on the off-chance you get stuck due to flight delays, where would you most like to get stuck?
Cross Check on SeatGuru
Next, I head over to my beloved SeatGuru, to see what my top trip choices look like in terms of seat quality. If I’m spending 100K or more miles on a seat, and sitting in it for 23 hours, you better believe I’m going to ensure it’s the swankest I can get my freelanceafarian hands on.
For my Hanoi trip, my top three players, Cathay Pacific, JAL, and Qatar were all looking ridiculously good. All truly flat seats (not the tricky "lie-flat angled" seats of some American Airlines and other airlines’ business class).
I’ve flown Cathay biz several times and know that the seats are awesome as are the food and service. The JAL seat specs, food reviews, and photos all looked great too. Same with Qatar.
Okay, so I knew there were no bad options here, but in order of priority, I went in thinking Cathay, then JAL, then Qatar.
Think Positive
You will win this game. There is always a way.
Now dial your airline’s mileage desk. Conjure up your nicest, most jovial self. These phone agents deal with some pretty nasty people. Be one of the nice ones, and you’ll be surprised how well things can go. I like to start by introducing the trip idea in a personal way, by sharing why I’m going (it’s my grandmother’s birthday, or I’m meeting an old friend). Whatever your story is, it’ll help make you a person and not a number that they want to rush off the phone. Ask if they’ve ever been to your destination, or if they have any expert advice on your flights, like which partner airline has the best service or the best seats (can’t hurt to get a second opinion).
Then let them do an initial search of your ideal dates and times. Now of course, there’s always the chance that you’ll get a lucky strike: the exact trip you want, for the lowest number of miles in business class, on exactly the dates you need. If so, then obviously, book it.
If not, now is when you get into the nitty gritty. Pull out your notes.
Ask to be sure the agent checked all the partner flight options. Volunteer that if the shortest itineraries aren’t available, you’d be okay with a longer layover. Give him or her the exact flight times from your notes, “What about the 1:25 from JFK with the longer connection in Hong Kong, and then taking flight 114 at 7:15?”
If that doesn’t turn up the answer, get practical: volunteer to fly business for the long leg and coach for the shorter leg. “What if we do business NYC-Hong Kong, and coach to Hanoi?” This has worked for me many, many times. And, when you book this way, you can keep checking to see if the short leg opens up in business class, since you’re redeeming a business class award. Even in transit at the airport, if a business class seat opens up, you’re entitled to move up. Just check at a service desk. If not, c’est la vie. As long as the longest leg was biz, you’re still ahead of the game.
If that doesn’t yield anything, get flexible: can you shift your dates one or two days?
If not, get geographically flexible: what if you get close to, but not all the way to, your destination? Let’s take Hanoi: on the way out, I could get Cathay for NYC – Hong Kong biz, then HK – Hanoi coach, on my desired date. Fine. On the way home, though, there was nothing from Hanoi, not biz nor coach. So I asked if there was availability from Hong Kong – NY, and there was; as the agent checked, I went to kayak to see how cheaply I could get buy HK-Hanoi (under $300USD rt). So fine, I asked the agent to hold the round-trip NYC – Hong Kong. Most airlines (maybe all) let you hold an award itinerary at least 24hours, if not several days.
(Of course, if you don’t live near a major gateway airport, you could also reverse this approach and buy your own ticket from home to whatever airport has availability for the major part of your trip.)
Then I went to sleep. Tomorrow was a new day. The game was not over.
See What Changes Overnight
The next day, late at night, when phone traffic is lightest, I called again. Just to see what might have opened up overnight. And, what a different agent might turn up. And what do you know? This new agent turned up one seat available for… a roundtrip all the way from NYC to Hanoi, on JAL. Bingo! All biz class, and a nice tight layover in Tokyo. She had to check with her supervisor about some zones question, and I don’t know if that’s the reason the first agent hadn’t offered this itin, or if it simply hadn’t been available the day before.
Whatever. I had just won the miles game. An $8,000 roundtrip for 140,000 miles and $76 in taxes. The Tiger Woods fist-pump is nothing compared to the freelanceafarian jumpy-jump, when I win like this.
I should note that I’m Platinum status on American Airlines, so that’s why I didn’t pay any last-minute redemption fees, which can be over $100. It also helps to have status when you’re on the phone with the agents, who are usually inclined to go the extra mile for you. But even in the days before I had status, I would use all the tips outlined above to win the miles game.
You can too.
In my next post, I’ll review how to become a champion miles hoarder, like me.
